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(NEWS)(IBM)(LON)(00001)

UK: Lotus Slashes Pricing For 1-2-3/Windows, Smartsuite 09/11/92
STAINES, MIDDLESEX, ENGLAND, 1992 SEP 11 (NB) -- Lotus
Development (UK) has announced price cuts on 1-2-3/Windows and
Smartsuite in an effort to encourage users to move to its
applications software.

The recommended retail price of Windows is now UKP 395 with
associated price reductions on multipacks, Lotus' name for
multiple site license packages.

Smartsuite, meanwhile, now sells for UKP 575 -- down from its
earlier price of UKP 695. Smartsuite is a Windows suite of
software that includes 1-2-3, Freelance Graphics, Ami Pro and
cc:Mail. Five and 25 user packs of Smartsuite are also available
at, respectively, UKP 2,300 and UKP 8,050.

As an encouragement to users of competing packages to Smartsuite,
Lotus is offering an upgrade deal for UKP 249. Other users of
non-Lotus software can "upgrade" for UKP 299.

So why the price cuts? According to Steve Jack, product marketing
manager for Smartsuite with Lotus, reducing the pricing on
Smartsuite and 1-2-3/Windows will encourage more people to move
over to the Lotus applications.

"Smartsuite is an economical offering to corporations
standardizing on a Windows environment, providing new users with
an improved Windows spreadsheet, the best word processor on the
market, an award winning business graphics package and the
leading electronic mail package," he said.

Backing up the new prices is a marketing campaign. According to
Brian McPhee, Lotus UK's marketing director, the company is on
the brink of announcing a major marketing campaign for
Smartsuite and Ami Pro 3.0.

"Attractive prices alongside other marketing activities make
Lotus the first choice for end users and our channel
partners. There will be a nation-wide series of seminars, in
partnership with our dealers, together with national
advertising and direct mail to convey our message -- the best
gets better," he said.

(Steve Gold/19920910/Press & Public Contact: Lotus
U.K. - Tel: [phone])


(NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00002)

France Moves Ahead On HDTV Broadcasts 09/11/92
PARIS, FRANCE, 1992 SEP 11 (NB) -- While the rest of Europe seems
to be arguing over what type of high definition television (HDTV)
signals should be used, the French are moving ahead on the actual
transmission signal front.

Three French TV stations have agreed to broadcast HDTV signals
over a number of European satellites, with actual transmissions
starting in a matter of months.

The announcement by France 2, Canal 2, and Cine Cinema follows in
the wake of intense behind-the-scenes activity on the part of
senior executives who have been negotiating with the government
to grant them permission to start transmissions in the 16:9
screen format.

Transmission of HDTV programming from the trio of stations starts
in November of this year with the aim of achieving at least 20
hours of broadcasts by the middle of next year. The transmissions
will be in the D2MAC format endorsed by the French government.
D2MAC was developed as a transmission standard by Thomson of
France and Philips of the Netherlands.

While no European country currently broadcasts HDTV signals,
Japanese satellites have been beaming signals for several months
now. The French initiative is expected to be followed by other
company announcements over the next few months.

Newsbytes' readers in Europe need not hold their breath on HDTV,
however, as TVs supporting the D2MAC HDTV standard currently cost
from $5,000 -- around ten times the cost of conventional
625-line TVs.

(Steve Gold/19920910)


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

British Telecom To Offer Inflight Fax Service 09/11/92
LONDON, ENGLAND, 1992 SEP 11 (NB) -- British Telecom has
announced it has developed a method of transmitting 9,600 bits
per second (bps) fax signals over the Skyphone radiophone network
seen in a growing number of planes. The telecom company says it
plans to work with Skyphone on installing fax machines on board a
number of planes.

Skyphone, a joint venture company between BT, Telecom of Norway
and Singapore Telecom, is currently available on a voice-only
basis on around 100 long-haul planes operated by the world's
airlines. As with the voice service, the proposed fax service
won't come cheap, as BT says it plans to stick with the standard
$6-70 per minute charging structure already in place.

The system will work with the Skyphone fax using special
transmission technology to feed the fax image to or from the
aircraft using proprietary techniques and equipment located on
the ground doing the conversion to standard CCITT fax signals for
onward transmission via the public switched telephone network
(PSTN).

(Steve Gold/19920910)


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

 ****Borland To Ship Quattro Pro For Windows This Month 09/11/92
LONDON, ENGLAND, U.S.A., 1992 SEP 11 (NB) -- Borland announced
in London the availability of Quattro Pro for Windows and that
it will also offer WinDOS, a bundle with both the new Windows
spreadsheet and Quattro Pro 4.0 for DOS. Both WinDOS and
Quattro Pro for Windows will ship this month, Borland said.

Borland is pricing WinDOS at the same $495 retail price as
Quattro Pro for Windows and Quattro Pro for DOS. A $149.95
competitive upgrade price for those who have a Lotus 1-2-3 or
Microsoft Excel will also be offered for WinDOS, Borland said.

A $99.95 competitive upgrade for just the Windows version will
be available as well and the Quattro Pro for Windows LAN
License to add one additional user to a network LAN
installation will retail for $395, Borland added.

Quattro Pro for Windows is a redesign, developed for Windows
from the ground up, Borland said. Two new features, Spreadsheet
Notebooks and Object Inspectors, are included in the Windows
version.

Spreadsheet Notebooks, new in the Windows version, are based in
appearance on the tabbed paper notebook in order to build on
what users already know about spreadsheets, according to
Borland. Object Inspectors allow users to see a display of a
list of available options that can be performed on an object
with a click of the right mouse button. Borland demonstrated
Object Inspectors in prototype versions of dBASE for Windows
well over a year ago and plans to make use of the feature in
its other Windows products, the company said.

Other features include point-and-click access to functions,
presentation graphics, access to external databases, and visual
application building tools. In addition, Quattro Pro for
Windows is compatible with other popular spreadsheet and
database programs, Borland said.

That compatibility extends to Lotus' 1-2-3 spreadsheet,
Borland's largest competitor and the company that alleges
Borland infringed on its product by duplicating the command
structure. Borland was dealt a serious legal blow in July when
Federal Judge Robert E. Keeton of the Boston United States
District Court in a 45-page partial summary judgement ruled
against Borland and said in part: "I conclude that no
reasonable jury could find for Borland that Borland did not
take the menu commands, menu command structure, macro language,
and keystroke sequences substantially as they were."

Borland says it has removed the command structure Lotus pointed
to in particular from the DOS version of Quattro Pro and the
Windows version is completely clear of any infringement of
Lotus products. However, Borland is still offering the Lotus
command structure menu to those who specially request it.

There was some question at the time of the summary judgement as
to whether or not Judge Keeton would make Borland pull the
Quattro Pro product off the shelves. Lotus representatives told
Newsbytes the company was waiting for Keeton's further
ruling in a pre-conference hearing scheduled for September 23
in Boston before pursuing the matter further itself.

Borland representative Steve Grady told Newsbytes, however,
that Borland is not waiting for the judge's ruling to ship
Quattro Pro, but simply hasn't set a ship date. Grady assured
Newsbytes the product would ship this month and the Lotus suit
has no bearing on the ship date whatsoever.

While Borland has said it expected to have to appeal the Lotus
suit, industry speculation is it may lose the current round
without even going to trial. Lotus has already won a similar
case against Paperback software in a trial with this same
judge.

Scotts Valley, California-based Borland also develops and
markets dBASE, Paradox, C, C++, Turbo Pascal, and Objectvision.

(Linda Rohrbough/19920910/Press Contact: Steve Grady, Borland,
tel [phone], fax [phone])


(NEWS)(UNIX)(LAX)(00005)

Fujitsu To Intro Supercomputer To Compete W/ Cray 09/11/92
SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1992 SEP 11 (NB) -- Fujitsu says
its new supercomputer, the VPP500, planned for release in
September, 1993, will offer features supercomputer buyers won't be able
to resist.

The VPP500 is a parallel processing supercomputer, as are all
the very fast supercomputers these days. Parallel processing is
lining up central processing units (CPUs) to divide the task of
a complex processing job, instead of the traditional approach
of everything queuing up for a single CPU.

Fujitsu says its VPP500 can be equipped with up to 222
processors, which is nearly half of what the year-old
Touchstone Delta supercomputer in Pasadena, California has, yet
will be able to perform at 355 billion floating point
operations per second (gigaflops). It is also the only
supercomputer that will allow users to add CPUs one at a time,
with a minimum configuration of seven.

Fujitsu says it gets the increased performance from a vector
processing approach, meaning it maximizes the processing
performance of each CPU. The company says each CPU has a
processing element (PE) which accomplishes the maximization and
is then incorporated into the parallel configuration. Each PE
is about the size of a briefcase and can deliver 1.6 gigaflops
of performance.

