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/nb101193

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(NEWS)(GENERAL)(HKG)(00001)

Hong Kong - EDS, Amdahl, Team Up To Unify Software 10/11/93
WANCHAI, HONG KONG, 1993, OCT 11 (NB) -- Electronic Data Services
(EDS) and Amdahl have formed the Antares Alliance Group (AAG), a
joint venture company that they plan will offer utility software
designed to create multi-platform applications.

The idea of the project is to foster an environment that will allow
developers to create software that bridges the desktop, mini and
mainframe computer environments. The eventual aim of the project is
to unify the currently disparate software markets.

According to EDS, the AAG's products will enable companies to
quickly and cost-effectively migrate their processing from
mainframes to powerful desktop computing services. Once applications
are written, users will be able to move them to different platforms,
including a wide range of client-server distributed computing
environments, with a minimum of coding changes.

"Consistent with our commitment to opens systems, this joint venture
will make it possible for companies to make use of proven software
technologies that work with the largest number of standard
platforms, operating systems, graphical user interfaces and data
base management systems available," explained Steve Leakey, EDS Asia
Pacific's director of marketing.

Plans call for AAG's products to encompass business and process
modelling, applications development tools, comprehensive re-
engineering, methodologies and modern data base technology. Apart
from allowing easy migration into client-server environments, the
company's products will also reduce the cost of maintaining and
enhancing information systems.

To preserve investments in existing data base management systems,
plans also call for AAG to use mainframes as servers that provide
applications with a variety of graphical user interfaces.

Amdahl's contribution to the venture is its Huron applications
development, production and maintenance system while EDS is
providing its InCASE data modelling and application building system
and its Cobol language conversion and business modelling tools.

The EDS and Amdahl laboratories which developed these products are
being transferred to Antares to pave the way for future software
development. Antares will market its products through original
equipment manufacturers, value-added resellers and other
distributors.

The products will also be available through Amdahl's direct sales
force and will be used by EDS business units to standardise their
software development efforts, as well as those of their customers.

(Keith Cameron/19931011/Press Contact: Steve Leakey (EDS): +852-
867-9888)


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

UK - Roadmap Software Express V3.0 Debuts 10/11/93
ASHFORD, MIDDLESEX, ENGLAND, 1993 OCT 11 (NB) -- Nextbase, the PC
mapping and route planning software specialist, has announced
Autoroute v3.0, an upgrade to its popular route planning package.

According to the company, v3.0 for Windows and DOS users, has a host
of new features, enhancements and additional map information, which
includes details of the locations of London's police cameras.

Simon Anthony, Nextbase's managing director, said that the new
version has a lot of exciting new features, "many of which have been
in direct response to feedback from our user base."

"The market for the product is continuously growing as more people
realise people realise the benefits that route planning can provide.
In fact, Autoroute Express is now used by more than 90 percent of
the Times top 500 companies and has a UK user base of just over
50,000," he said.

One of the most interesting and useful enhancements with the new
version of Autoroute, Newsbytes notes, is that when users start or
finish a journey, or call off at stop off points, the package now
takes them to the nearest road, not the nearest road junction.

Version 3.0 of Autoroute Express is due to ship later this month
with a UKP 99-95 price tag for the DOS version and UKP 149-95 for
the Windows version. As well as the usual UK versions, Newsbytes
notes that European, French, German and US versions of the software
are expected later this year.

Registered users of the DOS version will be allowed to upgrade for
UKP 30, while users of the Windows version can upgrade for UKP 50.
Registered users of Autoroute Express can upgrade to the new Windows
version for UKP 40.

Both the DOS and Window version of the package need a PC with 4
megabytes (MB) of hard disk place, a CGA or better screen, plus
mouse and Windows 3.1 in the case of the Windows version.

(Steve Gold/19931011/Press & Public Contact: Nextbase - Tel: +44-
784-421422; Fax: [phone])


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEL)(00003)

NIC Gets Indian Government's OK to Use Ku Band 10/11/93
NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1993 OCT 11 (NB) -- The National Informatics
Centre (NIC) of the Government of India, has been given permission
to use the Ku band transponders from Intelsat, the international
satellite communications organization.

The move means that NIC can switch from using its national satellite
linked network to service more than 456 district centers, to
Intelsat's satellite-based resources.

Terms of the agreement call for the Department of Telecommunications
(DOT) to provide three Ku band transponders on the INSAT-II C
satellite, which is scheduled for launch later this year, to the
NIC. This will make the organisation the first in the country to
experiment with using the Ku band.

Newsbytes notes that, to date, the NUC has been using the C band
transponder, which was available through Intelsat's satellite
network in the 1989/90 period, and which was later switched through
the INSAT series of satellites provided through the Indian Space
Research Organisation (ISRO).

According to the NIC, it will now be able to apply its knowledge of
the satellite transponder usage business to develop new competence
in the Ku band. This will allow the group to develop knowledge of
new technologies such as multimedia teleconferencing, electronic
mail and other value-added services.

NIC also claims that, as it gains experience in using the Ku band,
so private sector companies will be able to come to them for
satellite time on the satellites, rather than having to rely on the
Indian DOT for licensing of the C band network.

Newsbytes notes that Hughes Escort Communications (HEC) recently
requested a C band transponder licence to allow it to set up an
Indian national telecoms network, but the DOT turned the request
down.

The Ku band would offer some degree of relief to HEC in this
situation and, even if companies already use the C band, the Ku band
offers relief from the heavy network congestion that can occur on
the C band during peak times.

The only downside with using the Ku band is that, during rainstorms,
the signal would be attenuated by the rainwater in the air, as
happens to most microwave signals in the 10,000 million hertz
waveband.

(C T Mahabharat/19930811)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TYO)(00004)

Matsushita's VCR Joint Venture In China 10/11/93
TOKYO, JAPAN, 1993 OCT 11 (NB) -- Matsushita Electric has teamed up
with the Chinese government over the manufacture of VCR components.
Plans call for the two organizations to invest around Yen 10,000
million (about $100 million) each in the project.

Newsbytes notes that this would make Matsushita one of the largest
investors in a joint project of this type in China. Terms of the
agreement, Newsbytes understands, call for Matushita to link up with
around 10 Chinese companies, who will work to produce various VCR
components, including the cylinder motors and the recorder heads,
two items which require a high degree of technical expertise to
manufacture.

Plans call for the joint venture company to ship enough components
for around 1.5 million VCRs to be built by 1994. This should,
Newsbytes notes, be enough to cover demand for completed VCRs in
China -- currently, around two million VCRs are sold each year in
China, a figure that is increasing by around 30 percent per year.

Reports from China suggest that the project is being given a high
priority by the Government there. Matushita is no stranger to China
either, as the company is already involved in no less than nine
joint venture in the country, mainly operating through two
Chinese subsidiaries.

These businesses include Matsushita Electronics Industry's recent 5
billion-yen ($50 million) project to produce Braun tubes for TV
sets.

(Masayuki "Massey" Miyazawa/19931011/Press Contact: Matsushita
Electric, [phone], Fax, [phone])


(NEWS)(IBM)(SYD)(00005)

Isys Appoints New UK Distributor 10/11/93
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1993 OCT 11 (NB) -- Australian software
manufacturer Odyssey Development, publisher of the ISYS text
retrieval program, has appointed a new distributor in the UK,
Systematic Information Management, to handle the package.

Announcing the appointment, Odyssey MD Mark Reiss said: "The UK
market has always represented a major opportunity for us, but
because we have spent so much of our time and resources in the US,
this opportunity has largely gone unfulfilled."

"Systematic Information Management is part of the Systematic Upgrade
Group that distributes another text retrieval software package as
well as providing various imaging products and services. This is a
real coup for us because Systematic Upgrade is already familiar with
the UK text retrieval market and will be able to establish a
presence for Isys very quickly," he told Newsbytes.

Reiss added that Systematic Upgrade provides a number of corporate
information management solutions including software consultancy,
system design and data capture, plus a CD-Rom design and production
service.

The managing director of the company, Jacob John, said that Isys
combined power with simplicity "unlike other packages that charge
like wounded bulls but only provide limited additional functionality
with clumsy user interfaces."

