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/NB921124

Text File | 1992-11-24 | 71KB | 1,577 lines

(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SFO)(00001)

Nat Semi Signs CompUSA For Card Distribution 11/24/92
SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1992 NOV 24 (NB) -- Two
weeks after signed an integrated circuit development deal
with Japan's Matsushita Electric, National Semiconductor has
signed up CompUSA to distribute its new TyIN 2000 integrated
PC communications card.

The TyIN 2000 card is a PC-compatible add-in board, which
offers audio, data communications, fax, and voice-messaging
capabilities for the suggested retail price of $279. The board
is set for availability starting December 7, 1992.

According to the company, the agreement with CompUSA
represents National Semiconductor's "first foray into the
computer mass merchandising market."

Dr. Demetris Paraskevopoulos, vice president of National
Semiconductor's Retail Channel Operations, said: "In a sense,
our relationship with CompUSA symbolizes a new direction
for National Semiconductor. The TyIN 2000 card is an example
of National's new strategy to leverage our silicon chips into
personal communication products that have mass consumer
appeal."

National Semiconductor says that, while it has signed four
distributors -- Merisel, Ingram Micro, Tech Data, and Gates/FA
Distributing -- for the TyIN 2000 card, CompUSA is the first
major national reseller to commit to the product since its
introduction in late October.

Nathan Morton, chief executive officer of CompUSA, said: "The
idea of businesses and home offices using audio in computer
applications has tremendous potential, but the market is just
getting off the ground."

The company claims that the card's most innovative feature is
is one that allows users to "append spoken audio comments to
memos, construct 'talking' spreadsheets, or store voice
messages with corresponding data fields."

Additionally, the company says that audio files are stored in the
Windows WAV format at 11 kilohertz (KHz), allowing playback on
any audio-capable Windows system. Furthermore, the product can
playback WAV files stored at 22 KHz and 11 KHz, eliminating
the need for single-application audio cards in business audio
applications.

The TyIN 2000 card carries a five-year warranty as well as a
30-day money-back guarantee.

At the beginning of November, Newsbytes reported that Nat
Semi had signed a deal with Matsushita Electric that called for
the two firms to co-operate on the production and sale of analog
integrated circuit (IC) chips. Under the agreement, National
Semiconductor will manufacture and assemble analog ICs at its
US plant under Matsushita's brand name. The firm will then
supply them to Matsushita. The company will also sell the ICs
as well.

In October, Newsbytes reported that the company was offering
3,000,000 depository shares, each representing 1/10 of a share
of the company's $32.50 convertible preferred stock, at a price
of $50 per depository share.

In September, Newsbytes reported National Semiconductor
earnings for its first quarter of 1993 at $21.9 million (17
cents per share) compared with losses of $168 million
($1.64 per share) of the same quarter last year. However, the
quarter a year earlier did include a restructuring charge of
$149.3 million.

(Ian Stokell/19921124/Press Contact: Celeste Martino,
408-721-4210, National Semiconductor)


(NEWS)(IBM)(DEN)(00002)

New For PC: PC Study Bible 3.0 11/24/92
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1992 NOV 24 (NB) -- Biblesoft has
announced it is shipping PC Study Bible 3.0. The program contains
various translations of the entire Bible and Nave's Topical Bible
which cross references over 100,000 scripture passages into nearly
20,000 topics, people, and places.

According to Biblesoft president and founder, James Gilbertson, the
Bible addresses the contemporary problems that as a society we face
today. "The mission of our company and the purpose of this software
is to allow people to easily uncover the Biblical answers to these
everyday concerns while providing the tools for in-depth Bible
study," he said.

The company says the program is designed in such a way that a press
of a key or the click of a mouse allows the user to open the
computer version of the Bible to any book or scripture they choose.
Different translations or portions of a scripture can be displayed
simultaneously in electronic windows.

PC Study Bible also includes a built-in notepad to jot down
observations and notes, and excerpts from the Bible can be captured
onto the notepad for later filing or printing. Six Bible translations
are available from Biblesoft: King James, New International, New King
James, American Standard, Revised Standard, and The Living Bible.
Users can search any version for multiple words, phrases, or
combinations.

System requirements include an IBM-compatible XT, AT, 386, or
486-based system, at least 512 kilobytes (K) of system memory, DOS
3.3 or higher, one floppy drive and a hard disk. A mouse is
optional. The program supports monochrome, Hercules, CGA, EGA, or
VGA displays. With one translation (King James or New International),
the Nave's Topical Bible, and a free mail-in offer for the American
Standard Version translation, the concordance, and the notepad, the
program has a suggested retail price of $69.95. The enhanced version
adds two more translations and Nelsons Bible Dictionary for $149.95.

The library edition includes all the translations and other
accessories as well as a Greek-Hebrew dictionary, and Vine's
Expository Dictionary for $239.95. The software is available at
bookstores and Egghead, CompUSA, and Computer City computer software
outlets.

(Jim Mallory/19921124/Press contact: Warren Bailey, Biblesoft,
206-824-0547;Reader contact: Biblesoft, 800-995-9058, fax
206-824-1828)


(NEWS)(UNIX)(BOS)(00003)

Portable 50 MHz SPARC Workstation Debuts 11/24/92
SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1992 NOV 24 (NB) -- RDI Computer Corp.
has launched a portable computer that combines the same 50
megahertz (MHz) processor used on Sun Microsystems' new SPARCstation
LX workstations, and that has an LCD capable of displaying
256,000 colors.

The ultra powerful new BriteLite LX machine was shown alongside the
company's BriteLite IPC in the RDI booth at the recent Fall
COMDEX show. Introduced by RDI earlier this month, the BriteLite
IPC is an upgrade of an earlier portable workstation based on the
40 MHz SPARCstation IPC engine.

The two new portables weigh in at 14.5 pounds apiece. Each is
equipped with a 450 megabytes (MB) hard drive, a 3.5-inch floppy, and
memory that can be expanded in 16MB increments.

Priced at $9,995, the enhanced BriteLite IPC uses the Sun OS 4.1.2
operating system. Memory is expandable to 64 MB. Customers are
given a choice between a 640 x 480 pixel active matrix LCD display
from Sharp, providing 512 colors or 8 levels of gray, and an
1152 x 900 pixel monochrome LCD.

Priced at $15,995, the new BriteLite LX uses the Solaris 2.1
operating system. Memory is expandable to 96MB. Company
officials stressed that the ColorPlus active matrix LCD panel
included in the system is specifically intended to let users get
the most out of complex applications.

ColorPlus provides more realistic presentation of flesh tones and
mute hues than any display previously offered by the company, and
also allows for smoother surface shading, the company claims.

"With 50 MHz of computing power and a 256K selectable color
palette, the BriteLite LX is the fastest, most powerful SPARC
portable workstation in the industry today. Applications once
confined to desktop workstations can now be fully utilized in the
field," commented Roy Wright, president and CEO. Resolution for
ColorPlus is also 640 x 480 pixels.

The 50 MHz SPARCengine LX motherboard used in both the BriteLite LX
and Sun's new SPARCstation LX workstations is based on Sun's new
low-cost microSPARC processor. The processor combines integer,
floating-point, memory management units, and cache into a single
chip, a move aimed at reducing cooling and power requirements while
increasing reliability.

The SPARCengine LX performs at 59.1 MIPS, 4.6 MFLOPS, 24.4
SPECint92, and 21 SPECfp92. The system includes a 2-kilobyte (KB)
data cache and a 4 KB instruction cache.

The 40 MHz Sun IPX motherboard used in the BriteLite IPX and Sun
IPX workstations employs the SPARC RISC IU together with the FPU 40
MHz. Performance is 28.5 MIPS, 4.2 MFLOPS (DP LINPACK), and 24.4
SPECmarks. Cache is 64KB.