The company says it has also increased the speed at which
individual processors can talk to each other. This
communication highway, called the crossbar network, allows
simultaneous transmissions between PEs at the rate of 800
megabytes (MB) per second. Fujitsu says its the fastest data
transfer rate between processors of any parallel processing
system currently available.

Virtual global memory storage space is available at over 50,000
MB, the largest memory so far. The larger memory space means
enough space is available for programmers to use traditional
programming methods to develop applications for the supercomputer.

Also, Fujitsu says it can offer source code compatibility with
Fortran 77, the most commonly used programming language for
scientists and engineers. A recompile is all that will be
necessary to move an application written in Fortran 77 from
another supercomputer to the Fujitsu VPP500, the company
maintains.

The operating system for the VPP500 is based on Unix System V
Release 4, which means the supercomputer can be integrated into
an organizations other workstations, mainframes, and other
supercomputers, Fujitsu asserts.

Scientists and engineers are delighted to get their hands on a
supercomputer to solve Grand Challenge problems, such as global
climate modeling, development of alternative energy sources,
and human gene mapping to determine cures to birth defects.
However, Wall Street is buying them as well.

According to Intel, Wall Street firm Merrill Lynch purchased an
iPSC/860 Intel supercomputer to run a proprietary program
called the Custom-Cashflows. Custom-Cashflow allows the company
to look at collateralized mortgage obligations (CMOs) based on
dynamic models of future interest rate cycles. The bottom line
for the financial services firm is it can more successfully
evaluate the risks and profit potential of investments in a
number of changing circumstances.

Fujitsu mentioned it hopes to take on Cray Research, a well-
known supercomputer manufacturer which develops the C-90
supercomputer, by offering a low price tag for the VPP500
starting at just $10 million.

(Linda Rohrbough/19920911/Press Contact: Margaret Lasecke,
Fujitsu America, tel [phone], fax [phone])


(NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00006)

Election Politics May Scuttle Free Trade 09/11/92
WASHINGTON, DC, U.S.A., 1992 SEP 11 (NB) -- As President Bush
travels around the country looking for reelection support, he has
casually dropped two bombshells into the world trade arena
which may scuttle some major pending Uruguay Round General
Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) deals. Meanwhile,
Democratic politicking may end chances for the North American
Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA.

Many companies feel that free trade agreements could open up
massive new markets for US high-tech goods and services around
the world by ending home industry protection offered to less
efficient companies by many countries. But recent politically
inspired moves by both parties seem destined to block both
NAFTA and the long-delayed GATT treaty.

The administration's recent decision to offer agricultural export
subsidies has angered the Europeans, who, at the insistence of
the US, have been attempting to convince their farmers that
subsidies should end.

While putting the best face on the troubles that they can, US
trade negotiators are obviously having an especially hard time
with European agricultural interests now that President Bush is
doing exactly what he has spoken out against for the past 12
years as Vice President and President.

Agriculture protection, and especially export subsidies, have
long been the major stumbling block to final approval of a world-
wide GATT treaty which some economists say could mean a massive
increase in world trade.

Another Presidential announcement, this one made before Texas
defense workers who will build the planes, that the US would
permit sale of 150 F-16 fighter aircraft to Taiwan has caused a
sharp break with China which had been awaiting US sponsorship
to join GATT.

Despite the fact that President Bush has, according to many
critics, been bending over backwards to placate China even after
the government's slaughter of students demonstrating for freedom,
China has been talking very tough since the President's
announcement that he would finally approve the sale of top US
fighters to China's enemy, Taiwan.

China is hinting that if the sale takes place it will not honor
existing or negotiate future arms trade restrictions and will
take other actions contrary to US interests. Administration
officials, including US Acting Secretary of State Lawrence
Eagleburger, warn that China will pay a heavy price if it does
not acquiesce to the sale, which the administration contends is
not motivated by domestic politics but by China's recent purchase
of Russian-made military aircraft.

But China also faces other, non-election-related trade problems.
US firms have complained for years that China drop-ships their
goods, some allegedly made by forced labor, through other
countries in order to disguise the origin of some products
imported into the US, at the same time maintaining a very
tightly closed market to imports from other countries.

The Commerce Department is now poised to impose punitive tariffs
on nearly $4 billion in Chinese exports if markets aren't opened
immediately.

According to Reuters, Assistant US Trade Representative Ira
Wolf has also said that if China doesn't make concessions to US
open market demands by October 10 then "there is no way in the
world the United States can allow China into GATT. And there is
no way in the world China can get into the GATT unless the United
States goes along with it."

While Republican politics seem to be causing a major
international furor both to the east and west of the US, the
Democrats, at least in the person of House Majority Leader
Richard Gephardt (D-Mo.), apparently see room to pump up north-
south trade friction by opposing the recently negotiated NAFTA.

President Bush has been demanding that Democratic Presidential
candidate Gov. Clinton sign on to the Republican-negotiated free
trade agreement even before studying the massive document, and
the Democratic Congressional leadership has apparently had
enough.

On Wednesday afternoon Rep. Gephardt told representatives of
environmental and union groups which oppose NAFTA that the Bush
administration should either renegotiate the agreement, making it
less attractive for US firms to stage a mass exodus of
manufacturing jobs to lower-cost Mexican factory locations, or
leave the renegotiation to the next administration (referring to
his assumption that Clinton will win the election).

The Senate Finance Committee and the House Ways and Means
Committee are now considering the Trade Act, which must be
approved by the Democratic-controlled Congress before it can take
effect.

Most experts agree that while NAFTA would cost some low-skill
manufacturing jobs in the US, it would also open up massive new
markets in Mexico for US high-tech goods.

A free trade agreement is already in effect between the US and
Canada, and the proposed NAFTA would add Mexico to that trade
bloc.

(John McCormick/19920910)


(NEWS)(APPLE)(MOW)(00007)

Apple To Change Its Partner In Russia 09/11/92
MOSCOW, RUSSIA, 1992 SEP 11 (NB) -- The alliance between Apple
Computer and Intermicro, a long term marketing partnership,
may be coming to an end soon. Intermicro is no longer the sole Apple
representative in Russia and C.I.S., according to a published
report.

Commersant Daily has published an article stating that Intermicro
voluntarily stepped down as an Apple's Independent Marketing Company
(IMC) in the Commonwealth of Independent States (C.I.S.). The
newspaper quoted industry sources as saying that two possible
reasons for the disagreement are the force of the gray market (cheaper
computers imported from the US at the US prices, which are less
expensive than Intermicro's), and that Apple is unhappy with
sales volumes and the management style of Intermicro.

Anatoly Karachinsky has reportedly refused any wrongdoing and cited
his country's small market size as the major reason for the low sales
volume.

Newsbytes has been told by a source requesting anonymity at Apple
Moscow that Intermicro is trying to put the best face on this
situation. "Apple was very unhappy with them for a long
while," the source confided. The source added that an international
team from Apple will be coming to Moscow to establish a new 100%
foreign-owned company which will consist of James Guidi, the manager of
a Czech company known as a most successful in Eastern Europe; the
manager of CompData, a major supplier of Apple Computers on the
gray market long before Intermicro was authorized to sell the
computers; entrepreneurs Ted Stacey, Mark Youlkin, and a few people
from the AZLK Moscow-based car plant.

Rumors about the forthcoming break-up have circulated in the Moscow
computer community for at least a quarter already. It was rumored that
Apple is very much unhappy with Intermicro and is willing to change
partners. Officials at both companies have denied the rumor.
Negotiations have reportedly been ongoing with a number of Russian
companies which were to replace Intermicro as an Apple's main partner.
Both Commersant and Newsbytes' Apple source say that Intermicro will
probably keep its usual dealership relations while losing the major
distributorship. An announcement could come in early October.

Commersant Daily is being published and typeset on Apple equipment
bought on very favorable financial terms from Intermicro earlier
this year.

Intermicro, a Moscow-based joint venture, was announced as an Apple
Partner in July 1991. It has about 40 dealers across the country.

(Kirill Tchashchin/19920911/Press Contact: Intermicro, Anatoly
Karachinsky, phone [phone])


(NEWS)(APPLE)(SYD)(00008)

Apple Ad Campaign Draws Fire 09/11/92
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1992 SEP 11 (NB) -- A recent advertising campaign
by Apple Australia, following a similar one in the US, which compares
the advantages of buying a Macintosh over a PC, has floundered after
a complaint was made to the Trade Practices Commission (TPC).

The ad purported to show that buying a PC was more trouble (and
more expensive) than buying a Macintosh - a claim a TPC complainant has
described as misleading, fictional and untrue.

