Newsbytes - Internationa…ews 1983 May to 1994 June/Newsbytes - International Computing Industry News 1994 Edition - May 1983 - June 1994 - Wayzata Technologies (5045) (1994).iso/mac/Text/Mac Text/1992/NB920221

Text File | 1992-02-21 | 86KB | 1,968 lines

(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00001)

Amstrad Loses Its French Connection 02/21/92
PARIS, FRANCE, 1992 FEB 21 (NB) -- Amstrad, which last week
reported losses for the first time, has lost its head of the
company's consumer electronics division in France. With immediate
effect, Mdme Marion Vannier, who is also a director of Amstrad,
has resigned.

According to Amstrad, Mdme Vannier has resigned as president and
director general of Amstrad International after ten years in
charge. There is no word on who will be her successor.

In a report in the London Financial Times, Mdme Vannier is quoted
as saying that she is not pleased at the way decisions have been
taken. "I built the company up from nothing and I have given it
my best. Now the rules have changed and the management is
different. Decision making is becoming centralized in the United
Kingdom," she said.

There has been no press statement on Mdme Vannier's departure
from Amstrad. Amstrad's policy in such matters is not to issue
any press statements or releases, Newsbytes notes.

(Steve Gold/19920220)


(NEWS)(IBM)(LON)(00002)

UK: Computer Associates Unveils New Windows Products 02/21/92
SLOUGH, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1992 FEB 21 (NB) -- Computer
Associates has shown off a series of new products at the Windows
show in London this week. New and revised packages from the
software company include: dBFast, Textor, Uptodate, Superproject,
Cricket Image, Cricket Presents and Cricket Graph. All the
packages have been designed or revised for use under Microsoft
Windows.

dBFast is billed as the world's first dBASE/Xbase development
package for Windows 3.0. The package, which has just been
launched, sells for UKP 399.

Textor, meanwhile, is a Windows version of CA's word processing
package, which is currently available as a DOS product as part of
the CA Office suite of software. The package sells for UKP 129.

Uptodate is an advanced group scheduling management package that
sells for UKP 79. Superproject is a Windows project management
package that will sell for a fairly hefty UKP 795.

The three Cricket packages -- Cricket Image, Cricket Presents and
Cricket Graph -- sell for, respectively, UKP 279, UKP 325, and UKP
195. Cricket Image is a high-resolution image processing system,
while Cricket Presents is a graphics presentation package.
Cricket Graph is a graphing package for business, scientific, and
engineering users.

So why the welter of Windows products? According to a
representative for Computer Associates at the Windows show, the
event meant that the company could preview several of its newer
products to a Windows-aware audience.

(Steve Gold/19920220/Press & Public Contact: Computer Associates
- Tel: [phone]; Fax: [phone])


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00003)

Poland's Phone Net Gets Japanese Boost 02/21/92
WARSAW, POLAND, 1992 FEB 21 (NB) -- The Polish state telecom
company has signed a $17.5 million contract with Mitsui and NEC
of Japan. Terms of the deal call for both Japanese electronics
companies to supply and install 16 digital radio systems across
Poland which feed into Warsaw.

Plans call for the digital radio "hops" to be installed over the
next two years. The circuits will boost network capacity for
several areas of Poland, with particular emphasis on calls to
Warsaw, the state capital. The initial links will be between
Lodz, Gdasnk, Bialystok, and Kielce to Warsaw, with extra links
between Wroclaw in the south and Szczecin and Koszalin on the
Baltic coast.

The digital radio circuits form part of a technology loan made by
the World Bank and the European Investment Bank. The loan is for
a total of $210 million, with the bulk of the money being spent
on improving the communications infrastructure of Poland.

Poland's telephone network is in dire need of modernization.
Currently, trunk dialling to anywhere other than Warsaw from
outlying cities in the country is a hit and miss affair, with
calls routed through an amazing variety of exchanges. The tariff
structure is so complex that pay phones are limited to local calls
only.

Ironically, the complex network structure pays off for holders of
British Telecom and AT&T phone credit cards -- placing a "Home
Direct" call to an operator in, respectively, the U.K. and U.S.,
can be achieved by dialling a simple three-digit code. In other
countries, Home Direct calls typically require a full eight or
more digit phone number.

(Steve Gold/19920220)


(NEWS)(IBM)(LAX)(00004)

Geoworks Announces Pen/GEOS 02/21/92
BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1992 FEB 21 (NB) -- Geoworks has
announced a pen-based graphical operating environment targeted
at low-cost hand-held computers called Pen/Graphical Environment
Object System (GEOS) at the Technologic Partners Pen Computing
92 Conference.

The company says Pen/Geos has a new pen-oriented user
interface, plus GEOS, the company's graphical windowing
environment for Intel-based computers. Pen/GEOS is expected to
be available to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in
read-only memory (ROM) and magnetic versions in the fourth
quarter of this year.

Brian Dougherty, chief executive officer of Geoworks, says the
move to pen-based hardware is consistent with the company's
objective of providing graphical user interface (GUI)
capability on low-end, Intel-based computer systems.

"The object-oriented design of GEOS, coupled with the
flexibility of our patent-pending user interface (UI)
technology, enabled us to integrate the core pen capabilities -
application interaction, handwriting recognition, gestures,
and ink capture -- in a very clean manner," Dougherty asserted.

Doughtery says existing PC/GEOS-based applications will be able
automatically use the new Pen UI and system capabilities. Also,
developers can quickly generate new pen-centric (pen only) and
pen compatible (pen or keyboard) applications, Doughtery
maintains.

Though a software developer's kit for Pen/GEOS has yet to
be formally released, Geoworks says Palm Computing, a software
company headed by ex-Grid executive Jeff Hawkins, is already
writing applications for Pen/GEOS.

Geoworks products are in direct competition with Microsoft's
Windows 3.0, and have the advantage of not being as hardware
and random access memory (RAM) hungry as Windows. The company
says it has shipped over 400,000 units of its GEOS-based
Geoworks Ensemble and Geoworks Pro application suite in the 13
months since the products' introduction, and asserts GEOS is
the fastest-ramping new graphical environment in the history of
the PC industry.

Geoworks Pro is available in seven languages: French, German,
English, Italian, Dutch, Spanish, and Finnish.

(Linda Rohrbough/19920220/Press Contact: Lee Llevano, Geoworks,
tel [phone], fax [phone])


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LAX)(00005)

Merisel Gets Novell "Pan-European" Dist. Rights 02/21/92
EL SEGUNDO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1992 FEB 21 (NB) -- Merisel
said a landmark agreement with Novell has been reached under
which Merisel has the rights to sell Novell's full product line
(minus the developer's kits) in Western Europe as a whole.

The significance of the announcement is the fact that this is
the first time Merisel has had an agreement that views the six-
nation group of European countries as a whole, instead of
naming each country individually, Merisel said.

Michael Pickett, Merisel president and chief executive officer,
said, "To be competitive, manufacturers today must view
distribution in Europe as pan-European rather than country-
specific. Novell is our first major U.S. manufacturer to
recognize the potential in expanding its reach and coverage by
signing a pan-European agreement through Merisel Europe."

Merisel Managing Director Thomas Reeves said: "This pan-
European partnership has vast growth potential for Novell as
Merisel Europe expands into new markets."

Merisel representative Cathy Quattrocchi said not only does
this give Merisel the rights to distribute Novell products to
its current Western European customers, but it now has the
rights to distribute Novell products in any of its future
Western Europe outlets.

Merisel Europe operates through subsidiaries in the U.K.,
France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and Russia. The company
says it has increased its distribution in the European market
to more than 70 percent since 1983.

Novell is known for its computer networking software and
hardware that allows individual computers to share programs and
data.

(Linda Rohrbough/19920220/Press Contact: Cathy Quattrocchi,
Merisel, tel [phone], fax [phone])


(NEWS)(IBM)(SFO)(00006)

Microdyne Intros Software Licensed From Novell 02/21/92
HERNDON, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1992 FEB 21 (NB) -- Microdyne is
continuing to pick up products from Novell. The latest in the
series is Novell's LAN Workplace for DOS v3.5 which is now renamed
as Microdyne's Net Station Software v3.5.

Microdyne has picked up sales and support responsibilities for
several of Novell's products over the past few months. This software
complements some of that hardware.

"We are extremely pleased with our continuing successful
relationship with Novell," said Ralph Mason senior vice president
at Microdyne. "Completion of this agreement marks another product
area where Microdyne service and support expertise coupled with
technology licensed from Novell has spelled market success for both
organizations."

Net Stations Software is a front end processor for TCP/IP networks.
It runs on a PC or PS/2 that has an EXOS 205 or EXOS 215 card
installed in it. The software allows those PCs to reside on the
TCP/IP network.

As with all of the other Novell products recently picked up by
Microdyne, Microdyne will enhance and upgrade this product. Company
officials claimed that although no program is underway at the moment
to upgrade this product, they expect some upgrade to occur over the
next six months. Microdyne pays a licensing fee to Novell for each
copy that they sell.

The software is available now. It retails for $350.