The Sun IPX motherboard is equipped with a SCSI interface, an SBus
expansion slot, two serial ports, and one port each for external
video, mouse/keyboard, and thick Ethernet.

The SPARCEngine LX offers the same features, except for the
addition of a parallel port, ISDN interface, and CD-quality 16-bit
audio port and replacement of the thick Ethernet port with an
onboard 10BaseT twisted pair Ethernet interface and optional AUI
adapter.

The BriteLite LX and upgraded BriteLite IPC each come with a built-
in speaker, three-button mechanical mouse, and Sun-compatible 103-
key keyboard. A NiCad battery pack offers five Amp-hour capacity,
a run time of one hour in continuous use, and a battery recharge
time of three hours.

(Jacqueline Emigh/19921124/Press contact: Tracy Lynch, RDI, tel
619-558-6985)


(NEWS)(IBM)(BOS)(00004)

 ****Voice-Activated 486 Color Notebook On The Way 11/24/92
ELMSFORD, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1992 NOV 24 (MB) -- If you're a mobile
user, and you'd like to be able to use a PC while your hands are
busy with non-computing tasks, Wen Technology Corp., will soon have
a product for you.

Announced at the Comdex Fall computer show, the upcoming Wen 486
SuperNote-Voice is a voice-activated 486 color notebook that includes
a headset with a microphone and earphones, together with proprietary
voice recognition and text-to-speech synthetic output software.

Dr. Sheree Wen, company founder and president, told Newsbytes that
the battery-equipped device can be used in almost any location,
including the interior of an automobile.

How does the unit work? The user trains the voice recognition
software to understand isolated words and phrases, and to use these
words as commands for any Windows or DOS-based application, said
Wen.

For example, the software might be taught to understand the words
"send a fax" or "retrieve data," and to tell the application to
carry out these instructions. The user enters verbal commands by
means of the microphone.

The synthetic voice output software repeats the spoken commands to
the user for verification. The output software can also be trained
to provide the user with spoken menu prompts. The user hears the
synthetic output over the earphones.

The new 6.2-pound notebook will also run any DOS and Windows
applications with keyboard or bar code support.

The product will be delivered through OEMs (original equipment
manufacturers), distributors and private labels starting in
January, with a suggested end user price of $4,500 in its minimum
configuration.

All units will include 8 kilobytes (KB) of cache, 12 KB of ROM
containing BIOS with configuration software, a 3.5-inch floppy drive,
a removable NiCAD battery, and a sleep mode function, and an 8.5-inch
color LDC displaying 256 colors at 320 by 200 pixels resolution or 16
colors at 640 by 480 pixels resolution.

A variety of options will be available for CPU (central processing
unit), storage, keyboard, and accessories. The notebook will offer
a choice of CPUs from Intel, AMD, Texas Instruments, or Cyrix, and
of a 60-megabyte (MB), 80MB, or 120MB hard drive.

The system will come with 2MB of RAM, upgradable to either 4 or 10MB,
along with a socket for an 80387 math coprocessor. An 85-key keyboard
will be available not only in English, but in German, French, Spanish
and Portuguese, too.

A car adapter headlines the list of optional accessories. Others
will include a trackball unit, an internal 9800 bps data/fax modem,
numeric keypad, external battery charger, and docking station.

(Jacqueline Emigh/19921124/Press contact: Dr. Sheree Wen, Wen
Technology Crop., Elmsford, NY).


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00005)

UK: London Underground BBS Reopens As Transcomm BBS 11/24/92
LONDON, ENGLAND, 1992 NOV 24 (NB) -- Brian Robinson, the original
system operator (sysop) of the London Underground, one of the
UK's most successful bulletin board systems (BBSs) in the late 1980s,
has decided to reopen the board under the name of Transcomm.

According to Robinson, Transcomm is an even better BBS, thanks to the
use of the technology today. The new BBS, which is undergoing trials
in preparation for a full launch at the beginning of December,
runs on three PCs linked together using Novell Lite networking
software.

Two numbers have been allocated to the BBS: 081-868-5178 for full
Fidonet access and 081-429-3257 for the other two nodes. All three
nodes of the BBS are linked to US Robotics Dual Standard modems, which
support all modem speeds to 14,400 bits per second (bps) with V.42Bis
error correction and data compression. The modems also support the HST
asymmetric modem protocol, which runs as 16,800/450 bps.

"What we've done with the BBS is to add a major set of CD-ROM (compact
disc read only memory) disks to the system libraries. This means we
have far more software available for download than ever before,"
Robinson told Newsbytes.

Co-sysoping with Robinson are Ray O'Connell, a well-known computer
industry figure currently working at S&S International, the anti-virus
company, and Phil Day, best-known for his involvement in The Dark
Crystal BBS. According to O'Connell, the Transcomm project came
together very quickly in the last few months, after all of them
realized they had a number of ideas for BBS in their heads.

"Brian phoned me up one day and said: what do you think. I said yes
and so did Phil, so we were quickly able to invest enough to get
Transcomm up and running," he said.

Transcomm has two levels of subscription: Gold and Platinum with,
respectively, one hour and two hours access a day. Gold subs cost UKP
45 a year, while Platinum costs subscribers UKP 90 a year. For an
introductory period, probably until the end of the year, Transcomm is
offering what it calls charter subscriptions, which cut the cost to
UKP 35 and 70 for Gold and Platinum subscription.

"There are no download limits and every subscriber gets a joining pack
with a free off-line reader (OLR)," Robinson told Newsbytes, adding
that, spread over a year, the online access fees work out at under 10
pence an hour.

Robinson, O'Connell and Day are running Transcomm as a business. They
have set up a small company to administer the BBS and, thanks to this,
have obtained a very large mountain of public domain and shareware
software available for download. In total, there are more than 17,000
files available.

(Steve Gold/19921124/Press & Public Contact: Transcomm Limited - Tel:
081-429-2233)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00006)

UK: Vodafone Profits Set To Rise From Low-Cost Phones 11/24/92
NEWBURY, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1992 NOV 24 (NB) -- Vodafone, one of the
UK's two mobile phone operators, looks set to announce a rise in half
yearly profits, if the financial analysts are to be believed.

Despite the continuing success story surrounding the company,
all eyes will be on an expected statement on how Vodafone's consumer
rate cellular phones, known as the Lowcall tariff, are faring.
Industry experts are predicting that sales of the company's mobile
phones will have taken off again on the back of the consumer market
push.

Lowcall, which was launched last month, operates on the simple premise
that many consumers are put off buying a cellular phone due to
the relatively high cost (UKP 60 signup plus UKP 25 a month plus
usage) of using the unit. The Lowcall tariff, like the Cellnet
Lifetime rates announced shortly after Vodafone's offering, cuts the
signup cost in half, and the monthly line rental down to UKP 15.

Industry sources suggest that the Lowcall tariff has been responsible
for around half of the 25,000 subscribers signed up to Vodafone during
last month. The company's sign-ups are therefore expected to double in
the short term,

Vodafone is quietly claiming that it had 750,000 subscribers on
September 15 in the UK. This compares with around 710,000 subscribers
as at the end of last year. That equates to Vodafone holding around 56
percent of the British cellular market, leaving Cellnet with the
remainder.

The Lowcall scheme has cost Vodafone a small fortune. Sources close to
the company suggest that a total advertising spend in excess of UKP 5
million on the project has commanded a healthy interest, but the cost
of the campaign will have been offset only slightly by the extra
income from new subscribers.