The 4-page full-color ad, distributed as an insert in two editions
of a Sydney newspaper, showed how setting up a PC with Windows,
graphics cards, network cards and software to "get it to act like a
Mac" would cost around AUS$8500, as opposed to the "integrated" Mac,
with prices from around AUS$1700.

The validity of the comparison has been called into question, not
only by the TPC complainant, but also several leading local
newspapers (including the newspaper in which the ad was an insert,
the Sydney Morning Herald). By simply turning to the classifieds
section of the Sydney Morning Herald on the day the ad was inserted,
readers would be able to find PC systems set up as in the ad for
approximately half the claimed price, and more astute readers would
have noticed the Mac portrayed was a Mac Quadra 700, with the total
Mac system shown costing around AUS$11,000.

Several other flaws in the ad have been pointed out - namely, it
showed the need to buy software for the PC (including Microsoft
Word) but failed to mention that the Mac would also need such
software which costs about the same for both operating systems.

Also, many of the features in the quoted PC system were not
available on the AUS$1700 Macintosh (color screen of VGA
to Super VGA quality, for example) and consultancy fees for setting
up the PC would amount to approximately AUS$50-60 per hour -- around
AUS$40-50 less than Apple's claimed price.

When contacted by Newsbytes, an Apple spokesperson refused to make
specific reference to the case, and said Apple would release a
statement when the TPC handed down its decision.

(Sean McNamara/19920911/Press & Public Contact: Apple Australia,
phone in Australia: [phone])


(EDITORIAL)(APPLE)(SYD)(00009)

Editorial: Is The Fuss Over The Apple Ad Justified? 09/11/92
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1992 SEP 11 (NB) -- By Sean McNamara. The current
fracas over an advert distributed by Apple Australia (see report
"Apple In Trouble Over Comparative Ad 09/11/92" in today's Newsbytes)
has raised some interesting questions in the local computer industry,
not the least of which is "How much can computer companies get away
with in comparative ads?"

The line is hard to draw, although it is clear that Apple has
crossed it in this case. Not only was the ad favorable toward
Apple products, but it was also misleading on the points of what it
takes to set up a PC for comparable usefulness, even for novices.

The ad criticized the cost of setting up a PC system with
networking capabilities (Ethernet based), graphics card and screen,
sound capabilities, and consultancy fees. The total cost was
around AUS$8500 - which Apple compared with the lowest priced Mac
at AUS$1700. The ad also implied that PC users would require many
hundreds of dollars worth of software

What Apple has not stated, however, is that the AUS$1700 Mac does
not have all the features of the PC shown, and that the Mac shown
retails for around AUS$11,000. It is fairly obvious the ad agency
thought no one would notice the Mac Quadra 700 (currently the second
most powerful offering from Apple), and that no one would bother to
turn a couple of pages to see PC prices well below the prices shown
by Apple for PCs. The "plug and play" network capabilities of the
Mac are also put forward as a major feature, but there aren't many
network users, even Mac users, who would claim AppleTalk could
compare in performance to Ethernet-based networks. As to built-in
sound, it would in no way match the features delivered by a PC sound
card.

The minimum result of the current fracas will be more careful
consideration of such comparisons before publication. Despite
stating that the ad displayed an "accurate and independently
verified snapshot of computer functionality as at 24th July 1992,"
Apple obviously underestimated the response from the PC
community specifically and from the computing community in general.
The ad has been held in justifiable contempt by PC users, and is
considered at least as unfortunate by the Mac community.

The complaint by a PC user about the ad to the Trade Practices
Commission is indicative of the feeling in the community about such
ads -- they are unnecessary and quite often don't show the whole
picture. For an industry based on information technology,
advertisements seem to display a distinct lack of information - and
users are less willing to put up with that fact anymore.

Editor's Note: Sean McNamara is a dedicated Macintosh user and
programmer, as well as a staff Newsbytes journalist.

(Sean McNamara/19920911)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00010)

 ****Comcast Demos Phone Service Without Phone Company 09/11/92
PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, U.S.A., 1992 SEPT 11 (NB) -- Comcast,
which owns both cable and cellular systems in the Philadelphia
area, demonstrated how those systems can be combined into an
effective competitor to local phone companies.

By working with Eastern Telelogic, which runs a "bypass" fiber
network in the Philadelphia area, and in whom it is acquiring a
majority stake, President Brian L. Roberts completed calls to London,
England and Trenton, New Jersey while completely bypassing local
networks.

"By the end of this decade consumers could have a choice of local
phone service, just as they today can choose among long distance
phone companies," he said. Some local phone companies, most
notably Ameritech, have been predicting such competition in
their fight to win regulatory relief from states, saying that
without relief they can't compete.

To make the calls, Roberts had to use his company's Philadelphia
cellular system, Eastern TeleLogic, the company's experimental
PCN micro-cell network in Trenton, the company's Trenton cable
television network, and Cable London, Comcast's joint cable
television-telephone system in England. "We have the ability
right now to interconnect existing wireless and wireline
technologies to create a new, seamless telecommunications
network," Roberts said. "Hopefully, government policies will
encourage the integration of cable TV, cellular, fiber optic, and
new personal communications technologies by entrepreneurial
companies like Comcast, so that consumers can have a genuine
alternative to the local telephone company."

The main purpose of the call was political. The FCC is preparing
to rule that local phone companies like Bell Atlantic, which
serves Philadelphia, must make their equipment and lines
available to outside competitors. The decision is aimed at
opening up the local phone market to companies like Metropolitan
Fiber and Eastern Telelogic, which run fiber rings in major
cities and now compete only to link large business phone
switches to the systems of long-distance and packet network
carriers. Comcast was trying to show that this decision, which is
compared to the "Carterphone" decision that allowed MCI to compete
with AT&T in the long distance market, could have equal
consequences.

Publicly, Bell Atlantic welcomes the competition. But in return
it wants complete deregulation of its rates and an assurance that
competitors will be forced to take the same unprofitable lines of
residential business it must take. The company is also moving
into new areas of business, especially cellular telephony, and
looking for new markets there. One example is a deal it recently
announced with Jersey Central Power & Light, which will soon have
three dozen technicians send and receive work orders, completion logs,
and other job information via wireless facsimile from Bell
Atlantic Mobile Systems.

In separate but related stories, Southwestern Bell added
information services to its cellular phone system in Texas. "Fast
Facts," which includes order-entry technology, is reached by
dialing *123 from a cellular phone. It could not have been
offered before the regional Bell companies won the right to enter
the information services market in 1991. And those rights could
still be taken away by an anti-trust bill now before the US
House. Southwestern Bell said it has taken more than 50,000 calls
this month to its information services, including stock market
reports, entertainment, horoscopes, soap operas, trivia, and
interactive adventure services.

Also, Ameritech announced it is selling its Tigon subsidiary to
Octel, a maker of voice mail systems, for an undisclosed price.
Tigon, based in Dallas, provides voice messaging services with
Octel equipment. Observers say Tigon is an example of how the Bells
can go wrong with their regulatory freedom, entering businesses they
know nothing about. Analysts doubt Ameritech would be selling
Tigon if it were making an acceptable level of profits, although
Ameritech took a swipe at continuing regulatory restrictions in
announcing the sale.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19920911/Press Contact: Mark A. Coblitz,
Comcast, 215-981-7733; Bell Atlantic Mobile Systems Karen Ann
Kurlander, 908/306-7552; Walter Patterson, Southwestern Bell
Mobile Systems, 214-733-2132; Ameritech, Michael Brand, 312/750-
5219)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00011)

Stentor/MCI Alliance 09/11/92
WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1992 SEP 11 (NB) -- MCI announced it
will create an integrated digital network with Stentor, the
alliance of the major Canadian telephone companies.

Under the agreement, MCI will license the underlying technology
of its Vnet, Vision and Friends & Family products, known as an
intelligent network platform, to Stentor for $150 million.
Stentor will thus be able to offer similar intelligent network
services, as well as future services to be developed jointly, to
customers in Canada. MCI and Stentor will also be able to provide
services with the same features and functionality regardless of
the country location and to rapidly develop and deploy new
services. MCI has committed to spend between $150-$200 million
on further development of the platform.

