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/1993/NB102193

Text File | 1993-10-21 | 87KB | 1,870 lines

(NEWS)(IBM)(SYD)(00001)

Speech-Enabled Modem Is "Electronic Secretary" 10/21/93
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1993 OCT 21 (NB) -- NetComm, the Australian modem
manufacturer, has unveiled its upcoming range of modems which it
plans to ship with Cooee software for data, fax and voice comms.
NetComm calls the combination "the NetComm Electronic Secretary".

While a number of modem manufacturers are releasing voice-enabled
modems using the Rockwell and other chipsets, NetComm claims that
its package was unique because the Australian-written Cooee
communications software gives the modem almost unlimited flexibility
as a message handling system.

The hardware uses a simple programming/script system to automate
tasks such as voice mail, data forwarding and fax-on-request. Cooee
is a Windows application that comes with "out of the box" scripts
and a digitised voice system so that users can have the system
running within minutes, the company claims.

While sound can be played through an enhanced speaker in the modem,
or by any speaker connected to the PC, there is a jack on the modem
for a telephone handset. This allows the user to record messages for
use in scripts. The software compresses voice files to 25 percent of
their normal size, meaning that an average hard disk can store
hundreds of phone messages.

The Cooee modules include:

[] Answering machine. It can receive and data messages, play a
   welcome message to voice callers, then record their messages. All
   types of messages are managed by the InBox.

[] Remote Message Retrieval. Users have a PIN (number) enabling them
   to retrieve their messages form a remote phone or computer.
   Faxes can be forwarded to a computer or another fax number.

[] Automatic Message Forwarding. Cooee will dial a pager service,
   cellular phone or another phone number on instructions from the
   script. For instance, an urgent message may try a sequence of
   numbers trying to deliver the message. As each number answers, a
   digitized voice announces that there is a message for a
   particular person. If the correct response code is not given, the
   machine tries the next programmed number.

[] Receptionist. Cooee answers incoming calls and forwards them to
   another person or phone extension.

Because the system is driven by scripts or "modules," NetComm claims
it can perform an almost unlimited range of communications
functions. NetComm will sponsor a module writing competition in 1994
to encourage the creation of "off-the-shelf" modules for Cooee
users.

Prices for the systems range from around US$400 to US$1,000 depending
on the modem specifications.

Newsbytes notes that, according to the Macquarie Australian
Dictionary Cooee is defined as - "a prolonged clear call, the second
syllable of which rises rapidly in pitch, used most frequently in
the (Australian) bush as a signal to attract attention."

(Paul Zucker/19931021/Contact: NetComm on phone [phone] or
fax [phone])


(NEWS)(TRENDS)(DEL)(00002)

Indian Dept Of Telecoms Eases Value-Added Services Licensing 10/21/93
NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1993 OCT 21 (NB) _-- The Department of
Telecommunications (DoT), a division of the Government of India, has
decided to cut down its regulatory role with regard to value added
services (VAS).

As part of the changes, the DoT has also decided to grant licences
for all pending and future proposals for setting up non-wireless
value added services in the private sector, provided the proposals
abide by specified technical, commercial and financial parameters,
including tariff and the licence fee payable to DoT.

To ensure what it calls "transparency in the evaluation process,"
the DoT has also prepared a schedule of the parameters which
intending service providers will have to comply with to get a
licence. According to the DoT, it will have to evaluate every bid
strictly according to these parameters, which will soon be made
public for the information of all intending service providers.

In an ironic parallel decision, the DoT -- which has so far rejected
the privatization of value-added services -- has also decided to
launch a major promotional campaign to invite private companies to
join in the value added services sector.

According to the DoT, the value added services sector is a large
market-place and, because of this, it claims that there is a
considerable need for a large and disparate number of players.

Services which are covered by the VAS banner include electronic
mail, videotex, videoconferencing, voice mail, morning alarm
service, audiotex, private data domestic services, bulletin board
services and direct access code billing. The service providers are,
however, free to submit proposals for any other value added service
provided they do not use radio frequency.

The DoT has also, for the first time, laid down the terms for
the provision of high-speed (64 kilobytes per second) data service
using very small aperture terminals (VSATs) and a central hub. DoT
claims that the service will be permitted using satellite
transponders on the INSAT-2B (indigenously built communications
satellite) and the extended C-band radio frequency portion of the
hub will be operated and maintained by DoT.

The licence fee payable to the DoT will be Rs 50,000 (around $1,600)
per subscriber per annum, subject to an overall minimum fee of Rs
1.5 crore (around $500,000) per annum. The minimum licence fee
payable is independent of the number of cities for which licence is
obtained.

The DoT claims that the E-mail licence can be taken for any number
of cities. However, Newsbytes notes that the service must start
within a year of the effective date of issue in all the cities for
which the licence is granted.

The DoT has also fixed a ceiling on the tariff that can be charged
from subscribers. The licensee shall be free to fix his own tariff
within (under) the ceiling cap which is a registration fee of Rs
1,000 (around $30) and an annual rental of Rs 4,200 (around $140)
for a mail box of 500 kilobytes.

In case of voice mail, the licence fee will vary, depending on which
city the service is to be offered in. Fees will be Rs 40 lakh
(around $130,000) for Bombay, Rs 30 lakh (around $100,000) for Delhi
and so on. The licensee will be allowed to charge the same tariff as
fixed by the Mahanagar Telephone Nigam (the Government of India-
owned company which provides telephone services in the metros) which
also provides the service in Bombay and Delhi.

The current tariff for service involves a monthly rental of Rs 100
(around $3) and a nominal amount per message of 10 seconds duration
stored for two hours. Alternatively the licensee is free to charge a
flat monthly rental of Rs 125 (around $4) irrespective of the number
of messages, their duration and period of storage.

The licence for audiotex will be provided on a trial basis for a
period of two years. Initially, the service will be provided city-
wise locally and may be extended to the zones later.

The annual licensee fee payable will be Rs 25 lakhs (around $80,000)
per metro and Rs 10 lakhs (around $30,000) for other cities. DoT
will charge at a pulse rate of 8 seconds, which means a charge of
around Rs 10 per minute (around 30 cents) to subscribers.

For bulletin board services, DoT will charge a fee of Rs 1,200
(around $40) per subscriber per annum subject to a minimum of Rs 15
lakh (around $50,000) per annum. The tariff cap is a registration
charge of Rs 1,000 (around $30), annual subscription of Rs 1,500
(around $50) and connect-time charge of Rs 4 (around 10 cents)
during peak hours and Rs 2 (around 5 cents) during non-peak hours.

The fee and tariff cap for other value added services -- such as
videoconferencing, videotex, morning alarm service -- are still
being worked out, Newsbytes understands. The intending service
providers are, meanwhile, free to submit their proposals to the DoT
and to offer suggestions on licence fee and tariff to the
organisation.

All the licensees have to also submit a bank guarantee of Rs 5 lakh
(around $16,000) each for electronic mail, videoconferencing and
voice mail services to the department of telecommunications. The
bank guarantee is Rs 50 lakhs (around $160,000) for VSAT services.

(C T Mahabharat/19931021)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(HKG)(00003)

SynOptics Products Enable New Architectural Approach For LANs 10/21/93
CAUSEWAY BAY, HONG KONG, 1993 OCT 21 (NB) -- SynOptics
Communications has rolled out a comprehensive solution that it
claims will allow customers to build and manage their networks as a
single, highly structured system.

Structured networking is a powerful, multi-tiered architecture in
which intelligent hubs in wiring closets are linked to centralised
hubs at key switching control points called network centers.

The SynOptics' solution, Newsbytes notes, is based on a new class of
intelligent hub, the Lattis System 5000, and Optivity 4.0, a major
new release of SynOptics' Optivity network management system.

"Structured networking will do for enterprise networks in the 1990s
what structured wiring did for LANs in the 1980s," explained Peter
Woo, SynOptics' Hong Kong-based General Manager for North Asia.

"With these new developments, SynOptics is giving users the ability
to significantly increase the performance and reduce the operating
costs of their existing networks, while providing a solid foundation
for integrating emerging switching technologies," he said.

Structured networking mirrors the major shift that SynOptics
pioneered in 1986 when the first intelligent hubs gave customers a
blueprint to redesign their bus-based Ethernet local area networks
using a structured wiring architecture. This structured approach has
gained acceptance among customers because it brings order to their
ad hoc networks.

Woo claimed that SynOptics' new Lattis System 5000 is the first
intelligent hub to offer the flexibility, performance, embedded
management capabilities and resilience required to support the
central connection and control points that are the basis of
structured networks. The version 4.0 release of Optivity is the
first network management system specifically designed to take
advantage of the capabilities of structured networking.

"When added to the current Lattis System 3000 and Lattis System 2000
hubs in a structured networking architecture, the System 5000 can be
used to leverage the entire system creating a network with greater
configuration flexibility, higher performance, enhanced management
and increased reliability," he said, adding that the entire system
can be managed and maintained at a lower cost than today's networks.

According to Woo, configuration flexibility is a key feature of the
System 5000. When deployed in a structured network, the System 5000
enables a network manager to create and re-configure logical
networks of users, and assign physical network resources, such as
servers and routers, to specific logical networks.

The System 5000 is also a key platform for integrating SynOptics'
Fast Matrix ATM and Fast Frame Ethernet switching technologies, and
its CelliFrame ATM/Ethernet translation capability, into the
network.