(Paul Zucker/19931011/Contact: Odyssey Development on phone +61-2-
965 7250 or fax [phone])


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(BOS)(00006)

 ****"Yearn 2 Learn" - New Meaning To Interactivity On Mac, PC 10/11/93
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1993 OCT 11 (NB) -- "Interactive
multimedia means a whole lot more than just a panel of buttons,"
said Jim Myrick, vice president of marketing for Image Smith, a
Torrance, CA-based startup firm that is quickly giving new
definition to the field.

"Yearn 2 Learn: Peanuts," the company's first title, is taking the
children's educational multimedia market by lightning storm. Eight
months after its release in January, the Apple Macintosh version had
already landed in the top spot in the "Education" category on Baker
& Taylor's bestsellers list, edging out offerings from long-time
industry leaders.

"Peanuts" has now garnered a 1993 Editor's Choice award from
MacComputing magazine, a rave review from MacUser, and a five-star
rating from Compuserve Magazine.

At a meeting with Newsbytes in Boston, Myrick predicted that sales
of the newly released Windows version will be even higher than those
of the Mac edition, because of the PC's larger installed base. A
CD-ROM edition of "Peanuts" is now in the works, he added. Also
planned are new entries in the "Yearn 2 Learn" series, some to
spotlight Snoopy, Charlie Brown, and other individual members of the
Peanuts gang, and others to revolve around cartoon luminaries like
Felix the Cat and The Flintstones.

Myrick told Newsbytes that Image Smith is carving out a new niche
called "edutainment." The "Yearn 2 Learn" series is meant to give
three- to 10-year-olds the fun and excitement of a Nintendo game,
while at the same time teaching them math, reading, geography, and
other skills that will help them to get ahead in school and in
life, he explained.

"Peanuts" is dressed up in a bright red "Snoopy's doghouse" box. The
program opens with a Home Menu that is designed, like the rest of
the product, to be friendly and unintimidating to young kids. The
menu has seven buttons: one for a doghouse, one for audio volume
control, and one for each of five animated activities: Math Games,
Comic Strips, Geography Games, Coloring Book, and Flying Ace.

The five activities cover a wide range of ability levels, so the
software can be used by kids of different ages in the same
household, or even for years on end by the same child, Myrick said.

He claims that it's difficult for a child to "get lost" in
"Peanuts," since the doghouse button remains in the upper right-hand
corner throughout the program, eventually leading back to the Home
Menu. One of the goals behind "Peanuts" is to sharpen reading and
prereading skills. No reading is required, though, since voice
prompts are available throughout.

The Math Game in "Peanuts" can be set to easy, medium or hard,
Newsbytes was told. At each level, the child receives a "star"
for a correct answer and an "X" for an incorrect response.
The percentage of correct answers is automatically tallied and
shown on screen at the end of the game.

The easy level involves a game with the Woodstock character,
Myrick reported. As the game opens, Woodstock and a bunch of his
buddies begin jumping out of the bushes. Kids are asked to count
the number of cartoon characters they see, and to click on the
appropriate number on an Answer Bar.

At the medium level of the Math Game, kids practice addition and
subtraction by "going bowling" with Woodstock and Snoopy. At the
hard level, they use addition and simple multiplication to
calculate the total weight of small, medium and large pumpkins that
Linus hurls on to a scale.

Comic Strips presents a choice of five different Peanuts strips,
said Myrick. As the comic strips are rolled, the words are read
aloud and highlighted. The child can ask the story-teller voice to
repeat a word by clicking directly on the word, and ask for the
story to be retold by clicking on a Read It button. By hunting
with a mouse for "Hot Spots," kids can find hidden areas that
trigger special animation and sound effects. In one effect, for
instance, a ball is transformed from a volleyball to a soccer ball
to a basketball.

The Geography Game offers two levels of difficulty. At the easy
level, kids work at fitting cut-outs of the various US states into
a "puzzle map" of the entire country. At the hard level, they also
choose state names from a menu, and then click and drag the names
to the proper places on the map.

Coloring Book teaches colors and also lets kids practice judging
the sizes and shapes of objects. When a child chooses a color from
the Crayon Selection, the crayon will pop up, and a narrator will
speak the color's name, according to Myrick. Kids can also
designate the sizes of the crayons and erasers they will use.

Flying Ace is just for fun, the marketing vice president
acknowledged. The child flies Snoopy's doghouse across the screen,
trying to avoid obstacles. If an obstacle is struck, the Flying Ace
doghouse crashes and the game begins again.

If Myrick and the other founding principals of Image Smith are
breaking new ground now, this isn't the first time for any of them.
Image Smith was formed in 1992 by Dominique Claessens and Jake
Myrick, together with Jim Myrick. In the early 1980s, Claessens and
his father developed the "Aesthedes," the world's first commercially
available computer design system. In 1989, the Claessens sold the
system to Barco, a Belgian prepress vendor, for $50 million.

Jake Myrick, Image Smith's vice president of operations, went to
Japan to study with Koichi Omura, creator of the Toyo Links System,
after receiving a degree in journalism and broadcasting. Upon
returning to the US, he took computer graphics positions with
Aesthedes, Barco and Scitex. He now manages Image Smith's multimedia
lab and is responsible for packaging, graphics, and product
development.

Jim Myrick launched his own career in the late 1970s at the Xerox
labs in Rochester, NY. While their counterparts at Xerox in Palo
Alto, CA were concentrating on GUIs and the mouse, the folks in
Rochester were doing advanced work in color printing. Myrick later
made his way into CAD/CAM, computer art, and ultimately multimedia.

Before helping to form Image Smith, he co-founded Pixel Ink
Consultants, a computer graphics consulting firm that produced
the seminar series "Mac Services for the '90s" as well as the
"Trapping" interactive tutorial disk. At Image Smith, he
oversees licensing, marketing, public relations and advertising.

Image Smith is organized into production teams, much like the staff
of a motion picture company, Myrick informed Newsbytes. Each team
at Image Smith consists of a producer, a couple of graphic
designers, and a sound designer. Selected for their artistic
talent, the graphic designers work in Macromind Director on the
Mac, producing rapid prototypes that are later coded and compiled
by C programmers.

The language used in Macromind, "Lingo," is the fastest and most
robust language for interactive multimedia development, in Myrick's
view. "But Lingo can't be compiled," he noted.

Like the graphic designers, the sound designers also have highly
specialized skills, he added. "They know how to do things that
most of us never even think about - like how to produce the sound
of leaves rustling in the trees."

Stringent standards are set for Image Smith's "stars," as well,
according to Myrick. To begin with, the cartoon characters must be
highly recognizable, and approved of by just about everyone who
recognizes them. "On approval tests, Snoopy gets a 97% positive
rating, from two-year-olds all the way up to 99-year-olds," he
stated. Conversely, the Ninja Turtles, who bring mixed reactions,
are not on the drawing boards for Image Smith.

Beyond that, the stars must be "tried-and-true." A character, for
example, like Barney the singing dinosaur is simply too new on the
block to have passed the durability test, said Myrick. On the
other hand, Charlie Brown, Fred and Wilma Flintstone, and Felix the
Cat boast track records that stretch back 30 years or more.

"Yearn 2 Learn: Peanuts" is priced at $64.95. The Macintosh
version requires a color Mac, 11 MB of hard disk space, 4 MB of
RAM, System 6.07 or higher, and a 256-color monitor.

The PC version requires an 80386-based or better PC equipped with 4
megabytes (MB) of RAM and at least 12MB of free hard space. Other
requirements include Windows 3.1, and a 640 x 480 pixel display with
256 colors. Image Smith recommends Mediavision's Pro Audio Spectrum
or Creative Labs' Sound Blaster sound card. A video card from ATI,
Orchid, Headlands, Trident or Diamond is also recommended.

(Jacqueline Emigh/19931011/Reader contact: Jim Myrick, Image Smith,
tel [phone]; Press contact: Patti Kemp, S & S Public Relations
for Image Smith, tel [phone])


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(SYD)(00007)

Australia - UPS Uses PCs To Track Parcels 10/11/93
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1993 OCT 11 (NB) -- United Parcel Services (UPS),
the international courier company, is a relative newcomer to the
Australian market-place. To make sure it carves out a niche for
itself, the company has introduced a PC-accessible system which
allows exporters and importers to learn the location of their
parcels within 20 seconds.