The nine Stentor partners are Bell Canada, BC Telephone, AGT
Limited of Alberta, Sasktel of Saskatchewan, the Manitoba
Telephone System, New Brunswick Tel, Maritime Telephone and
Telegraph, Island Telephone and Newfoundland Telephone.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19920911/Press Contact: MCI, Jim Crawford, 202-
887-3000; Lynda Leonard, Stentor, 613-781-3301)


(NEWS)(GOVT)(SYD)(00012)

 ****Unisys Transforms Singapore Airport 09/11/92
SINGAPORE, SOUTHEAST ASIA, 1992 SEP 11 (NB) -- Singapore Airport
Terminal Services (STS), Singapore Airlines (SIA) and computer company
Unisys have launched one of the world's most advanced airport
departure control systems at Singapore's Changi Airport in
Terminal Two. DCS90 (Departure Control System for the 1990s)
is a Singapore $4,2M system resulting from an agreement the
three signed four years ago.

The system is expected to provide Changi airport with a
competitive edge in faster and more accurate passenger handling,
improved customer service and baggage security, as well as
offer a much more accessible system. It has been designed to
cope with expected traffic increases -- Singapore is the region's
leading air traffic hub.

SATS will handle around 14 million passengers and 46,500
flights each year, with an annual turnover of Singapore$420M.
User-friendly applications and workstation interfaces are said to
allow operators to provide passengers with immediate access to
information such as seating plans, flight information, inventory,
passenger details, and updates.

This easy information access is designed to allow operators more
time to attend to passenger needs. For example, as the name is
entered, the system begins searching from the first letter,
shortening search time. All boarding passes are magnetically
encoded with name and flight details and a gate reader checks the
pass. After verifying gate and seat details it detaches the stub.

Baggage is similarly encoded to automate sorting and loading. If a
passenger is a "no show," the system enables his/her baggage to be
quickly located and removed from the aircraft. (The theory is that
people might plant a bomb in their luggage, but they don't like to
travel with it. Therefore, if they fail to board, their baggage is
absolutely not wanted on board.)

The system is based on a local area network with not one central
server computer, but many of them on each check-in island, producing
almost instantaneous processing and querying. Even if the system
goes down, each local computer can still operate the workstations
connected to it. In addition, DCS90 interfaces with most other
airline passenger and baggage systems.

DCS90 consists of 280 Unisys CTOS-based intelligent
workstations, French-made boarding pass printers, baggage tag
printers and boarding control devices.

(Paul Zucker/19920911)


(NEWS)(IBM)(MOW)(00013)

IBM Central Asian Developments 09/11/92
MOSCOW, RUSSIA, 1992 SEP 11 (NB) -- IBM has reportedly secured a
contract to supply road transport control and a complete banking
system for Uzbekistan. Sources also say that former Soviet republics
of Central Asia might be reoriented to work with Istambul, Turkey,
rather than IBM's Moscow subsidiary.

The road transport control and management system will be used for both
bus and truck transport lines within the republic, according to sources
in Tashkent, the capital city. IBM will reportedly supply both hardware
and programs for the system to work.

IBM is also said to be signing a major deal to install a large number of
banking computer system in the Uzbek republic. "It is only the beginning
of the large business development in Uzbekistan," said Mark Goldberg,
an IBM marketing expert.

Meanwhile, industry sources say IBM will shift all its operations in
Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, Turkmenia, and Uzbekistan from the Moscow office
to one in Istambul,Turkey. This is not so far-fetched an idea, as the
Moscow office tends to be more Eastern Europe-oriented, while Turkish
businesses are eager to establish their position in the newly opening
Central Asian markets. Newsbytes Moscow was unable to confirm or
deny this information with local IBM sources.

(Kirill Tchashchin & Vladimir Shliemin/19920910)


(NEWS)(GOVT)(TOR)(00014)

Canadian Government Launches Home-Work Plan 09/11/92
OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1992 SEP 11 (NB) -- Canadian civil
servants who meet certain criteria will be able to work at home
under a three-year pilot program announced by the federal
government.

The government's telework policy will permit employees to work from
their homes either full-time or part-time, provided there is no
loss in productivity, ongoing costs are no higher than for working
at the office, and any initial costs are recovered in a reasonable
time.

Any work-at-home arrangement must be voluntary and must not violate
union agreements, said Bob Fortier, project manager for the
program, and the employee's manager must also agree.

Fortier said some jobs are clearly better suited to teleworking
than others -- "you can't have a submarine repairman working at
home," he quipped. Translators, lawyers, and others who deal with
documents all or part of the time are good candidates.

Fortier said the government expects many of its teleworking
arrangements will be part-time ones, where employees will come into
the office a couple of days a week and spend the rest of their
working hours at home, or even just take occasional afternoons away
from the office to work in peace on such jobs as finishing up a
report.

During the initial three-year pilot program, teleworking employees
will be required to work the same office hours specified in their
present collective agreements, and will not be permitted for
instance to do their work in the evening. In future, Fortier said,
this rule might be loosened to let people work at the hours that
best suit them.

The government will provide equipment such as personal computers
where needed. Fortier said this will not always mean buying new
equipment. For instance, if an employee decides to work at home
full time, the computer on the employee's desk at work can be sent
home with him or her. If a department has several employees working
at home part time, it can give them some of its PCs to take home
and set up a rotation system for use of the remaining ones at the
office. Some government departments also have portable "floaters"
available for loan to employees, as well as older PCs in storage
that might be suitable for simple tasks at home.

If a department does have to buy a PC or other equipment for a
teleworking employee, the cost will have to be demonstrably
recoverable in a reasonable amount of time before the plan can be
approved, Fortier said.

The government does not plan to buy furniture for employees' home
offices, he said.

The policy is due to be re-evaluated after three years.

(Grant Buckler/19920911/Press Contact: Craig Lee, Government of
Canada Treasury Board Communications, 613-957-2428)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(TOR)(00015)

Northern Telecom Jobs To Move From Canada To Mexico 09/11/92
SASKATOON, SASKATCHEWAN, CANADA, 1992 SEP 11 (NB) -- Northern
Telecom will move 36 jobs from an optical fiber plant in Saskatoon
to an existing facility in Monterey, Mexico next summer.

Company spokesman Preston Peek told Newsbytes that the plant, which
produces optical fiber, had a small operation "in one corner"
making connectors for fiber-optic communications. The work is not
closely tied to the rest of the Saskatoon operation and is
lower-skilled than other jobs at that location, he said, so it made
sense to move the jobs to Monterey.

Peek said the decision was not related to the North American Free
Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which is set to phase out many tariff
barriers between Canada, the United States, and Mexico. Pointing
out that the NAFTA, signed during the summer, has still to be
ratified by the three countries, he said Northern could make no
assumptions at this point about the final agreement.

Peek would not comment on the wages paid at the Monterey plant. In
general, Mexican workers' wages are substantially lower than those
in Canada; figures may run as low as US$4.00 per day, which is less
than the minimum hourly wage in most Canadian provinces.

Jobs have been lost at several Northern plants in Canada in the
past two years, some to overseas facilities. In May of 1991,
Northern announced cuts at a plant in Belleville, Ontario, which
included moving the manufacturing of telephone power packs to
Penang, Malaysia. Later that same month, cuts at a London, Ontario
factory included moving overseas some jobs in the manufacturing of
telephone handset cords.

(Grant Buckler/19920911/Press Contact: Preston Peek, Northern
Telecom, 416-238-7000)


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

ROUNDUP: Stories Carried By Other Media This Week 09/11/92
WASHINGTON, DC, U.S.A., 1992 SEP 11 (NB) -- Roundup is a brief
look at some computer stories carried in other publications
received here this past week.

Global Telephony for September 7 looks at the use of undersea
fiber optic cables in Asia.

Software Magazine for September looks at CEO Kurtzig's tenure at
Ask Computer.

The September 7 issue of Computerworld says IS managers' pay is
dropping and (surprise!) women get less in the same jobs.

Informationweek for the 7th looks at Chrysler Corporation's giant
high-tech center with its 10,000 fiber optic cables and asks
whether the ailing automotive company can really afford all this
technology.

The August 31 Computer Reseller News says that Fortune 1000
companies are drastically cutting PC purchases because of fears
for the economy.

CommunicationsWeek dated September 7 says that Cisco Systems is
challenging IBM's routing protocol.

The September 7 Network World also headlines Cisco's challenge of
IBM and says that Timeplex will adopt HP's OpenView system and
network management platform for the core of its new product line.

Computer Reseller News for the week of the seventh says that
Microsoft is claiming innocence in the matter of charges that it
has kept Windows features secret to gain an unfair competitive
advantage for its products.

Telephony for August 31 says that 50 independent field marketing
agents have charged Sprint Corp. with operating an illegal
pyramid scheme and failing to deliver promised compensation. The
class action suit filed in Missouri says that Sprint and Network
2000 illegally tied compensation to signing up new salesmen.