SynOptics' new Optivity 4.0 network management system leverages the
capabilities of the structured network architecture to give users
the power to visualise their network in ways not possible before and
deploy their resources more cost-effectively. It features a new,
object-oriented user interface, enabling a network manager to view
his networks, servers and other services as objects, providing the
new level of simplicity required for managing highly-complex
structured networks.

"With System 5000 hubs installed in the network center, System 3000
and System 2000 hubs in wiring closets, and Optivity 4.0, network
managers now have the tools they need to manage their entire network
as one cohesive system not simply as a collection of boxes," Woo
said.

(Keith Cameron/19931021/Press Contact: Peter Woo (SynOptics): +852-
878-1021)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00004)

Venture Capitalist Winblad Targets Hot Markets 10/21/93
MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1993 OCT 21 (NB) -- Ann Winblad, a
venture capitalist and partner in one of the most influential
funding firms in the computer industry, Hummer, Winblad Venture
Partners of Emeryville, CA, claims that venture capital funding is
flowing into some surprising new industry segments.

Winblad, the featured speaker at the Minnesota Software
Association's annual awards banquet Wednesday evening, said her
firm's investment targets are a far cry from the soldered boards and
microcomputers of the 80s, and now zero in on three areas:
client/server computing, the "janitorial" area, and those firms
cashing in on the "price/performance curve."

The client/server market, she said, is erroneously termed
"downsizing" by many in the industry, and its importance is not to
be underestimated. She said that there remains a proliferation of
software writing for individual PCs, "when it shouldn't be there"
but on servers instead.

The "janitorial area" is made up of firms that write software to
connect to other software and devices. "For instance, the home as a
node on a network," she said, is one area software companies are
finding opportunities. She added that there are opportunities also
in systems management and "the communications segment," in which she
is looking actively for investment possibilities.

The third area her firm is funding is those companies engaged in the
"price/performance curve" wherein "market real estate has to be
sizable." This includes the scientific and engineering software
markets, as well as the consumer software segment.

As an example of the latter, she cited Broderbund, founded in 1981,
which is now seeing its stock trade at 45 times its earnings. "Most
people thought Broderbund was dead, but it's had amazing growth."

She says that the driving force behind Broderbund's and other
consumer software companies' success is kids. "Kids have engaged in
a long-term love affair with computers so they are driving demand."
50 million PCs will be sold this year alone, said Winblad.

Another example of a successful consumer software company is
Berkeley Systems, she adds. After Dark did $20 million in sales
while the average selling price of the screensaver software is $19,
she explained. "That's a lot of flying toasters."

She quoted Craig McCaw of McCall Cellular, which is being acquired
by AT&T, as saying that the 90s are the new "Ice Age" with three
themes: information, communication, and entertainment.

Although there are opportunities, it has taken shrewd insight to
make the most of them. Winblad says that of 2,100 companies she and
her partner John Hummer have considered, only 16 have been funded.
In those firms there is $95 million of her company's money.

The software industry, the fastest growing industry segment in the
US, she said, continues to challenge investors. She once asked her
friend Bill Gates where the software industry is going. His reply,
she said, was "'I can tell you exactly  what's happening. Sooner or
later software is going to take over the world and people will
become carbon-based pets.'"

(Wendy Woods/19931021/Press Contact: Pat Schultz, Minnesota Software
Association, 612- 338-4631; Hummer Winblad, 510-652-8061)


(NEWS)(UNIX)(SFO)(00005)

Seybold: Sun's Low-Price Multimedia; Adobe & Kodak Lend Support 10/21/93
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1993 OCT 21 (NB) -- At the
Seybold Computer Show, Sun Microsystems Computer Corporation (SMCC),
the workstation and server division of Sun Microsystems, has
announced three new Sun workstations. These machines -- the
SPARCstation 10SX, the SPARCstation 10M, and the SPARCclassic M --
claim to give users the same speed and functionality as workstations
costing more than $60,000 for between $5,000 and $17,000.

According to SMCC, the SPARCstation 10SX provides high performance
image processing, full 24-bit color, 3-D graphics, and hardware-
accelerated video playback for introductory pricing beginning at
$15,495. The price includes a 535 MB hard disk, 32 MB of RAM, and a
16-inch color monitor. The SPARCstation 10M, for $17,095, adds real-
time video capture/compression and a video camera to the 10SX
configuration.

"The SPARCstation 10SX is a big step forward for what's available in
imaging for users," said Jay Puri, SMCC's vice president of product
marketing. SMCC's strategy, he said, will be to go after a high
volume of business with its low pricing. However, he noted that
platforms need applications if they're to flourish.

At the same time, SMCC announced that Eastman Kodak Company will
incorporate the SPARCstation 10SX system in several imaging products
that produce Kodak Photo CD discs. In addition, the next release of
the Solaris operating environment from SunSoft (Sun Microsystems'
system software company) will incorporate Photo CD display and
editing capabilities.

SMCC announced a second partnering venture with Adobe Systems: The
SPARCstation 10SX system will come with a coupon redeemable for a
complimentary copy of Adobe Photoshop.

The greatest price/performance breakthrough appears to be the
SPARCclassic M. At $4,995 (for quantities of 12 or more), the
workstation will provide video capture/compression, a video camera,
a 207 MB hard disk, 16 MB of RAM, a 15-inch color monitor, and
networking capabilities.

SMCC compares the SPARCclassic M to similarly configured systems
available from Apple, other UNIX vendors, and vendors of '386-class
machines for between $7,300 and $10,000. According to SMCC, the
SPARCclassic M gives corporations a fully integrated desktop video
conferencing system for less than $5,000.

SMCC also announced a multimedia bundle consisting of the SunVideo
capture/compression card, video camera, and multimedia CD-ROM disc.
The multimedia bundle, priced at $1,895, lets users equip any
existing SPARCstation (of which there are 886,000, by SMCC's count)
as a multimedia machine.

The SPARCstation 10SX is shipping now. The SPARCstation 10M and the
SPARCclassic M will be available beginning December 15, 1993.

(Audrey Kalman/19931021/Press & Public Contact: SMCC, Mountain View,
CA. Tel: [phone])


(NEWS)(APPLE)(SFO)(00006)

 ****Seybold: Mike Spindler Commits Apple To Desktop Publishing 10/21/93
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1993 OCT 21 (NB) -- Michael
Spindler, president and CEO of Apple Computer, kicked off the
Seybold Conference and Exposition '93 this week with some
interesting and wry observations on the computer industry.

"I won't bother you with flashy demos and overlapping windows," he
said. Instead, he commented on changes in the business of
publishing, outlined Apple's rededication to the publishing market,
and described Apple's current and future plans to support computer
publishers.

According to Spindler, publishing continues to move away from
closed, proprietary systems in which the processes and roles are
clearly defined. Spindler outlined several trends that illustrate
this move.

"No longer do images come from photographers only... Today, film-
originated images are coming from all sources," he said, adding that
the methods of distribution and the types of media available to
publishers (for example, sound and full-motion video) have expanded.
Publishers are struggling to understand how they'll ship their
products, the tools they'll use to create the products, who will do
the work, and how they'll make money

"There's a trend toward color -- color in everything," Spindler
noted. In the past, skilled craftspeople tightly controlled every
aspect of how a color image appeared on the printed page using
carefully calibrated equipment. Today, the person who produces an
image on a computer screen may have no understanding of the eventual
printed product. This, combined with the diversity of methods
available for capturing color images, has created a great need for
color correction technology.

The automation of publishing has brought another need. "Keeping
track of what's where and what needs to be approved by whom is often
a profession in itself," Spindler said. This, he added, calls for
software, in a category known as workflow software, that allows
people to collaborate more easily on projects (including publishing
projects).

"The computer is not simply a tool, but becomes the essence of the
work,." he said, adding that he sees workflow management as a big
opportunity for vendors of publishing systems and products.

Spindler described Apple's activities in response to the evolving
needs of the publishing community. Its AppleScript product automates
routine workflow tasks and "opens the door for on-demand
publishing," according to Spindler. Apple plans to introduce new
technology to address workflow problems.

Noting that it's no longer "a war of GUIs (graphical user
interfaces)," he speculated that applications as we know them today
may disappear, and "ease of use" will become "ease of doing."

Apple is also leading the push for color management standards with
the announcement that Kodak and other key players have agreed to
support ColorSync 2.0, Apple's standard for color management.

Finally, Spindler said that Apple will introduce during the first
six months of 1994 a new line of PowerPC machines specifically
geared toward publishing. (An alliance among Apple, IBM, and
Motorola is developing the PowerPC family of microprocessors built
on reduced instruction set computing (RISC) technology).

These new machines, he said, will deliver three to five times the
performance of existing Macintosh Quadra machines. However, they
will provide a migration path for customers currently using
Macintosh machines.

Apple's rededication to publishing came in the form of support for
the newly formed World-wide Publishing Consortium (WWPC). Don
Strickland, vice president of Imaging for Apple Computer, is
spearheading Apple's involvement with the consortium (see separate
story).