(Naor Wallach/19920217/Press Contact: Cliff Rockwell, Microdyne,
703-739-0500)


(NEWS)(TRENDS)(LAX)(00007)

 ****A Phone IN Every Secretary's Pocket By 1997 02/21/92
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1992 FEB 21 (NB) -- Office
workers with a phone in their pocket will be the wave of the
future in the wireless market -- a market that is expected to
grow rapidly from its current small size into a $3 billion a
year market in the U.S. alone, says a report published by
Market Intelligence (MI).

Wireless local area networks (LANs) for data exchange are
expected to be popular, but voice systems such as wireless PBX
systems are also expected to grow rapidly as new products are
introduced, MI said.

The motivation for the move to wireless has to do with the
reduced cost of installing, moving and altering systems, at a
time when offices move and reorganize increasingly often, MI
said. In the case of voice systems, mobility and productivity
of office workers will probably be stronger selling points than
the long-term cost savings anticipated from wireless LANs, MI
maintains.

MI says companies will be convinced by declining costs,
performance quality, the resolution of the allocation of the
broadcast spectrum issues now in the air, the establishment of
transmission standards, and answers to questions about security
and health.

Integration will be a vitally important factor, MI asserts, and
not only between data and voice platforms but in terms of
allowing seamless voice connectivity with cellular systems.

MI projections say the market is expected to hit $500 million
in 1993, $1 billion in 1994 and rise to the $3 billion total in
1997.

The introduction of wireless LANs with data transfer speed
comparable to traditional LANs by three major vendors last year
(NCR, Motorola and BICC Communications) has given the market
its first push, MI says. Key players in the wireless voice
market are named by MI as Northern Telecom, Ericsson
and Spectralink.

(Linda Rohrbough/19920220/Press Contact: Amy Arnell, Market
Intelligence, tel [phone], fax [phone])


(NEWS)(IBM)(LAX)(00008)

Move Compressed Files To PCs W/O Compression 02/21/92
MENLO PARK, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1992 FEB 21 (NB) -- Addstor is
announcing an upgrade of Superstor, version 2.0. Superstor
performs software compression on the fly to increase disk space
on both hard and floppy disks. The company claims Superstor can
increase the storage capacity of disks two to three times.

Addstor emphasizes this is the same software included with the
Digital Research DOS 6.0 operating system for IBM personal
computers and compatibles.

Version 2.0 offers three significant enhancements, Addstor
says. They are the ability to write compressed data to floppy
disks, transfer of compressed data to another personal computer
(PC) that does not use data compression, and a new compression
mode for smaller compressed files.

Users no longer need special commands to read and write
compressed files to floppy disks, Addstor says. This new
feature allows the only noticeable difference to users to be
their floppy disks appear to have greater capacity, sometimes
twice as much capacity. This is in contrast to other
compression programs which require the user to use special
commands to read and write to floppy disks, the company added.

Probably the most important new feature is the new Universal
Data Exchange (UDE) built into version 2.0, which Addstor says
allows users to take any file compressed by Superstor 2.0 and
read, save, and use that file by any DOS-based PC, whether or
not it runs Superstor. This is so users no longer have to worry
about moving their compressed data to other machines, the
company maintains.

Two new tools, Defragment and Consolidate, are also available
for increasing system speed and productivity, Addstor said.
Also a new compression feature, called Recompress, can be used
to further compress data beyond its usual compression ratio,
the company said.

As the program is memory resident, the amount of memory it uses
is of concern. Addstor says version 2.0 allows the user three
memory options in managing the 47 kilobytes (K) of random
access memory (RAM) the product uses. In the event a memory
manager is loaded in the user's CONFIG.SYS file, the company
says the product will load as much as 17 K into upper memory as
the first option. The second option is to load part of itself
into RAM and leave 27 K in lower memory. The third option loads
all 47 K into conventional lower memory.

Addstor says upon installation the program will check the
CONFIG.SYS and if no memory manager is present, it will
automatically go with the third option. If the user prefers to
load the entire 47 K into upper memory, that must be done by
the user through modifications to the CONFIG.SYS file, Addstor
maintains.

The new version 2.0 is expected to be available in retail
outlets later this month at a suggested retail price of $139.
Registered users of Superstor 1.3 can upgrade to version 2.0
for $29, the company said.

(Linda Rohrbough/19920220/Press Contact: Alan Kelly, Applied
Communications for Addstor, tel [phone], fax )


(NEWS)(IBM)(LAX)(00009)

Tax File Format .TXF Standard From Chipsoft, Intuit, Meca 02/21/92
MENLO PARK, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1992 FEB 21 (NB) -- Chipsoft,
Intuit, and Meca Software have announced the three have agreed
upon a file format specification for tax data files, .TXF, for
the purpose of moving data from personal finance software
packages to automatic link with tax preparation software.

Intuit, the company that developed Quicken personal finance
software, Chipsoft makers of Turbotax, and Meca Software
publishers of Taxcut are calling the .TXF an open software
specification and say it is available for any interested
developer.

The companies say the .TXF link will make it easier for
computer users to prepare their taxes with a tax preparation
program because tax schedule assignments can be made once in
the financial software. Then at tax time, the software can
produce a tax schedule report that can then be read in and
placed into the correct line on the appropriate tax schedule.

Eric Jacobson of Meca said the way this would work is users
would assign "charitable contributions-cash Schedule A" to
charitable contributions in their personal finance software no
matter what they personally call their charitable contributions
category. At the end of the year, the tax preparation program
would read the charitable contributions-cash data from the tax
schedule report produced and place the total on the charitable
contributions-cash line of Schedule A.

When asked why the .TXF format was necessary as Quicken can
already export to tax programs such as Turbotax before the
standard was announced and so can new programs such as
Microsoft Money, Jacobson said a standard will cut everyone's
development time and effort. "If we support all 15 or 20
personal finance programs individually in our tax cut product
in an October release, then Quicken comes out with changes in a
November release, users of the new Quicken are not going to
have compatibility anymore with our product."

"The benefit in setting the standard is to the user," Jacobson
said.

Meca, based in Fairfield, Connecticut, offers financial and tax
preparation products including Taxcut, Andrew Tobias' Managing
Your Money, Hyatt Legal Services' Home Lawyer, and the
One-Write family of small business accounting products. The
company acquired Great American, producers of One-Write late
last year and Great American is now a subsidiary, Jacobson
said.

Chipsoft of San Diego, California offers tax preparation
software for DOS, Windows, and Macintosh platforms.

Intuit, headquartered in Menlo Park, offers Quicken personal
financial software for both DOS and Windows, and Quickpay
payroll software.

(Linda Rohrbough/19920220/Press Contact: Eric Jacobson, Meca
Software, tel [phone], fax [phone]; Suzanne Taylor),
Intuit, 415-329-2781; Debra Kelley, Chipsoft, 619-453-4446 ext.
482)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(WAS)(00010)

Tseng Labs Posts Record Earnings for 8th Year 02/21/92
NEWTON, PENNSYLVANIA, U.S.A., 1992 FEB 21 (NB) -- Tseng Labs, the
Pennsylvania-based maker of VLSI, or very large scale integration,
microchips which contain 100,000 or more components on a single
chip, has announced its eighth consecutive year of record earnings.
With revenues of just under $61 million for fiscal year 1991,
Tseng Labs posted a 59 percent increase over 1990's $38.3
million.

Fourth quarter results, for the period ending December 31, 1991,
were the best in company history at $15.7 million. This resulted
in a net income for the year of nearly $10 million, up 60 percent
from the previous record of $6.1 million last year.

The company gave a lot of credit for earnings to the increasing
popularity of the Tseng ET4000 graphics chip and says it will
introduce more innovative chips in 1992.

(John McCormick/19920220/Press Contact: Mark Karsch, Tseng Labs,
215-968-0502)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(WAS)(00011)

GTSI Posts Record Earnings 02/21/92
CHANTILLY, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1992 FEB 21 (NB) -- Government
Technology Services, Inc. or GTSI, a major supplier of
microcomputer computer hardware and software to federal and state
governments, has just reported the highest sales and earnings in
its nine-year corporate history. Sales for 1991 grew nearly 20
percent over last year to more than $359 million, while earnings
(net income) grew nearly 30 percent to $7.58 million.

The company says that both an absolute reduction in operating
expenses as well as a reduction relative to sales added to the
increased sales volume accounted for the increased earnings.
GTSI went public in September of 1991.

Fourth quarter sales were up 24.8 percent over the same period
last year, but earnings were a bit lower because of what the
company says was an industry-wide drop in margins (lower prices).

(John McCormick/19920220/Press Contact: Alan R. Rachlin, GTSI,
703-631-3333, ext. 3017)


(NEWS)(UNIX)(HKG)(00012)

D&B, HP, Data General to Provide Open Applications 02/21/92
CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1992 FEB 21 (NB) -- In a move that will
accelerate its ability to offer open systems to its
customers, Dun & Bradstreet Software has announced partnerships with
Hewlett-Packard and Data General to develop and jointly market
client-server applications for the Unix environment.

D&B Software will offer Unix-based server products that provide data
integration between its existing host-based and forthcoming client-
based applications. The client-server products will be released in
phases beginning this year, enabling customers to adopt the new
technology incrementally while maintaining their investment in
current products.