(Steve Gold/19921124)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(BOS)(00007)

Mobile Access, Shared Whiteboard For PenPoint 11/24/92
FOSTER CITY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1992 NOV 24 -- Notable Technologies has
introduced a pair of communications packages for Go Corporation's
PenPoint operating system, each capable of running on either the
AT&T Hobbit or Intel-based pen hardware platform.

The software includes Mobile Access, a telecommunications package
that connects the pen user to a variety of desktop, mainframe and
mobile environments, and Shared Whiteboard, a "remote sketchpad"
that lets a pair of pen users collaborate in realtime on the
creation and revision of images.

"We have established a software category that brings actual
productivity gains by enhancing the freedom of a new class of
hardware. Mobile Access and Shared Whiteboard provide the missing
links that allow mobile computing to reach its full potential," stated
Ronald J. Brown, president and CEO, speaking at a news briefing at the
COMDEX Fall computer show where the applications were introduced.

According to Brown and other officials, both packages support the
PenPoint GUI, which uses gestures for common actions and menu
commands, and floating palettes and dialog boxes for less frequent
actions. In addition, Mobile Access offers handwriting recognition
for data entered on the pen-based device, and is able to capture
incoming text data.

In an interview with Newsbytes, David R. Larson, vice president of
sales and marketing, said that Mobile Access acts as a terminal
emulator for TTY, VT52 or VT100, enabling point-to-point
communications via phone line, LAN (local area network) or WAN (wide
area network). The application screen consists of two parts, each
adjustable in size, he noted. The top part is for the terminal
session, and the bottom for handwritten input from the user, including
electronic mail messages.

The user can convert both outgoing handwritten data and incoming
text data into the ASCII text, X-, Y- or Z-modem, and Kermit
protocols, he explained. But the need for further handwriting is
minimized by drag-and-drop interfaces for sending and receiving
documents and a button-driven "snippets list" for other frequently
used commands, including "log on" and "get mail."

Shared Whiteboard brings an age old business practice online,
according to the officials. "Shared Whiteboard makes that old
'power elite notepad' -- the ubiquitous shared napkin -- obsolete.
Instead of sketching out new ideas on napkins -- or placemats or
scratch paper -- business people on the go can develop and share
graphical documents via mobile computers," Larson commented.

The vice president told Newsbytes that document images and pen
strokes "drawn" on the pen interface are transmitted instantly from
one computer running Shared Whiteboard to another, so both users
see the same image simultaneously. Either user is able to add to
or erase from the document.

Shared document creation and revision can take place between users
at any two points in the world, and the graphical pen sessions can
be easily supplemented with voice communications via phone
conferencing, he reported. "In the future, the package will enable
the same kind of document sharing among more than two users at a
time," he remarked.

Shared Whiteboard includes a floating graphics palette of graphical
tools, plus drag-and-drop and button interfaces for such functions
as file export, cutting and pasting, zooming, and gray-scale
choices.

Mobile Access is priced at $195.00, and Shared Whiteboard at
$99.00. Both packages are slated to ship in the first quarter of
1993.

(Jacqueline Emigh/19921124; Press contact: David R. Larson,
Notable Technologies, tel [phone])


(NEWS)(TRENDS)(SFO)(00008)

Dataquest End-User Survey Ranks Dell Tops 11/24/92
SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1992 NOV 24 (NB) -- In a PC
user survey by Dataquest, a market research firm, users have ranked
Dell Computer top in overall customer satisfaction among vendors.

The survey features 12-month cumulative results, and is
called the "Score Report: Customer Satisfaction-Desktop
Personal Computers." Dataquest says that the report tracks
user satisfaction with desktop personal computers on a
quarterly basis.

Mary Hand, a spokesperson for Dataquest, told Newsbytes that
Dataquest "was the (first company) to do this type of survey,
but we've been doing it for eight quarters now. This is the
second four-quarter cumulative."

Hand added that the company has between 300 and 400 users
in the survey each quarter. "We try to get different" users
each time, she told Newsbytes.

Lisa Thorell, principal analyst and director in the
client/server segment of Dataquests' Computer Systems
service, said: "Today's personal computer users have the widest
array of high-performance PCs to select from, with the lowest
prices, factory-installed software, and a choice to buy
anywhere from mail-order to superstores to direct electronic
ordering. Our customer survey looks at the key dimensions that
PC buyers use in selecting and staying with a vendor: price,
hardware reliability, price/performance, and customer service."

Hand told Newsbytes that in the last four-quarter cumulative
survey CompuAdd came in number one, with Dell coming second.

In this survey, CompuAdd came second, followed by Apple
Computer, Hewlett-Packard in fourth place, and Compaq
Computer in fifth.

(Ian Stokell/19921124/Press Contact: Mary Hand, 408-437-
8312, Dataquest)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00009)

Borland Slates 3rd Developers Conference 11/24/92
SCOTTS VALLEY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1992 NOV 24 (NB) -- Borland
International has set April 19, 1993, as the date for its third
annual International Developers Conference, which will run
through April 23.

The conference will be held at the San Diego Marriott Marina &
Convention Center. The company is anticipating that 2,000 people will
attend. A company spokesperson told Newsbytes that last year's
attendance was in the region of 1,500.

Borland says that the conference is designed for programmers,
engineers, technical managers, and consultants, and will feature
more than 100 technical and educational sessions. Areas
covered will include object-oriented programming, and Windows,
DOS, and OS/2 development.

The company says that its technical, development, and
management staff will be on hand to offer first-hand
knowledge of Borland's latest developments.

Paul Gross, general manager of Borland's Application
Development Business Unit, said: "Borland's commitment to the
developer community and object-oriented programming makes
this one of the best environments to learn about the latest
developments in software technology, meet leading industry
experts and exchange knowledge and ideas."

Presentations will cover C++ programming, Pascal programming,
and visual programming, which will include prototyping,
database front-ends, and decision tree logic. Management and
design will also be featured, along with systems and software.

The company says that more than 75 vendors, developers, and
publishers will be on hand with products and information. A
24-hour personal computer resource center will also be
available, providing access to computer networks and
electronic bulletin boards.

The company spokesperson told Newsbytes that the conference
fee is $995. The spokesperson also said that there is an early
registration discount of $200, bringing the fee down to $795.

Group and educational discounts are also available. The company
is giving away a complimentary copy of one of its
development products to all attendees.

(Ian Stokell/19921124/Press Contact: Cathy Caplener,
408-439-4825, Susan Nicolls, 408-439-4833, Borland
International Inc.)


(NEWS)(APPLE)(SFO)(00010)

New For Macintosh: MacTCP 1.1 11/24/92
CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1992 NOV 24 (NB) -- Apple
Computer is now shipping a new version of its MacTCP software.
The product is a Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol
(TCP/IP) implementation that allows third-party developers to provide
a set of TCP/IP applications for the Macintosh line of personal
computers.

The new version of MacTCP offers support for Apple's System
7.1 operating system. Additionally, the company claims that it
also offers "better support for extension products, such as
AppleTalk Remote Access (ARA), SLIP (Serial Line IP) and PPP
(Point-to-Point Protocol) drivers, as well as support for
larger 'Hosts' files."

Apple claims that it is offering MacTCP 1.1.1 free of charge to
existing licensees. Developers with MacTCP commercial
distribution licenses and customers with MacTCP internal use
licenses have already been sent updates.

For customers who purchased a single user license of MacTCP
1.1 directly from APDA, Apple's source for developer tools,
the MacTCP Developer Upgrade Kit is available for $25. The
company says that the upgrade kit is only for MacTCP 1.1
customers who do not presently have a MacTCP commercial
distribution license or internal site license. Users who obtained
MacTCP as part of MacX will be updated through MacX 1.2 update
programs.

In June, Newsbytes reported that Avatar had announced that its
LanWay Token Ring cards would begin supporting Apple's MacTCP
software in July.