(Audrey Kalman/19931021/Press & Public Contact: Apple Computer,
Cupertino, CA - Tel: [phone])


(NEWS)(TRENDS)(SFO)(00007)

 ****Seybold: Forum For WW Publishing Consortium 10/21/93
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1993 OCT 21 (NB) -- Apple
president and CEO Michael Spindler took time out during his keynote
at the Seybold Conference and Exposition '93 to introduce
representatives from the founding members of the Worldwide
Publishing Consortium (WWPC).

According to Spindler, the consortium will serve as a forum for
exchanging information and will include both traditional (paper-
based) and new media publishers.

Paul Brainerd, president and chairman of the board of Aldus
Corporation, said he was pleased that the consortium will involve
both customers and vendors.

"Customers working with developers is more required than ever. We
are going to enter a new age of interactive media," he said, adding
that he reckons that it's time to sit down as an industry and try to
solve some of the industry's common problems.

"We are producers of information that will travel on electronic
highways," said John Warnock, CEO of Adobe Systems. "We have to
figure out what kinds of cars are going to travel those highways."

Terry H. Schwadron, Deputy Managing Editor of the Los Angeles Times
and acting president of WWPC, brought the ever-valuable user's
perspective to the discussion.

"We at the LA Times are basically mad as hell... and we don't want
to put up with it any more," he said. What makes him mad? Real
"open" applications are not as "open" as they appear. One EPS file
is not like another EPS file. What happens on screen is not what you
see when the image is put on recycled newsprint moving through a
printing press at 35 miles per hour. Editors spend more time
discussing how to manipulate TIFF files than talking about the
content of news photos. Color is not seen as a process. Real
networks have limitations.

Apple deserves credit, Schwadron said, for taking a leadership role
in the consortium. "The answer to [all these complaints] is to
develop standards... so that what starts in the IBM world can end up
in the Apple world."

Apple Computer will serve as a consortium sponsor and will help
support the non-profit educational group. Don Strickland, Apple
Computer's vice president of imaging, will lead this effort. The
consortium plans various activities to help members learn about new
technology. These include creation and maintenance of a publishing
lab that will be available for workshops, compatibility testing,
executive briefings, and showcasing state-of-the-art publishing
solutions.

Apple has already recruited individuals and companies from all parts
of the publishing industry to serve on the board of directors,
including professionals from Banta, the Dallas Morning News, and
Time Magazine. Vendors who have signed up to participate include
Adobe, Aldus, Kodak, Linotype-Hell, Radius, and SuperMac. It hopes
to identify and sign up more members at the Seybold Conference and
Exposition in San Francisco.

(Audrey Kalman/19931021/Press & Public Contact: Worldwide Publishing
Consortium, Cupertino, CA, Tel: [phone] or 800-865-WWPC)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SFO)(00008)

Olivetti & NetFrame In Joint Venture 10/21/93
MILPITAS, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1993 OCT 21 (NB) -- Olivetti and
NetFrame Systems have extended their existing original equipment
manufacturing (OEM) agreement for another three years, up to
December 1996. The two companies also announced the planned
formation of NetFRAME International, a joint venture, in January
1994.

Under the terms of the OEM deal, Olivetti sells NetFrame Systems
line of superservers worldwide and maintains exclusive rights in
Italy, and Spain, as well as the UK.

NetFrame International, meanwhile, will be based in Europe and will
have sales, support and marketing responsibility for all NetFrame
products sold in Europe.

Announcing the deals, Corrado Passera, general managing director of
Olivetti said, "Our investment and OEM agreement with NetFrame have
been very successful and we intend to continue marketing the
Olivetti NetFrame line in worldwide markets with special emphasis in
Europe, where we see the superserver opportunity to be real and
growing. In the past three years, Olivetti has sold close to 800
NetFrames."

Said Enzo Torresi, president and CEO of NetFrame Systems: "NetFrame
International will add strength to our joint marketing efforts in
Europe, by providing direct technical support in all markets where
Olivetti is present and in new markets where NetFrame is not
currently represented."

In August, Newsbytes reported that NetFrame signed two distribution
deals within one week. One involved ComputerLand and the other,
Ingram.

The terms of the deal with ComputerLand called for the distributor's
locations that meet NetFrame's authorization criteria to sell and
service NetFrame's superservers.

The deal with Ingram Micro involved NetFrame's Authorized VAR
Associate Program. Under the terms of that agreement, the Ingram
Systems Sales Division will "target, identify and recruit Unix
network VARs (value added resellers) and system integrators, who may
apply to be authorized by NetFrame to resell the company's
superservers."

NetFrame Systems designs, manufactures and markets a family of
expandable, fault-tolerant superservers that run NetWare, Unix, and
OS/2. NetFrame's superservers start at $12,950 for a three processor
superserver, and are expandable to a 10 processor system with up to
89 gigabytes of mass storage.

(Ian Stokell/19931021/Press Contact: Paul Gross, 408-383-4515,
NetFrame Systems)


(NEWS)(TRENDS)(SFO)(00009)

Sun Intros Ultra Low-Emission 20-Inch Color Monitor 10/21/93
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1993 OCT 21 (NB) -- The trend
towards environmental concerns is widespread throughout the industry
- from the absence of chlorofluorocarbons in manufacturing
processes, to reduced emissions from desktop systems. Now Sun
Microsystems Computer Corp., has introduced, what the company claims
is, the industry's highest-performance, lowest electromagnetic
emission color monitor.

According to the company, the new 20-inch color monitor is priced
the same as the standard 19-inch color monitor it replaces. The
monitor offers a maximum resolution of 1280 by 1024 pixels at 76
hertz (Hz).

The monitor also reportedly complies with Europe's new TCO
electromagnetic emissions standard, which mandates emissions about
half those for the established European MPR 1990:10 standard.

According to the company, the monitor offers a new picture tube and
improved circuitry, which allows for visibly better clarity and
sharpness than comparable products from other suppliers.

Sun also claims that better magnetic shielding makes this monitor
less sensitive to ambient magnetic fields. It also has more accurate
color reproduction and a tighter convergence specification.

The 20-inch color monitor features an innovative infrared
remote control device that is stored in a pocket below the screen
and more than doubles the number of monitor adjustments. It gives
users control over such new elements as tilt, horizontal image
position, and image size.

The company says that users can shrink or expand their display areas
to the very edges of the workstation screen without losing any
clarity or focus. Future versions of the 20-inch monitor will
support software-driven screen controls.

(Ian Stokell/19931021/Press Contact: Deanna Franklin, 415-336-7226,
Sun Microsystems Computer Corporation)


(NEWS)(TRENDS)(TYO)(00010)

 ****World's Fastest Neuro-board & Powerful VR Processor Debuts 10/21/93
TOKYO, JAPAN, 1993 OCT 21 (NB) -- Mitsubishi Electric has developed
an analog neuro board, which it claims operates mathematical
calculations in neural network at 20 trillion times per second. The
company also claims that this speed is about 1,000 times faster than
that of latest super-computers -- faster, in fact, than any other
computer currently in existence.

Mitsubishi Electric's latest neuro board is equipped with 18 units
of proprietary neuro LSI chips. These chips have total 1,800 units
of neurons or neuro element. With these elements, it provides super
fast calculation speed as well as the fast learning speed of 50 giga
times (500 billion times) per second.

This neuro board measures at 33.7 x 55 cm. The unit can be connected
with engineering workstations via a regular bus. Mitsubishi Electric
claims it wants to improve the device and release it for voice
recognition systems and graphic processors within three years.

Meanwhile, Aizu University's Professor Tsuneo Iketo has developed an
advanced Virtual Reality (VR) computer graphics processor, which has
about 5 times faster drawing speed of graphics or pictorial data.

The processor is capable of drawing around 10 million polygons per
second. Working at these speeds, the processor will be able to draw
quality graphics even in the foreground of the real-time motion
pictures of high definition TVs.

The professor's development team is reported to have already been
discussing the technology with a private electronic firm. Plans call
for the team to develop a single chip, which has the Virtual Reality
computer graphics processing feature. It will be released as the
application specific IC around the spring of 1994.

(Masayuki "Massey" Miyazawa/19931021/Press Contact: Mitsubishi
Electric, [phone], Fax, [phone], Aizu University,
Professor Tsuneo Iketo, [phone])


(NEWS)(IBM)(DEN)(00011)

Nexis/Lexis Macros For Wordperfect 6.0 For Windows 10/21/93
OREM, UTAH, U.S.A., 1993 OCT 21 (NB) -- Wordperfect Corporation has
teamed up with Mead Data Central to integrate Lexis/Nexis access
macros for Windows with Wordperfect 6.0 for Windows.

Mead Data Central's Lexis/Nexis systems are online services that
allow researchers to verify legal citations and retrieve cases and
statutes when researching relevant case law. Wordperfect 6.0 for
Windows is the most recent version of Wordperfect Corporation's
popular word processing program, released earlier this week.

The access macros are stored series of keystrokes that allow a
searcher using Wordperfect 6.0 for Windows to link to the
Lexis/Nexis service from within their Wordperfect software. The data
retrieved can be incorporated into a Wordperfect document.

Lexis and Nexis were separate services until Mead Data Central
merged them two years ago. Lexis is a collection of legal
information while Nexis is a news data service. In addition to case
law, Lexis includes patent, trademark and copyright information, a
trade regulations library, labor case law decisions, and a library
of bankruptcy cases.