Under the agreement, HP and Data General will contribute their open
systems expertise and equipment to help bring these software products
to market later this year. They will also cooperate with D&B
Software in sales, service, and marketing efforts.

"D&B Software is committed to offering customers a choice of
platforms for its client-server products," said Julie Payne,
marketing manager for D&B Software with the company's Hong Kong
distributor, COL Ltd. "We will initially offer HP and Data General
versions of the Unix client-server products because of those vendors'
leadership position and superior products."

Steven Baker, manufacturing marketing programs manager at Hewlett-
Packard Asia Pacific, said, "D&B Software's aggressive entry into the
Unix marketplace with HP signifies the rapid acceptance of Unix in
commercial environments and underscores HP's explosive growth in this
area. This relationship strengthens HP's extensive portfolio of
mainframe-class commercial Unix applications for the HP 9000 Series
800."

"We are delighted D&B Software chose the AViiON server as one of its
first Unix platforms," said Tim Miles, Data General's director of
marketing for the Asia Pacific region. "The combination of D&B
Software and Data General's high performance server products will
give large and medium-sized corporate customers the opportunity to
gain significant price-performance and value from Unix servers while
protecting their current investments. The customer wins all round."

(Norman Wingrove/19920221/Press contact: Julie Payne, COL, Tel +852
798 4798; HK time is GMT + 8)


(NEWS)(GOVT)(HKG)(00013)

Malaysia: Schools Pick Bull 02/21/92
KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA, 1992 FEB 21 (NB) -- French government-owned
Bull HN Information Systems has been awarded a contract to supply
computer systems for the Malaysian Pusat Sumber Ilmu Project that is
setting up the Southeast Asia region's first nationwide computer
network for schools.

The computer network will consist of three levels of information
servers: the main server, the central database server connecting with
overseas databases, and eight regional database servers. The first
phase of the installation will be complete within the first quarter
of this year.

The whole system will be capable of storing more than 10,000
gigabytes (GB) of data. Students at government schools will have
virtually unlimited access to the databases on payment of a minimal
annual fee.

Bull will supply and install 700 Bull DPX/2 Unix minicomputers as
local database servers, 3,500 Intel 286-based workstations, and 700
Bull Compuprint serial printers.

Bull will also supply training, engineers, and comprehensive
post-installation maintenance support throughout the country.

(Norman Wingrove/19920221/Press contact: Mike Dunn, MDL, Tel +852 838
3889, Fax [phone]; HK time is GMT + 8)


(NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00014)

 ****ITC to Investigate Wang Patent Infringement Claims 02/21/92
WASHINGTON, DC, U.S.A., 1992 FEB 21 (NB) -- Wang Laboratories
has announced that the International Trade Commission voted to
investigate importers of SIMMs or single in-line memory modules
to determine if they infringe Wang patents.

According to Wang, SIMMs made by Fujitsu, Hitachi, Intel
Japan, Matsushita, Mitsubishi, OKI, and NMB may all be in
violation of U.S.-held patents on the popular memory chip
packaging technology.

Wang filed a complaint against seven foreign companies and their
affiliates on January 17, requesting that the ITC ban all further
imports until the Commission can make a final decision in about a
year's time. A decision as to whether or not to ban imports
pending the final disposition of the case is due by mid-April.

Wang is in a strong position after the August 1991 federal court
ruling against NEC and Toshiba for violating Wang SIMM patents.
Both companies were ordered to stop manufacturing, sale, and use
of the SIMMS in the U.S. Wang was awarded more than $3 million in
damages against the two firms.

SIMMs are the small, flat memory boards that come with sets of
pre-mounted memory chips which are easy to install in computers
during manufacturing or as an after-market item by computer
users.

(John McCormick/19920221/Press Contact: Frank Ryan, Wang, 508-
967-7038)


(NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00015)

 ****Trade Deficit Drops; Recovery Still Weak 02/21/92
WASHINGTON, DC, U.S.A., 1992 FEB 21 (NB) -- The Commerce
Department has released import/export figures for 1991 which show
that the U.S. trade deficit with the rest of the world has
dropped to $66.2 billion, down from about $100 billion in 1990.

Although the merchandise trade deficit is still large, the
financial and engineering sectors earned $44 billion in 1991
which, added to the slowdown in U.S. consumer purchases,
accounted for much of the drop in the deficit.

Despite all the complaints from the auto industry, the U.S.
actually exports a great many products to the rest of the world
and the most recent trade numbers show a marked improvement last
year in all regions except the Far East.

In the electronics area, the U.S. is still a massive net importer
of consumer goods such as VCRs, stereos, and video cameras, but
high-tech electronics such as computers and telecommunications
hardware exports grew by nearly 7 percent to more than $70
billion.

Some years a drop in the trade deficit merely indicates that the
U.S. consumer is hurting economically and therefore is buying
fewer imported goods, but in 1991 the U.S. actually increased
exports by just over 7 percent to a record $422 billion.

The bad news comes in several areas.

First, there was a substantial drop in imports due to the weak
U.S. economy and when things start to pick up again we can expect
a surge in purchases of imported goods.

Second, the current accounts deficit with Japan grew by nearly 6
percent to more than $43 billion, with exports to Japan dropping
1 percent as imports picked up. The story is similar with China,
which has a trade deficit with the U.S. of nearly $13 billion, up
more than 20 percent from last year's level.

Third, while the deficit with Germany dropped by nearly 50
percent and the U.S. gained against nearly every country but
China and Japan, a worldwide recession is looming which will
greatly weaken hopes that U.S. exports could drag the economy out of
its very long slump.

(John McCormick/19920221)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(WAS)(00016)

ROUNDUP: Stories Carried By Other Media This Week 02/21/92
WASHINGTON, DC, U.S.A., 1992 FEB 21 (NB) -- Roundup is a brief
look at some computer stories carried in other publications
received here this past week.

February's Reseller World looks at what it takes to sell
multimedia and the regular section on selling to the government
says, "The best plan for dealing with the government is to expect
delays and prepare for them."

March's Byte includes a test report on graphical spreadsheets and
a guide to running Windows on portables.

The February 17 InformationWeek says that CASE isn't all it's
cracked up to be and cites former quarterback Fran Tarkenton's
once high-flying Knowledgeware as a bad example.

February's Software Magazine has a buyer's guide to CASE tools.

This week's Computerworld says that due to budget cuts, the chief
information officer may be an endangered species.

Network World for February 17 carries a feature on how to develop
a network outsourcing strategy.

Computer Reseller News dated Feb. 17 says that resellers are
facing tight supplies of high line IBM PS/2s, PS/1 386SXs, Apple
PowerBook 170s, and HP Laserjet IIIp's along with other popular
hardware items.

Global Telephony dated February 3 explores Mexico's new
telecommunication system.

February's Systems Integration has a buyer's guide that looks at
52 multiprocessing file servers.

Federal Computer Week for the 17th says that the Department of
Defense may help support the U.S. developers of flat-panel
displays.

(John McCormick/19920221)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(WAS)(00017)

The Enabled Computer 02/21/92
WASHINGTON, DC, U.S.A., 1992 FEB 21 (NB) -- The Enabled Computer
is a regular Newsbytes feature covering news and important
product information relating to high technology aids for the
disabled.

The Enabled Computer by John McCormick

We will look at some devices for visually impaired people in this
column, but first an update on last week's edition.

ABLEDATA is still available in CD-ROM and magnetic disk form from
the University of Wisconsin's Trace Center, but I was finally
able to get a response from them and learned that the data is
still only available in Macintosh format making the information
much less accessible.

They told me that they are trying to get a PC-compatible CD-ROM
on the market, but considering that they don't even offer the
data on MS-DOS format floppy disks I am not expecting much and
will look for source of the database in a format which is more
useful to businesses and the average computer owner.

If you have a Mac and want the data, they don't seem to return
telephone calls so I suggest that you write instead of phoning.
They failed to return two of my calls so I am leaving off their
phone number in the interest of saving you time and money.

Trace Center, S-151 Waisman Center, 1500 Highland Ave.,
University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706

BrailleMate - A Pocket Computer for People with Visual Impairment

TeleSensory Systems' BrailleMate can be used as a note-taker,
calculator, clock, and calendar, to compile names, addresses,
phone numbers, and to communicate with other computers. It weighs
one pound and fits easily in a coat pocket - so says the
company's new product announcement, and the device looks like a
winner to me.

Making lists and keeping track of notes and phone numbers have
been especially difficult for blind people, requiring
memorization or using a "slate and stylus" to manually emboss
dots one at a time. In contrast, BrailleMate has a keyboard that
enables rapid writing into a solid-state memory using a built-in
editor.

BrailleMate acknowledges what has been written into its memory
with a speech synthesizer and an electronically operated Braille
cell. By combining both Braille and speech outputs, the accuracy
of Braille and the speed of speech are achieved.

BrailleMate can store up to 128 Braille pages in its internal
user memory. In addition, credit card-sized memory cards can be
slipped into the bottom of BrailleMate to provide extended
storage.

BrailleMate is especially useful for students learning Braille.
Synthetic speech can be used to instruct the student verbally,
and the Braille cell and Braille keyboard allow drill and
practice exercises. Information can be printed out using
BrailleMate's serial or parallel port.