Apple has also announced that it is now shipping the Data
Access Language (DAL) Server to support IBM's Application
System/400 family of mid-range computers. The company says that,
as an early sales incentive, it will provide the DAL Server for
AS/400 at 25 percent off list prices through March 31, 1993.
The DAL Server for AS/400 is a software product that allows
Macintosh personal computers to "transparently" access data on
AS/400 systems via an LU 6.2 (APPC) connection.

Apple lists the product at $4,250 for one to eight users;
$12,000 for one to 32 users; and $20,000 for greater than
32 users. Site licensing is also available for customers with
multiple AS/400 systems at the cost of $115,000 for one to
20 CPUs (central processing unites), and $200,000 for more
than 20 CPUs.

(Ian Stokell/19921124/Press Contact: Emilio Robles, 408-862-
5671, Apple Computer)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00011)

 ****Sharp Electronics Intros IQ-9000 Organizer 11/24/92
TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1992 NOV 24 (NB) -- At the Canadian
Computer Show, Sharp Electronics of Canada has unveiled the
latest in its line of executive organizers, the IQ-9000, which crosses
over into the new category of personal digital assistants (PDAs).

Sharp builds the much-talked-about Apple Computer Newton, which is
due to go on sale in the spring, and the company said the IQ-9000
is almost the same machine except that it lacks the handwriting
recognition capability found in the Newton.

David Langdon, marketing manager for Sharp in Canada, said that the
IQ-9000 and the Newton are "positioned at different levels in the
market-place." The IQ-9000 will sell at a lower price, he said, while
the Newton has handwriting recognition and "wider expansion
capability."

Craig Hustadt, general manager for marketing and planning at
Sharp Canada, said the company plans to expand its PDA product line
in the future with networking, multimedia, entertainment, and
education products.

The IQ-9000 is a pocket-sized device that looks more like Sharp's
previous executive organizers than like Apple's Newton. It has a
full, though small, QWERTY keyboard, a touch-sensitive screen, and
an electronic pen for controlling the machine by writing on the
screen.

Personal productivity applications on the IQ-9000 include calendar,
schedule, user file, anniversary function, to-do list, three telephone
directories, business card directory, word processor, outline
processor, scrapbook, calculator, and clocks.

The device has a graphical user interface that uses icon buttons
and pull-down menus.

There is also a built-in infrared transmitter which allows an
IQ-9000 to exchange data with another IQ-9000 without a wired
connection, or to transmit data to a printer equipped with a
special pickup device that plugs into the printer's parallel port.

The transmitter uses the same Sharp-proprietary integrated circuit
cards as earlier Sharp organizers, and comes with 256K bytes of
memory, which can be expanded using random-access memory cards in the
IC card slot.

The device is due to begin shipping in Canada by the first week of
December, at a suggested retail price of C$900.

(Grant Buckler/19921124/Press Contact: Sharp Electronics of Canada,
416-890-2100, fax [phone]; Betty Alexander, The Communications
Group for Sharp, 416-696-9900)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00012)

Microsoft Canada Chief Makes Anti-Piracy Pitch 11/24/92
TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1992 NOV 24 (NB) -- The Canadian Alliance
Against Software Theft (CAAST) wants to do for software piracy what
aggressive campaigning has done for drinking and driving: make it
socially unacceptable.

Frank Clegg, general manager of Microsoft Canada, told a small
audience at the Canadian Computer Show and Conference that software
vendors still have a problem making people understand that copying
their products is theft. "People who wouldn't steal a pencil will
copy software," he said.

Clegg said that for every software package sold, another is copied
illegally. In Canada, he said, piracy costs the industry C$200
million per year. Worldwide, the industry is losing C$10 billion
per year, he added.

Microsoft was one of the founding members of CAAST, along with
Lotus Development Canada, Borland Canada, Quarterdeck Software, and
Novell Canada. Computer Associates Canada and Autodesk Canada have
joined the group in the past six months.

Clegg said that CAAST's focus is on education, and on that front the
company has recently begun working with consulting firm Deloitte &
Touche to create seminars on software piracy issues. Other
activities include advertising, speeches like Clegg's at the
Canadian Computer Show, and public relations efforts to win
publicity for CAAST's cause.

However, the group has also taken legal action in several cases.
Last year, charges were laid against two dealers, one in Toronto
and one in Calgary, for selling unauthorized copies of software.
The dealers were fined and agreed to make public statements
renouncing the practice of copying software.

Charges are before the courts against a Quebec City computer dealer
and a Montreal-area bulletin board system accused of illegal
software distribution, and Clegg said another "bust" will be
announced within a couple of weeks.

He said that laying charges has brought attention to the piracy issue
and has also brought some thanks from computer dealers who were
unhappy about being undercut by competition from dealers selling
unauthorized copies of software.

Clegg said CAAST wants to educate computer users to understand that
"piracy is theft" and to make the practice as socially unacceptable
as drinking and driving or polluting the environment have become as
a result of widespread education campaigns and publicity.

(Grant Buckler/19921124/Press Contact: Allan Reynolds, CAAST,
416-598-8988, fax [phone]; Public Contact: CAAST,
416-598-8988)


(NEWS)(IBM)(TOR)(00013)

IBM, Lotus Emphasize Workgroup Capabilities 11/24/92
TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1992 NOV 24 (NB) -- Anything Microsoft
can do, we can do too. That was the message from IBM Canada and
Lotus Canada at an early-morning press briefing during the Canadian
Computer Show and Conference in Toronto.

Though the companies never once mentioned Microsoft's recently
launched Windows for Workgroups software, their presentation was
clearly aimed at answering the introduction of that workgroup
extension to Windows earlier in November.

It focused on the ability of IBM's OS/2 and LAN Server local area
network software to offer cooperative work features such as
electronic mail, file sharing, and meeting scheduling, features that
Windows for Workgroups also provides.

It was mainly an IBM presentation, with Yvon Harvey, national sales
manager for Lotus Canada, on hand to tell reporters that IBM's OS/2
operating system is "very strategic" for his company. Last year,
Lotus' Notes workgroup software and cc:Mail electronic mail
software replaced IBM's poorly received OfficeVision as the
connectivity kingpin of IBM's personal computer software strategy.

Most of Lotus' main applications will be available for OS/2 2.0 by
early in the new year, Harvey added.

Harvey Lewi, manager of the OS/2 project office at IBM Canada, said
more than 110,000 copies of OS/2 have shipped in Canada so far.

In the demonstration, IBM highlighted LAN Server 3.0's ability to
provide peer-to-peer networking in which every workstation can act
as a server. The demo also included desktop videoconferencing, with
the two participants viewing each other's faces and a shared file
on their PC screens. (In the demonstration, the video images of the
participants appeared to lag significantly behind their actual
movements.)

(Grant Buckler/19921124/Press Contact: Martha Terdik, IBM Canada,
416-474-3900)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(BOS)(00014)

To Sony, COMDEX Fall Means Dawn of "Digital Revolution" 11/24/92
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1992 NOV 24 (NB) -- Officials of Sony
Corporation of America attached a special significance to the COMDEX
Fall computer show this year, interpreting the event and their own
activities within it as meaning that a "digital revolution" is at
hand.

"Sony's participation in COMDEX is a real-life demonstration of the
convergence of consumer electronics, computers and communications,"
explained Ron Sommer, Sony's president and CEO.

According to Sommer, Fall COMDEX '92 marked the first time that four
companies within the corporation, "Computers and Components, Business
and Professional, Consumer, and Sony Recording Media," all exhibited
together at a major industry trade show.

The collaborative effort among the four Sony companies, a multimedia
presentation in the Sony booth, the numerous public appearances of
Sony executives at COMDEX, and the products being demonstrated, all
carry the same message, he added.

