More news and thoughts brought to you by:
Matt Johnston NIMUG - Northern Ireland Macintosh User Group.
http://welcome.to/nimug/

Apple In Education
May 26, 1999--Apple announced that Millard "Mickey" Drexler, president and chief executive officer of Gap Inc., one of the world's leading specialty retailers, was appointed to the Company's board of directors.

"Mickey's expertise in marketing and retail will be a tremendous resource as Apple continues to grow in the consumer market," said Steve Jobs, Apple's interim CEO. "He will add a completely new dimension to Apple's board." 

Drexler joined Gap Inc. in 1983 as president of the Gap division. He was named president of Gap Inc.  in 1987, and CEO in 1995. Gap Inc. operates more than 2,500 stores in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Japan under the Gap, GapKids, babyGap, Banana Republic and Old Navy brand names. The company also operates a direct marketing division with its gap.com  e-commerce web site and Banana Republic catalog.

Born and raised in New York City, Drexler has spent most of his professional life in the apparel business. Prior to joining Gap, he served as president and CEO of Ann Taylor. He holds an undergraduate degree from the State University of New York at Buffalo and an MBA from Boston University.

Apple's board of directors is now composed of seven members:  
• Bill Campbell, chairman and former CEO of Intuit Corporation  
• Gareth Chang, executive chairman of STAR TV   
• Millard Drexler, president and CEO of Gap Inc.  
• Larry Ellison, chairman and CEO of Oracle Corporation  
• Steve Jobs, chairman and CEO of Pixar Animation Studios and interim CEO of Apple Computer, Inc.  
• Ed Woolard, chairman and former CEO of E. I. DuPont de Nemours and Co.  
• Jerry York, vice chairman of Tracinda and former CFO of IBM Corporation and Chrysler 

Internet News--------------------------------------------------
Today, Farallon will announce HomeLINE, their home-networking solution for Macs and PCs. HomeLINE is based on the Home Phoneline Networking Alliance (Home PNA) standard, allowing  users to share Internet access, printers and files via standard telephone wiring. The basic $139 HomeLINE kit will include two PCI cards, Vicomsoft's SurfDoubler 6.0, and trial versions of Netopia's Timbuktu and Miramar PC MacLAN. Additional cards are $79, and can be used with any combination of Macs and PCs. A version that supports the iMac is due this summer.
http://www.farallon.com/

Star Wars Icons--------------------------------------------------
Use the force and download the Iconfactory's "Star Wars: The Phantom Menace" icon set. Only then (and perhaps several more showings of "The Phantom Menace") will the circle of the Force be truly complete. 
http://www.iconfactory.com/

Updates and News--------------------------------------------------
ACI US, Inc. this evening announced 4th Dimension 6.5, boosting performance with a new, "high-performance" relational database engine, while adding "130 new commands, 75 of which are 
web-related." A web server is integrated in the system, along with FTP and SMTP/POP. Available today, pricing starts at $349 for the 4D Standard Edition with an Unlimited Interpreted Runtime, and a free demo version is available for downloading. 
http://www.acius.com/65pressrelease.html

IPNetRouter is a low cost OT native Internet Protocol router that runs as software on a Macintosh. Designed from the ground up to take full advantage of Open Transport, IPNetRouter offers superior performance with greatly reduced cost and complexity. Priced at $89 (half for educational customers) it allows all of the machines on your local network to use the modem connection on one central machine which then acts as a router.
http://www.sustworks.com/

AppleInsider has adetailed report on "Sonata" the next big change in the Mac OS. Previously called OS8.7 but looking more and more to be known as Mac OS 9.0 (despite OS9 trademark issues). It features: multiple users (handled better than At Ease and comparable to Windows NT), voice passwords (no need to remember an obscure password), inbuilt file encryption. There are also details on the Accelerate your Mac site as well as some spectacular screenshots.
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/9905/sonata-part1.shtml
http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/software/OS87/

If PowerLogix receives the prototypes from Motorola on time, PowerPC G4 upgrade cards should hit the retail market in Fall of this year. 