In June of this year, Wordperfect announced Jurisoft DirectConnect,
a software product that provides links between Wordperfect software
and Jurisoft's Legal Toolbox software that includes CompareRite,
CiteRite II, Full Authority, and CheckCite. CompareRite is a tool
for redlining documents, a process that highlights the differences
between two versions of the same document.

CheckCite, meanwhile, uses the Lexis service to automatically
retrieve information and produce a customized report showing the
accuracy y and standing of all cites in a legal brief. FullAuthority
compiles tables of authorities for a legal brief, and CiteRite
checks cites for proper citation form. Jurisoft is a division of
Mead Data Central.

(Jim Mallory/19931021/Press contact: Judi Schultz, Mead Data
Central, 513-865-7466, Ken Merritt, Wordperfect Corporation, 801-
228-5059; Reader contact: Wordperfect Corporation, 801-225-5000 or
800-451-5151, fax [phone])


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00012)

 ****Compaq 3Q Income Up 116 Percent 10/21/93
HOUSTON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1993 OCT 21 (NB) -- Compaq Computer
Corporation says the cost controls it implemented are a significant
factor in its third quarter net income jump of 116 percent over the
same period last year.

Compaq reported net income of $106.8 million or $1.25 per share.
Sales were up 64 percent for the period to a record $1.75
billion. The company said that net income for the first nine months
of the fiscal year were up 153 percent over 1992, reaching $311.4
million or $3.68 per share. Sales at $4.99 billion for the first
three quarters were up from $2.68 billion in 1992.

European sales grew 37 percent; Japan, Latin America and Pacific Rim
sales were up over 100 percent; and North American sales jumped 75
percent. Compaq said its worldwide sales growth of 64 percent was
accompanied by a 70 percent increase in worldwide unit volumes.

Compaq President Eckhard Pfeiffer said the performance is a result
of the company's ability to compete aggressively in all key segments
of the PC market.

"Compaq not only delivered excellent quarter-to-quarter growth over
last year, we also broke with normal industry trends in this
seasonally soft quarter by achieving growth over the second quarter
of this year," he said.

"Our continued strong financial performance is the result of our
ability to compete aggressively in all key segments of the PC market
and in all major markets around the world," he added.

According to Pfeiffer, the company's continued focus on total cost
control has allowed it to complement our sales achievements with
solid growth in net income. "During the quarter we increased our
strategic investments in product development, marketing, advertising
and geographic expansion while successfully cutting operating
expenses as a per cent of sales," he said.

Over in Europe, Compaq Computer Europe reported third quarter 1993
revenues of $624 million, representing a 37 percent increase
compared to a similar period in the previous year. Due to
fluctuations in European exchange rates, actual growth in local
currency was significantly higher, the company claimed.

The European organisation continued its expansion in third quarter
with the opening of local offices in Portugal and Hungary. Compaq's
business in Eastern Europe doubled in the third quarter.

(Jim Mallory/19931021/Press contact: Compaq Computer Corporation,
713-374-1564)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(WAS)(00013)

Microsoft Earnings Up 14.3 Percent -- Analysts Disappointed 10/21/93
WASHINGTON, DC, U.S.A., 1993 OCT 21 (NB) -- After the close of
trading (4 p.m. east coast time) on Wednesday Microsoft Corporation,
the publisher of MS-DOS, Windows, and popular applications programs,
announced a 14.3 percent profit increase for the first quarter of
its current fiscal year.

Despite this impressive jump to 79 cents per share earnings, in the
face of the ongoing recession, Wall Street analysts and investors
were disappointed and the software giant's stock was down slightly
in early trading on Thursday.

The first quarter earnings for the period ending September 30, 1993,
were $239 million on sales of $983 million. This represents a 20
percent increase in total sales revenues but only a 14.3 percent
increase in earnings which is the basis of the financial community's
disappointment in the results - Microsoft earnings did not keep pace
with the increase in sales.

Sales for the corresponding period of last year were $818 million
with earnings (profit) of $209 million or 70 cents per share.

Systems software sales accounts for 36 percent of Microsoft
revenues, up from the previous year, while applications accounted
for 59 percent of revenues in the last quarter with hardware
contributing only 5 percent.

Sales to the US and Canada account for 33 percent of revenues, down
from 38 percent for the same quarter last year, with international
sales dropping from 44 percent to only 41 percent of the revenues.
The big increases came in sales to computer manufacturers.

The US Justice Department is currently investigating Microsoft on
charges of unfair trade practices related to the company's giant
share of the original equipment manufacturer's market which installs
MS-DOS and Windows on the majority of computers sold. In fact,
Microsoft's earnings from such OEM sales account for nearly 26
percent of the company's total sales according to Microsoft, up from
only an 18 percent share in the same quarter last year.

This is a worrying situation for some investors who see a potential
major impact on Microsoft's earnings if the Justice Department finds
against the company. The Federal Trade Commission was unable to
decide on any action against Microsoft after about a year of
investigation, but Justice is a far more powerful agency with many
more resources.

On the other hand, Microsoft is also involved in developing and
marketing word processing and other office-oriented applications
which are unlikely to be affected by the results of any Justice
Department investigation.

Microsoft has contended all along that it has done nothing but
operate a highly profitable business based on good business
practices.

Microsoft was founded in 1975 and gained early dominance in the
personal computer operating system business by winning an
agreement from IBM to supply its MS-DOS operating system for all
IBM-brand PC computers in the form of a special version known as
PC-DOS.

For years Microsoft tried to match Apple Mac graphical interface
popularity and profits by introducing a series of versions of
Windows, but only in the last two years has that software really
caught on with users.

Its main accuser is Novell, the network company which also owns
DR-DOS, the Digital Research operating system which is fully
compatible with Microsoft's basic operating system.

Some industry observers point out that DR had nearly a decade to
compete head-to-head with Microsoft and the biggest problem was that
the small company just failed to compete aggressively with Microsoft
despite often having a superior product at many stages of software
development cycles.

(John McCormick/19931021/Press Contact: Raymond B. Ferguson,
Microsoft, 206-882-8080)


(NEWS)(IBM)(WAS)(00014)

Microsoft Assistant For Word Version 6.0 10/21/93
WASHINGTON, DC, U.S.A., 1993 OCT 21 (NB) -- Intended for all
users, but especially useful for small business operations,
Microsoft's new Assistant for Version 6 of the popular Microsoft
Word word processor provides 25 new TrueType type fonts, 100 new
clip-art images, and two font management utilities for Word
users.

Particularly helpful for small business users, the company claims,
is the inclusion of specialty paper templates that make it easy for
Word users to take advantage of New Jersey-based PaperDirect's wide
selection of unusual papers.

Along with the new fonts provided by the utility comes a greater
need for font management, and Assistant's Font Selector allows users
to view and select fonts in text or WYSIWYG (what you see is what
you get) mode. The new graphics come from The clip-art comes from 3G
Graphics.

A Macintosh version of the same software has been announced for
delivery early next year and Word Assistant for Word (Windows) is
available now at a list price of $65.

(John McCormick/19931021/Press Contact: Chris Clemens, Waggener
Edstrom, 408-986-1140)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00015)

Computer Associates Income Up In Second Quarter 10/21/93
ISLANDIA, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1993 OCT 21 (NB) -- Computer Associates
International even managed to do well in the slumping European
market and in mainframe software sales in the second quarter of its
fiscal year 1993, which ended September 30, turning in net income of
$87.54 million, up 86 percent from $46.97 million in the second
quarter of last year.

Deborah Coughlin, vice-president of investor relations at CA, said
that the company was hurt somewhat by unfavorable currency
translations, as a number of other US companies in the industry have
been. But she said the company did well in all product lines and all
geographic areas.

That is in sharp contrast to others reporting results in recent
days. Most have pointed to weakness in Europe in particular.
Coughlin acknowledged the European market over all is sluggish, but
said Computer Associates' long history there and its wide range of
products have enabled it to maintain sales growth regardless.

Sales of mainframe software also held up. Coughlin said that
while mainframe hardware makers such as IBM may be shipping fewer
units, the machines are more powerful, and it is the over-all
processing power installed that affects CA's sales prospects
most. She added that despite widespread rumors of its demise, the
mainframe is not dead. CA expects mainframe software to remain a
growth area for a while yet, Coughlin forecast.

The company had revenues of $516.97 million in the second
quarter, up 20 percent from $431.95 million in the year-earlier
quarter. Earnings per share were 51 cents in this year's quarter
versus 28 cents in last year's second quarter.

For the six months ended September 30, the company chalked up net
income of $118.29 million, or 69 cents per share, on revenues of
$940.35 million. That compares to net income of $66.23 million,
or 38 cents per share, on revenues of $799.42 million in the
first half of 1992.

(Grant Buckler/19931021/Press Contact: Deborah Coughlin, Computer
Associates, 516-342-2173, fax [phone]; Public Contact:
Computer Associates, 516-342-5224)


(NEWS)(IBM)(TOR)(00016)

Corel Unveils Its First Release Of Ventura Publisher 10/21/93
OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1993 OCT 21 (NB) -- Corel Corp., which
acquired the Ventura Publisher desktop publishing software
earlier this fall, has put its own stamp on the package by
announcing Corel Ventura 4.2.

The new release combines the basic Ventura package with Ventura
Database Publisher, a utility that helps users format data for
desktop publishing. The whole combination, plus a sizeable
library of clip art and fonts, will sell for US$249 or C$299.