The service, MaxiTrac, allows customers to interrogate UPS'
international network, UPSNet 24 hours a day for the cost of a local
call (around US13c) even though the system is maintained in the US
and the interrogation is made directly from that system.

Announcing the system, the company's national sales and marketing
manager, Rocky Wood, said: "Each customer has an identification
number allowing access to the network. Individual levels of security
can be built-in, including password protection for specific
shipments."

Wood explained that customers need only dial the UPS system using a
PC and modem, enter their ID number followed by the parcel's
tracking number, and the information will be retrieved within three
seconds.

"This (information) includes the point of origin and time of
departure of the parcel as well as times and destinations of each
parcel scan along the route," he said. (UPS parcels are scanned at
various points as they are in transit, for the very purpose of
tracing, if necessary.)

Wood added that customers can learn why parcels have been delayed,
with reason such as customs or international authorities requiring
more paperwork, and when they have been delivered, the name of the
parcel's signatory.

"Because this gives access to exactly the same information that our
operators have, we avoid many telephone calls," he told Newsbytes.

(Paul Zucker/19931011/Contact: Rocky Wood at UPS on phone +61-2-667
1333)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(ATL)(00008)

Fujitsu's Latest Pen-Based System 10/11/93
SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1993 OCT 11 (NB) -- Fujitsu has all
but made the Poqet Computer name disappear in the US by announcing
the PadPlus RF, a pen-based computer with wireless communications
built-in. Newsbytes notes that Fujitsu had bankrolled Poqet Computer
and later bought the whole company. Its previous offerings in the US
carried the Poqet name.

The PadPlus RF incorporates the Proxim RangeLAN wireless adapter and
radio inside the computer, with a retractable antenna in the upper
left corner. The company said it is just the first of a new family
of integrated wireless computers. RangeLAN sends data quickly for
short distances on shared frequencies that don't require a separate
FCC license, much like the frequencies used by cordless phones.

The PadPlus RF can send data up to 300 feet using what's called
spread spectrum technology, which sends data over a wide spectrum of
frequencies to minimize interference. The PadPlus RF has a maximum
burst rate of 242,000 bits/second on three channels. The system
includes error correcting hardware and firmware designed to re-
transmit undelivered data.

The computer itself is, like the pen-based systems announced in
1992, a "full-screen" unit, measuring 10 inches by 4.6 inches,
roughly 26 cm. x 12 cm. It also has an "on-demand" back lighting
capability and is based on the NEC V30 chip running at 16 MHz.

The pocket PC tips the scales at around two pounds, and can run for
between two and four hours on a set of rechargable batteries. It
also features a PCMCIA expansion slot, a serial connector, an
infrared link, and a keyboard. It can work with Novell Netware and
Netware Lite, with preliminary pricing set at $2,449.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19931011/Press Contact: Fujitsu Personal Systems
Bill Wittmann, 408/982-9500)


(NEWS)(IBM)(TOR)(00009)

Western Union Updates Mail Software 10/11/93
UPPER SADDLE RIVER, NEW JERSEY, U.S.A., 1993 OCT 11 (NB) -- Western
Union Priority Services has updated its DeskMail 2.0 software,
adding the ability to run under Microsoft Windows and support for
local-area networks (LANs).

The DeskMail software is used to create and send Mailgrams and other
Western Union messages from a personal computer. It runs on IBM PC
and compatible machines, with at least 512K of memory, DOS 2.0 or
higher, a 9,600 bits per second (bps) or faster Hayes-compatible
modem, and at least one diskette drive.

The software can send single messages plus broadcast messages to
a list of recipients. Options include one- or two-day delivery,
letters with signature or logos added, certified mail, and
enclosure of business reply envelopes.

The first version of DeskMail was released in February, a spokesman
for the company said. The major changes in the new release are
Windows and LAN support, he said. The new release also lets users
import text from various word processing programs and address lists
from database packages.

The retail price of the software is $39.95 per node.

(Grant Buckler/19931011/Press Contact: Jean Stritt, Western Union
Priority Services, 201-818-5843; Phil Hall, G.S. Schwartz & Co. for
Western Union, 212-696-4744)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00010)

Wordperfect Developer Program 10/11/93
OREM, UTAH, U.S.A., 1993 OCT 11 (NB) -- Wordperfect Corporation has
announced a new third-party developer program it says is designed to
encourage hardware manufacturers and software developers to
integrate their products with Wordperfect's products.

Mark Calkins, Wordperfect VP of corporate and strategic marketing,
explained that such partnerships often lead to innovative solutions.

"Strategic partnering between Wordperfect Corporation and third-
party developers combines vendor technologies with in-house
development, ultimately bringing better product solutions to our
customers," he said.

The developer program is part of Wordperfect's three-pronged
Wordperfect Information Systems Environment (WISE) strategy
announced last year. The other two elements of the plan are to
devote development resources to open architecture technologies and
to provide open application program interfaces (APIs) in order to
encourage tighter third-party integration with Wordperfect
Corporation partners.

The program has three levels -- Associate, Registered and Premier.
The Associate level is for individual developers or companies that
have a general interest in supporting Wordperfect Corporation
software. Associates will have access to current technology and
developer trend information, and faster integration with Wordperfect
software through integration tools, software developer kits (SDKs),
on-line support, and development training. There is no cost to
become an Associate.

The Registered level is for companies that demonstrate what
Wordperfect calls "significant efforts" to produce and market
products that address one or more aspects of the WISE strategy. For
their $150 fee Registered Developers will get the same benefits as
Associates, use of the "Working With Wordperfect" logo, and a
listing in Wordperfect Corporation's bi-annual Solutions Guide and
Wordperfect Magazine's semi-annual product directory.

WPCorp spokesperson Deborah Hendrickson told Newsbytes the company
has a database of companies that have expressed an interest in
working with it, and a mailing has gone out to those parties
explaining the program and the level of commitment required.

To become a Premier developer, a company or individual has to commit
to very close integration with Wordperfect Corp software. WP says
the product developed "must be a market leader, introduce innovative
technology, promise wide visibility, or provide a solution for
WPCorp software users. The company says it will select up to 50
Premier developers, who will have direct contact with WPCorp through
an assigned account manager and one-on-one assistance from developer
support programmers.

Twenty-eight Premier developers have already been selected,
including Calera, Capsoft, Dragon Systems, HP Boise, HP Greeley,
IBM, PC DOCS, Simplify, and West Publishing. Those companies
participated in the announcement of the developer program made at
Networld 93 in Dallas recently.

(Jim Mallory/19931011/Press contact: Deborah Hendrickson,
Wordperfect Corporation, 801-228-5022; Reader contact: Wordperfect -
801-228-5000, fax [phone])


(NEWS)(TRENDS)(WAS)(00011)

Franklin Digital Book Carries Allen-Bradley Company Data 10/11/93
MT. HOLLEY, NEW JERSEY, U.S.A., 1993 OCT 11 (NB) -- Expanding beyond
the consumer market for its electronic bibles and multi-lingual
dictionaries, the Franklin Electronic Publishers Digital Book System
(DBS-2) reader is being used by industrial automation equipment
giant Allen-Bradley.

At Allen-Bradley, which Newsbytes notes is a subsidiary of Rockwell
International, the DBS-2 system is being used to provide reps and
distributors to carry the equivalent of 1,000 pages of data on a
single half-ounce IC-ROM Digital Book.

Mindy Fendrick of Franklin told Newsbytes that although the company
had published the Allen-Bradley data on IC-ROM for that company,
there would soon be a developer's authoring kit available which
would allow businesses to publish their own IC-ROMs if they had
sensitive or proprietary data they wished to include.

Consumer versions of the Digital Book priced at $100 are already
on the market along with a number of general interest titles.

PocketView matchbook-size cartridges can be accessed and even
written to by PCs through a serial port built into the Digital
Book DBS-2 reader and special technology built into the
cartridges themselves.

In the case of the Allen-Bradley application, the PocketView
cartridge contains catalog specifications of all Allen-Bradley
sensors, along with illustrations of more than 200 sensors and
actuators, along with wiring diagrams for most of the company's
proximity devices and programmable controllers.

Built-in search software lets Digital Book users easily locate
the appropriate products based on several criteria.

The Franklin device is a competitor of portable CD-ROM and mini-
disk players which cost much more and have battery lives measured
in a few hours. Battery life for the Digital Book is nearly 60
hours - the equivalent of several months normal use.