If the material stored in BrailleMate's memory is in Grade 2
(abbreviated) Braille, BrailleMate automatically translates it
back to text for printing on an inkprint printer.

BrailleMate can be used to write memos, take notes, and retrieve
and review files.

Since it is small and portable, it can be used in meetings and on
trips; it travels easily between work and home. Material stored
in BrailleMate's memory or on the memory cards can be printed out
or transferred to another computer.

TeleSensory has been researching, designing and manufacturing
innovative products for blind and visually impaired individuals
for more than 20 years. They are both proud and excited to add
BrailleMate to their product line that includes large print,
synthetic speech, OCR, Braille, and tactile systems.

BrailleMate is available immediately; the price is $1,595. For
further information, contact: TeleSensory Systems, 455 N.
Bernardo Avenue, Mountain View, CA 94043. Phone [phone].

Visually impaired computer users often make use of an optical
scanner linked to optical character recognition software to let
them read printed documents, but these are normally desktop
systems unsuitable for moving between home and office as needed.
Arkenstone's 8 1/2-inch wide, two-pound scanner meets the needs
of those who need access to a scanner in more than one location.

Priced at only $895, this 400 dots-per-inch scanner comes with
software, cables, and one interface card for AT or Micro Channel
computers. Since it is a hand-held scanner, the user just passes
the device down a page and it starts reading the text, but,
unlike other hand-held scanners, such as the Logitech Scanman
which is only about four inches wide, the Arkenstone Hand Scanner
will copy a full typed page in one pass and requires no careful
alignment to combine text or capture columns.

The relatively new product uses Calera Recognition Systems'
TrueScan recognition board, provided at a significant discount to
visually impaired users. The system does not include speech
synthesis software or hardware or the necessary 16-bit computer.
The recognition software is available in English, German, and
French language versions.

Arkenstone is a non-profit high technology company located at
1185-D Bordeaux Drive, Sunnyvale, CA 94089; phone [phone] or
408-752-2200, or fax [phone].

(John McCormick/19920221)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00018)

TCI Sells Theaters To Buy Phone Company 02/21/92
ENGLEWOOD, COLORADO, U.S.A., 1992 FEB 21 (NB) -- Tele-
Communications Inc., closed a deal to sell its United Artists
Entertainment movie theater chain to a former executive of the
company and a Merrill Lynch investment group for $680
million. A few days earlier, the company had bought roughly half
of Teleport, a fiber "bypass" phone company, from Merrill Lynch.

United Artists was founded as a movie production house by Charlie
Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks Sr., and D.W. Griffith
in 1919. Its movie catalogue and production studios, however,
were later merged with those of MGM, leaving it with a 2,398-
screen theater chain. The theater chain and movie production
company are now totally unrelated companies. The sale will help
TCI pare down $9.9 billion in debt.

Separately, the company won a court fight with unions angry over
its pending acquisition of Penn Access, another bypass firm based
in Pittsburgh. The Communications Workers of America has appealed
the order, which a judge said was filed too late, and provided
Pennsylvania regulators with what it called examples of "abusive
business practices."

The CWA fears TCI will throw out their workers after the deal
gets done. TCI could couple its cable systems with its phone
bypass operations to increase competition with local phone
companies. Current law forbids cable companies from offering
local exchange service, but the Bush Administration
and the Federal Communications Commission support allowing them
in, as an alternative to reregulation of either cable of phone
systems.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19920221)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00019)

Reports of French, German Interest in Syncordia 02/21/92
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1992 FEB 21 (NB) -- Two reports have
emerged of French and German interest in buying up to 40 percent
of Syncordia, a company founded by British Telecom to handle
worldwide network management for large companies. Syncordia would
handle "outsourcing" of worldwide networks.

The Financial Times of London reported that France Telecom had
won agreement in principle to make a buy-in, while Network
World magazine earlier reported that France Telecom and the
Deutsche Bundespost Telecom planned to control up to 40 percent
of the venture. The report indicated France Telecom would spend
$50 million for 20 percent of the venture, pricing it at $250
million. BT has been talking to Nippon Telegraph and Telephone of
Japan, known as NTT, and the Deutsche Bundespost since before the
company was created, but this is the first time France Telecom
has been reported to be joining the group.

BT announced Syncordia last year despite a lack of partners, who
could help British Telecom maintain comprehensive links around
the world. The headquarters was placed in Atlanta, Georgia, since
that city is the U.S.'s second-largest telecommunications hub, and
costs of doing business are lower than those in New York, the
largest hub.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19920221)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00020)

Speech Recognition System For Injured Boy 02/21/92
NEWTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1992 FEB 21 (NB) -- Software
developer Dragon Systems, along with IBM, Okidata, and a
Minneapolis computer dealer, are donating a speech-recognition
system to help John Thompson, a North Dakota high-school student
injured in a farming accident, complete his schooling.

Thompson has limited use of his arms as a result of the recent
accident. His surgeon appealed on national television for a speech
recognition system to be donated so the boy could continue his
education.

Dragon Systems will provide VoiceType software jointly developed by
Dragon and IBM, while IBM will provide the personal computer
hardware to run the software. Okidata has agreed to supply a
printer. Business Machines Sales and Service, a Minneapolis dealer,
will install the system and provide Thompson with training and
support.

The value of the complete system is about $12,000, said Patricia
Flynn McKenzie, director of sales and marketing at Dragon Systems.

The VoiceType software keeps a vocabulary of about 7,000 words in
memory, according to John Roberts, special needs systems planning
manager for IBM's Entry Systems Division in Boca Raton, Florida.
The user can select 2,000 of these. When it cannot match spoken
input to one of those words, it asks the user to spell the word and
turns to an 80,000-word dictionary on disk. When a new word is
recognized, it replaces the least-used word in the memory-resident
dictionary.

Roberts told Newsbytes that VoiceType is meant mainly for people
with disabilities that keep them from typing. However, he said,
"there is a whole host of people out there who may be able to use
the keyboard but choose not to." VoiceType may interest some of
them as well, he said. McKenzie said "thousands" of the systems
have been installed.

(Grant Buckler/19920221/Press Contact: Patricia Flynn McKenzie,
Dragon Systems, 617-965-5200, fax [phone])


(NEWS)(IBM)(TOR)(00021)

Aquiline Notebook Runs 8 Hours Between Charges 02/21/92
BENNINGTON, VERMONT, U.S.A., 1992 FEB 21 (NB) -- Aquiline has
unveiled the Arima SL notebook, which takes advantage of Intel's
power-conserving 386SL microprocessor to provide battery life that
can stretch to as much as eight hours, according to the vendor.

The Arima SL uses the 25-megahertz 386SL and comes with two
megabytes of memory and a 64-grey-scale, 10-inch VGA liquid-crystal
display. A 40-megabyte hard disk is built in, with a 185-megabyte
disk available as an option. While battery life can reach eight
hours under ideal conditions, users can count on about four and a
half hours with fairly intensive use including fairly heavy disk
access, said Tony DeMaria, vice-president of marketing.

The key point, DeMaria argued, is that the system will keep running
through most coast-to-coast airplane flights.

The new notebook also has an automatic suspend feature that causes
it to power down when the cover is closed, and resume operation as
if it had never stopped. Aquiline compared the feature to a
refrigerator door -- the system seems never to have shut off just
as the light in the refrigerator seems to have been on all along.

The unit weighs 5.5 pounds and is 1.7 inches think. Aquiline also
offers a docking station that provides two expansion slots and
allows the user to override the notebook's built-in video adapter
with a high-speed super VGA card providing higher resolution.

The suggested retail price is $2,495.

Aquiline plans a color version of the notebook "eventually,"
DeMaria told Newsbytes, but the company feels the color notebook
technology is not yet mature.

Aquiline has also introduced a 170-megabyte hard disk as an option
for its 386DX-based notebook system, DeMaria said.

(Grant Buckler/19920221/Press Contact: Tony DeMaria, Aquiline,
802-442-1526, fax [phone])


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00022)

General Videotex Head Testifies for Bells 02/21/92
WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1992 FEB 21 (NB) -- Dan Bruns, head of
General Videotex, which runs the Delphi service and recently
bought Bix, has weighed in on the Bells' side in their battle
against AT&T and the newspaper industry to fight reregulation of
their information offerings.

When NYNEX announced its online service earlier in the week,
Bruns' New York affiliate was named as a major provider of news
and other information. Bruns said that is unrelated to his stand
on this issue. "We're not hiding it. I testified before the House
Judiciary Committee Wednesday and clearly listed our clients,
including Bell clients and newspapers. None of the Bells
represent a significant amount of business."

While major information providers like CompuServe support bills
by Representative Jim Cooper and Senator Daniel Inouye to reimpose
court-lifted restrictions on the Bells' entry into
information services, smaller providers want the Bells in, hoping
that their large capital and marketing budgets can help them make
a dent in the market they've so far failed to achieve. Their
letter to Congress stated "...entrepreneurial electronic
publishers stand to benefit if they are permitted to enter joint
ventures with a Bell company or to rely on the financial or
technical resources or marketing expertise of a Bell company."