The software runs on Microsoft Windows, and needs personal
computer with at least an 80286 processor, 4 megabytes (MB) of
memory (6MB is recommended), a mouse or other pointing device,
at least 14 MB of free disk space, and an EGA or better,
Windows-compatible display. Corel also recommends a compact disk
read-only memory (CD-ROM) drive.

The package includes Ventura Publisher, Ventura Database
Publisher, the Ventura Separator utility for color separations,
the Ventura Scan utility, 75 style sheets, and two CD-ROMs loaded
with more than 600 TrueType and PostScript Type 1 fonts, more
than 10,000 Encapsulated Postscript clip-art images, and 100
royalty-free photos in Kodak PhotoCD format. The clip-art library
is the same one supplied with the CD-ROM edition of Corel's
flagship graphics package, Corel Draw, said company spokeswoman
Julie Galla.

Corel has also worked to make Ventura Publisher work better with
Corel Draw, adding some import and export capabilities in this
release. Future releases will improve the integration further,
Galla said.

Release 4.2 includes support for the Adobe Acrobat software's
pdfmark operator, which simplifies creation of electronic
documents that can be moved easily among systems, the company
said.

Corel is offering current users of either Corel Draw or Ventura
Publisher the chance to upgrade to a bundle of both packages for
US$299 or C$379. Registered users of Corel Draw can also buy the
new Ventura Publisher for US$99 or C$129, and users of previous
versions of Ventura Publisher can upgrade to the new release for
the same price.

The English-language version is to ship world-wide in November,
Galla said. Versions in Italian, German, and French are to be
released in the first quarter of 1994. Those are the only
languages in which Ventura Publisher has been available to date,
she added, but Corel expects eventually to add other languages in
which Corel Draw is already available.

(Grant Buckler/19931021/Press Contact: Julie Galla, Corel,
613-728-8200 ext. 1672, fax [phone])


(NEWS)(APPLE)(LAX)(00017)

Apple's Photoflash -- Easier Than Photoshop 10/21/93
CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1993 OCT 20 (NB) -- Apple Computer
has introduced Photoflash, a software package it claims has all the
basic tools needed to get photos into documents, but without the
steep learning curve required by high-end products such as Adobe's
Photoshop.

Photoflash has three key components, a browser that offers thumbnail
sketches of the photos available, photo preparation tools to enhance
images, and scripting capabilities that place images into popular
page layout-applications and automate routine tasks.

The browser not only makes it easy to see what photographs are
available via the thumbnail sketches, it allows the user to "drag
and drop" the images into applications such as Aldus Pagemaker and
Quarkexpress.

It will also allow the use of images from the up-and-coming Kodak
Photocd format, assuming the user has a CD-ROM drive from which the
product can access the images. The product even includes accelerated
Photo CD routines to speed access to the images.

Katherine M Harris, Kodak Vice President and General Manager for
Professional Printing, Publishing and Imaging, said: "Photoflash is
designed to enable people of all skill levels to use Kodak's
scanners, digital cameras, and Photo CDs to easily access, enhance,
and output their images."

Once an image is selected, Photoflash offers the ability to adjust
and change the image. Users can adjust the brightness and contrast
of photos, remove scratches and dust from pictures, and straighten
scans. The tools to sharpen, blur, resize, rotate, and crop images
are also available. Changes to the image can be previewed
immediately, Apple said, to the user can better anticipate and
control the photo manipulation efforts.

Apple's scripting language, Applescript, works with Photoflash to
allow for automation of repetitive tasks, such as adjusting photos,
creating contact sheets, and performing file format conversions. The
scripting language also allows for links with other software
applications to streamline work flow. Scripts for Pagemaker and
Quarkxpress that work with the press of one button are included in
the product and Photoflash can automatically place photos into
documents created with page layout applications such as Pagemaker
and Quarkxpress.

Apple claims that Photoflash is optimized to manage digital images
and requires much less memory and disk space than other similar
applications. The product also includes integrated image compression
technology and a selective compression feature so users can choose
to compress different areas of a photo at different levels. Since
levels of compression result in loss of some of the clarity of the
image in question, this allows users to get needed compression
without giving up as much image quality.

Accelerator cards such as the Thunderstorm and Thunder II from
Supermac Technology and the Charger series from Daystar Digital also
work to speed up Photoflash. Adobe Photoshop plug-in modules for
special effects and import/export capabilities also work with
Photoflash.

The package can accept a variety of file formats including: PICT,
TIFF, JPEG, Photo CD, Photoshop, EPS, DCS, RGB, CMYK, and grayscale
image. Apple recommends a Macintosh or Powerbook with a 68020
processor, at least 8 megabytes (MB) of random access memory (RAM)
with 3.5 Mb allocated to the Photoflash application, and System 7.0
or a later version as the operating system.

Apple has an exclusive license of the product from its developer,
Storm Technologies, who developed the Thunderstorm and Thunder II
accelerator cards for Supermac. The target launch date for the
product is November, and the retail price will be $279.

(Linda Rohrbough/19931021/Press Contact: Kate Paisley, Apple
Computer, tel [phone], fax [phone]; Macello Wucher, Storm
Technology, tel [phone])


(NEWS)(IBM)(DEL)(00018)

Software Makers Cold On Big Blue's Offer 10/21/93
BANGALORE, INDIA, 1993 OCT 21 (NB) -- IBM seems to have lost some of
the glamour it once had in the Indian computer market-place, judging
from the lack of reaction from the software industry to Big Blue's
offer to market their RS/6000 packages for them.

Newsbytes notes that, during the first few weeks of July, a high-
level team from IBM visited India and promised to take three
packages for the RS/6000 series for world-wide marketing, subject to
testing their market potential.

The Indian Government's Department of Electronics, wrote to 25
Indian companies with a known expertise on the RS/6000 systems,
asking them to submit their products for evaluation. But three
months down the line, the DoE has received just one package from an
Indian company, a modelling software from Bombay-based Godrej &
Boyce.

Although Square D, a Madras-based company, has written that its
package is under development, the response from the others has been
extremely discouraging so far.

Major software firms like Tata Consultancy Services, DCM Data
Products and ITC among others, which have packages, they claim they
are for in-house applications and, as such, are not suitable for
marketing by IBM. Some companies, Newsbytes notes, have not
responded at all.

(C T Mahabharat/19931021)


(NEWS)(GOVT)(LON)(00019)

 ****Russian Computer Hackers Almost Get Away With $57 Million 10/21/93
MOSCOW, RUSSIA, 1993 OCT 21 (NB) -- According to the Russian Central
Bank, a computer-assisted robbery, which the media is already
calling a "computer hack," nearly allowed a group of thieves to make
off with 68,000 million roubles (around $56 million) from the
Central Bank of Russia.

According to bank officials, the audacious theft was only the latest
in a while chain of attempted fraud and robberies at the Russian
Government-run bank. Since the USSR was dissolved and banks turned
into private entities, officials have recorded a surge in crimes of
this type.

The hackers are said to have gained access to bank's computer
network thanks to the use of random access code attempts. Once in,
they then attempted to move the money across to other banks with
commercial interests.

It seems that Russia's archaic bank clearing system let the
supercrooks down as, as the money edged its way around the network,
bank officials discovered their loss and retrieved the stolen cash
before it could be collected.

Vladimir Yefremov, a bank spokesman, is quoted as saying nothing
other than the fact that the Police are still investigating the
matter.

Sources close to the Russian Central Bank, which is now heavily
computerized, suggest that the hackers gained access to personal
computer codes to carry out the attempted fraud. Most frauds of this
type, Newsbytes notes, are usually carried out with inside
assistance.

Yefremov has gone on record previously as saying that, since the
start of the year, the bank has had a series of attempted frauds
with a total value of 300,000 million roubles (around $250 million).

Ironically, the main reason the Central Bank computerized itself in
recent times has been the large incidence of paper-based fraud
involving forged bank instruments, known as avisos in Russia, which
are, in effect, bearer bonds used for moving large amounts of cash
between banks.

(Sylvia Dennis/19931021)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00020)

Germany: Peacock AG - Sales Up 80 Percent; Margins Down 10/21/93
WUNNEBERG-HAAREN, GERMANY, 1993 OCT 21 (NB) -- Peacock AG, the
German computer manufacturer, has announced that its sales for the
first nine months of the year were up by more than 80 percent, but
that profit margins were only around 30 percent up on the same
period the year before.

The reasons for the profits shortfall compared to sales, is that the
company has begun marketing its products overseas, as well as
venturing into the field of digital mobile communication. The
company blames the high start-up costs for these two activities as
causing the difference in expected profits on sales.

For the full year, the company expects to turn in sales of around DM
650 million ($370 million). The company says it will press on with
its expansion into overseas countries. Currently, Peacock has
offices in the US, the UK, Austria, Taiwan, Holland, Spain, France
and Belgium, and this year has opened new offices Copenhagen.

World-wide, the company has around 550 staff.

(Sylvia Dennis/19931021/Press & Public Contact: Peacock-AG - Tel:
[phone]; Fax: [phone])


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00021)

International Phone Update 10/21/93
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1993 OCT 21 (NB) -- The importance of
telecommunications was emphasized once again in Burundi, where the
first thing army units staging a coup did was cut off international
phone traffic to the capital of Bujumbura.