With a capacity of more than 200 megabytes, the IC-ROM cards used by
Digital Books can store a massive amount of text as well as sounds
and still or motion graphics.

(John McCormick/19931011/Press Contact: Mindy Fendrick, Franklin,
609-261-4800)


(NEWS)(TRENDS)(BOS)(00012)

US Office Supply Superstore Market Narrows Down To Three 10/11/93
NORWELL, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1993 OCT 11 (NB) -- After a rash of
growth that resulted in the rise of 17 different chains in the mid-
1980s, the office supply superstore industry has consolidated to
three major players, according to a new study by BIS Strategic
Decisions.

Office Depot, OfficeMax, and Staples have succeeded in shaking out
their competition by adding new store locations at a rapid rate, the
researchers concluded.

The three top players also pursue policies of catering to home
offices and businesses with less than 20 employees, offering
convenient hours and locations, providing broad product and vendor
selection, and presenting pricing that is 20 to 70 percent less than
retail.

The leading superstores have widened their product lines to include
fax machines, personal copiers, and impact printers, and have also
contributed to increased sales for these products. Another recent
study by BIS reported that end users consider superstores to be a
major source for fax paper, printer ribbons, and transparencies.

All three major chains also participate in private labeling, the
superstore survey showed. The superstores explained that private-
labeled products tend to increase market awareness for the stores.
Privately labeled products range from paper clips to copy paper
and from tape to rubber bands.

Office Depot has followed strict policies of aggressive expansion
and market saturation to become the number one office supply
superstore chain in the US, according to BIS. The chain now boasts
310 sites in over 33 states. Another 13 Office Depot stores can be
found in four Canadian provinces.

OfficeMax, a chain that opened its first store just over five years
ago, has grown organically, launching 132 stores on its own, as well
as acquiring the 105-store BizMart chain, 46-store OW Office
Warehouse company, the seven-store Office World chain, and the five-
store Office Square chain. A merger with Kmart has propelled
OfficeMax into the number two spot in the office supply superstore
arena.

According to the report, Staples, the oldest and third largest
superstore chain, has stayed focused on its original goal of
becoming a market leader through market saturation. Staples expects
to open another 45 to 60 stores per year over the next few years,
according to BIS.

Smaller chains like Office America, Arvey Paper, and Office Products
still exist, but the shakeout in office supply superstores is
winding down, explained Cathy Martin, consultant for BIS Strategic
Decisions' Hard Copy Supplies Advisory Service.

Superstores began to appear on the scene seven years ago, and by
1992 had already evolved into a $10.2 billion business, the
researchers said. Revenues for 1996 are projected at $14.1 billion.

Now, large superstores are looking beyond their traditional markets
for new opportunities. "The future shows superstores becoming more
and more like contract stationers, in addition to retaining their
original, highly successful retail business. Larger accounts give
superstores the chance to cover all the bases, since they are
already effectively handling smaller customers," noted Martin.

Some of the superstore chains are looking into secondary markets,
able to sustain only two to three stores, because most of the
primary markets in the US are saturated. Also in the future, mass
merchants may become more involved in superstores, as exemplified by
Kmart's 92% interest in OfficeMax, the study indicated.

(Jacqueline Emigh/19931011/Press and reader contact: BIS Strategic
Decisions, tel [phone])


(NEWS)(IBM)(LAX)(00013)

Windows Data Encryption/Security With Folderbolt 10/11/93
HOUSTON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1993 OCT 11 (NB) -- Twenty-five percent of
the companies in a recent Ernest & Young survey said they have lost
significant amounts of money due to computer security problems. In
recognition of the problem, Kent/Marsh Limited has released
Folderbolt, a data security product for the Microsoft Windows
environment which the company claims is like putting your data in
Fort Knox.

According to Vance Nesbitt of Kent/Marsh, data encryption has been a
two-edged sword to date. "Data that is important enough to be
rigorously protected is also data that is important to have access
to," he said. "This is a problem that has kept many computer
companies from pursuing computer security."

While networks offer security from other users on the network, just
about anyone can walk up to individual computers and gain access.
The Ernest & Young survey said many copies have lost as much as
$100,000 and ten companies in their survey estimated losses of $1
million or more due to computer security. A startling 35 percent of
the data loss that cost companies dearly was done by disgruntled
employees, the survey stated.

Folderbolt is designed for those individual computers that are
accessed occasionally by other users, or computers to which
public access is necessary. The product claims to offer security at
the folder (or directory) level.

For example, users have the option of allowing read-only access, so
folders can be viewed but not copied, altered, or deleted. Or a
"drop folder" option allows creation of private directories that
anyone can copy or save into, but only an authorized user can access
or delete.

The company claims that data encryption is also available with the
Triple Data Encryption Standard (DES), an American National
Standards Institute (ANSI) scheme. Triple DES, Newsbytes notes, is
the newest and most rigorous secret key cipher engine available for
PCs.

The company also claims that Folderbolt is the first PC software of
its type to incorporate the Triple DES engine. The package also
offers four other data encryption algorithms. Folderbolt meets the
criteria for C2 Level Trusted Systems requirements as set out by the
Department of Energy, company officials added.

Folderbolt also offers a "strongbox" option, which allows users to
send encrypted data to anyone and have them unlock it using the
proper code key, even if they do not have Folderbolt. Users can also
choose between administrative override capability or the "no-back-
door" approach that makes the files safeguarded from access. The
product is aimed at single computers as networks usually offer can
be configured for the single user or for use on a network.

An administrative disk comes with each copy of the product that
records all the key codes, so if a key code is forgotten or a
employee locks out critical data that needs to be accessed, the
administrative program can be used to access the data. In severe
circumstances, registered users can go back to Kent/Marsh and get a
special program just for their serial number copy of the product
that will also allow access, Nesbitt said.

Folderbolt for Windows is compatible with Microsoft Windows 3.1 and
MS-DOS 6.0. Retail price on the package has been set at $99 and the
company provides a 30 day money-back guarantee. Unlimited telephone
support is also included.

Kent/Marsh was established in 1985 and claims it has 40 percent of
the Macintosh security software market. This is the company's first
Windows-based software product and it is available through most
major software resellers.

(Linda Rohrbough/19931011/Press Contact: Melissa Rabin, S&S PR
for Kent/Marsh, tel [phone], fax [phone]; Public
Contact, Vance Nesbitt, Kent/Marsh, 800-325-3587)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(HKG)(00014)

Clinton's Export Control Relaxation Welcomed in Asia 10/11/93
CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1993 OCT 11 (NB) -- Following accolades from
industry leaders such as Digital CEO Robert B. Palmer, concerned
information technology (IT) watchers in Hongkong rested easy with
the news that President Clinton had relaxed the export control
regulations affecting computers.

In Hong Kong particularly there have been grave fears among IT
industry leaders for a number of years as to what the US attitude
would be to the territory when it returns to Chinese sovereignty in
1997. Hong Kong has the most sophisticated fully digital telephone
network in the world and the territory's life blood is manufacturing
and trading, both activities which demand the use of sophisticated
technology.

It was feared that any inhibition of the use of the latest
technology by either the USA or COCOM after 1997 would have
seriously crippled the business community.

In addition, many Hong Kong companies, including Digital's regional
operation, are endeavouring to open up new markets in Vietnam and
neighboring countries which were subject to extremely strict US
export controls. This announcement is seen as the start of a new
phase in regional expansion.

Government spokesman Robert Palmer who appeared at the White House
press conference, is quoted as saying: "President Clinton hit a home
run today." Today, no-one in Hongkong would argue with him.

(Keith Cameron 19931011)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(BOS)(00015)

Cascade Gets $5M In Funding, Expands Broadband Business 10/11/93
WESTFORD, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1993 OCT 11 (NB) -- With its frame
relay switches in increasing use, and a new "hybrid" frame
relay/asynchronous transport mode (ATM) switch slated to ship within
the next month, Cascade Communications is dramatically stepping up
sales, engineering, distribution, and related business activities.

Capital investors have supplied an additional $5 million dollars to
support the broadband switch provider's rapid growth, the company
has announced.