"The digital revolution is erasing traditional boundaries and a new
generation of integrated technologies, products and sales channels is
being born," he explained.

The array of new products introduced by Sony included the Desktop
Library CD-ROM system, the MDP-100 Universal Laser Disc Player, the
WDA-930 write-once optical jukebox, and the Multimedia Toolkit,
software that gives PC users control over Sony video devices through
any application that complies with Microsoft's Windows for Multimedia
specification.

These and other audio, video, and computer technologies were played up
in a multimedia theater presentation that ran continuously in the Sony
booth. Involving interaction between live actors and the Sony
equipment, the presentation was meant to show how innovations in
consumer electronics and information can be crossbred to create
new product categories.

Many of the hundreds of conference sessions at Fall COMDEX 1992
focused on the "digital revolution," and Sony representatives were
among the major speakers, according to Sommer.

Tom Rizol, vice president, Sony Computer Peripheral Products,
discussed the integration of computers with video during the session
"Desktop Video Production: Authoring and Presentation Systems."

In a seminar within the Channels track, Bob Nell, director of Sony
Personal Information Products, addressed the topic of channels for the
new generation of digital technologies, including Sony's recently
introduced Multimedia CD-ROM Player. Other top officials took on such
topics as CD-ROM XA and current trends in multimedia. Sony's major
product introduction at this fall's COMDEX, the Desktop Library, is
based on a new CD-ROM drive intended to transform the IBM-compatible
PC into a "family multimedia center."

According to Les Inancy, marketing manager for the CD-ROM Retail
Division, said the new drive is MPC-compliant, and also one of the
first to offer multi-session Photo CD compatability. The new drive
uses a tray loading mechanism designed to eliminate the need for a
caddy and effectively keep out dust.

Average random access time is 550 msec. A large, 64 KB buffer lets the
drives sustain 150 KB of data per second at 40 percent or less of the
CPU bandwidth, so the drives can access motion video. The Desktop
Library comes in three configurations. The Multimedia Starter Kit,
priced at $500, comes with an internal version of the CD-ROM drive,
the GeoWorks CD-ROM Manager, TEMPRA Access Photo CD software, and two
multimedia software titles: The New Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia
and Great Wonders of the World Volume 1.

The Complete Multimedia CD-ROM System (Internal) offers the same
components, in addition to speakers, a sound board, and three more
multimedia titles: Where In the World Is Carmen Santiago? (CD-ROM
Deluxe Version), The 1991 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, and The
Presidents: It All Started with George.

The system is priced at $850.The Complete CD-ROM System (External),
priced at $1,070, is the same as the complete internal system,
except that the drive is an external device. In addition to CD-ROM
discs, the new CD-ROM drives can also play audio compact discs. The
audio interface includes a program that lets the system play an audio
CD while simultaneously working on a program from the hard disk.

(Jaqueline Emigh/19921124)


(NEWS)(TRENDS)(TYO)(00015)

100 Million Sony Walkmans Walk The Globe 11/24/92
TOKYO, JAPAN, 1992 NOV 24 (NB) -- Sony has announced that sales of its
Walkman mobile cassette recorder will top the 100 million mark in
December. That's not bad for a cassette unit that was first announced
in Japan just 13 years ago.

Despite the fact that the Walkman concept is a little long in the
tooth, Sony reports that it is selling as well as ever. New versions
of the Walkman have just been released in Europe, in preparation for
the Christmas season which has just started.

After a very short development period, the first Sony Walkman was
released to the public in July of 1979. As of mid-November this year,
99 million units were sold.

What's interesting about the Walkman is that its fortunes are not tied
to the economies of the world. Although sales were affected slightly
in the early 1980s, the machine continue to sell well to all age
groups, including the middle-aged and elderly, rather than just to
the teenagers at whom the unit was first aimed.

Sony's impressive sales figures have been maintained despite the
ravages of the free market economy. Many third-party companies have
released low cost clones of the unit, but Sony just keeps updating its
own Walkman units, rather the cut its prices. Sony's units remain at the
head of the market, the Japanese giant claims.

Currently, Sony's Walkman series is being manufactured in Japan,
Taiwan, and Malaysia, with several dozen models available in many
countries. Some units are even waterproof, and come with a radio
for listening underwater, presumably, although radio wave
propagation under water is not so great.

Despite the milestone, Sony is not planning any major celebration as
the 100 millionth Walkman rolls off the production line. As one Sony
senior said: "The 100 million unit sales point is just a stepping
stone for 200 million unit sales."

Sony is currently shipping one million Walkmen a month -- that is a
great many, even for Sony. The Sony Trinitron TV, for example, has
sold 60 million units, although it took the company 25 years to
hit this sales record.

(Masayuki "Massey" Miyazawa/19921124/Press Contact: Sony, +81-3-
3448-2200, Fax, [phone])


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00016)

New For Networks: RadioMail Links To New Platforms 11/24/92
MENLO PARK, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1992 NOV 24 (NB) -- RadioMail, a
wireless electronic mail gateway, has been extended in two
directions, according to Geoff Goodfellow, head of RadioMail.

First, the service was extended to pen-based systems, in particular
the new Grid Convertible, which doubles as a notebook computer.
This gives Convertible owners direct access to systems including
cc:Mail, the Internet, X.400, MCI-Mail, ATT Mail and others.

The service is also extended to owners of GridPad, Gridpal SL, and
PalmPad units. PenPal Associates developed the application under its
Power Pen Pal development environment, which is an extension to Grid's
own PenRight software system. The client connects via packet switched
radio to the RadioMail Gateway Service, which delivers the mail to its
ultimate destination.

On the other side, service was extended to Motorola's InfoTac, a
radio modem which attaches to most portable PCs. The company also
announced support for the Motorola RPM405i, the internal radio
packet modem at the heart of the InfoTac, which is sold to other
companies on an OEM basis. The InfoTac is seen as a direct
competitor to the Ericsson-GE Mobidem, which supports only Mobitex
networks like RAM Mobile Data's in the US. The InfoTac, which
already works with ARDIS, will be engineered to work with other
networks in the future, according to Motorola.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19921124/Press Contact: RadioMail, Geoff
Goodfellow, 415/328-5615; Internet: [e-mail]
Public Contact: Internet: radiomail-info(at)radiomail.net;
Motorola, Erin Kingston, 604/241-6132)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00017)

Steve Roberts Developing Aquatic Mobile Computer 11/24/92
RENO, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1992 NOV 24 (NB) -- One of the pioneers in
mobile computing was not present at COMDEX Fall's mobile computing
expo: Steve Roberts. His latest project is to take his mobile
computing technology into a wetter environment.

Roberts started his life's work 10 years ago, peddling out of
Columbus, Ohio on a recumbent bicycle with a Tandy Model 100
computer in his seatbag for writing. Now he peddles a 350-pound
mobile computing test-bed called Behemoth, often trucking it
across the country in a bus he calls the MotherShip, living on
the kindness of sponsors like Sun Microsystems and Qualcomm who
get valuable insights into the use of their technology from his
travels.

Instead of attending COMDEX, Roberts was most recently at InterOp,
the major trade show of the networking world, in San Francisco,
then at the Hacker's Conference in Reno. "What was once an
obscure, almost academic subculture is now very much in the high-
energy, deep-pockets mainstream," he wrote of those at InterOp.

"Behemoth has become a robust development platform for nomadic
connectivity, and represents a distillation of some of the most
capable new technology available," he says. "I must therefore
temper my enthusiasm for the new project with the realization that
Behemoth still has a long way to go, not only as a technomadic test
site but as the very thing that brought it to life in the first place:
an escape pod with a patina of road dust softening its high-tech
sparkle, lumbering along the back roads while linked via satellite."