Remote Install for Mac OS 8.5.x and 8.6 allows you to install Mac OS 8.5 and 8.6 on network workstations.
http://asu.info.apple.com/swupdates.nsf/artnum/n11305

This was a worrying tidbit…Drew DeVito at IBVA Technologies writes that their Interactive 
Brainwave Visual Analyzer "is now compatible with the iMac and'blue and white' G3s."
http://www.IBVA.com/
 
FreeMacSpace.com is offering users 25 megabytes of free (yes, free) "virtual" online disk space, which you can use to store, access, and share files with friends (and/or enemies).
http://www.FreeMacSpace.com/

Apple recently posted version OpenGL 1.0, which was announced at WWDC. OpenGL for Macintosh enables your computer to display accelerated three-dimensional graphics using applications designed to take advantage of OpenGL.
http://www.apple.com/opengl/

Other general news - from the Net by www.techweb.com

--- Bell Labs Creates Ultra-Small Microphone On A Chip ---Wireless wristwatch phone to be developed with tiny single-chip mike.
http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB19990427S0009?ls=twb_text

--- Study Warns Of Fewer Technology Degrees ---CyberEducation study finds fewer engineers,  more foriegn nationals with better qualifications.
http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB19990427S0008?ls=twb_text

--- Hitachi Targets SAN Market ---Hitachi Data Systems adopts open standards approach as it enters thestorage area network market.
http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB19990427S0006?ls=twb_text

--- Intel's New Chip Set Could Shave $100 Off PCs ---Processor giant trades features for costs with new graphics chip set.
http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB19990427S0004?ls=twb_text

--- Cable & Wireless Confirms Sale Of Cable Arm ---
http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB19990427S0005?ls=twb_text

--- Sun-Netscape Alliance Publicizes E-Commerce Partnerships ---Alliance publicizes new product and co-marketing partnerships with other companies tapping into the mother lode of e-commerce.
http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB19990427S0003?ls=twb_text

--- Lycos Launches Radio Network ---Site offers original content in specific music genres.
http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB19990427S0002?ls=twb_text

--- Microsoft Preps Entrance To Smart Card Market ---Microsoft hands out preview releases of its Smart Card for Windowssoftware at the CardTech/SecureTech conference.
http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB19990514S0007?ls=twb_text

--- Newsgroups Beat U.K. Spy List Gagging Order ---Despite an order to the press not to publish details of a list ofintelligence agents, newsgroups had already posted it.
http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB19990514S0001?ls=twb_text

--- IBM seeks more profitable memory segments ---Blue Blue shifts to SRAM and advanced logic.
http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB19990513S0033?ls=twb_text

--- EP Stocks Mixed Despite Big IBM Gain ---The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 107 to 11,107, while The Nasdaq gave up 25 to 2,582. 
http://www.techweb.com/wire/finance/story/INV19990513S0004?ls=twb_text

--- Sun Licenses Java 3D To SGI ---The move is Sun's first commercial deal with Java 3D.
http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB19990525S0003?ls=twb_text

--- Microsoft's Plan To Bring Data Mining To Masses ---The software giant aims to create a standard interface to retrievedatabase information for data-mining applications.
http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB19990525S0001?ls=twb_text

--- Sun-Netscape To Merge App-Server Products ---The alliance will release a single application-server product family inearly 2000.
http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB19990524S0033?ls=twb_text

--- Seiko Builds TCP/IP Into iChip ---Wired appliances such as cars are on the cards again as Seiko looks forkiller app.
http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB19990527S0002?ls=twb_text

--- Chinese Carrier Plans Huge CDMA Network ---Private telco aims to create real competition for tens of millions of fixed-line, cellular and IP users.
http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB19990527S0001?ls=twb_text

--- Intel Invests $200M In Backbone Carrier ---The company will rely on the Williams Communications network as a keyelement of its new Internet Data Services business.
http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB19990526S0021?ls=twb_text