Cascade has expanded the engineering, customer support, sales
support and marketing staff at its Westford, MA headquarters, added
to its sales resources in Europe, as well as opening new sales
offices in Washington, DC, Dallas, TX, and Seattle, WA. The vendor
has also signed a distributor agreement with Red Uno, a leading
network equipment supplier in Mexico.

Cascade's staff has mushroomed from about a dozen employees just 18
months ago, to a total of 70 today, and is expected to double that
number by 1994, officials said. Annual revenues for the privately
held firm multiplied ten times over from 1992 to 1993, to a figure
in the "high seven digits." Revenues for 1994 are projected to
triple those of 1993.

"The demand for Cascade's products from both public network carriers
(and) private end user network customers has caused dramatic growth.
We are on a faster track than originally planned, skipping over many
of the typical growth states of a company," explained Dan Smith,
president and CEO, in announcing the expansion and new funding.

Private network providers have created demand for both the
company's new STDX 3000/6000 family of frame relay switches and the
upcoming B-STDX 9000 multiservice switch, according to Cascade.
Meanwhile, public networks are interested in the B-STDX as an
intelligent "access switch," or feeder node, into telephone company
central offices.

Fully compatible with the STDX 3000 and 6000, the B-STDX is designed
to provide seamless migration and interoperability between frame
relay, ATM and switched multimegabit data service (SMDS) by allowing
any combination of the three types of broadband switching to be
performed in the same box.

Frame relay is aimed at reducing costs by permitting high-speed
transmission of computer data over shared circuits. The even faster
but still emerging technologies of ATM and SMDS make it possible for
voice and video as well as data to be sent over shared circuits.

The regional private line carrier PacNET has already built a frame
relay network based on Cascade's STDX, as have Intermedia
Communications (ICI), a competitive access provider, and Performance
Systems International (PSI), according to Cascade. PSI's InterFrame,
a frame relay network billed as the largest in the world, is based
on 30 Cascade STDX frame relay switches and connects to more than
3,500 locations.

Cascade's installed customer base also includes interexchange
carriers, regional Bell operating companies, Europeans PTTs (public
telephone companies), and large end-users. Aside from the US and
Mexico, the company distributes in such countries as Australia,
Belgium, Canada, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Switzerland,
Taiwan, and the United Kingdom.

Sources for the $5 million in new funding include Cascade's long-
term capital investors: Advent International, Bessemer Venture
Partners, Charles River Partnership, Matrix Partners, and Sigma
Partners.

(Jacqueline Emigh/19931011/Reader contact: Cascade, tel 508-692-
2600; Press contacts: Joyce Radnor, Cascade, tel [phone], ext
257; Joann Anderson, Copithorne & Bellows for Cascade, tel 617-252-
0606)


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

International Phone Update 10/11/93
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1993 OCT 11 (NB) -- For the second time in
a year, voters have put the brakes on a move to privatize a state-
owned phone company.

Greek voters gave a strong parliamentary majority to that country's
Socialist Party, known as PASOK, which had promised to stop the
privatization of the nation's OTE telephone unit. The ruling
conservatives were also hurt by a scandal involving the reported
tapping of opponents' phones.

But the conservatives were also in the process of selling 35 percent
of OTE, as well as operating control, to one of six foreign phone
companies, some of them state-owned, and that will now be rolled
back. Last December, voters in Uruguay rejected a move to sell their
Antel phone unit by a 2-1 margin.

And that may be a key concept. Voters, especially the poor, can
often be persuaded that state-owned enterprises belong to them. This
is especially true in Brazil, which is under international pressure
to sell-off its Telebras unit, but where every move to do the deed
quickly is denied in the press. Analysts feel that politicians must
deal with this proprietary attitude among voters toward state-owned
businesses before sell-offs can go much further.

Mexico is often held-out as the prime example of privatization's
benefits, and it's usually followed by moves to end monopolies.
Capital from the sale, and new capital from the end of the monopoly,
sparked an economic boom in Mexico.

Bell Atlantic of the US, which watched Southwestern Bell draw huge
profits from buying 11 percent of TelMex, the formerly state-owned
phone firm there, agreed October 11 to buy 23 percent of Iusacell, a
private cellular firm which competes with TelMex, for about $1
billion.

Other US firms are also looking to Mexico, as TelMex' monopoly is
due to expire in 1996. Keeping a monopoly for a limited time is
often seen as a pre-condition to a successful privitization, because
it allows the foreign firm to earn a profit while it's making
necessary improvements to a network.

In Singapore, the dangers of privitization are minimal, since most
citizens have the money to buy a few shares. But the government is
still moving slowly to privatize Singapore Telecom, since a quick
sell-off could sink that nation's stock market. The offering of the
first 8 percent of ST, about 1.1 billion shares, is set for October
12, and the money market was reportedly flush with cash in
anticipation.

None of the dangers, obviously, are causing western firms to back-
away from telephone infrastructure investments in the developing
world. Millicom reported that AT&T will support its bid to take
a nationwide cellular license in Egypt, which is choosing among
seven bidders for the license.

The Egyptian system will be a digital system under the GSM standard,
allowing for international roaming. It's the second bid to be
supported by AT&T, which is keen to sell equipment for such a
network. All this is happening despite a growing guerrilla war by
Fundamentalist Moslems against the government of President Hosni
Mubarak. AT&T is reportedly also talking with Millicom about joining
other international cellular bids.

Elsewhere, Elcotel of the US sold $1.6 million in "upgrade kits" to
the Guatemala Telephone Co., or Guatel, which will use them to start
upgrading public pay phones in the country. Northern Telecom
announced another major order for equipment in China and joined AT&T
in calling for an end to restrictions on high technology exports to
that nation.

Like AT&T, Northern also has ventures in China to design and make
components. Japan's Export-Import bank extended a $200 million
credit to Rostelecom, which is building a network linking Moscow
with Khabarovsk in its Far East -- Japan is vitally interested in
exploiting Siberia's raw materials. And finally, both Motorola and
Loral joined in seeking a quick decision on their competing low-
Earth orbit satellite communications systems, so they can have
spectrum as soon as their systems are launched.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19931011/Press Contact: Millicom, J. Shelby
Bryan, 212/355-3440; Elcotel, Tracey Gray, 813/758-0389)


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

DataTimes Offers Same Day Alerts 10/11/93
OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA, U.S.A., 1993 OCT 11 (NB) -- DataTimes is
now offering stored searches of 30 regional newspapers, delivered
online or by fax. The new service is called Same Day News Alert. The
company plans to expand the service quickly to the over 100
newspapers on its database, and to other newspapers as they come
online with it. There are no additional charges for receiving Same
Day News Alert articles.

Spokesman John Buckman discussed the new offering with Newsbytes.

"Our niche is regional business news. No one else offers same day
access of regional business news. I live in Pittsburgh, and if you
were following Heinz you could find stories from Pittsburgh's papers
on it," -- stories no other service would have, he said.

"We add new papers to Data Times almost every week. I don't even
release them anymore. And we'll add more of our current roster to
this offering," he added. "Some papers are exclusive, and some are
on our competitors. It all depends on contractural arrangements.
The one limit on the use of DataTimes material is it's not available
for re-publication," he told Newsbytes.

Buckman explained that, while contracts with content providers
differentiated services in the 1980s, today database providers must
find new ways to reach customers. We find the future as not
delivering news through a computer but through a myriad of forms --
like fax-back, FM sideband, and so forth.

"Every publisher is looking to leverage the value of their content,
and every service is looking to leverage the value of their
service," he explained. For example, "We supply Dow Jones with a
number of our newspapers, so parts of Dow Jones News Retrieval are
coming from us, although the customer doesn't know it. There's more
and more gateways. And perhaps someday we'll all feed the
Internet."

Buckman gave some examples of the other methods DataTimes is now
using to reach its customers. "We have a two-way gateway to Dow
Jones, and we have a clips mechanism with them. We recently added a
new service called PASSport, for Personalized Automated Search
Service, a fax-based service with automatic searching. That fax-
backs to your office daily or weekly with synopses," and full-text
is then available through a toll-free call. "The purpose is to reach
a business executive, by-passing the computer.

"We've also started what we call in-house searching. You can call an
800 number and we have searchers on-staff. They can fax back, send
by Fed-Ex, etc. It's removing the need for computers. Senior
executives still don't use computers."