Roberts' new passion is the Microship, which unlike the Behemoth
will let him take to the water. "The plan now is to use a Fulmar-
19, a sort of kayak-trimaran with an 11-foot beam across the
mass, designed by John Sinclair in Seattle." This comes with a
propeller and recumbent drive train, an 80 square foot sail, and
ample pack space.

It will be a solo machine, with a Mac PowerBook repackaged in the
console, chord keyboard on the rudder handles, thumb mouse,
distributed network of low-level controllers, Qualcomm satellite
terminal, electronic charting, ham and marine radios, environmental
data collection, MIDI, and marine radar and navigation tools as
determined by packaging constraints." He hopes to develop the
Microship in Seattle.

Roberts' journals are published, and available in newsletter
form. Send $15 for a year of Roberts' Nomadness newsletter, to NRL,
PO Box 2185, El Segundo, CA 90245. That's $21 outside the US.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19921124/Press Contact: Steve Roberts;
Internet: [e-mail])


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

MCI Teams With Citibank On Calling Card 11/24/92
NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1992 NOV 24 (NB) -- The dance between
credit card companies and the smaller long distance companies
continues. Most recently Master Card announced a plan under which
all its credit cards will become calling cards. Now Citibank, the
nation's largest issuer of credit cards, has announced a special
arrangement with MCI.

The Citibank MCI Visa card offers 15 minutes of free at-home long
distance calling per month through MCI during every month that
goods are purchased with the card, and no annual fee as long as
the holder of the card remains an MCI residential customer.

The interest rate on the card is pegged at the prime plus 9.4 percent,
which would bring a current rate of 15.4 percent. Interests are
calculated using a system called average daily balance billing --
Citibank notes that some other no-fee cards use a system called two-
cycle billing, which can increase consumer costs.

The new card will compete directly with AT&T's Universal Card,
which since its introduction a few years ago has become one of
the nation's most popular credit cards. Banks have always been
angered at AT&T over that card -- the company handles its own
receivables through daily transactions at the Universal Bank,
which is technically a unit of Synovus in Columbus, Georgia. The
MCI card's regular interest rate of 9.4 percent over prime
compares favorably with AT&T's 9.8 percent over prime.

The Citibank MCI card can be considered a "private label"
Citibank card, however, not an MCI card. Citibank retains control
of all billings and receivables. A number of industrial companies
and phone firms, including Ameritech, have entered the credit
card market in this way since AT&T announced the Universal Card,
and this method of entry is acceptable to the banks, which have
been fighting unsuccessfully in court to keep the industrials
from a more direct entry into their market.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19921124/Press Contact: Citibank, Susan
Weeks, 212/559-0580)


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

Toll-Free Portability Delayed Two Months 11/24/92
WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1992 NOV 24 (NB) -- Responding to the
fears of catalog merchants that a new database designed to make
toll-free numbers portable could break-down during the key
Christmas selling season, the Federal Communications Commission
announced that the onset of "portability" is being delayed two
months, from March 4 to May 1.

Under portability, holders of toll-free numbers can switch
carriers and keep their numbers. Currently, carriers have control
of entire exchanges, so customers which change carriers must get
new numbers -- that can be extremely costly. But to make
portability happen, phone switches nationwide must be
reprogrammed, because instead of choosing a call path based on
three digits -- the exchange number -- it must correctly analyze
the entire number.

The difficulty of creating, maintaining, and using such a complex
database led to fears by merchants that any problems developing in
the first stage of moving to the new system, due to happen about now,
would close the merchants' doors just as they were gearing-up for
Christmas sales -- a season which makes or breaks. The delay means
essentially that the mandatory moves toward the new database won't
take place until early next year, during the critical magazine and
newsletter selling season.

MCI, which opposed the delay, issued a press release accepting
the order. "We believe that the originally scheduled date for 800
portability was achievable, but we understand the desire for a
57-day delay to provide an additional margin of safety," wrote
MCI president Daniel Akerson. Essentially, MCI and other
supporters of quick portability recognized the decision could
have been worse.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19921124/Press Contact: MCI, 800-289-0073; FCC
Press, 202-643-5050)


(NEWS)(IBM)(DEN)(00020)

Microsoft Shipping Windows Font Packs 11/24/92
REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1992 NOV 23 (NB) -- Microsoft has started
shipping a new font pack for Windows and another is scheduled to
ship next week, a Microsoft spokesperson told Newsbytes.

Microsoft spokesperson Phil Missimore told Newsbytes that Font Pack
2, which will ship next week, contains 44 new decorative, headline,
text, and symbol fonts and a new organizer utility called Font
Assistant. Font Assistant allows users to view all of their
TrueType fonts as well as information about each font. It also
allows fonts to be sorted alphabetically, by serif style, or by
width.

Serifs are the small extender lines at the end of the strokes, which
make them more decorative. Letters that don't have the strokes are
called "sans serif," meaning without the extra strokes.

Font assistant includes several preset font groups such as headline,
personal letters, and symbols, and can print samples of the fonts or
limit the number of fonts that display on the Widows menu. Font Pack
2 includes a customizable screen saver and a faster font installation
routine.

The font set available today is the Microsoft Hewlett-Packard Font
set, which includes 35 fonts for Laserjet, Deskjet and Paintjet
users. It gives the user access to the same fonts as those resident
in the new HP Laserjet 4 printers.

Both packages have a suggested retail price of $69.95. Microsoft
said it has lowered the price of the original Font Pack for Windows
from $99 to $69.95.

(Jim Mallory/19921124/Press contact: Phil Missimore, Waggener
Edstrom for Microsoft, 503-245-0905; Reader contact: Microsoft
800-426-9400)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEN)(00021)

Microsoft Captures Top COMDEX Honors 11/24/92
REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1992 NOV 24 (NB) -- Not unusually,
Microsoft Corporation walked off with top product honors at the
computer industry's big trade show COMDEX held in Las Vegas last
week.

Newly introduced Microsoft Access DBMS (database management system),
Microsoft's spreadsheet program Excel, word processor Microsoft
Word, Microsoft Bookshelf project planning package Project, and
Microsoft Publisher, an entry-level desktop publishing system, all
captured the COMDEX equivalent of blue ribbons.

Access, a program that runs under the Windows operating system, was
named Best Software of COMDEX by BYTE magazine and was also selected
as Most Valuable Product in the database category by PC Computing.
Excel and Word garnered Most Valuable Product from PC Computing in
the spreadsheet and word processing category respectively.
Microsoft Bookshelf with integrated CD-ROM reference library,
Multimedia Edition, won in the best multimedia software category.

A tool incorporated into several Microsoft programs, including
Access, Excel, Project, and Publisher, called Wizards won the PC
Computing Most Valuable Product Award for software innovation. Excel
and Word for Windows also won Best Buy honors from Computer Shopper
Magazine.

Microsoft executives were pleased with the awards. Products group
executive vice president, Mike Maples, said: "We have a long tradition
of product excellence and we're very pleased that Microsoft Access is
now earning the reputation for quality enjoyed by our other flagship
products, including Microsoft Excel and Word."

According to Peter Higgins, vice president of desktop applications,
"We're especially proud of the software innovation award for Wizards,
because Wizards are tools we're building into our entire line of
applications to make it easier for users to get their work done."

Microsoft stock earnings estimates were lowered by at least one
analyst, Rick Sherlund of Goldsman, Sachs. Sherlund said he has
concerns over software pricing and the business climate in Europe
according to traders and market sources.