(John McCormick/19920911)


(NEWS)(IBM)(DEN)(00017)

Dell Cuts 486 Prices - New Marketing, Sales Execs 09/11/92
AUSTIN, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1992 SEP 11 (NB) -- Dell Computer Corporation
has announced price reductions for its 25-megahertz (Mhz) 486-based
desktop systems. The company has also named three new sales and
marketing executives.

The company said it is reducing prices on its 486D/25 and 486P/25
systems by $100 on each model.

According to Joel Kocher, senior VP at Dell, the move was designed
to bring the 486-based systems closer to the price of a 386. Kocher
said sales of 486-based systems represent more than 60 percent of
the company's worldwide systems revenue.

Asked if the move would affect 386 sales, Kline told Newsbytes,
"Clearly the industry is moving to 486 as a standard. Folks will
get more computing power and have a higher set of capabilities."
However, that standard is a shifting one, with 586 and 686 chips
in development by the chip makers.

Dell makes two models of each system, one with a 120 megabyte (MB)
hard drive and one with a 230MB drive. The 120MB systems come with
SVGA monitors, while the 230MB systems are equipped with UltraScan
14C monitors. Both systems standard configuration includes 4MB of
system memory, a mouse, and have DOS 5.0 and Windows 3.1 pre-installed.

As an example of the new prices, a 486P/25 with a 120MB hard drive,
4MB of RAM, and an SVGA monitor now sells for $1,999. A 486D/25
with 4MB of memory, a 230MB hard drive, and an UltraScan 14C display
now carries a suggested retail price of $2,549.

Dell provides unlimited toll-free technical support and guaranteed
next-business day on-site service through its alliance with Banctec
Service Corporation. Shorter response time service contracts are
also available.

The company also announced that Rob Howe, formerly VP of vendor
relationships at Microage, has been named VP and general manager
of Dell Direct Sales, with responsibility for the company's sales
to small and medium-sized businesses. He will also focus on increasing
Dell's capabilities in software and peripheral distribution and
attempt to expand Dell's relationship with third party vendors.

Susan Blunt Larson has been named VP and general manager of Dell's
commercial marketing division, with responsibility for sales to Fortune
1000 accounts, as well as marketing activities with VARs (value-added
resellers) and systems integrators. Larson comes to Dell from JWP,
Inc., where she was regional vice president.

Dell's new director of the federal systems division is AnnMarie
Randle. Randle was acting VP of sales at Government Technology
Services Inc., prior to joining Dell. Her position is a new
one at Dell.

(Jim Mallory/19920911/Press contact: Dean Kline, Dell Computer,
512-794-4100; Reader contact: 800-289-3355 or 512-338-4400)


(NEWS)(IBM)(DEN)(00018)

Windows 3.1 For Workgroups In Beta Testing 09/11/92
REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1992 SEP 11 (NB) -- Microsoft
Corporation is beta testing Windows for Workgroups 3.1 at 8,000 sites.

The program is a superset of Windows 3.1, which Microsoft says is
designed to make it easy for groups of PC users to share information
and work together. According to Microsoft it will include network
client software compatible with both Novell Netware and Microsoft
LAN Manager, as well as improvements to the Windows File Manager.

Microsoft spokesperson Collins Hemingway told Newsbytes that the
pricing for Windows for Workgroups hasn't been set yet, but did
confirm that Windows users will be able to upgrade to the program
without having to buy a complete version of the workgroup software.

In the second quarter, sales of Windows applications were $526 million,
a 181 percent increase over the same period last year.

Microsoft says it will show Windows-based applications with Microsoft
SQL Server running natively on Banyan Vines at the Association of
Banyan Users International Fall Conference in Boston beginning
September 20. The estimated 1500 show attendees will also see
Windows NT being demonstrated by Microsoft. One session will discuss
Microsoft's strategy for Windows in relation to Microsoft and Banyan
products. Registration includes a luncheon with top executives from
Microsoft, Banyan, and the Network Application Consortium.

The August 31 issue of Open Systems Today, a trade publication for
Unix users, reported that a surprisingly large number of Unix
workstation users are either evaluating or planning to evaluate
purchases of Windows NT. The paper said the results were based on
a reader survey.

(Jim Mallory/19920911/Press contact: Collins Hemingway, Microsoft,
206-882-8080)


(NEWS)(IBM)(DEN)(00019)

Zeos Announces 486-based EISA Server 09/11/92
ST PAUL, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1992 SEP 11 (NB) -- Zeos International
says its introducing a special package that allows networks using
PCs and Macs, or just Macs to use its 486-based EISA (Extended
Industry Standard Architecture) system as a file server.

According to Gregg Herrick, Zeos president, the server, used on a
Novell network, is faster, cheaper and more flexible. "For those
work groups that primarily use Macs, yet can't find an Apple file
server to provide the power they need, this package is an attractive
alternative," states Herrick.

"A lot of people don't realize they can use a PC-compatible server on
a Mac network. We've configured this to be the perfect server for
that environment," a Zeos marketing VP told Newsbytes.

The $5,695 file server package includes a 33 MHz (megahertz) 80486
processor with built-in cache and a math coprocessor, 128K SRAM
secondary cache, 16MB DRAM, 674MB SCSI (small computer system
interface) hard drive, EISA caching controller card with 2MB, two
floppy drives, a 14-inch monitor, and a 300-watt power supply
with two cooling fans.

Microsoft DOS 5.0, a mouse, and 24-hour toll-free technical support
are also included. Zeos says print advertising for the system will
appear in two Macintosh-oriented magazines later this month.

(Jim Mallory/19920911/Press contact: Rick Apple, Zeos, 612-633-5877;
Reader contact: 800-423-5891)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00020)

Origin Systems, Electronic Arts Merge 09/11/92
AUSTIN, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1992 SEP 11 (NB) -- Interactive entertainment
publisher Origin Systems says it will merge with San Mateo-California
based Electronic Arts in a deal valued at about $35 million.

Origin says the transaction will be accounted for as a pooling of
interests, in which Electronic Arts will exchange about 1.3 million
shares of its stock for all the outstanding securities of Origin.

Origin publishes the Ultima line of fantasy role-playing games, which
the company says has sold more than 1.5 million units. They have
also sold more than 500,000 copies of the action simulation game
"Wing Commander."

Robert Garriott, Origin president, said that while Origin's financial
track record continues to be strong, both companies see their
long-term strategies for the entertainment industry best served
together. "We believe our combined companies have an even greater
advantage over the competition," said Garriott.

Origin media relations director Galen Svanas told Newsbytes that
there would be no adverse impact on Origin staffing. "We won't
lose a single employee. They want us to continue to operate just as
we have been," said Svanas. "Everybody here is very excited about it."

Origin employs 160 artists, programmers, musicians, writers and
other professionals, and has purchased a multi-million dollar
headquarters in North Austin. It will operate as a wholly owned
subsidiary of Electronic Arts, with Garriott continuing as president
and CEO. He will also become an Electronic Arts VP.

Electronic Arts president Larry Probst said the acquisition of
Origin "will help launch Electronic Arts into the CD market and enhance
its position as the leading, worldwide independent publisher of
entertainment software."

(Jim Mallory/19920911/Press contact: Galen Svanas, Origin Systems,
512-328-5490 , fax [phone]; Reader contact: 512-328-5490)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(BOS)(00021)

 ****Wang to Cut Manufacturing Worldwide 70%, 50% In Ireland 09/11/92
LOWELL, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1992 SEP 11 (NB) -- Wang
Laboratories has announced a decision to scale down its
manufacturing facility in Limerick, Ireland by 50%, while cutting
back worldwide manufacturing operation by 70%.

Ed Pigone, director of public relations, told Newsbytes that the
relatively low reductions at the Limerick plant, a major producer
of Wang products distributed in Europe, reflects the strategic
importance of the Limerick facility and the European market to
Wang. "We have a number of very loyal, highly valued customers in
Europe," he commented.

The manufacturing cutbacks are part of a worldwide restructuring
designed to help Wang return to profitability and successfully
emerge from its current Chapter 11 status, according to Pigone.

Pigone told Newsbytes that Wang will be closing some facilities in
other parts of the world, but added that the company is not
prepared at this time to announce locations of the plants to be
shut down. He also declined comment on specific cutbacks at plants
outside of Limerick. "We feel it's imperative to notify our people
first," he explained.

In Limerick, Wang plans to lay off about half of Wang's present
workforce of 300, according to Pigone. At the same time, the
company will increase its current use of outsourcing to third-party
providers in Ireland.

Wang's use of temporary help during peak production periods at
Limerick will continue in its traditional pattern, Pigone told
Newsbytes.