DataTimes offers electronic access to more than 2,500 newspapers,
magazines, broadcast transcripts and financial databases from
hundreds of US metropolitan areas and major international business
markets. Newsbytes is among the services offered. The company scans
many of its information sources, distributing customized information
packets via fax or into internal company computer systems.

DataTimes is largely owned by The Oklahoma Publishing Company.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19931011/Press Contact: Buckman Communications,
John Buckman, 412/471-6348; Customer Contact: 800/642-2525 or
405/751-6400)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00018)

Canadian Product Launch Update 10/11/93
TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1993 OCT 11 (NB) -- This regular feature,
appearing every Monday or Tuesday, provides further details for the
Canadian market on announcements by international companies that
Newsbytes has already covered. This week: a list of announcements
from Microsoft Canada.

Microsoft Canada brought the Microsoft Home brand (Newsbytes, Oct.
1) to Canada, and announced eight initial products in the new home-
software line.

In Canada, Microsoft Works for Windows 3.0 is due to be available in
November, packaged with Microsoft Money 2.0, at an introductory
retail price of C$115 until January 31. The retail price after that
will be C$269.95, Microsoft said. Instead of a special upgrade
price, Microsoft is offering users of Works for MS-DOS or Works for
Windows 2.0 a C$10 rebate when they buy the new software.

Microsoft Publisher 2.0 on CD-ROM (compact disc - read only memory)
is due to be available in October, priced at C$189.95 until Dec. 31
and C$269.95 thereafter. It comes with the Special Occasions Design
Pack, which is also available on its own, on diskette, for C$64.95
until Dec. 31, C$89.95 thereafter.

Microsoft's Encarta Multimedia Encylopedia 1994 Edition will retail
for C$129.95 from October through Dec. 31, and for C$529.95 in the
new year.

Cinemania '94 is due to be available in October at a list price of
C$99.95. Microsoft Art Gallery is to be available this fall for
C$99.95. Flight Simulator 5.0 is available now for C$89.95, and the
New York and Paris scenery packs are C$54.95 each.

Microsoft Canada also unveiled a new release of Windows for
Workgroups (Newsbytes, Oct. 5). The company said that WFW 3.11 will
have a suggested retail price of C$339.95 but will be introduced at
C$299.95 for the first 90 days.

(Grant Buckler/19931011/Press Contact: Linda Carnell or Marc Camm,
Microsoft Canada, 905-568-0434, fax [phone])


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00019)

DEC Client/Server Announcement Expected 10/11/93
MAYNARD, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1993 OCT 11 (NB) -- Digital
Equipment is expected to make a strategic announcement Tuesday
involving new products and plans to take the company further into
client/server computing.

Digital has scheduled announcements in the United States and Canada
and invited reporters and major customers. Some industry analysts
have reportedly already been briefed on the announcement.

DEC is expected to announce a number of new hardware and software
products, including an entry into the integrated work-group software
market.

In a mid-September speech to industry analysts and consultants in
Boston, Robert Palmer, DEC's president and chief executive, said
putting together complex systems for customers will be an
increasingly important part of his company's business.

"Only a broad-based company like Digital ... can truly succeed in
providing global, large scale client/server computing solutions that
actually work," he said.

Palmer also said that Digital wants to establish its Alpha AXP
hardware architecture as the "platform of choice" for client/server
computing.

"Open client/server computing is at the very heart of what
Digital is all about," he said, adding that this direction means
the company will be "leaving proprietariness behind."

Palmer said that DEC will rely on partnerships with other vendors
where necessary to compete in the client/server market.

Peter Kastner, vice-president of The Aberdeen Group in Boston, said
that the client/server direction holds promise for DEC. "Digital has
always had good communications," he said, and "commercial users are
seeking the tools and the services as well as hardware to put
together client/server applications."

(Grant Buckler/19931011)


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

 ****Dell Recalls Faulty Notebook PCs 10/11/93
AUSTIN TEXAS, U.S.A., 1993 OCT 11 (NB) -- Dell Computer Corporation
has announced the recall of 17,000 discontinued 320SLi and 325SLi
notebook computers because of a faulty part that, under certain
circumstances, could cause a fire.

The company said its engineers have determined that a capacitor on
the motherboard of both models might crack under physical stress.
If that happens, the capacitor might overheat and cause a fire. Dell
spokesperson Roger Rydell told Newsbytes the problem came to light
when a user thought he detected smoke from the computer. Two other
users have noticed melted plastic in their computers.

Rydell said he only knows of the problem happening on those three
machines, and the company has been unable to replicate the problem
in the lab. However, due to the safety aspect the problem Dell is
immediately recalling both models. Registered owners are being
notified by registered mail.

Owners of either model should return their machines to Dell so
repairs can be made. Turnaround time will depend on how many owners
return their units. Rydell said that at a cost of $70 per unit Dell
could spend as much as $2 million to make repairs.

Rydell told Newsbytes Dell is dedicated to the quality of its
products. "If we find a problem we do what's right. We hope that
will indicate to people how committed we are to safety and product
quality," he said.

To return one of the computers owners should contact Dell on their
toll free number between the hours of 8AM and 6PM CDT. Special
customer services representatives are available to arrange the
returns and answer questions.

(Jim Mallory/19931011/Press contact: Roger Rydell, Dell Computer,
512-728-4100; Reader contact for return: 800-847-4171)


(NEWS)(IBM)(DEN)(00021)

Patent Info Now On CD-ROM 10/11/93
ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1993 OCT 11 (NB) -- If you think you
have invented that better mousetrap the world has been waiting for,
you might want to check a new CD-ROM before going to the trouble of
seeking a patent.

Patent Scan is a collection of US patent information stored on a CD-
ROM disk published by Rapid Patent. The disk contains more than 1.7
million patent records searchable by using the included query
screen.

Rapid Patent President Michael Toohey says Patent Scan is cost
effective. According to Toohey, if you conduct a patent search
through one of the online services it will cost $50 to $60 for each
search. On the other hand, he notes, you can buy the current year
standard version of Patent Scan for $995, get information on 1.7
million patent records covering the past 20 years, and get a monthly
update disk.

If you buy the standard version and the monthly update service, the
suggested retail price is $1,695. Rapid Patent also offers Patent
Scan Plus, a 10 disk CD-ROM set that contains the text of abstracts
and claims from 1974 to 1993.

Each CD-ROM contains two years of data, allowing users to purchase
just the years they are interested in or the entire set. Patent Scan
Plus will have a suggested retail price of $5,000 for the complete
set or $500 per two-year disk. Patent Scan is scheduled to ship in
January 1994.

(Jim Mallory/19931011/Press contact: Toni Silva, Neva Group for
Rapid Patent, 617-576-5747; Reader contact: Rapid Patent, 800-336-
5010 or 703-413-5050, fax [phone])


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

QVC Gaining Upper Hand In Paramount War 10/11/93
NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1993 OCT 11 (NB) -- QVC Network, with
its allies, seems to be outmanoeuvring Viacom in their battle for
Paramount Communications Inc. Today has seen Paramount's board
agreeing to open talks with QVC on a possible merger, while saying
it still intended to proceed with its acquisition by Viacom.

QVC's stock-and-cash proposal is worth far more than the Viacom
offer Paramount's board had accepted. But QVC has shown Paramount
its financing for the proposed deal is sound, and has been lining up
additional backers.

Most important, perhaps, was the announced merger of Liberty Media,
a big holder in QVC, with Tele-Communications, its erstwhile parent.
That would bring the huge bankroll of TCI chairman John Malone
directly into the fray. QVC is also reportedly talking with both
BellSouth, the regional Bell for the Southeast, and Cox Enterprises,
which earlier had supposedly been talking with Viacom.

During the last week, Viacom did win some new allies, namely Nynex
and Blockbuster Entertainment. Between them they invested $1.8
billion which could be used to sweeten its bid for Paramount. But
QVC's present bid is $2.1 billion higher, and many analysts
have criticized the Nynex deal, saying the regional phone company
for the northeast paid too much and got too little from Viacom head
Sumner Redstone.

Redstone also said after the Nynex agreement that he would not
dicker with other regional Bells, like Southwestern Bell, Ameritech
and BellSouth, so if they want in QVC is their only option.