The company's stock was down 5-5/8 at 89-3/4 in heavy trading of
more than four million shares less than two hours after the market
opened but had recovered somewhat from its low of 87-1/2. Sherlund
reportedly cut his per share earnings estimates for the fiscal year
ending June 30, 1992 to $2.90 from $3.10 and for fiscal 1994 from
$4.00 to $3.70.

Microsoft's European revenues reportedly topped $1 billion for the
first time in fiscal 1992, showing growth of almost 45 percent.
Traders said Sherlund was particularly concerned about pricing
pressure from Lotus in Europe.

(Jim Mallory/19921124/Press contact: Monica Harrington, Microsoft,
206-882-8080; Reader contact: Microsoft Corporation, 800-426-9400)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00022)

Hitachi, Ramtron Join For Non-volatile DRAMs 11/24/92
COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO, U.S.A., 1992 NOV 24 (NB) -- Colorado-based
Ramtron Corporation has announced it has joined forces in a six-month
program with Hitachi to jointly integrate Ramtron's ferroelectric
technology with Hitachi's DRAM manufacturing process.

Under terms of the agreement Hitachi will fabricate base wafers and
Ramtron will perform its proprietary ferroelectric processing on
64-kilobit (kb) non-volatile ferroelectric random access memory (RAM)
test devices. The completed wafers will be evaluated by both
companies. If satisfactory reliability levels are achieved, both
parties will proceed with joint development of high-density FRAM
products of 256 KB density and greater.

Non-volatile RAM is already available for use in such low-memory
requirement systems as cordless phones and other applications. The
process also has potential for use in computers as its memory
capacity increases.

"Hitachi's world-class semiconductor capabilities combined with
Ramtron's leading ferroelectric technology development can position
FRAM memory as a major player in the high-density semiconductor
market," said Ramtron Chairman George Stathakis.

High density FRAM products are expected to compete in a computer
memory market which is anticipated by industry research company
Dataquest to exceed $15 billion by 1995. Non-volatile memory retains
information held in the computer's memory when the power is shut
off, unlike the present volatile memory which is wiped blank when a
personal computer is shut down. It's expected to eventually become
available for main memory in portable computers.

(Jim Mallory/19921124/Press contact: Diana Kate, Origin Systems for
Ramtron, 719-630-3384; Reader contact: Ramtron Corporation,
719-481-7000 or 800-545-3726, fax [phone])


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00023)

SEC Requests Info On Dell Trading Patterns 11/24/92
AUSTIN, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1992 NOV 24 (NB) -- Dell Computer Corporation
announced that it has received an informal request from
the United States Securities and Exchange Commission for information
and documents concerning recent trading patterns in the company's
common stock.

Dell said that the request is focused on securities trading
surrounding its third quarter earnings announced November 19, 1992.
Dell added that the request was also prompted by remarks made
by a Kidder Peabody analyst the next day.

Dell told Newsbytes it contacted the SEC last Friday to invite its
investigation of what the company characterized to Newsbytes as
"false allegations that are seriously damaging to the company, its
officers, directors, employees and shareholders."

Dell spokesperson Michele Moore told Newsbytes that the company is
currently evaluating possible legal action against Kidder Peabody.

Dell's general counsel said that the company is pleased that the SEC
is moving so rapidly to investigate unusual trading in Dell
securities, and will cooperate fully and voluntarily with the
investigation.

A statement released by Dell says there is no risk of any
of the company's previous financial results being restated. The
company says all of its financial statements as filed with the SEC
were reviewed and found to fairly represent the company's financial
position and to comply with generally accepted accounting principles.

The statement says that in regard to any possibility of future
earnings being reduced because of unrecognized foreign exchange
losses, if the company were to liquidate all open hedge contracts
today, there would be a small net gain on currency transactions. The
company says that it reported currency losses of $235 million in its
fiscal 1992 10-K statement, and $38 million in the second quarter this
year.

Dell reiterated that its hedging practices were appropriate and
effective in reducing currency risk. The company admits that for a
brief period it engaged in currency trades to generate a
current-period profit, but says all gains and losses realized on this
activity were reflected in the current-period results.

Dell also says there are no payables due to foreign exchange losses
that will require significant uses of cash. "The company does not
engage in historical rollovers and currently owes nothing in
connection with any past hedging losses." An anticipated offering of
four million shares of common stock is for the purpose of funding
working capital associated with future growth, according to the Monday
statement.

Moore told Newsbytes that she didn't know how long the SEC
investigation would take, but said the company has asked the agency
to expedite the process.

(Jim Mallory/19921124/Press contact: Michele Moore, Dell Computer,
512-794-4100)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(LAX)(00024)

New Product: Notebook PC Travel Kit 11/24/92
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1992 NOV 24 (NB) -- Computing
on the road? A subsidiary of Rubbermaid, Microcomputer Accessories,
has just the thing, the Notebook PC Travel Kit with the ten most
wanted items for computing while traveling.

Of course, if you run around you can gather the items yourself,
but the company says it offers the items in a soft-sided nylon
storage pouch for $29.95.

Included is a "Y" modular duplex jack to adapt the telephone
jack to accept both telephone and modem lines at the same time
and which doubles as an in-line coupler.

A 12-foot phone cord is also included for connection to a
modular phone jack, and a gender-changer plug helps reach far
away telephone outlets. The twelve-foot cord is an extension
and the gender-changer plug can splice two phone lines
together for an even longer reach as well as protect both
ends of the phone cord during transport.

Light for those difficult hook-ups is offered with a mini
flashlight that includes a magnifier. A three foot long flat
ribbon 36 to 24-pin cable is also included to attach the
computer to a local printer.

A screwdriver, one end a flat head and the other end a Philips
head, is included as is a set of reusable cable ties for
bundling cables.

Five pieces of 2 by 6-inch pre-cut clear tape enable
labels, identification, or business cards to be attached to
hardware and 1 by 8-inch and 2 by 4-inch removable labels are also
included for sticking removable notes to hardware as reminders.

Twenty DOS commands and the toll- free access numbers for
online and electronic mail services are also included on a
reference card in the kit.

All the items are held by see-through netting in the pouch for
easy viewing of items at airport security checkpoints, for
instance. Office supply and computer products dealers will offer the
kit, but Microcomputer Accessories says it can help save users
unnecessary searching with a call to its toll-free number to
locate the nearest dealer.

(Linda Rohrbough/19921124/Press Contact: Pam Schulz,
Microcomputer Accessories, tel [phone] ext 201, fax 310-
379-6104)


(NEWS)(IBM)(LAX)(00025)

MS Device Driver Dev Conference: Debugger Concerns 10/29/92
ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1992 OCT 29 (NB) -- Microsoft
representatives have informed Newsbytes that the Microsoft Developer
network announced at the Windows NT Device Driver Developer's
Conference held in Anaheim, California in October and reported
by Newsbytes is a pilot program and experimental.

Microsoft Developer Network pilot is available for a $30 a year
subscription fee. Representatives said the company is hoping
developers will help shape the Network into something useful
for them by offering input on Microsoft's offerings and
support.

The pilot Developer Network offers a CD with 43,000 pages of
programming information including sample code, documentation,
Developer Knowledge Base articles, and technical articles; access to
the Microsoft Developer Forum on Compuserve; and a subscription to
"Microsoft Developer Network News" published quarterly.

Windows NT is still on track for release in the first quarter
of 1993. The developer response to the coming release is high
as Microsoft says as of July 6 it had shipped 25,000 copies of
the Win32 software development kit (SDK) for NT.

(Linda Rohrbough/19921029/Press Contact: Public contact,
Microsoft Developer Services Team, 800-227-4679)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SFO)(00026)

HP Hands Out $60 Million In Profit-Sharing To Employees 11/24/92
PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1992 NOV 24 (NB) -- Two months
after announcing plans to cut 2,700 jobs, and a week after
reporting that earnings had declined 46 percent for the fourth
quarter, Hewlett-Packard has announced that nearly 17,000
employees of the company's San Francisco Bay Area businesses
have received cash profit-sharing checks totaling more than
$13 million.