About 70 companies signed the letter opposing Cooper's H.R. 3515
and Inouye's S. 2112, which are presently before a House
Judiciary Subcommittee headed by Bell opponent Jack Brooks of
Texas. Michael Brown of Cognitive Training Associates,
Waxahachie, Texas, James Coane of Telebase Systems, and Mark
Walsh of CUC International joined Bruns in testifying against
both bills. They said, however, that care must be taken to make
sure the Bells don't subsidize their entry into the new market
with profits from their regulated phone operations.

On other business, Bruns said, his deal to keep the work of Byte
Magazine on his Bix system, which was purchased from Byte owner
McGraw-Hill, is not a short-term thing, as some have reported.
"That's part of the product. We have a long term relationship
with Byte magazine. They'll maintain an editorial presence." GVC
is privately held.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19920221/Press Contact: Dan Bruns, General
Videotex Corporation, 617-491-3342)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00023)

BellSouth Trialing Audiotex Service 02/21/92
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1992 FEB 21 (NB) -- In its first move
into information services since it won the right to own data,
BellSouth announced CallNow, a service using touchtone phones
offering shopping and information.

CallNow combines BellSouth's voice messaging and computer
expertise in a system which will allow customers to hear ads
and buy goods through the telephone, in a cross between an
electronic Yellow Pages and caller-paid "900" number system.

CallNow lets merchants leave updated advertising messages and
allows consumers, on hearing the messages, to place orders
immediately. It's available 24 hours a day, 7 days per week, said
L.A. Taylor, group president for advertising and publishing at
BellSouth Enterprises.

BellSouth calls CallNow a market trial in Atlanta only, and said
that over 630 businesses have signed to participate through
November. Advertisers participating in the program receive
considerable support in addition to the voice messaging
capabilities. This includes advertising support, including
billboards and television ads using the CallNow logo, a 24-hour
customer service hotline, and a monthly comprehensive usage
report that summarizes the use of CallNow service.

Earlier in the week, NYNEX and Pacific Telesis announced
information services using their new powers under a U.S. Court
of Appeals order. The Bells are fighting in Congress to retain
their right to own information sources, and it's hoped that
services like CallNow will persuade the Congress to leave them
alone.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19920221/Press Contact: Tim Klein, BellSouth
Enterprises, 404-249-4135)


(NEWS)(IBM)(DEN)(00024)

Excel 3.0 Named Infoworld, Datamation Product Of Year 02/21/92
REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1992 FEB 21 (NB) -- Microsoft
Corporation has announced that its Excel 3.0 spreadsheet program
has been named product of the year by two industry publications,
Infoworld and Datamation magazines.

Candidates for the Infoworld award are nominated by Infoworld's
editorial staff and voted on by its readers. For the Datamation
award, products are nominated by readers, vendors, and Datamation
editors in eight categories.

"This has been an incredible year for Microsoft Excel in terms of
market acceptance and customer response," said Pete Higgins, VP of
desktop applications at Microsoft. Higgins said that Excel went
head to head with Lotus 1-2-3 in both the Windows and the Macintosh
environments. ""Excel met the Lotus challenge, and is still the
spreadsheet by which others are measured," said Higgins.

Excel was also recognized during 1991 as the Most Valuable Product
by PC Computing Magazine, and was named Product of The Year in the
applications software category by Systems Integration magazine.

Other awards for Excel in 1991 included an Award for Excellence by
Byte magazine, and selection as the number one spreadsheet by PC Week,
Software Digest, and the National Software Testing Laboratory.

(Jim Mallory/19920221/Press contact: Monica Harrington, Microsoft,
206-882-8080)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00025)

Compaq, Banyan Sign Joint Development Deal 02/21/92
HOUSTON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1992 FEB 21 (NB) -- Compaq Computer
Corporation and Banyan Systems have announced a joint development
agreement (JDA) under which the two companies will jointly develop
and implement new features for Compaq computer and PC systems
operating in the Vines environment.

The two companies have had a working relationship since 1990,
when they signed a joint integration agreement. The JDA provides
for them to participate more actively in each other's product
development processes, designate cooperative development teams and
exchange source code to facilitate those efforts.

Compaq said that its engineers worked closely with Banyan on the
issues of compatability, functionality and kernel stability as
Banyan developed Vines 4.11.

The two companies also worked together in developing Compaq's
Enhanced Intelligent Drive Array driver which was incorporated in
Vines, as well as drivers for the Compaq Intelligent Array Expansion
System, Compaq's Gigabyte Audio Tape, the 320/525 Megabyte Tape
Drive, and the Novell NE 3200 32-bit busmaster EISA (extended
industry standard architecture) Ethernet card adapter.

The two companies say they are presently working on integrated
Vines support for the Compaq System Manager, a hardware and software
monitoring device that allows remote access to Compaq file servers.
A future release of Vines will reportedly allow the system manager
to monitor more data from the Vines operating system, such as disk
usage, file system and cache use, and memory allocation status.

The hardware measuring and monitoring features of the system manager
are already supported in current versions of Vines.

(Jim Mallory/19920221/Press contact: Nora Hahn, Compaq Computer,
713-374-8316; Jennifer Jester, Banyan Systems, 508-898-1067)


(NEWS)(GOVT)(DEN)(00026)

Premier Technology Sues Over Lottery Hardware Cancellation 02/21/92
PORTLAND, OREGON, U.S.A., 1992 FEB 21 (NB) -- Premier Technology
says it has filed suit seeking to reinstate the multimillion dollar
computer-controlled video lottery terminal contract it had with the
state of Oregon.

The contract with the video lottery terminal manufacturer was
cancelled by Oregon lottery officials last week, shortly before the
Illinois-based company started shipping the first of 780 terminals
destined for use in Oregon's video poker game.

Premier said that Lottery Director James Davey's cancellation letter
cited alleged insufficient security measures at Premier's
manufacturing plant, and a relationship between Premier and a
person alleged to have had a relationship with organized crime.

Premier President Gilbert Pollock denied the allegations by lottery
officials. "We vigorously deny any connection between Premier
Technology and organized crime, and we also contend that no
contractual basis exists for Mr. Davey to find a security breach,"
said Pollock.

Pollock said the information being used by Davey to cancel the
contract was known by the lottery months prior to the signing of the
agreement. Pollock said Davey refused to discuss with Premier his
concerns. Concerned about Premier's reputation in the industry,
Pollock said, "We are now left with no choice but to sue to restore
that reputation and to reinstate our legitimate right to do business
in Oregon."

The lawsuit also seeks to require the lottery to complete
its security investigation of the company, to refrain from acquiring
from other vendors any of the 780 terminals at issue, and monetary
damages in excess of $3 million if the injunction is denied.

(Jim Mallory/19920221/Press contact: James Neill,Davis Wright
Tremaine for Premier Technology, 503-241-2300)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(DEL)(00027)

India Enhances Links To INMARSAT 02/21/92
NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1992 FEB 21 (NB) - The $8.5 million earth station
to receive Inmarsat-A signals will become operational at Arvi near
Pune, India in June, facilitating enhanced maritime communications.
It would provide direct satellite communication services for ships
in the Indian Ocean.

Already 74 Indian ships, fitted with Inmarsat-A terminals, are using
the facility from the international network; but now, they would be
directly hooked to the national network. The Arvi station would be
upgraded to receive signals from Inmarsat-C by the end of 1992 with
an additional investment of $1.3 million, announced Videsh Sanchar
Nigam Ltd. (VSNL) at a recent demonstration of two of Inmarsat's
mobile satellite communication systems. VSNL is the overseas arm
of Indian communications.

"Inmarsat's communications systems can provide very efficient
solutions to remote-area and rural communications problems in
developing countries like India," said Jai Singh, general manager
(land mobile and special services), Inmarsat. India was a founding
member of Inmarsat but its share plummeted from two to 0.43 percent
because of poor utilization. "Now, with the setting up of the
earth station, the use would definitely increase," hoped B.K
Syngal, chairman and managing director, VSNL.

Inmarsat-A, an analog system, provides two-way direct dial
telephone, fax, telex, e-mail and data communications on land and
at sea. Inmarsat-A was used by journalists covering the Gulf War
to send in voice and text reports to their newspapers. The system
helps in high speed data transmission (56 kbps and 64 kbps duplex
data rate) at a cost of Rs 150 per minute, Syngal revealed.

Also demonstrated was Inmarsat-C which uses small, inexpensive
terminals for two-way global messaging and data communications.
Inmarsat-C is being used to provide telemetry between a network of
remote field sites - relaying data to an operation centre. The system
works at 1200 bps. It, however, does not allow real-time data
transfer.

The cost for using Inmarsat would be about a dollar per KB of data
transferred.

Inmarsat-A terminals are presently available in the West at a cost
of $30,000 while Toshiba's latest Inmarsat-C terminal costs $7,000.
Indian Space Research Organization is trying to indigenously
develop terminals for Inmarsat.

(C.T. Mahabharat/19920221)


(NEWS)(TRENDS)(TYO)(00028)

 ****Hitachi Claims World's Fastest Microprocessor 02/21/92
TOKYO, JAPAN, 1992 FEB 21 (NB) -- Japan's Hitachi claims that
it has developed a microprocessing unit with the super-fast
processing speed of 1 giga instructions per second (GIPS). This
speed is comparable to a supercomputer, and is almost 10 times
faster than existing workstations.