Analysts said army units linked to the minority Tutsi tribe were
seeking to overthrow President Melchior Ndadaye, a member of the
Hutu tribe who was also the nation's first elected leader. Ndadaye
survived an attempted coup in June after his Frodebu Party won
multi-party elections. His whereabouts and the fate of his
government were unknown as this was written. Following an attack on
the government's offices, army officers next went after the radio
and television networks, knocking them off the air.

In the Philippines the outgoing monopoly, Philippine Long Distance
Telephone Company, proposed local rate hikes to make domestic
network operations more attractive. PLDT's president, Antonio
Cojuangco, wants the government of president Fidel Ramos to follow
policies in other nations where subsidies on local service are ended
and the market dictates prices.

He also welcomed moves by two foreign-backed firms, Globe Telecom
and ICC Telecoms, to build a national transmission network which
would challenge PLDT dominance of the local industry, and expressed
no objection to divide the capital of Manila into three areas where
competitors can concentrate their energies. The Philippines has one
of the lowest phone-line penetrations in the world, PLDT controls
over 90 percent of the market, and the company has a huge backlog of
unfilled orders for service, which is hampering economic
development.

In Singapore, which is backing one of the Philippine contenders,
Globe Telecom, the nation began work on a new telecommunications
technology park, hoping to dominate fast-growing Southeast Asian
markets. The move followed the successful sale of a small stake in
state-owned Singapore Telecom, which drew over 250,000 local
requests for shares in a 1.1 billion share flotation. Locals were
given a discount on their purchases of up to 600 shares each. Also,
ACMA of Singapore signed a joint venture with the Moscow City
Telephone Network in Russia aimed at installing more public pay
phones in that city, with ACMA holding a 70 percent interest. The
venture will install phones which use pre-paid calling cards.

In China, the government announced a crackdown on the telecom
sector, ordering cordless, pager and online vendors to get new
permits and banning foreign-owned operations. The government has
also tried to ban foreign satellite television channels, but its
ability to really assert control over the sector is questioned by
analysts, who admit that despite inflation the economy continues to
grow rapidly, and rampant corruption makes all laws hard to enforce.
Offshore, Northern Telecom launched its Companion wireless
communications system in Taiwan.

In Latin America, workers at Bolivia's telecommunications
companies staged what the government called an illegal strike to
protest the lay-off of about 8,000 workers in a restructuring of
state-owned industry. The government also claimed only 10 percent
of workers were participating in the walk-out and service
remained normal. In nearby Brazil, AT&T entered the local data
communications market through a local representative, Brazil CPM
Informatica S.A., winning a supply government with state-owned
Telepar.

Finally, in London, the brokerage firm of Goldman Sachs created a
"market basket" of world telecomm shares, including AT&T and
British Telecom, but also including firms such as TelMex of
Mexico, New Zealand Telecom, Telefonica de Espana and Hong Kong
Telecom. Options called warrants will be issued on the basket so
that traders can speculate on the overall health of the world's
telecommunications sector.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19931021)


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

US West Rumored To Be After Cablevision 10/21/93
WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1993 OCT 21 -- US West and Cablevision
Systems Corp., the nation's third-largest cable operator, were not
commenting on rumors that they were merger negotiations. The reports
indicated U S West would pay $1.8 billion for Cablevision, and try
to close the deal at the same time it finalizes its purchase of an
interest in Time Warner Entertainment, including its cable
operations.

Stocks of both Cablevision and Comcast, another rumored telephone
buy-out candidate, both rose sharply on the rumors. Cablevision has
about 2 million subscribers in 19 states, but it has big operations
around New York, Chicago and Boston. It also holds stakes in
programmers like Rainbow Programming, American Movie Classics,
Bravo, Courtroom Television and sports channels.

Reverberations extended to Washington, where executives urged that
government keep its hands off the industry, but where policy-makers
resisted the idea. At the Networked Economy Conference, Commerce
Secretary Ron Brown suggested a major role for government in
building the "information superhighway," and he was immediately
taken to task by MCI chairman Bert Roberts and former Apple Computer
chairman John Sculley, now head of Spectrum Information
Technologies.

Both said the government should stay away from the private sector,
and expressed fear that well-intentioned action could thwart
progress. Even government work in defining standards for the new
systems was attacked.

The proposed merger of Bell Atlantic and TCI seems to be the
flash-point where the industry and the Clinton Administration
diverge. Sculley, who sat next to first lady Hillary Clinton
during the President's state of the union speech, praised the
merger and said government should limit its role to things like
protecting security, privacy and intellectual property.

But Attorney General Janet Reno said the government will take a hard
look at the BA-TCI deal, and Congressman Edward Markey, who chairs
the House telecommunications subcommittee, also warned against quick
approval of the deal. Meanwhile, TCI head John Malone tried to re-
assure policymakers that they'll be plenty of "electronic shelf
space" for all comers, despite the fact that he has also said that
the Bell Atlantic deal also hinges on his agreement to buy Liberty
Media, a major owner of cable programming.

In other news involving the regional Bells, the California Public
Utilities Commission said it will decide on Pacific Telesis'
proposal to spin-off its wireless operations on October 28.
PacTel wants the spin-off to occur this year, and hopes to raise
$1.2 billion through a public offering while existing PacTel
shareholders retain 89 percent of the new shares.

PacTel's wireless operations now have 934,000 subscribers, with
income from domestic cellular operations up 61.2 percent over a year
earlier. As in the information superhighway dispute, PacTel
executives complain that regulation soured the California economy, a
conclusion disputed by economists who point to defense cuts and an
overbuilt real estate sector. The break-up is opposed by consumer
groups, who fear it will mean higher prices for basic phone service.

Finally, Ameritech reported the best results yet among the regional
Bell companies reporting earnings. It said its quarterly profit was
up 29 percent, to $425 million, against $330.5 million in profits a
year earlier, crediting its sale of interests in New Zealand
Telecom. Revenues were up just five percent, to $2.95 billion from
$2.81 billion.

Ameritech also signed an alliance with Wireless Access of
California, agreeing to sell Wireless' AccessCard, a PC Card under
PCMCIA standards that offers messaging services. The product will be
combined with Ameritech messaging services and software and sold as
Wireless Field Messenger II. The deal is non-exclusive -- Wireless
Access has similar agreements with BellSouth's MobileComm and MTel's
SkyTel paging operations. This is the first deal with a cellular
operator, however.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19931021/Press Contact: Ron Dullie, US West,
303-896-9488 MCI Press Office, 202-887-3300; Wireless Access,
Jerry Askew, 408/383-1900)


(NEWS)(TRENDS)(BOS)(00023)

CASE World/Objex - Classifying Object-Oriented Tools 10/21/93
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1993 OCT 21 (NB) -- If you've seen
one object-oriented (00) development tool, or even a bunch of them,
you definitely haven't seen them all, according to Paul Harmon,
editor of the Object-Oriented Strategies newsletter, who was
speaking yesterday at Digital Consulting's CASE World/Objex.

With the number of OO tools on the market proliferating, developers
of all disciplines need to understand the distinctions, suggested
Harmon, in a presentation entitled "Classifying Object-Oriented
Products."

Harmon told the audience that current development tools can be
roughly divided into three categories: "conventional," "object-
enhanced," and "object-oriented."

The products present a continuum in which the developer can make use
of objects to create some or all of the following: graphical user
interfaces (GUIs), data structures, transactions, and dialogues.

Today, most tools that call themselves "object-oriented" are really
only OO at the interface level, according to Harmon. Some products
go further to let the developer use objects for data structures, and
a few go further still to extend objects into transactions. But not
very many permit objects to be used for dialogues.

Smalltalk and Eiffel are two examples of "pure" OO products, Harmon
added. C++, Pascal, and COBOL are examples of "hybrid" forms that
combine objects with a procedural approach. CLOS and Prolog are also
hybrid forms, mixing objects with a declarative method.

Hybrid or object-enhanced products can be very useful to
organizations that wish to transition to OO development
incrementally, but they do not allow for the creation of custom
objects, he warned.

C++ is currently the most popular approach in the object world,
followed by Smalltalk, he noted. C++ is being promoted to C
programmers as "a better C than C," while Smalltalk remains popular
among its long-time fans.

Developers should look upon "pure OO" as their ultimate goal, but
should evolve toward this goal gradually if this makes sense in
light of their requirements. "You have to live in reality," Harmon
remarked.

Developers should also be aware that many products that consider
themselves "object-oriented" are not yet paying much attention to
things like class libraries and OO methodologies, he maintained.

Some of the differences between tools are being lost in the
scramble to get off of mainframes and to adopt GUIs and
client-server architectures instead, according to Harmon.

In the future, the choices will get harder, as even more products
enter the fray, he said. As has already been happening, some of
the new tools will emerge from the artificial intelligence (AI)
arena, and others from the realm of CASE (computer-aided software
engineering).

Some products will double-bill themselves as 4GL (fourth generation
language), database or client-server tools. Others will be domain-
specific, to areas like CAD/CAM (computer-aided design/computer-
aided manufacturing).

"The AI vendors are saying `We're not AI any more. We're OO.' The
CASE vendors are saying, `We've moved beyond CASE now. We're 4GL
(fourth generation language), database, or OO,'" reported Harmon.

But users will become better attuned to the distinctions between
products as their experience with OO development grows, Harmon
predicted.