(Jacqueline Emigh/19920911; Press contact: Ed Pigone, Wang, tel
508-967-4912)


(REVIEW)(IBM)(TOR)(00022)

Review of: K-U-I: Keyboard User Interface For Windows 09/11/92

Runs on: Any MS-DOS PC with Microsoft Windows 3.0 or 3.1

From: Softac Corp., 23 Sunset Road, Winchester, Massachusetts 01890

Price: $79.95

Reviewed by: Grant Buckler

PUMA Rating: 3.0 on a scale of 1=lowest to 4=highest

SUMMARY: K-U-I makes it possible to do from your computer keyboard
anything Microsoft Windows will let you do with a mouse. The most
obvious use for this is when working with a laptop machine that
lacks a mouse or in confined quarters where using the mouse in
awkward. However, K-U-I's ability to set up hot keys for purposes
like launching or switching applications can come in handy even
when you have a mouse.

======

REVIEW

======

Running Windows on a laptop or notebook machine usually poses a
problem. What do you do about the mouse? Even the smallest notebook
computer does not leave room on an airplane tray table, for
instance, to use a mouse.

There are hardware solutions to this, such as trackballs that clip
on the side of your machine. But any such device is still an extra
piece of equipment. Softac offers an alternative: software that
lets your keyboard do whatever the mouse can do.

With K-U-I installed, you can use the cursor control keys on your
keyboard to move the mouse -- just press Scroll Lock to turn on the
mouse simulation. By default, the Insert and Delete keys act as the
left and right mouse buttons. You can change this setting to have
other keys serve this purpose if you prefer.

The keyboard simulation is not as fast as using a real mouse when
you're doing heavy mouse work. Newsbytes' test relied on the
Solitaire game that comes with Windows, in which you do everything
with the mouse. It is quite practical to play Solitaire without
touching the mouse, though it is a bit slower. By defining the
Insert key on the numeric keypad of a desktop machine (rather than
the separate Insert key above the cursor controls) to be the left
mouse button, it is even fairly easy to play the game one-handed.

K-U-I's use of the cursor control keys works quite smoothly. We
were particularly pleased to note that if you hold down two arrow
keys at the same time, you can move the cursor diagonally. With a
little practice it's possible to get quite proficient at this.

For those who want to use Windows on a laptop computer, K-U-I could
be quite handy. But it could have other uses too. I have so far
resisted using Windows regularly because it does not switch among
applications nearly as smoothly as Quarterdeck Office Systems'
Desqview. Desqview has built-in hot-key switching -- hold down the
Alt key and press 1 and go to the first application you started,
Alt-2 for the second, and so on. Windows makes you go back to the
program manager on the way.

K-U-I lets you create hot keys that are almost as good as those
built into Desqview. It's still a bit slower than Desqview, because
Windows still flashes the program manager on the screen before
bringing up the application you want, but at least it all happens
automatically; you don't have to hit several keys to get there.

K-U-I also lets you set up "aliases," which are custom names for
any operation you can perform from the DOS command line. For
instance, if you frequently want to run your word processor to edit
a specific file, you can create an alias that starts the word
processor and loads that file (assuming your word processor has a
way of specifying the file to be loaded on the command line). You
can assign a hot key to your alias, or you can execute it from the
K-U-I Task List.

Another feature is a "magnifying lens" that will blow up a selected
part of the screen to twice or four times its normal size. You can
set the size and shape of the area to be magnified. This feature is
a bit awkward, though, because you have to hold down a key and a
mouse button simultaneously to keep the magnified view on screen.

In the extras department, K-U-I offers a selection of screen savers
(dynamic patterns that replace the normal display on your monitor
after a prescribed period with no keyboard or mouse activity, to
prevent screen "burn-in.")

===========

PUMA RATING

===========

Performance: 3.5. It would be nice if the hot keys could switch
applications faster, and if the cursor control keys could move the
mouse faster, but to be fair, the limitations of underlying
hardware and software probably are to blame.

Usefulness: 3.5. If you need to use a portable computer without a
mouse, or in circumstances where a mouse is awkward, K-U-I is a
good way to make it bearable. And if you've decided to move to
Windows but don't like the awkward way it switches among
applications, K-U-I once properly set up will make it more
bearable.

Manuals: 3.0. The slim manual covers the program's functions well.
It might do a better job of explaining how they can be used. The
question "yes, but what is it for?" sometimes comes to mind. Also,
two key features, the mouse simulation and the magnifying lens,
were apparently added since the manual was printed. They are
covered in a four-page insert, but the index and an quick reference
to menus don't mention them.

Availability: 2.5. At this writing Softac has no national
distribution agreements for K-U-I, and is offering the software
direct to users and independent resellers. The company has a
toll-free number, though it is not listed in the manual or
packaging.

(Grant Buckler/19920802/Press Contact: Lowell Kopp, Softac,
617-721-1010, fax [phone]; Public Contact: Softac,
617-721-1010)


(REVIEW)(IBM)(WAS)(00023)

Review of: DAK BSR External CD-ROM Drive 09/11/92

Runs on: All PC (ISA or EISA) bus computers

From: DAK Industries Inc., 8200 Remmet Ave., Canoga Park, CA
91304. 818-888-8220, 800-325-0800 (orders), 800-888-6703 (TDD),
818-888-2837 (fax order), and 800-888-7808 (general inquiries)

Price: $199.90 plus $19 shipping and handling.

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

Reviewed for Newsbytes by: John McCormick, 09/11/92

Summary: A solid bargain in a low-end CD-ROM and CD audio drive
complete with software, interface card, and cable.

======

REVIEW

======

Just how good can a $200 CD-ROM be? Well, if this is any example,
the answer is: quite good!

All CD-ROM drives offer the same thing - flawless reading of CD-
ROM data discs. There is no compromise here; a drive either reads
files perfectly or it is broken, so don't get caught up in thinking
that a more expensive one will do a better job as far as accuracy goes.

But there are important differences between drives and they fall
into four categories: access time, interface, data transfer rate,
and reliability, all of which may be lower for inexpensive
drives.

Access time is important for some but not all applications.
Early drives had access times from 800 ms (0.8 second) to more
than one full second, and this is incredibly slow compared to
even inexpensive modern hard drives with access times less than
24 milliseconds.

The DAK/BSR (catalog item 3232A) has an 800 millisecond access
rating but for many CD-ROM discs this doesn't result in a terribly
slow application because complex searches of enormous databases take
far more than a second anyway.

In actual tests, one of my 800 ms drives loads and accesses a
database of 80,000 magazine articles in a couple of seconds when
running in stand-alone mode on a 16-MHz 386SX system - the same
database takes a fraction of a second less time to load and
search from a 400 ms drive installed in a 33 MHz 486.
That is an important difference when the disc is installed on a
heavily used local area network, but not terribly significant
when used on a single-user basis.

The fastest CD-ROM drives now offer access times below 300 ms
but the review unit's 800 ms is certainly fast enough for any
home user accessing an encyclopedia and for most small business
users searching a CD-ROM telephone directory database.

This DAK/BSR drive is also inexpensive because it does not use
the expensive SCSI or small computer systems interface which
costs nearly $200 all by itself. The DAK/BSR drive comes complete
with interface card and cable, but this is a proprietary
interface which, unlike SCSI, doesn't allow daisy-chaining
drives.

If you want to install two or three of these drives in a single
computer, you would install a separate card for each - I couldn't
test this, but there are jumpers to modify the drive's bus
address and you should be able to install multiple drives in most
computers.

Data transfer speed is another important feature, and this drive
is not fast enough to qualify as a MPC (Multimedia PC) compatible
drive, but, again, this isn't important for many users.

Reliability is the last important factor, and I can't report on
this from experience because the drive is still operating well,
but the low price can't be taken as proof that the DAK/BSR drive
won't last - the advertised rating for this drive is 25,000 hours
mean-time-between-failures, a good reliability rating.

This doesn't feel like a $200 drive; it is solidly built, and I
can believe DAK's claim that it is actually sold elsewhere at
$419 under the GenStar label.

There is another difference between drives but whether it is
important is a matter of opinion. The $200 DAK/BSR drive is caddyless;
that is, you put the CD-ROM into a tray that slides in and out of the
drive. More expensive caddy-type drives use a $20 carrier to hold the
discs. Since you would have to load and unload discs either from the
drive or a caddy (unless you buy a stack of caddies), I don't see
much advantage to the caddy-type drives if you are reasonably
careful. I have used one caddyless drive for many years and have
never experienced a failure.

This DAK CD-ROM drive is an honest bargain and I recommend it to
anyone who wants to try CD-ROM but can't ante up $800 or more.

The $200 drive comes complete with a CD-ROM menu program to make
it easier to use and includes a music launcher program. That's
right, this drive also plays CD audio discs, either through a
headphone jack or through outputs to any stereo system.