Hitachi's microprocessing unit is a 32-bit RISC (reduced
instruction set chip) type chip based on Hitachi's
original BiCMOS circuit. 1.02 million elements are squeezed together
on an 8-square-millimeter chip which is said to consume very little
electricity. Each processor calculates 250 million instructions
per second but the speed is based on four microprocessing units
working together.

In order to realize the fast processing of data, the processor is said
to have a two-tiered structure to deal with cache memory.

Hitachi will continue to develop this processor in order to
implement it in multimedia workstations towards the end of the decade.

(Masayuki Miyazawa/19920221/Press Contact: Hitachi, +81-3-3258-
2057)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(SYD)(00029)

Australia: Optus And Unions Await Ruling 02/21/92
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1992 FEB 21 (NB) -- A deal which will see two
unions cover Australia's second carrier's employees exclusively is
awaiting ratification by the Industrial Relations Commission.

Optus has signed an agreement with the Australian Telecommunications
Employees Association (ATEA) and the Australian Postal and
Telecommunications Union (APTU), which will see the unions cover
Optus' employees.

The unions and Optus will have to wait until at least April for the
Commission's decision, as the matter has been adjourned to March 25,
with three weeks of hearing scheduled. Optus included the agreement with
its proposal last year for the second carrier's licence, and hopes
it will allow them to work in conjunction with Telecom's network
without demarcation disputes.

Despite the unions signing the agreement, the acceptance of the
agreement by the ACTU (Australian Council of Trade Unions -
Australian Unions' "governing" body), and the two unions' planned
merger in April, there is still opposition from 3 other unions - the
Professional Radio and Electronics Institute (PREI), the Public
Sector Union and the Federated Clerks Union. The PREI has 65 members
in Aussat, which now forms part of Optus, and claim they have a
right to continued coverage.

(Sean McNamara/19920221)


(NEWS)(APPLE)(SYD)(00030)

 ****Australia: Apple, Fujitsu Join Forces 02/21/92
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1992 FEB 21 (NB) -- Apple Computer Australia and
Fujitsu Australia have entered an agreement covering the IS
(integrated systems) market.

The partnership will see Fujitsu selling Macintosh computers and
peripherals as part of its integrated systems, while Apple will be
able to combine its desktop computers with Fujitsu's mainframe and
mid-range systems. The partnership is hoped to strengthen both
parties, to provide market leverage, and to broaden both companies'
integrated systems.

The agreement formalizes previous cooperative work by the companies
in the IS field. As a result of the agreement Fujitsu has been
appointed an Apple Systems Integrator, which will allow it to
offer Macintoshes as part of its systems as well as peripherals and
spare parts.

(Sean McNamara/19920221)


(REVIEW)(IBM)(LAX)(00031)

Review of: Microsoft Works For Windows, 02/21/92

Runs on: 80286 or higher with 1 megabyte (MB) of random access
memory (RAM), running Windows 3.0 or higher, one floppy disk
drive, and a hard disk.

From: Microsoft, One Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA, 98052-6399

Price: Retail $199

PUMA Rating: 3.75 (on a scale of 1=lowest to 4=highest)

Reviewed for Newsbytes by: Linda Rohrbough

Summary: Geared toward new users, this package is the easiest
start I've seen for new users to set up practical real-world
projects of their own and get results. The product combines a
word processor, database, spreadsheet with lots of tutorials so
users can produce mailing lists, form letters, or do simple
inventory tracking and financial what-ifs.

=======

REVIEW

=======

Microsoft Works for Windows, like the DOS version, is an all-
in-one package, an integrated word processor, spreadsheet, and
database. I was particularly curious about Microsoft Works for
Windows because I was wondering how Microsoft was handling the
database portion of the product in the Windows graphical user
interface (GUI) environment.

An opportunity presented itself to test the package on a
project. I was approached by someone who had to manage a
celebrity auction for charity and who was a totally new
computer user who had fallen in love with Microsoft Windows.

What do use, I was asked. Well, any number of packages together
or separately would have done the job. Someone had already
recommended dBASE, but a Windows version wasn't available and
it didn't seem like a good idea to inflict a new computer user
with dBASE.

With all the Microsoft bashing I hear now, I'm embarrassed to
admit that despite the fact other companies had a Works for
Windows packages readily available, I encouraged my client to
wait about two weeks for the Microsoft version. Why? Honestly,
I knew I was betting my professional reputation with this
fairly influential person and I didn't want to bet on another
company, even though some other packages claimed their products
were superior. When the rubber met the road, I decided to bet
on Microsoft.

The task was well defined. Letters had to be sent out to past
auction attendees assigning them bidding numbers, lists of the
items donated had to be "sliced and diced" and available the
day of the auction by item number, contributor, and by name of
the item. A minimum price was decided upon and recorded for
each item, to be compared with the actual price paid and who
paid it at the end of the auction.

My associate purchased a copy of Works for Windows and I
installed it. Installation was easy and straight forward and
Works has its own Windows icon. After installation I sat down
with my associate and explained what a word processor, a
database, and a spreadsheet were.

After my associate understood the basics, being a intelligent
person with business experience, she was able to build the
database of auction attendees and input the names by working
through the tutorial. At our next appointment, I set up the
forms in the word processor to generate the reports based in
the data in the database, and my associate was off and running.

It was interesting to me to watch how easily the database was
to understand, but how difficult my associate found the word
processor. My biggest criticism of the product lies in the word
processor, and there my complaint is more about the
documentation than the capability. Little was available on
basic word processing, and as this is a package geared toward
beginners, I found this to be a significant hurdle.

I was confident setting up the form letters, even though this
was a new product. I am very familiar with Microsoft Word's
mail merge, I knew what to expect. However, I was pleasantly
surprised that Microsoft provided a pick list in the word
processor for the fields in the database. Using the pick list,
it was easy to set up the fields for the form letter to fill in
without having to remember exactly how we had named the field
names (was it First, first or FIRST?) and without needing to
know how to make the chevrons Works uses to identify field
names.

The hard part was dealing with the tabs, spaces, and
paragraphs, which Works didn't spend much time explaining.
Since my associate couldn't see the spaces or the page breaks,
I was left with the difficult task of trying to explain why the
cursor suddenly jumped five spaces or down a line when
"nothing" was there. There didn't seem to a way to "view" these
characters as there is in Microsoft Word (a line break is
represented by a paragraph symbol, a dot represents a space, an
arrow represents a tab, and so on).

However, after some fiddling with the word processor the
reports came out just the way they were supposed to and
impressed my associate and the people at the auction.

The ability to see the form and the database at the same time,
the page preview option, and the tutorials all made Works an
easy package to use and implement. It was easy to adjust the
width of the columns in the database so each field had the
amount of room needed, and what fit on screen also fit on
standard size paper when printed. The appearance of what was on
screen was accurate and some of the reports were done without
using the word processor at all, but by just printing out the
database.

The page preview confused my associate somewhat, as new people
expect to get What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get (WYSIWYG) especially
when what is on the screen is so close in appearance to what
will print.

But, with any bright intuitive person, and a large project,
reaching the outer limits of the capability of Works or any
similar package is something I can bet on. After the auction my
associate wanted input the bid numbers of the people who bought
the items and the amounts the items sold for, then have Works
print a report which listed alphabetically the names of the
people who bought the items, their bid number, and the items
they bought. That information was in two separate databases.

We seemed at this point to reach the outer limit. It wasn't
that it couldn't be done, but finally it was just faster and
easier to do that part by hand. Especially since the auction
was over and the pressure of a deadline was off.

If we had been using a "real" database, we could have performed
that operation without much trouble. However, a beginner might
have a difficult time doing simple projects using a full-
featured database product.

One sticky problem came up during the use of the database. My
associate had managed to divide the database through some
unknown keystroke combination the night before the auction, so
both on the screen and in printing the Works database
disregarded everything after the fourth field. In the database,
the records could be seen, but there was no way to get to them
and they would not print either on paper or in the print
preview.

I tried the on-line help for an answer as well as the manual.
I've never liked Windows on-line help because I've found it to
be difficult to find information in and slow. As usual, I
didn't find anything there either. Try as I might, I couldn't
figure out what keystroke(s) did this, or how to undo it.

My fix was to export the whole database in a generic text
format (ASCII) and imported it back in again. I had to delete
the old database, rename the new ASCII version to the old name,
and rename all the fields to the old field names so it would
work with the forms we'd already set up. However, all that took
only 10 minutes as opposed to the half an hour I spend combing
the manuals looking for how to undo the problem.

Upon contacting Microsoft, the fix was a simple one. My
associate had implemented split screen mode, and had we just
moved the mouse to the split and double clicked, it would have
disappeared and solved the problem. Split screen mode is a
sophisticated feature used in large databases and spreadsheets
so two distant portions, like the top and the bottom, can be
viewed at once. Had it been better documented, we could have
saved ourselves time and me a trip out to Malibu at night.

The spreadsheet wasn't necessary for the auction, but I've used
it myself and found it intuitive and easy. Works is smart
enough to anticipate most basic operations, like adding a
column of numbers and will generate the formula automatically.
The formulas are reminiscent of Lotus 1-2-3 formulas, but just
enough different to avoid a look and feel suit, I suppose.