(Jacqueline Emigh/19931021/Reader and press contact: Paul Harmon,
Object-Oriented Strategies, tel [phone]; Press contact: Todd
J. Keefe, Digital Consulting Inc., tel [phone])


(NEWS)(IBM)(BOS)(00024)

CASE World/Objex - Pair Of Pen Computing Tools For CASE 10/21/93
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1993 OCT 21 (NB) -- If you've heard
that CASE (computer-aided software engineering) is falling behind
the times, it's worth your while to take another look. A pair of pen
computing tools for CASE have been drawing large and highly
enthusiastic crowds this week at Digital Consulting Inc.'s CASE
World/Objex.

The PenPoint-based products from Hitachi include PenAnalysis
Process Modeling, for developing data flow and decomposition
diagrams, and the newly announced PenAnalysis Data Modeling, for
building entity-relationship diagrams.

The two pen products are available in TabletStyle and MeetingStyle
configurations, said Sumi Shohara, marketing rep, in an interview
with Newsbytes. The highly portable TabletStyle consists of
PenAnalysis software, along with an Eo computer from Go! Corp.

MeetingStyle includes PenAnalysis Data Modeling, plus an IBM-
compatible PC, a digitizing white board, and an LCD overhead
projector display.

Each tool is a handwriting recognition-capable front end to
KnowledgeWare's Application Development Workbench (ADW) Analysis
Workstation.

The developer uses TabletStyle to conduct interviews with end users
in their offices, according to Shohara. MeetingStyle, on the other
hand, is employed to obtain group input -- from other developers as
well as end users -- on CASE projects.

"CASE development has traditionally been a `back room' job. We
wanted to give developers a chance to bring the process out into
the `real world,'" she told Newsbytes.

The CASE developer goes out into the field to interview end users
about their requirements anyway, but then the data must be brought
back into the back office for entry into a computer, she
elaborated. This process is time consuming, secludes the
developer, and also introduces the risk of errors.

TabletStyle lets the developer build diagrams on an Eo in the end
user's presence, check the input with the user, and then quickly
send the data into ADW.

MeetingStyle provides much the same basic functionality, except
that the pen interface is projected on to the LCD screen, allowing
groups of developers -- or groups of developers and end users -- to
jointly work on a project.

MeetingStyle will replace such outdated alternative methods as
presenting diagrams to groups on old-fashioned, easily erasable
chalkboards, or spreading out reams of hard-to-read paper diagrams
in front of the room, she predicted.

Developers can use PenAnalysis in either electronic ink or
handwriting recognition mode, she added. If electronic ink is
used, the data will remain in handwritten form, and cannot be fully
integrated with the ADW database.

But if the developer converts the information to text via
handwriting recognition, ADW will recognize the pen-generated input
as part of its own data.

Daniel J. Oullette, a pen computing industry analyst and author who
gave a talk at CASE World/Objex, told Newsbytes that, to the best
of his knowledge, Hitachi is now the only vendor with a pen-based
interface to CASE.

Oullette said that he came upon this finding after interviewing
every vendor in the field. Develops can create their own pen
interfaces, but they must make sure that, if they need a
Windows-based interface, they are using Microsoft Windows for Pen,
he advised. Pen computers vary from vendor to vendor in the
operating systems they run, he noted.

Terri Stowell, a consultant to Oracle and one of the enthusiastic
attendees who viewed an ongoing demo of MeetingStyle, told
Newsbytes that PenAnalysis would solve a true dilemma for her.

Stowell explained that she goes out to utility companies to interview
end users in relation to custom CASE projects that Oracle is
building. "Up to now, I've been spreading out pieces of paper in
front of the room to present my work," she said.

(Jacqueline Emigh/19931021/Reader contacts: Hitachi Software
Engineering America, tel [phone] or 415-615-7661; Reader and
press contact: Daniel J. Oullette, Strategic Systems, tel 313-429-
7378; Press contacts: Sumi Shohara, Hitachi, tel [phone]; Todd
J. Keefe, Digital Consulting, tel [phone])


(NEWS)(IBM)(DEN)(00025)

 ****Tandy Now Shipping Zoomer Digital Assistant 10/21/93
FORT WORTH, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1993 OCT 21 (NB) -- Tandy Corporation has
announced it is now shipping its Zoomer Personal Digital Assistant
(PDA) to participating Radio Shack stores nationwide.

Tandy spokesperson Tony Margoulas told Newsbytes that the Zoomer has
a suggested retail price of $699. He said all the company owned
stores are selling Zoomer, and the franchised stores will decide if
they want to carry the unit.

The Zoomer weighs less than one pound, has an electronic pen for
handwriting notes, and operates on three AAA batteries. Tandy says
the batteries will operate Zoomer for up to 100 hours. Data can be
exchanged with other Zoomers, desktop PCs and online data services.

The Zoomer, a joint product of Sharp, Casio and Tandy, first saw the
light of day as a prototype being demonstrated at the Consumer
Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada in January 1993. It was then
shown in Europe at the Cebit Computer Faite In Hannover in March of
this year, followed by an appearance at the CES Chicago show in June
with America Online, Quicken, Motorola and Sundisk all announcing
support. The Tandy and Casio models are virtually identical, but the
Casio and Sharp models are expected to have a suggested retail price
slightly higher.

The Zoomer uses the GEOS graphical interface developed by Geoworks.
It has an address book, to do list manager, alarms, notebook,
calculator, world clock, a translation dictionary and spell checker.
Intuit says it will offer a pocket version of its Quicken personal
finance management software, while Sundisk has announced a flash
mass storage device.

Data entry is accomplished by writing the information, which is then
translated by Zoomer's handwriting recognition software. Data can
also be entered through an on-screen standard keyboard. The keys are
"pressed" by touching the letters with the pen.

Motorola will provide wireless compatibility for Zoomer through a
version of its EMBARC (electronic Mail Broadcast to a Roaming
computer) technology.

The PDA market is expected to reach 3.5 million units by 1995
according to a BIS Strategic Decisions study announced in June of
this year.

Apple Computer released Newton, its entry in the PDA field, three
months ago, and said it had already sold 50,000 units as of last
month.

The key to consumer acceptance of PDAs is the accuracy of the
handwriting technology. There have been complaints about Newton's
ability to learn and recognize the user's handwriting one company
told Newsbytes it takes several weeks to reach a 95 percent
recognition accuracy level. That could be too long for many
consumers.

(Jim Mallory/19931021/Press contact: Tony Margoulas, Tandy Corp,
817-878-4852)


(NEWS)(IBM)(DEN)(00026)

Cray Research To Enter PC Software Market 10/21/93
EAGAN, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1993 OCT 21 (NB) -- Cray Research, a
company known for its supercomputer hardware, operating systems, and
applications software, has announced the launch of a new business
entity that will develop and market software for PCs, Apple
Macintoshes, workstations and servers.

Called CraySoft, the new company will ship its first product by
year-end. Network Queuing Environment (NQE) is a software tool that
allows workloads to be balanced across a variety of computer
systems. CraySoft Manager Leary Gates says other Cray Research
products such as its Fortran 90 programming environment will also be
marketed by CraySoft.

"The CraySoft initiative reflects Cray Research's vision for open
supercomputing - a cohesive environment, united by standards-based
software, that extends from the microcomputer to the supercomputer,
including PCs, workstations, clusters, MPP (massively parallel
processing systems) systems and traditional supercomputers,"
explained Irene Qualters, Cray Research VP of software.

Gates says that CraySoft products will include compilers, tools,
libraries, networking and applications software for systems across a
full range of performance.

NQE assigns jobs to the best available resource on the network. That
could be a single workstation, a workstation cluster, a server or a
supercomputer.

"This product allows users to share network resources more
effectively," says Gates. NQE consists of a server and a client. The
server includes an enhanced, compatible version of the public domain
Network Queuing System software, a network load balancer, and a file
transfer agent for Unix workstations.

The client is a simplified queuing environment which allows users to
submit jobs to the NQE server directly from workstations or PCs. NQE
support for IBM RS6000, SGI IRIS, Hewlett Packard and DEC Alpha
workstations is scheduled for the first half of 1994. Pricing for a
10-server license is about $3,000 and includes an unlimited number
of clients.

Cray Research spokesperson Steve Conway told Newsbytes the
company doesn't have plans to develop end-user applications such
as word processing, spreadsheets or databases, but would develop
market-specific tools for database use.

"Our aim here is to market our software on systems even in
situations where they don't have any kind of supercomputer. Cray
Research has developed very strong software over the years. With the
convergence of workstations and PCs they need higher performance
software," he said.

Conway said that the company would concentrate on operating systems,
batch processing and network software, as well as industry- specific
applications "that might be used with popular databases."

(Jim Mallory/19931021/Press contact: Steve Conway, Cray Research,
612-683-7133)


(NEWS)(IBM)(LAX)(00027)

Photoshop Accelerator For Windows From Storm 10/21/93
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1993 OCT 21 (NB) -- To speed up
editing of photographs in Adobe's popular Photoshop 2.5 graphics
editing software for Windows, Storm Technology has announced a
hardware product with commonly used Photoshop functions built in.
Called accelerators, the new Storm hardware can help users whisk
through Photoshop tasks up to 10 times faster.