Although DAK recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection,
the mail order company is still in full operation and since then
I have ordered both this drive and a computer from DAK within the
past three weeks - delivery was prompt.

This was not a "free" loaner review drive - I bought and tested
it for a cousin. I have just ordered two more for use in my
office and I already have three other "expensive" CD-ROM drives.

(John McCormick is the author of "A Guide to Optical Storage
Technology," 1990, BusinessONE-Irwin.)

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

PUMA RATING

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

PERFORMANCE: 3 This is not a high-end CD-ROM drive and is
relatively slow if that is an important consideration to you.

USEFULNESS: 4 Solid performance and a great price.

MANUAL: 4 Installation was easy and the documentation was clear.

AVAILABILITY: 4 DAK is a reliable mail-order firm.

(John McCormick/19920911)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(BOS)(00024)

Software Development Conference Opens Monday in Boston 09/11/92
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1992 SEP 11 (NB) -- The Software
Development Conference, an educational forum and trade show for
developers and managers, kicks off this coming Monday, September
14, at the World Trade Center in Boston.

Most of the 50-or-so seminars slated for Monday and Tuesday are
targeted at managers, although about ten deal with programming
issues. Wednesday through Friday, the content turns decidedly
technical, with some 75 development tutorials.

Symantec President Gordon Eubanks will deliver "Lessons from the
Front," the keynote speech, Tuesday night at 6:00, after the first
day of exhibition activities.

Some 85 vendors will display their wares on the exhibition floor,
slated to be open from 11 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Tuesday through
Thursday.

Miller Freeman, conference hosts, will be offering management-
oriented seminars on such topics as "Case for CASE," "A Framework
for Small Team Development," "Coping with Project Change," and "The
Manager's Toolkit."

The San Francisco-based trade show organizer will also run
technical tutorials that range in scope from "Making Object-
Oriented Designs in C" to "C++ Programming Adventures with OS/2,"
and from "An Introduction to Pen Windows" to "Getting Ready for
Windows 32."

Also at the show, the Boston Computer Society will be presenting
about a dozen additional technical sessions, including "Debugging
C," "Bedrock Technology for Portability," and "Developing PC-Based
SQL Client/Server Applications."

Miller Freeman will be holding a West Coast edition of The Software
Development Conference from February 21 through 26 at the Santa
Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.

(Jacqueline Emigh/19920911; Press contact: Fern Leaf, Miller
Freeman, tel [phone]; Reader contact: Maureen Cassidy, Miller
Freeman, tel [phone])


(NEWS)(TRENDS)(ATL)(00025)

 ****IBM, Others Team To Offer Dependent Care Benefits 09/11/92
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1992 SEP 11 (NB) -- In what the current
administration might term an example of "trickle down economics,"
some of the largest technology companies in the US, including IBM, have
announced an effort in which they will pump $25.4 million in
child and elder care programs in 25 states. The team
effort is called the American Business Collaboration for Quality
Dependent Care.

The chief executives of IBM, Xerox, Eastman Kodak, Motorola and
AT&T were among those who signed an open letter endorsing and
announcing the program. It said in part, "Our diverse work force
is increasingly populated by employees who must arrange care for
family members -- young and old -- in order to be fully
productive at work. Meeting the basic need for support of our
working families is one of the most critical issues we face."

Other technology companies participating in the venture include
Amdahl, Andersen Consulting, Bull HN Information Services, which
owns Zenith, Bell Atlantic's C&P Telephone unit, Digital
Equipment, First Data, Lexmark -- makers of IBM's printers,
NYNEX' New England and New York Telephone units, Pacific Bell,
the Sematech research consortium, and US West.

Ironically, the venture was announced a day after the US
Congress passed a Parental Leave Bill offering 12 weeks of unpaid
leave to workers who must care for a newborn or sick family
member. President Bush has said he will veto the bill.

The move also comes as President Bush faces a tough re-election
battle in which "family values" has become an issue. He trails Arkansas
Governor Bill Clinton in current polls. Many of the signees of
the letter, including IBM chairman John F. Akers, are active
Republicans. But a spokesman for the group insisted the timing of
the announcement is pure coincidence, saying the date had been
set 2 1/2 months ago and the initiative has been in the works for
18 months.

Most of the money, 57 percent of it, is going to fund 25 new care
centers around the country, 10 of them brand-new, and 15
expansions of existing facilities. Other funds are going into the
accreditation of day care facilities, into school-age holiday and
vacation programs, into summer camps, into family day care and
in-home provider training, and into the SeniorNet electronic
network.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19920911/Press Contact: Barry Wanger, Wanger
Associates, 617-965-6469)


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

Radius To Post Lower Earnings; President Resigns 09/11/92
SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1992 SEP 11 (NB) -- Radius Inc.,
which has posted several consecutive successful quarters, has
indicated that it is "experiencing a lower than anticipated sales
rate for the current quarter." Additionally, President and Chief
Executive Officer Barry James Folsom has resigned for, what
the company claims are, "personal reasons to pursue other
interests."

According to Radius, its net revenues for the quarter ending
September 30, 1992, are expected to be comparable to the $35.5
million net revenues for the quarter ended September 30, 1991,
compared to $44.2 million net revenues for the quarter ended
June 30, 1992.

The company also expects that its net income for the current
quarter will be "substantially below" the 13 cents per share
reported by the company for the like quarter last year. The
company maintains that this is due to its "lower than expected
revenues and to price reductions on one of its display product
lines."

Radius blames the lower revenues, in part, on the difficulty of one
of its display suppliers in filling the company's orders for
15-inch monochrome displays. The company anticipates that sales
will improve "following the resolution of the monochrome supply
issue." Additionally, lower than anticipated demand in its target
markets also contributed to the lower revenues.

The company hopes that revenue from its new RocketShare
multiprocessing technology and VideoVision product will help
turn things around in the near future.

In what the company is calling "an unrelated development,"
Barry James Folsom, has resigned from his position at the
company, although he will continue to serve on Radius' board of
directors. Michael D. Boich, the founder and chairman of the
company, was appointed president and chief executive officer.
According to Radius, Boich previously held these positions for
five years from the company's inception until April of 1991.

Although the company denies that Folsom's departure was
related to the disappointing earnings results, some press
reports dispute that.

Some analysts believe that the lower than expected revenues
make it likely that the company will at least consider
selective job cuts in response.

Some analysts also believe that the lower sales are because
buyers are holding off purchasing new peripherals in anticipation
of product announcements from Apple, and are also waiting for
the dust to settle in the recent hardware price wars.

No one at Radius was available for comment by Newsbytes
deadline.

(Ian Stokell/19920911/Press Contact: Richard S. Stoltz,
Radius Inc., 408-434-1010)


(NEWS)(APPLE)(LON)(00027)

UK: Apple Shaves 45 From Irish Facility; Takes On Mac LCII 09/11/92
CORK, IRELAND, 1992 SEP 11 (NB) -- Apple is letting go 45 staff from
its 1,040-strong payroll at the Cork European production facility
in Ireland. The cutbacks form part of the 345 worldwide
redundancies announced this week in the US.

According to Liam Donohue, external relations manager with
Apple's Cork facility, the Irish redundancies will be purely
voluntary, with staff invited to apply over the next few months,
ready to leave early next year.

"All staff can apply for the redundancies, but we have barred
production people from applying. Anyone else can apply for
layoffs," he told Newsbytes.

Donohue added that the worldwide job cuts will eventually result
in all final Mac assembly operations in the US being centralized
at Apple's Sacramento, California facility. PCB operations are
now centered in Fountain, Colorado, while the Cork operation will
continue to handle European printed circuit board production.

Shipping times on the Mac LCII series, which were manufactured in
the US, will be reduced as European production is moved to Cork.
This, Apple claims, strengthens its European production
facilities.

As well as the 45 staff layoffs at Cork, Apple will implement a
number of cost reduction measures to ensure that the facility
will remain competitive.

Details of the cutbacks have been announced to staff at the Cork
factory this week. Padric Allen, the facility's managing
director, said that, on balance, the outcome of the review is
very positive for the factory and its suppliers. Plans call, he
said, for Apple to source UKP 100 million worth of components
over the next year.

(Steve Gold/19920911/Press & Public Contact: Apple Computer
(Cork) - Tel: [phone])


(NEWS)(UNIX)(LON)(00028)

Sun To Unveil Sunexpress Telesales In Europe 09/11/92
LONDON, ENGLAND, 1992 SEP 11 (NB) -- Sun MicroSystems has announced
that its Sunexpress telemarketing operation, which has been up
and running in the US for the past year, has been extended to
Europe. The European operation, which is headquartered in the
Netherlands, will go live next week.