Formatting is easy in all three portions of the product and the
buttons across the top are obvious enough. For example, if a
cell is highlighted and the user uses the mouse to press the
button with the "B" in bold on it, the text or numbers in the
box change to bold type. Another example is clicking on the "$"
button changes the numbers in a cell in the spreadsheet to a
dollars and cents format.

Also, things I thought might be confusing weren't. It didn't
seem to bother my associate to choose database, spreadsheet or
word processor after starting Works in Windows. It also wasn't
confusing to choose the "Open a File" option, and have Works
start up the appropriate application based on the type of file.

The Works "Wizards," option walks beginner users through
getting their own database and mail merge going. Wizards
require the user to begin by setting up a database, then
mailing labels and form letters are options that can be
selected once the database is in place.

The most impressive thing about Microsoft Works for Windows was
how much progress someone new to computing made on their own
with it. Given more time, I'm sure my associate could have done
all of it on her own.

============

PUMA Rating

============

PERFORMANCE: 4. With the exception of one problem in the
database, the software performed flawlessly. It was intuitive,
easy to use, and the tutorials were good enough to get a beginner
going.

USEFULNESS: 4. This is based on usefulness to new or casual users
and for general purpose problems. The retail price is at the
top of what its worth considering what it does. Street prices
are considerably lower -- $139 at Dustin Discount Software, a
mail order house. Its a tough package to beat at street price
for all it does.

MANUAL: 3. Well done in terms of appearance, however I
found it difficult to look up how to do specific things. The
on-line help was worse. However, the tutorials and the ease of
use of the package more than make up for it.

AVAILABILITY: 4. Microsoft is very large and has superior
distribution channels. I've seen Works for Windows everywhere.

(Linda Rohrbough/19920128/Press Contact: Karen Fry, Microsoft,
tel [phone], fax [phone])


(REVIEW)(IBM)(SFO)(00032)

Review of: Altima LSX, 386SX-based notebook computer 02/17/92

From: Altima, 1390 Willow Pass Road, Suite 1050, Concord
CA 94520

Price: Retail price given by CDI Distributing as $2,499 for a 40
megabyte (MB) version, and $2,699 for a 60 MB version.

PUMA Rating: 3.5 (on a scale of 1=lowest to 4=highest)

Reviewed for Newsbytes by Ian Stokell

Summary: Although a little expensive for my taste, I nevertheless
found this an excellent notebook computer.

======

REVIEW

======

I used the LSX to file a number of articles for Newsbytes from the
1992 Windows & OS/2 exposition in San Jose, California. The unit
performed faultlessly, and the built-in modem was a real benefit
for using "on-the-road." Instead of lugging an external modem
with me, all I had to do was find a handy telephone jack for
filing the articles electronically. But let me start from the
beginning.

The LSX is powered by an Intel 80386SX processor running at
either 20 or 10 megahertz (MHz). The unit also includes a 3.5-inch
1.44 MB floppy disk drive on the right hand side of the system, an
internal 40 MB hard drive with 23 millisecond access time, one MB
of RAM, which is expandable to 5 MB, and a carrying case.

The system comes with the built-in 2400 bits-per-second modem,
and the very useful "send fax" software called Quick Link II from
Smith Micro Software Inc. for sending facsimiles direct from the unit.

Any notebook that comes with a built-in modem gets a gold star
as far as I'm concerned. The whole point of a notebook is to use
the system on the road, or away from the office. The less you
have to worry about how you're going to send the data to
another location the better. Including an internal modem in a
system is just one less thing to worry about. It may push the
price of the unit up a little, but it is definitely worth it in the
long run.

The "send fax" software that accompanies the LSX allows for the
sending of facsimiles at any time, simply converting the
designated document into a "sendable" form. I used it on a
number of occasions, with all the faxes converting and sending
to their required destinations without any problems.

The LSX comes in a very attractive matt charcoal color,
measuring 11-inches by 8.6-inches by two-inches, and weighing
approximately 6.3 pounds, including battery.

At the rear of the unit, behind a hinged door, are a line jack for
connecting to a telephone for use with the built-in modem, a
communications serial port for connecting peripherals such as a
mouse, a DC power-in port, and an external video port for attaching
a VGA (video graphics adapter) color or monochrome monitor.

Behind a small hinged door on the left side of the system are a
parallel port for connecting either a printer or another floppy disk
drive, and another port for attaching an external keyboard. After a
while the door became a little loose, although it never actually
came open when it shouldn't.

Directly above the keyboard to the right are sliding buttons for
contrast and brightness, and the on/off switch. In the top left of the
main base, just below the display, are eight LEDs (light emitting
diodes) indicating Power/Low Battery, Floppy Disk Drive, Hard
Disk Drive, Speed, Stand By, Number Lock, Caps Lock, and
Scroll Lock.

I really liked the keyboard. It was very responsive and comfortable
to use. It featured a basic Qwerty design with 80 keys, including ten
function keys. The function keys are along the top row, along with
an Escape key, and keys for Number Lock, Print Screen, Scroll
Lock, Pause/Break, Insert, and Delete -- all of which are
undersized. I found the lettered keys very easy to use and to type
with, without any undue errors occurring when typing normally.

The backlit LCD (liquid crystal display), VGA-compatible screen,
which tilts to whichever angle is required, is very readable in
normal room lighting, with the brightness and contrast controls in
the form of sliding buttons located just above the keyboard. In
sunlight though, the 8.6-inch screen becomes more difficult to read,
as are most notebook screens. Also, once the screen was set at
an angle, there was a certain amount of play forward that I
found a bit disconcerting, although at no point did the screen drop
out of position once it was set. The screen offers 640 by 480
resolution and 32 level gray scale.

The company claims that the internal, removable nicad battery
lasts between two to three hours under "typical conditions," whatever
that means. Running at 20 MHz with Microsoft Windows 3.0, the
battery lasted exactly one hour! At 10 MHz with Windows running,
the battery life reached one hour and 22 minutes. Without Windows
but running WordPerfect 5.1, the battery life was no more than an
hour and ten minutes. The company maintains, however, that power
management functions include a stand-by mode, and various
power saving and power-down features for prolonging battery life.

Newsbytes spoke to Mike Fracisco at Altima, who was very
surprised at the low battery-life times, and thought maybe the
power source on the review model was defective. He gave a
number of published benchmarks from major magazines
that posted in the two hours and ten minutes to two hours and
twenty minutes range. The lowest benchmark viewed by
Newsbytes was from InfoWorld which measured the battery
life at one hour 57 minutes and 37 seconds.

Changing speed from the default 20 MHz to the lower 10 MHz is
simply a case of pressing the Control, ALT, and Shift keys
at the same time, and then pressing the down arrow key. When
the system is turned off, the higher speed will automatically
come up when it is switched on again. To speed up the machine
without turning off the machine, press the Control, ALT, and Shift
keys, and then the up arrow. Interestingly, this does not work
when in Windows. To change speeds, either up or down, you
have to exit Windows, change speed, and then restart Windows
again.

To sum up, the LSX is an attractive notebook that, while a little
expensive, offers great functionality, especially for someone
requiring a system for the road.

==============

PUMA RATING

==============

PERFORMANCE: 4.0 The LSX did everything it was supposed
to do. On the road the modem and facsimile features worked
without problems.

USEFULNESS: 3.5 Call me old fashioned, but for me there's
something inherently wrong with a notebook costing nearly twice
as much as a color 386SX-based desktop machine. The modem
certainly puts the price up, but that's worth it. If you need a
notebook, and are prepared to hand over hard-earned cash,
you could do a lot worse than the LSX.

MANUAL: 3.0 The manual is readable and reasonably
useful. There is no index but a pretty comprehensive contents
page.

AVAILABILITY: 3.5 The company lists its distributors as
CDI Distributing, Decision Support Systems Inc., Gates/FA
Distributing, and Ingram Micro. Through these distributors
the LSX is available through many high street computer
stores such as ComputerLand and Egghead.

(Ian Stokell/19920207)


(NEWS)(TRENDS)(LAX)(00033)

 ****Computer Animation Used For Re-enactment In Murder Trial 02/21/92
SAN RAFAEL, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1992 FEB 21 (NB) -- Computer
animation has been used for the first time in a murder trial as
a visual representation presented by a ballistics expert in a
complex re-enactment of how shots which killed the victim were
fired.

The trial is the People vs. Mitchell in Marin County, California
Superior Court where Jim Mitchell, the older of the Mitchell
Brothers, who ran a pornography business, was found guilty
of voluntary manslaughter on February 19, 1992 in the shooting
death of his brother Artie Mitchell.

Wound ballistics expert Alec Jason and criminal expert Lucien Haag
were hired by the prosecution to construct a ballistic
recreation of how the shots were fired. The recreation was
complex and difficult, prompting Jason to use computer
animation software to recreate the scene.

Using police photos, reports, a 911 phone recording, crime lab
reports, autopsy data, and their own investigation of the crime
scene, Jason and Haag reconstructed the events. Over a two-week
period, Jason, who says he had only previously used only word processing
software, took the evidence collected, chose Autodesk's
3D Studio, and designed a computer animation of the incident
which showed a graphical demonstration of the victim as he was
struck by three of the eight bullets fired.