Companywide, HP claims it distributed over $60 million to more than
88,600 eligible employees throughout the world.

According to HP, employees are eligible for profit-sharing after
six consecutive months of service with the company. Two checks
are issued annually -- one in November and the other in May.
When combined, the checks represent from two to four weeks of
extra pay.

HP says that it has initiated its current profit-sharing plan in 1962,
but the 53 year-old company claims it has been distributing profits to
employees in one form or another since its beginning.

Lewis E. Platt, HP president and chief executive officer, said:
"We're pleased that orders and revenue achieved good growth
during 1992, a difficult year in our industry. However, we're
disappointed by the sharp decline in net earnings in the second
half of the year."

A week ago Newsbytes reported that the company's earnings
had declined 46 percent for the fourth quarter ending October 31.
While net revenue increased 13 percent and orders went up 20
percent for the quarter, the company took "special pre-tax charges
of $137 million for restructuring."

The company said that the special charges for the quarter were for
"voluntary employment-reduction programs, relocations, and related
facilities consolidations."

In October, Newsbytes reported that HP had begun offering a
voluntary severance-incentive (VSI) program to employees in
selected job categories. Two thousand of 2,700 intended job
cuts are reported to be in the United States.

At the time Mary Lou Simmermacher, spokesperson for HP, told
Newsbytes that: "The sign-up period will be from November 30
through January 6, and most people will leave by early 1993.
Some people may stay around until April if they have projects
to finish."

In an effort to reduce other costs, the company has also said
that many of its US operations will close for three working days
during the December holidays. Additionally, some international
operations also will close for the holidays. Also, employees in
the United States will be required to take paid vacation
December 29, 30 and 31 along with paid holidays December 25,
28 and January 1.

(Ian Stokell/19921124/Press Contact: Kevin O'Connor,
415-857-6906, Hewlett-Packard Co.)


(NEWS)(TRENDS)(TOR)(00027)

 ****Bright Future For Object Orientation Predicted 11/24/92
TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1992 NOV 24 (NB) -- Object-oriented
systems will become more and more the norm over the rest of this
decade as software complexity, keeping pace with growth in hardware
power, demands more efficient development.

So said Hamid Mirza, vice-president and chief database architect at
Borland International of Scotts Valley, California, at a Canadian
Computer Show and Conference presentation here.

Object-oriented principles are beginning to be applied to
programming languages, database, and user interfaces, Mirza noted.
He predicted that by 1995 reusable software "components" that can
be plugged together to create complete systems will be sold, and by
the year 2000 distributed component architectures will operate
across distributed hardware platforms.

Mirza said object-oriented programming -- of which his company has
been one of the most active champions -- will make software
development more efficient and will ease software maintenance,
which accounts for some 60 percent of the effort associated with
any software system over its lifetime.

Pointing to the three "cornerstone concepts" that define object
orientation, Mirza said encapsulation of data and program code in
"objects," along with the principle of inheritance that makes it
easy to modify objects, will make possible the re-use of code,
something software developers have aimed for since the 1970s.

Polymorphism, the third element of object orientation, means
different objects will react to the same external request in their
own ways, allowing generic code to be written without worrying
about the properties of different objects.

On the database front, Mirza said that while the relational model
has served well for some 20 years, increasingly complex
applications make it necessary to move more procedural information
into the database itself.

As for Borland's own database products, Mirza said Paradox for
Windows, now being demonstrated, is "very object oriented" in its
user interface, and dBASE for Windows, when it arrives, will use
many of the same concepts.

"Further down the road," he said, Borland will probably introduce
more object-oriented semantics into the products' actual data
structures.

(Grant Buckler/19921124/Press Contact: Bev Buckton, Borland Canada,
416-229-6000)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00028)

New Software Combats Wireless Telecom Fraud 11/24/92
LONGMONT, COLORADO, U.S.A., 1992 NOV 24 (NB) -- Computer Sciences
Corporation has unveiled Fraudbuster, a software package that the
company claims combats fraud in the wireless telecommunications
industry.

The package was developed by Coral Systems of Longmont in Colorado,
Computer Sciences has exclusive marketing rights to the
package and is supporting its ongoing development.

In use, Fraudbuster creates a behavioral profile of each subscriber,
based on his or her historical usage patterns. Actual usage of the
radio network, whatever its topology, is analyzed, and network
operators are alerted in the event that usage varies from the norm.

(Steve Gold/19921124/Press & Public Contact: Computer Sciences
Corporation - Tel: [phone])


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(LON)(00029)

Computer Security Day: December 1, 1992 11/24/92
NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1992 NOV 24 (NB) -- The Association for
Computing Machinery (ACM) has announced that it will observe the fifth
annual computer security day on December 1 this year. The aim of the
day is draw attention to computer users at all levels that as computer
networks grow, they become more vulnerable to unauthorized access,
viruses and disaster.

According to Lee Ohringer, the chairman of computer security day 1992,
MIS managers, computer network users and individual owners all need to
take precautions to ensure their data is safe.

"Computer security is a serious matter, but it is not top-of-mind with
the majority of computer users. By observing computer security day,
companies and individuals are made aware -- on this day -- that there
are simple steps one can take to help secure data," he said.

Sponsors of this year's computer security day are the ACM, The Boeing
Company, CMP Publications (Information Week), Deloitte & Touche, DEC,
Ernst & Young, Hewlett-Packard, Unisys and Unix System Laboratories.

To help people observe the day, the ACM is offering a free brochure,
"300 Ways To Develop Your Computer Security and Contingency Planning,"
that claims to spell out ways to protect data and avoid data disaster,
as well as a free poster to hang in computer areas.

Some tips from the ACM on observance of the day include:

[] Assess your exposure to hackers and viruses

[] Develop procedures to be followed in the event of a natural
 disaster - and test them

[] Change passwords often

[] Examine your exposure to a suit for unlawful use of software

[] Update and publish existing security policy

[] Back up your data; review procedures

[] Check and install power surge protection

[] Hold a mini training session on security for all computer users

The ACM is the oldest and largest not-for-profit educational and
scientific computer organization in the US computer industry.

(Steve Gold/19921124/Press & Public Contact: Jim Adams or Gordon Smith
of ACM - Tel: [phone])


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00030)

New Product: Address Envelope Printer 11/24/92
GREENWICH, CONNECTICUT, U.S.A., 1992 NOV 24 (NB) -- Costar's
Address Express online addressing system combines an ink-jet
printer that is specially designed to handle envelopes, postcards,
and cut-sheet labels with easy-to-use addressing software running
under DOS, Windows, and Macintosh operating systems.

Optional network interfaces provide support for virtually all
popular networks, including Novell NetWare 286/386, LANtastic,
LAN Manager, Vines and AppleTalk. The Address Express printer
handles up to 100 envelopes, postcards and cut-sheet labels that
are as small as 3 by 5 inches and as large as 6.375 by 10.25
inches, thereby accommodating the most popular envelope sizes.

It prints two to four envelopes per minute, uses standard Hewlett-
Packard ink-jet cartridges and prints with 192dpi resolution.
Measuring 8 inches by 16 by 16 inches and weighing 12
pounds, the Address Express fits neatly into any office
environment.

The Address Express system can be set to automatically
print the matching PostNet bar code for any zip code in the
United States, making companies eligible to save 20% or
more on postage.

Address Express with DOS, Windows and Macintosh
software carries a suggested retail price of $795, and network
packs are available. For more information, call 203/661-9700.

(Computer Currents/19921124)