According to Sun Microsystems, the European telemarketing
operation will provide a new distribution channel for easy
ordering and fast delivery for all Sun products except computer
hardware.

Sunexpress is a catalogue operation. According to a spokesman for
the company, the operation is completely separate from Sun
Microsystems' existing third-party channels, such as resellers
and dealers, who can handle all of Sun's products.

The bulk of Sunexpress' products will be customer-installable
hardware, including memory, storage, supplies, accessories,
software and printing, networking and bus expansion products.
Telesales staff will take orders in English, French or German.

Paul Musson, general manager of the new operation, will be
located at Sun's UK headquarters in Camberley, Surrey, in
England. Musson will be responsible for overseeing the operation,
which will have phone numbers in several countries, with calls
forwarded onto the Netherlands-based telesales operation.

Why the introduction of Sunexpress to Europe? According to Sun,
during 1990, France, Germany and the UK accounted for nearly
two thirds of the entire West European workstations and server
marketplace in shipment and revenue terms.

To back up these figures, Sun cites IDC's latest report on
workstations in Europe, which shows that the Western European
workstation market is worth one third of the global market, which
stood at $7,400 million in 1990. IDC predicts that this figure
will rise to $23,400 million by 1995.

(Steve Gold/19920911/Press & Public Contact: Sun Microsystems -
Tel: [phone]; Fax: [phone])


(NEWS)(APPLE)(DEN)(00029)

New For Macintosh: Interactive Multimedia Murder Mystery 09/11/92
PORTLAND, OREGON, U.S.A., 1992 SEP 11 (NB) -- Police say they
found a wealthy restauranteur dead in his wine cellar yesterday.
There were no signs of robbery, and no apparent motive.

No, you haven't stumbled into the crime section of Newsbytes.
That's the mystery that players have to solve in the new multimedia
mystery game "Who Killed Sam Rupert?" released by Portland,
Oregon-based Creative Multimedia Corporation (CMC). The company
says "Rupert" is the first in an ongoing multimedia mystery
series called "Virtual Murder."

If you've ever wanted to be a detective, this game offers you
the chance. "Rupert" uses the capabilities of multimedia
technology in presenting the mystery, including full-motion
color video, sound, and animation. The game furnishes the
player suspects, a copy of the police report, a view of the
murder scene that allows the player to examine objects at the
scene; a battery of forensic tests; several resources including
a wine encyclopedia and a phone log; alibis offered by the
suspects; and a video press conference in which the player
explains to the press who the suspects are, and answers the
reporters questions.

The player even has an assistant, police detective Lucie Fairwell,
who has performed a lot of the preliminary legwork like collecting
the forensics test results and videotaping the suspects.

CMC publisher Eric Pozzo says he sees the game in the same
tradition as "Clue," "Murder She Wrote," or "Columbo." "Rupert"
author Shannon Gilligan is an experienced author and
producer/editor of interactive fiction, with more than 20
children's books to her credit.

CMC spokesperson Bill Warner told Newsbytes that the company
hasn't decided what their next product will be. "This will be
a series. They've talked about other murders, or robberies,"
Warner said. "Outside this series, CMC is always looking for
other topics, such as reference disks" he told Newsbytes.

"Who Killed Sam Rupert" requires a Macintosh using System 6.0.7
or later, 4MB (megabytes) of system memory, 8-bit color
capability, and a color monitor. A hard drive is recommended,
and a CD-ROM drive is required. The program has a suggested
list price of $39.99. CMC says a DOS version will be available
next month. It's available through CMC's dealers, or can be
ordered direct from the company.

(Jim Mallory/19920911/Press contact: Bill Warner for CMC,
503-452-5920, fax [phone]; Reader contact: 800-776-9277 or
503-452-5933, fax [phone])


(NEWS)(APPLE)(SFO)(00030)

New For Macintosh: ShareVision Real-Time Mac Video Telephone 09/11/92
SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1992 SEP 11 (NB) -- The trend
toward videoconferencing technology, especially as a way to
help companies reduce travel costs, has received another boost
with ShareVision Technology Inc.'s planned real-time Desktop
Visual Communications (DVC) for use over ordinary analog
telephone lines.

According to the company, its VATP (Vector Adaptive Transform
Processing) technology involves data compression and other
techniques to allow for "plug-and-play" voice, video, data
communications, and document sharing.

Mike Jackman, spokesman for the company, told Newsbytes:
"We haven't announced product names or prices yet, but we
will be shipping products in late October. October 26 is the
official day. The total system -- the complete video telephony,
document sharing -- we know will be priced under $4,000."

The company claims that its DVC products for the Macintosh
will combine two NuBus cards and ShareVision software with
a color video camera, and a Norris Ear Phone to provide a
screen-based telephone, video telephone, voice and videomail,
voice and video answering machine, motion video and still
image capture, sound digitizer, Group 3 send-and-receive
facsimile, and v.32bis data modem functionality.

Jackman told Newsbytes that no company on the market is
offering the same products. "There are a couple of companies like
Compression Labs and Northern Telecom, which have announced
products that are in the $5,000 area," he said. "But they are not
going to be shipping them until December and also next year.
Also those are essentially computer-based video telephones
whereas here we are going to be able to do real-time document
sharing."

Jackman went on to explain the differences between the two
types of products. "(Ours) are the only ones that can work on
your regular phone system. All the other companies that have
announced products can only work on ISDN (integrated services
digital networks) or digital networks, which the majority of
people still do not have."

Dr. Lung Yeh, ShareVision president, said: "Desktop computers
are the natural platform for increasing communications
between co-workers, but nobody has been able to do this before
over ordinary phone lines. Desktop Visual Communications
products will replace a lot of business travel. Electronic mail
and voice mail services have taken us a long way, but DVC will
take interpersonal communications much further."

According to the company, the first DVC products will support
both QuickTime and Apple's Open Callaboration Environment
(OCE).

Dean Tucker, ShareVision vice president of marketing, said:
"Some people have been saying that it will be ten years before
widespread digital telephone availability puts video telephone
service on the desktop. ShareVision will make it practical and
affordable before the end of 1992. VATP provides better
quality video communications...(over ordinary telephone lines)...
than other products we've seen that use more expensive
digital telephone services."

Jackman told Newsbytes that there would be a non-video product
introduced soon. "There will be a non-video version of the
product -- for instance, if you wanted a regular (screen-based)
phone that was not a video phone, but with all the modeming,
faxing, and real-time document and application sharing, and
voice mail -- coming out that will be under $1,000. We expect
to announce that (product) in about three or four weeks."

ShareVision Technology is a new company founded in 1991
by developers who left Apple Computer's Advanced Technology
Group. They include Lung Yeh, president, Dan Wright, Frank
Chu, and Mike Mruzik.

(Ian Stokell/19920911/Press Contact: Mike Jackman,
415-772-8413, or David Templeton, 415-772-8439, both of
Phase Two Strategies)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00031)

AT&T Announces Secure Phone 09/11/92
GREENSBORO, NORTH CAROLINA, U.S.A., 1992 SEP 11 (NB) -- AT&T
announced a new secure telephone, the AT&T Telephone Security
Device Model 3600. The devices provides encryption technology to
standard telephones, allowing businesses to discuss sensitive
matters without fear that their words can be intercepted.

The announcement follows by 10 days the company's licensing of public
key technology of Stanford and MIT from Public Key Partners,
including the Diffie-Hellman, RSA and the Commerce Department's
recently proposed Digital Signature Standard, or DSS, encryption
schemes.

The Model 3600 is compatible with both ISDN digital and standard
analog phones. It's slightly larger than a hand-held calculator
and weighs about 1.5 pounds, or .6 kg. This means it can be
carried in a briefcase and used at home and when travelling as
well as in the office. It does, however, have its own power
cable, and is plugged in-line between the phone line and a
regular telephone. The device retails for $1,195.

Separately, AT&T's Bell Labs unit announced at the National
Association of Broadcasters' Radio Show in New Orleans it will
try to get its CD-quality Perceptual Audio Coder named the US
digital audio broadcast standard in a April, 1993 competition by
the Electronic Industries Association, which will make a
recommendation to the Federal Communications Commission.

AT&T's entry comes on the heels of its venture into digital high
definition television with Zenith, which is currently vying for
the US HDTV standard. AT&T is also seeking partners here. PAC
is a proprietary compression scheme that encodes and decodes
digital signals without distortion or noise. The newest version
uses an algorithm that can offer CD-quality sound in a 128,000
bit/second digital channel.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19920911/Press Contact: AT&T, David Arneke,
919-279-7680, Robert Ford, AT&T Bell Laboratories, 201-564-
4260)