The animation was played twice for the jury, once during
testimony and again at the end of the trial. While Mitchell was
convicted, reports are the defense is planning an appeal
because of the computer animation evidence presented at the
trial.

However, Phillip Johnson a law professor at U.C. Berkeley, the
courtroom may become the next stage for computer animation. "We
may be seeing dueling animations in a couple of years."

Though this may be the first time computer animation has been
used by ballistics experts in a murder trial, computer
animation has been a common tool in courtrooms, especially in
cases involving automobile accidents, according to Nick Arnett,
editor of the "Multimedia Computing" newsletter. Arnett says the
use of animation is increasing in the courtroom. Animation is
planned for use in the trial over the crash in Los Angeles of a U.S.
Air Jet.

While the Mitchell appeal is pending, Autodesk is extremely
pleased that Jason used its software to create the animation.
Jason's animation is contains a "live" human figure, doors opening, and
bullets flying. Jason is reported as saying the animation as a
tool was much better than the traditional charts and graphs as
it provided the jury with a consistent message that was more easily
understood.

Dan Ness, senior industry analyst with the research firm Computer
Intelligence in La Jolla, California (and which recently acquired
Infocorp of Santa Clara, CA), told Newsbytes that the use of any
new technology in the courtrooms has run into obstacles from
lawyers, as it apparently has in this case.

He cites the example of the early 80s when an Apple III was
introduced by one side to gather and cross-index statements from
witnesses. The opposition argued that the presence of a computer
"intimidated witnesses." Ness says that "legal historians might also
say that the first use of fingerprints or blood typing were appealed
on first use."

He suggests that the defense or prosecution lawyers on the other
side of a new technology "look for any excuse" to appeal a verdict.
He believes such use of animation will become commonplace. "There's
no difference between this and photos or artist renderings," he
claims.

(Linda Rohrbough & Wendy Woods/19920221/Press Contact: Karen Oppenheim,
Cunningham Communications for Autodesk, tel [phone], fax
408-982-0403; Nick Arnett, Multimedia Computing, 408-737-7575)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00034)

 ****Seybold Seminars: Awards for Excellence 02/21/92
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 1992 FEB 21 (NB) -- Nine new products cut
through keen competition to win prizes last night at the Seybold
Seminars' first annual Awards for Excellence ceremony. In
addition, three products and services outside Seybold's criteria
for new products landed honorable mentions.

Ranging from a scanner to an imagesetter, to a management and
tracking system, the winning entries beat out a field of about 50
other hand-picked rivals in the field of computer publishing.

"I'm really impressed with the quality we've seen," said
Jonathan Seybold, company president, speaking to a crowd that
gathered for the ceremony after the last seminar sessions of the
day were over.

Under the rules of the new contest, to qualify for award
consideration, a product must make a significant contribution in
some way, either by benefitting users or advancing the computer
publishing industry.

Also, to make it into this year's judging, a product must have
been publicly shown to customers between May and September, 1991.
To make it into the 1993 competition, vendors still have time to
go. The product must be publicly shown to customers between
September, 1991 and September, 1992.

About 60 items met this year's criteria, and a panel of nine
Seybold editors worked long into the night assessing the entries,
stated Michael Shaughnessy, vice president of Seybold, during the
ceremony.

At the event, the editors took turns presenting prizes for
these new products:

 - ISGI'S RAMS display ad production management system,
incorporating database techniques, ad tracking, component
integration, and storage.

 - The Howtek Scanmaster D4000, a drum scanner for reflective
and transparent art. The D4000 offers color space conversion as
well as resolution of up to 4,000 dpi, noted Seybold editor Dave
Gertler.

 - QuarkCopydesk and Dispatch, a text editor and tracking module
for the editorial workgroup market.

 - Ofoto, scanning/image processing software from Light Source
that supplies cropping and scaling, image rotation, and calibration
of the scanner with the target ouput device, among other features.

 - Adobe MultiMaster, software that extends the Type 1
Specification by letting users create variations in style, size and
weight from a single font.

 - QuickTime, the multimedia extension to Apple's System 7.

 - Linotype-Hell's PostScript RIP 60, a modular, standalone RIP
designed to provide high quality and fast turnaround on the
Linotronic 630 drum recorder.

 - EFI Cache and EFI Color, software from a company that
strongly promotes color portability.

 - Dolev internal-drum imagesetters from Scitex. The Dolev 400
is aimed at the middle segment of the market, and the Dolev 800 at
the high end, said editor Molly Joss. Slated for release in the
second half of this year, the Dolev 800 uses a patented prism in
the center of the drum instead of a mirror, minimizing the
dispersion of light.

Honorable mentions went to these products and services:

 - IBM's ScreenReader with Book Manager, a system designed for
the vision impaired.

 - Hyphen and The Evening Standard: Information Station, a
newsroom application based on Hyphen products that's being
demonstrated on the Seybold floor.

 - Xchange, a company that advises developers and others about
Quark extensions.

The new Seybold awards program originated out of an effort to
certify that items exhibited as new products are truly "new,"
Jonathan Seybold told the audience at the ceremony. "We wanted to
be able to say, 'This is a new product, no question about it,'" he
noted.

After reviewing prospective "new products," and certifying
some 90 of them, Seybold decided to honor the best.

In determining criteria for the awards, the company considered
setting up product categories, but rejected the idea, since
capabilities might overlap between the groups and there might be
disproportionate numbers of worthy candidates in certain areas.
"Instead we opted to take into account the full breadth of the
industry," said the company chief.

(Jacqueline Emigh/19920221)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00035)

Seybold: PhotoDisc Photo Collections For Macs & PCs 02/21/91
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, 1992 FEB 21 (NB) -- PhotoDisc has begun to
ship Volume I - Business and Industry, the premiere edition in a
series of collections of scanned, 24-bit color photos for desktop
use, the company announced at Seybold.

All volumes in the series are aimed at facilitating high quality
production, as well as legal access to digital photography.
Each edition will include hundreds of images plus LightBox
software. LightBox, a graphical file manager, lets users browse,
access, and work with image files directly, or move the images into
page layout, photo manipulation, multimedia, and presentation
programs, said Sally von Bargen, director of marketing.

The photos will be produced by award-winning professional
photographers, who are licensing their work to PhotoDisc, according
to von Bargen. Users have virtually unlimited rights to the
images, sparing them the trouble of negotiating and procuring use
rights, she explained.

Targeted at the graphic design, digital prepress, multimedia,
and service bureau markets, the software is available on CD-ROM and
floppy disks. The floppies come in versions for Macintosh and IBM-
compatible PCs.

Volume I - Business and Industry contains 408 photos on
business-related topics, plus a bonus collection of 50 natural
world backgrounds and textures. Upcoming editions include Volume
II - Lifestyles and People, and Volume III - Nature, Wildlife and
the Environment.

The graphical file manager in the program, licensed in
January from Design Peripheriques Informatiques, S.A., handles
compression/decompression and initiates searches by keyword,
thumbnail, name, type, and other user-defined fields, von Bargen
said.

The LightBox software also accommodates all image file
formats, enabling export into such software programs as Quark
Xpress, Ventura Publisher, Adobe PhotoStyler, Letraset ColorStudio,
MacroMind Director, Aldus Persuasion, and MS PowerPoint.

PhotoDisc is compatible with a wide range of ouptut devices,
including color copiers, Postscript printers, and high-end image
setters, added von Bargen.

(Jacqueline Emigh/19920221)


(NEWS)(IBM)(SFO)(00036)

Seybold: Windows Board for Mid- to High-End Applications 02/21/92
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, 1992 FEB 21 (NB) -- At Seybold, Matrox
has introduced a display controller geared to mid- to high-end
graphics applications on IBM-compatible PCs.

The Impression Ultra, an EISA board for Windows, offers 24-bit
color, as well 1600 x 1200 resolution, a level practically unheard
of even for Macintosh computers, let alone PCs, said Thomas Fehr,
sales specialist.

In addition, the device comes bundled with sophisticated
calibration and compression software, he noted.

The release of a Windows-based controller with these kinds of
capabilities, along with the port of traditional Macintosh
applications software to Windows, indicates that the face of PC
applications is changing, he hypothesized.

Aldus Pagemaker has released a Windows version of its
software, and Adobe has come out with PhotoStyler, a Windows
version of the Macintosh-based program PhotoShop. Also, he said,
Quark is showing a Windows version of its product at Seybold.

"Once, the Mac `had it all' over the PC in prepress market.
But now, we'll probably see some turnover in that market," stated
Fehr.

With more products for Windows becoming available, the
generally higher priced Macintoshes could lose ground to IBM-
compatible clones among graphics professionals who are in the
market for new computers, he conjectured.

The ConsistentColor monitor calibration software that comes
with Impression Ultra is designed to help users more accurately
predict the colors in their printed output.

The Matrox WinSqueeze software is capable of transparently
compressing huge images by a factor of up to 20 without noticeable
quality degradation, according to Matrox.

Impression Ultra also incorporates other advanced graphical
capabilities, including a high refresh rate, for a flicker-free
screen, and fast performance. The display controller is shipping.

(Jacqueline Emigh/19920221)