If a computer function can be programmed into the computer hardware,
it is always significantly faster than the same function performed
by software alone. Macintosh users have enjoyed hardware
acceleration of Photoshop functions for some time. Storm has been
making hardware accelerators, distributed by Supermac, for the
Macintosh version of Photoshop, but this is the first Windows-based
accelerator card.

The card is equipped with a dual American Telephone and Telegraph
(AT&T) Digital-Signal processor (DSPs). It's designed to perform the
most common Photoshop functions, such as Image Size, Rotate,
Gaussian Blur, Blur More, Motion Blur, Unsharp Mask, Sharpen Edges,
Sharpen More, Feather, and Despeckle.

Standard graphics accelerators have little effect with Photoshop,
according to Storm officials. The company said it designed the new
line of graphics accelerators for users of Intel 386 and mid-range
486 personal computers (PCs) with an industry standard architecture
(ISA) bus so users can get increased graphics performance out of
equipment they already own.

The Photodsp 400 is aimed at users who have Photoshop 2.5 already
and is retail priced at $399. The Photodsp 800 offers the same
hardware accelerator but includes a copy of Photoshop 2.5 for
Windows and is $899. Both packages are expected to ship December 1,
1993, the company said, and are available directly from Storm or
through its resellers.

Storm will show off its new Windows accelerators at the Seybold
Publishing Seminar in San Francisco this week along with Photoflash,
a Macintosh photographic enhancement software tool it developed for
distribution by Apple Computer.

(Linda Rohrbough/19931021/Press Contact: Marcello Wucher, Storm
Technology, tel [phone], fax [phone]; Public Contact,
Storm Technology, 800-275-5734)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00028)

LCI Joins Frame Relay Gold Rush 10/21/93
DUBLIN, OHIO, U.S.A., 1993 OCT 21 (NB) -- LCI International has
announced FramePlus, a frame relay service which extends into Canada
and to Tokyo, Japan. The service will be available at a variety of
speeds, from 56,000 bits/second to so-called "T-1" speeds of 1.544
million bits/second, and are being marketed for inking Local Area
Networks.

A number of companies are now active in the frame relay business,
seeing it as a natural successor to current leased lines, a multi-
billion dollar industry. Dataquest analyst Joe Noel estimated last
year that frame relay could be worth over $1 billion by 1995, saying
the early leader was WilTel.

LCI said that FramePlus also will support IBM's System Network
Architecture through dedicated permanent virtual circuits dedicated
specifically to that traffic. LCI said it will provide channelized
local access for SNA traffic to eliminate competition for bandwidth
from other LAN-based traffic.

FramePlus is available from every city in the United States plus
Tokyo and Windsor, London, Chattam and Toronto, Canada. DataFrame is
scheduled to be available in Europe in the first quarter of 1994.
The company's goal is to have FramePlus mirror the company's
international private line availability, the company said.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19931021/Press Contact: Scott Booth, LCI, 614-
798-6011)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LAX)(00029)

 ****Crowds Gather At Spectrum Shareholders Meeting 10/21/93
PASADENA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1993 OCT 21 (NB) -- Spectrum
Information Technologies, Incorporated held its annual shareholders
meeting last evening in at the Pasadena Civic Center in Pasadena,
California to crowds of 2,000 plus. The company's recent high
profile status in hiring former Apple chief executive officer (CEO)
John Sculley has placed its dismal financial past under close
scrutiny and interest on the part of stockholders was high.

Sculley was not present at the meeting, but called in from
Washington, D.C. to address shareholders. He said he was in the
nation's capital to address the National Forum on Wireless
Communications in Washington, D.C. as the keynote speaker on the
popular public-interest television network C-Span.

Peter Caserta, former CEO of Spectrum, who remains as company
president said he can still hardly believe that John Sculley has
accepted the leadership of the tiny company. There are only three
people in the US business industry who are recognized world-wide,
Lee Iacocca, Bill Gates, and John Sculley, Caserta said.

In telling about the "historic moment" when Sculley decided to
accept the company's leadership, Caserta said he saw an opportunity.
The Newton Messagepad, Apple's first personal digital assistant
(PDA), has been so widely criticized for poor handwriting
recognition as well as its lack of wireless communication ability,
and Spectrum's analog Axcell wireless cellular communication product
could change that.

A long time employee of Sculley's at Pepsi intervened for Caserta so
Sculley would take his call. A day or two later in a demonstration
Caserta gave Sculley at his Greenwich, Connecticut home, Sculley
wrote on his Newton, without translating the handwriting, and faxed
it to himself via a fax machine in another room using the Axcell
product and a cellular phone. When it worked, history was made, and
that Newton Messagepad is now hanging on the wall at the Spectrum
company headquarters in New York, Caserta quipped.

There were three reasons Caserta outlined as to why the Sculley deal
worked: the core technology actually worked, Sculley's vision and
that of Caserta for the industry were the same, and the chemistry
was right.

Spectrum hopes the number of mobile computers needing communication
abilities will equal the 100 million personal computers (PCs) the
company boasts are now connected via software over telephone lines
or on local area networks. The company said there are 80,000 mobile
computers now, but expects the numbers to reach the 100 million mark
in five years.

Sculley congratulated in his telephone address to the shareholders
Caserta on his foresight in getting key patents re-issued and in
negotiating deals with companies such as AT&T, NCR, IBM, and
Rockwell.

Much was made at the meeting of the Direct Connect patent, which
Spectrum says will allow it to miniaturize the Axcell technology
down to a single chip for use in mobile computers aimed at the
consumer market. Caserta said Spectrum is also investigating making
modems and performing cellular activation as part of its overall
business strategy. Caserta called Spectrum the "Microsoft of mobile
computing and the Intel of wireless communications."

Apollo 10 astronaut Tom Stafford, who is on the board of directors
of the company, was expected to attend the meeting, Caserta promised
shareholders, but Stafford never arrived.

Stockholders at the meeting were only allowed to submit questions in
writing beforehand and some complained loudly about not being able
to ask questions from the floor. The financial community has harshly
criticized Spectrum for its disreputable past business practices and
class action suits for insider trading are pending against the firm.
However, Spectrum officials assured stockholders the company was on
firm financial ground with good credit and money in the bank.

(Linda Rohrbough/19931021/Press Contact: Dae Chang, Spectrum
PR, tel [phone])


(NEWS)(APPLE)(LAX)(00030)

 ****Apple Tries To Up Sales W/ New Products, Price Cuts 10/21/93
CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1993 OCT 21 (NB) -- In a flurry of
announcements, Apple Computer has announced a new business strategy
along with price cuts on its computers and network cards, two new
Powerbook models, and two new printers.

Insiders at Apple told Newsbytes that the strategy is to meet
Apple's business plan, which requires a 50 percent increase in
product sales, a goal it fell short of in the last quarter with only
a 35 percent increase.

Apple's plan is now to aim the Macintosh LC computer at the
educational market, and the Quadra line at the business market,
according to Bill Keegan of Apple. The company is also cutting
prices, again to "smash the price barrier long associated with Apple
products."

Apple says that business users can now get a low-end Quadra for just
under $1,000. In addition, the Centris line has been folded into the
Quadra line and will no longer be a separate product line, Apple
said.

Nine new computers have been introduced: three new Performas, a
new LC, three new Quadras, and two new color Powerbook notebook
computers.

The new Performas are the 460 with a Motorola 68030 33 megahertz
(MHz) microprocessor, a 470 based on the Motorola 68040 25 MHz
microprocessor, and the 550 that has an all-in-one design, a compact
disc read-only memory (CD-ROM) drive, stereo sound, and a Sony
Trinitron color monitor.

The new Macintosh LC 475 offers a Motorola 68040 25 MHz
microprocessor and will be offered for $1,082 to schools who
qualify, Apple added. The model also complies with the EPA's Energy
Star Program.

Three new Quadras, the 605, 610, and 650, have been added and Apple
says the 610 and the 650 are revamped Centris models. Prices start
at $969, Apple said and some models are equipped with CD-ROM drives
and built in Ethernet connections for networking.

The new color Powerbook Duos make Apple the first to introduce 16-
bit color in a notebook computer and the first to introduce active
matrix color notebooks weighing less than 5 pounds. Apple also
boasts the notebooks offer 50 percent longer battery life than
former models.

The Apple Ethernet Nubus (NB) Twisted-Pair Card was also introduced
and prices were dropped on other networking products. The new card
offers a built-in 10-Base-T network port (RJ-45) and retails alone
for $179 or in a bundle with either a thin coax, twisted pair, or
AUI media adapter for $279.

Two new Laserwriter printers, the Select 360 and the Pro 810 can be
connected to both Macintosh and DOS/Windows networks. Both printers
also support Postscript Fax options for plain paper, network fax
capability. The 360 model is $1,599 and the Pro 810 model is $4,899.

As part of its new marketing strategy, Apple will eliminate the use
of the term "suggested retail price" (SRP) in its product
announcements, price lists, and advertising. SRPs from Apple have
traditionally been higher than the "street price" and Apple says
this is a move to more representative pricing.

Apple also appears to be eliminating volume discounts as it said it
will sell its products to customers for the same price, the
"Appleprice," whether its one unit or many. The company has also
announced it will begin television advertising to promote its
products.

(Linda Rohrbough/19931021/Press Contact: Bill Keegan, Apple
Computer, tel [phone], fax [phone])