Redstone also entered the courts in pursuit of Paramount, filing a
suit charging that TCI head Malone is trying to monopolize the cable
programming and delivery business. But Malone obviously has no fear
of that issue -- he agreed to buy-out Liberty Media after the suit
was filed. Redstone has also been telling the media that he won't
raise his bid, saying it offers better value than a "merger with a
shopping channel." But most analysts discounted that talk, noting
that Paramount's board has a duty to shareholders to take a higher
bid.

The original merger proposal with Paramount would have left Redstone
with two-thirds the company's voting stock, and many analysts now
say his unwillingness to go lower may now cost him the prize. It
seems obvious to most that the next move is his -- if a higher bid
from Viacom is not forthcoming, Paramount will be forced to sell to
QVC. But it's hard to count Redstone out -- his own personal worth
is $5.6 billion, according to "Forbes" magazine, and he raised his
bid three times before winning Viacom itself in the late 1980s.

And what of Ted Turner, who was reportedly interested in making a
play before begging-off, saying he wanted to wait until his Atlanta
Braves' ended their season? The Braves were tied by the Philadelphia
Phillies 2-2 in their National League Championship Series, and they
could be knocked out as early as Wednesday.

Even if the Braves win the National League, of course, the World
Series will end by the end of October. At the present slow pace of
this take-over battle, that would still leave Turner with plenty of
time to get involved. More pressing on him is the fact that TCI
holds a major stake in Turner Broadcasting System Inc., and could
veto any bid which conflicts with its own.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19931011)


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

Hayes Launches New Fax-Modem, Cuts Prices 10/11/93
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1993 OCT 11 (NB) -- Hayes Microcomputer
Products Inc. announced a new fax board which can work on two
separate phone lines, the JT Fax 144B Dual, and cut prices on its
older 9600 bits per second (bps) product by over 35 percent, to
$369.

The new fax-modem is more than just a fax answering machine. It
eliminates the need for an additional voice card and provides voice
announcement and prompting, voice record and playback, and the
ability to enter commands through a touch-tone phone. It also off-
loads the conversion of files to the fax format from the main
computer, and enables routine multi-board installations in a single
computer, limited only by the number of available slots.

The product is aimed at the growing market for fax servers, which
offer fax access to computer bulletin boards and even larger online
systems.

The modem comes with an Application Programming Interface (API) that
enables developers to compose or adapt applications to it, so that
software like FaxFacts from Copia International or FACSys from Optus
Software can run on the JT Fax. The modem will be available November
1 in North America, Latin America, and Hong Kong, with a further
world-wide rollout following shortly thereafter.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19931011/Press Contact: Angie Ciarloni, Hayes,
404-840-9200)


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

Mastercook II For PC Debuts 10/11/93
AUSTIN, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1993 OCT 11 (NB) -- Arion software has
introduced Mastercook II, a Windows-based cookbook software package
that contains more than 1,000 recipes and allows the user to enter
and store their own culinary masterpieces. Mastercook II will be
marketed under Spinnaker Software Corporation's Affiliated Label
program to retail outlets as well as through the Power UP! catalog.

In addition to being a collection of recipes - 100 of them are from
what Arion calls "the great chefs of America" - Mastercook II can
select recipes that use on-hand ingredients meeting the user's
personal nutritional objectives. It can also print shopping lists,
recipe cards, menus, meal plans, or a complete customized cookbook.

Mastercook II calculates the nutritional value of each recipe,
listing calories, total fat, dietary fiber, carbohydrates, protein,
iron, vitamin A, vitamin C, and a host of other values. It also
displays the daily values of total fat, cholesterol, sodium,
carbohydrate, dietary fiber and protein, and shows the matching
values for a 2000 and a 2500 calorie diet. If you don't have one of
the ingredients on hand needed for a particular recipe, the program
will recommend a substitute. There is also a menumaker for planning
entire meals.

You can also type and save your own recipes for later use. An auto-
fill feature tries to determine what you want to enter and completes
the entry automatically. On-the-fly compression and de-compression
saves disk space, and you can find recipes by name, source,
categories, ingredients, cost or nutritional composition. The
program will also scale the recipe quantities for the desired
serving size, and contains a wine list manager and a glossary of
over 500 cooking terms. A conversion module converts between English
and metric and volume and weight amounts.

Mastercook II requires a 286-based PC or higher running Windows 3.1
or higher, 2 megabytes (MB) of system memory, and 2.5MB of free hard
disk space. Spinnaker says it will have a street price of under $30.

(Jim Mallory/19931011/Press contact: Dan Chmielewski, Spinnaker
Software Corp, 617-494-1200, ext 458; Reader contact: Spinnaker
Software Corp, 800-444-8104 or 617-494-1200, fax [phone])


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

 ****Seagate Intros New High-Capacity Drives 10/11/93
SCOTTS VALLEY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1993 OCT 11 (NB) -- Seagate
Technology has announced no less than 13 new hard disk systems, with
storage capacity ranging from 214 megabytes (MB) to 9.1 gigabytes
(GB).

Included in the new lines is the ST410800 Elite 9, a 9.1 gigabyte
unit in a 5.25 inch full-height form factor. Seagate says that the
unit is designed for hierarchical storage and large file plus
database applications.

The ST15150 Barracuda 4 is a 4.1 GB 3.5 inch half-height drive for
super servers, super computers, and high performance storage
systems. The ST12450 Barracuda 2 is a 3.5 inch half-height drive
that can store up to 1.78 GB of data. Data transfer rates up to 14.1
MB per second are possible with the Barracuda systems.

The Hawk family comes in 2.14 GB, 1.7 GB and 1.05 GB versions,
designed for advanced workstations and super servers. Hawk comes in
Fast SCSI-2 and Fast//Wide SCSI-2 versions in either single-ended or
differential configurations. The Hawk systems are rated at 800,000
hours mean-time-between-failure, have an average seek time of nine
milliseconds and draw seven watts at idle. A Single Connector
Attachment version is also available.

In the under one GB category, Seagate is introducing the ST5660,
ST3491 and ST9550 families. The 5660 is available with AT or Fast
SCSI-2 interfaces, has a 12 millisecond seek time. OEM pricing is
$495 for the AT/IDE model and $545 for the Fast SCSI-2 version. The
9550 was designed for use in portable computing units and can
withstand shocks up to 100 Gs and uses a disc substrate material
called MemCor. The glass-ceramic canasite-based media was developed
jointly by Corning Glass Works and Seagate. MemCor substrates can be
manufactured much thinner than other media and still retain
rigidity. The ST9559 has a 16 millisecond average seek time.

All the new units are being shown at the Systems 93 Trade Show in
Munich, Germany. That show opens October 18th. They will also be
shown at Comdex in Las Vegas, Nevada. Comdex opens November 15th.

(Jim Mallory/19931011/Press contact: Julie Still, Seagate
Technology, 408-439-2276; Reader contact: Seagate Technology, 408-
439-2276)


(NEWS)(IBM)(SFO)(00026)

Berkeley Systems - Flying Toasters Arrive For DOS Users 10/07/93
BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1993 OCT 11 (NB) -- Just a week after
taking Delrina to court for allegedly using its flying toasters
screen saver in a competing product, Berkeley Systems is shipping a
DOS version of After Dark.

Screen savers, apart from looking good on screen, protect the
computer monitor from phosphor burn-in -- which is a problem when
monitors are left on but inactive. The company says that After Dark
can also increase privacy -- to block access to a user's files, the
program features a screen-locking security system that is
deactivated only by a user-selected password.

Somewhat tongue in cheek, Wes Boyd, chief executive officer of
Berkeley Systems, said: "For too long, Macintosh and Windows users
have had After Dark's utility as a screen saver -- not to mention
the sheer fun of its more than 30 displays -- all to themselves. One
hundred million DOS users world-wide were being deprived. Something
had to be done, and we were just the company to do it."

After Dark for DOS also offers optional digitized sound effects, run
through the internal PC speaker or through Sound Blaster or Ad Lib
compatible sound cards.

The package requires DOS 3.3 or higher, a VGA or SVGA display, 640
kilobytes (KB) of RAM, and a hard drive. The product is priced at
$49.95.

As reported by Newsbytes a week ago, Berkeley files a lawsuit
against Delrina September 28, alleging unfair competition by
Delrina, along with copyright and trademark infringement of its
Flying Toaster graphic design contained in After Dark.

According to Berkeley Systems, Delrina included a version of the its
copyrighted work in a new "Opus N' Bill Screen Saver." The program
features a cartoon penguin character from "Outland" shooting at a
flock of flying toasters.

(Ian Stokell/19931011/Press Contact: Monica Granados, or
Steven Decker, 510-540-5535, Berkeley Systems Inc.)


(NEWS)(UNIX)(BOS)(00027)

`Best Access' Document Imaging Software For Unix Debuts 10/11/93
NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1993 OCT 11 (NB) -- The Integration
Consortium (ICon) has unveiled automatic cataloging and compression
software for storing and retrieving scanned document images on Unix-
based systems.

Best Access reduces the amount of storage space needed for compound
documents by 50 percent, storing any graphics, video or attachments
in compressed memory, the company said. This feature is significant
in that the computer memory required for imaging systems generally
involves multiple gigabytes, officials claimed.

The software also offers a major advantage over other imaging
packages by eliminating the need to manually generate a new entry
into the general document index for each new document.

Best Access applies cataloging rules when incoming text is entered
from the scanner. The rules are designed to help the system
recognize the text content, identifying any word beginning with a
capital letter as a potential proper name, for instance.

The text is searched automatically for key words, which form the
basis for the cataloging entries. Each new document then becomes
an individual record in the document image database.

Users only need to perform manual cataloging in instances where the
document being recorded doesn't trigger one or more of the rules in
the Best Access system files, the company asserted.

The package further provides a log of all records, point-and-click
document retrieval, full bibliographic information on each record,
(such as author, date, and ID number), full-text keyword searches
for individual documents or files, and automatic text analysis to
re-index a document against new cataloging requirements.

Best Access works with Xerox Imaging Systems' ScanWorX optical
character recognition (OCR)-reader, which handles the actual
conversion of the document into digital text.

(Jacqueline Emigh/19931011/ICon, tel 800-572-ICON, 800-548-ICON,
212-972-ICON, or 415-366-4999)


(NEWS)(APPLE)(LAX)(00028)

 ****Try Before You Buy Software Apps CD From Apple 10/11/93
SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1993 OCT 11 (NB) -- Apple Computer
has announced a compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM) delivery
system for its software. The company has started a new division to
handle this new applications software buying program it is calling
Software Dispatch.

Apple's Software Dispatch division will handle 800 number calls
from users who, after providing a credit card number to
purchase the software, can unlock applications on the Software
Dispatch CD-ROM disc via a key given over the phone.

In order to attract users to buy the applications on the CD, Apple
says it will have a Quicktime movie tutorial to explain the trial
and purchase process. Interactive tours, limited trial versions, and
product information sheets will be available for each software
application on the CD. Customers may select the software by clicking
on a button that adds the title to an electronic order form.

Once purchased, the electronic key immediately allows installation
from the CD to the hard disk and a full set of product documentation
is also unlocked that Apple says is identical to the print version
of documentation users would expect to find in more traditional
packaging.

However, users will have the advantages of electronic access of over
12,000 pages of documentation, with the ability to use bookmarks,
hypertext links and keyword search functions via Apple's Docviewer
technology. Printing is an option, and hard copies of documentation
may also be ordered, Apple added.

Over 80 applications will be on the first CD, featuring
productivity, utilities, education, games, fonts, clip art and other
applications from Symantec, Claris, Computer Associates, Intuit,
Lotus, Spinnaker, and Vividus.

"The time has come for electronic distribution of software," said
Scott Schnell, general manager of Software Dispatch at Apple
Computer. Indeed it has. IBM has announced a similar program with
Boulder, Colorado CD software distributor Infonow and Gateway 2000
announced Store-on-a-disk, a CD it is bundling with its computers
that has 23 Microsoft programs on it available for users to purchase
over the phone.

"By allowing customers to try before they buy, Software Dispatch
helps the customer make a more informed decision when purchasing an
application like Quicken," said Eric Tilenius, product manager at
Intuit Inc.

"By actually using Quicken in the convenience of their home or
office, they find out just how fast and easy financial work can be
and as a result, can act on their discovery by making an immediate
purchase," he said.

The CDs will be distributed free by mail beginning in November 1993
to Macintosh CD-ROM owners and in early 1994 to Windows CD-ROM
owners, Apple said. The Windows version will use Adobe's Acrobat
Reader for Windows for the software documentation.

If users think the obvious savings in distribution costs, disks, and
printing, will get them a lower price than they see in the software
stores, its time to think again. Apple said users can expect prices
to be about the same as they see in the software stores.

Yet Macweek reported in August that some vendors have criticized the
CD distribution plan saying their profit cut is too low. Who's
getting the difference? Apple, of course, who said it's costs in
distribution and promotion of the plan justify the higher profit
margin.

Apple users who would like to request the CD may do so via a
toll-free request line at Apple.

(Linda Rohrbough/19931011/Press Contact: Christopher Escher,
Apple Computer, tel [phone], fax [phone]; Free
Software Dispatch CD-ROM, 800-937-2828 ext 600)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(HKG)(00029)

Hongkong - EDS Joint Analog/Digital Mobile Phone System 10/11/93
CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 8TH OCT 1993 -- Hongkong Telecom CSL has become
the first company in the territory to install a cellular billing and
management system that accommodates both the TACS (analogue) and GSM
(digital) network standards for its mobile telephone networks.

The system, supplied by EDS Hong Kong, enables Telecom CSL to offer
its customers a range of innovative mobile phone call packages and
services. In future, the company will be able to customise its
services and billing formats to suit the individual needs of
business and private mobile phone subscribers.

EDS helped Telecom CSL integrate its cellular network and supporting
information systems by linking billing, marketing, customer service
and switches into one system, using advanced relational database
design and client-server application software.

"GSM is ideal for business people on the move," said Mike Hawes,
Manager of Customer Services with Telecom CSL. "It was designed to
provide international roaming service and to give many more value-
added services to our customers. "Because we can offer both TACS-
based and GSM-based services, we provide the customer with a
complete range of options."

The advanced GSM system will offer a high degree of privacy,
excellent voice quality, fast call connection and a built-in short
message feature that's similar to paging. It also offers
international call security through customer identification, advice
of call charges, access to videotext and teletext services,
interconnection with Integrated Service Digital Network (ISDN),
mobile fax and data capabilities.

"What we've done is given Telecom CSL the tools to improve its
customer services," said Bruce Linton, Director, Asia Pacific, with
EDS' Communications Industry Group. "We're supporting the company's
decision to go with the GSM standard and to take advantage of its
inherent benefits.

"Within the next few months the GSM standard will allow Telecom CSL
to offer its mobile phone customers a range of new features."
Telecom CSL will be able to generate additional revenue and improve
customer service while customers will have access to continually
improving personal communications services. The company's operating
costs will also be reduced by automating the provisioning of new
services and supplying billing systems with call detail data.

(Keith Cameron/19931011/Press Contact: Bruce Linton (EDS): 852 - 867
9888)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(DEL)(00030)

India - Punwire To Manufacture Satellite Phones 10/11/93
NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1993 OCT 11 (NB) -- Punjab Wireless Systems
(Punwire), a Punjab state government undertaking, has announced
plans to introduce satellite telephones in India in the near future.

The company has already signed a contract with Haguenuck of Germany
for the transfer of technology. Punwire plans to market between
1,000 and 2,000 satellite phones annually. Plans call that, during
1993-94, 500 satellite phones will be offered for sale.

The company will initially import partially tested satellite phones
and volume production will begin after fully testing the equipment
here. Costing Rs 10 lakh (around $30,000) per set, and with a single
call -- whether local, trunk or international -- costing Rs 250
(around $8) per minute), the system is definitely not meant for the
hobbyist.

Called the SP 1600, the phones come housed in a light briefcase that
allows a fax interface and data transmission, using the Inmarsat-M
satellite. Videsh Samachar Nigam, the government of India
undertaking that handles international calls, will allocate
subscriber registration to Inmarsat and collect charges. Approved by
Inmarsat, the SP 1600 can also record messages for up to one minute
in duration.

Punwire, which produces and markets HDF, VHF and microwave
communication equipment and telephone instruments, exported Rs
11.24-crore (around $3.8 million) worth of telecom hardware last
year. The company's turnover was Rs 49.05 crore (around $16.4
million) last year, Newsbytes notes.

(C T Mahabharat/19931011)