Newsbytes - Internationa…ews 1983 May to 1994 June/Newsbytes - International Computing Industry News 1994 Edition - May 1983 - June 1994 - Wayzata Technologies (5045) (1994).iso/pc/text/mac_text/1994/may_jun_94/nb050294

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(NEWS)(APPLE)(DEN)(00001)

Direct Mail Mgt Software For Mac 05/02/94
TEMPE, ARIZONA, U.S.A., 1994 MAY 2 (NB) -- An Arizona company is
offering Direct Mail Made Easy!, a software package it claims doesn't
just keep track of prospects, it teaches you how to run an effective
direct mail campaign.

According to Prosperity Software, a subsidiary of MacLand, the company
behind the package, the software "takes the user step by step through
the entire direct mail process from buying an effective mailing list
to creating and printing an irresistible offer right from the
desktop."

What sets Direct Mail Made Easy! apart from its competitors, according
to MacLand's president, Michael Rather, is its teaching capabilities.
"Accounting programs don't teach you accounting principles, word
processing programs don't teach you writing and grammar skills," he
said.

"Direct Mail Made Easy! helps users identify their best customers,
establish purchase profiles, create `what-if' scenarios and calculate
break-even analyses for their mailings," he added.

Some of the information in the program includes questions to ask a
mailing list broker, where to find mailing lists, how to establish
them, post office information, techniques for improving response, and
how to use business reply cards and toll-free (800) numbers.

According to the company, Direct Mail Made Easy! can identify
duplicate names in the database, and can import and export data to and
from other software.

The program has a suggested retail price of $195. The Macintosh
version, which will run on any Mac running the System 7 operating
system and equipped with at least four megabytes (MB) of memory and a
hard disk. The Mac version is scheduled to ship in June. A Windows
version at the same price is available now.

(Jim Mallory/19940502/Press and reader contact: Mike Rather, MacLand,
602-820-5753)


(NEWS)(IBM)(SYD)(00002)

Aussie Package Logs Phone Sales Calls, Generates Quotes 05/02/94
BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA, 1994 MAY 2 (NB) -- Ozflex Software has announced
SalesEdge, a PC software package which it claims is for anyone who has
to take or make telephone sales calls. The package is billed as
automating the process, right up to generating quotations for
immediate delivery.

The product was born when Ozflex had to update a "clunky" system that
allowed users to type up a quotation long after the customer had hung
up the phone. Allan Barber of Ozflex thought he could do better and
rashly told the customer his company could design a system that would
prepare the quotation while the customer was still on the phone. In
fact, he claimed that his proposed system would enable users to fax
the quotation immediately.

What resulted has all the usual facilities expected from a sales
package: call logging; note taking; appointments; to-do and call
sheets; on-site operation; and sales analysis. But the core of the
program is preparing quotations.

It does this by giving the operator a range of interconnected pick
lists, so much of the quotation is prepared without using the
keyboard. Even comments are available in the pick lists. And then, as
Barber told Newsbytes: "The sales rep sends the quote to the customer
immediately and then proceeds to close the sale, still on the phone."

Price for the product starts at AUS$695 (around US$500).

(Paul Zucker/19940502/Contact: Ozflex Software - tel. [phone];
fax [phone])


(NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00003)

Low Cost Fraud-Resistant Printer Technology 05/02/94
CAROLLTON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1994 MAY 2 (NB) -- Lasertechnics has
introduced two proprietary dye sublimation PVC card printers designed
to print four color, photo-quality digitized images, magnetic stripe
encoded data and other information directly on PVC (poly-vinyl-
chloride) credit cards, drivers' licenses and other forms of secure
identification.

The new systems, which are marketed by the company, include a multi-
station model which can print more than 200 cards an hour, and a
desktop mono-station which prints a card a minute. Both systems
produce "secure" cards for an end user cost of about $1.00 each, or
roughly half the cost of conventional photo/lamination methods.

The average cost of the multi-station equipment is $162,000, while the
mono-station retails for about $18,500, Newsbytes understands.

"Credit card fraud is a growing crisis around the world. The future of
security points to ID cards designed to prevent fraud and other misuse
through secure digitized images," explained George Peterson, president
and chief executive officer of Sandia, Lasertechnics' marketing
division.

According to Lasertechnics, its new products were previewed to
attendees at the International CardTech/SecurTech Conference, the
world's largest card and security technology exhibition, which took
place in Washington recently.

"Reflecting rising concerns over credit card fraud, printing of
tamperproof color photos, signatures, and fingerprints on standard
PVC cards is a market expected to reach $1,200 million in 1997.
Banks, government agencies, and other institutions are moving
toward higher security identification cards," Peterson said.

(Sylvia Dennis/19940502/Press & Public Contact: Lasertechnics - Tel:
505-822-1123)


(NEWS)(IBM)(TOR)(00004)

Watcom SQL Shipped For OS/2 05/02/94
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1994 MAY 2 (NB) -- Watcom
International, a subsidiary of Powersoft Corporation of Waterloo,
Ontario, has announced that it is now shipping its Watcom SQL network
servers for OS/2 in single-user and multiuser versions.

According to Watcom, the servers benefit from the 32-bit architecture
of OS/2 and make use of multitasking to run at the same time as other
applications, so no dedicated database server is needed. Watcom's line
of SQL network servers also includes versions for NetWare and Windows
New Technology (NT).

Watcom officials said the servers will help professional developers,
value-added resellers (VARs), and corporate information systems people
build PC-based client/server SQL database applications.

Watcom SQL uses the Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) standard for SQL
database connectivity. It also supports communication over NetBIOS and
NetWare IPX networks.

Applications using Watcom SQL can be designed to run unchanged on
systems from stand-alone, single-user machines to large networks with
diverse PC clients, according to the vendor.

The vendor said that concurrency and transaction processing features
include: row-level locking; symmetric multithreading of server
requests; and checkpoint, rollback, and forward transaction logs.

Application programming features include: bi-directional, scrollable,
updatable cursors; updatable multi-table views; binary large objects
(BLOBs); self-tuning, cost-based query optimization; database
compression; and support for multinational character sets.

The software also has online backup, referential and entity integrity
features, encryption and other security and reliability provisions,
officials said.

Watcom SQL for OS/2 is available now. Stand-alone, single-user
versions costs $395. List prices for network servers are $795 for the
six-user version, $1,595 for the 16-user version, $2,995 for the 32-
user version, and $4,995 for the unlimited version. Licenses specify
the number of concurrent users, but not the number of machines on
which the client software may be installed.

Registered users of stand-alone, single-user versions of Watcom SQL
can get a royalty-free deployment kit providing a restricted single-
user database and redistribution rights for $99. Through June 30,
1994, Watcom is offering introductory prices of $399 for the six-user
version and $799 for the 16-user version.

(Grant Buckler/19940502/Press Contact: Terry Stepien, Watcom
International, 519-886-3700)


(NEWS)(APPLE)(LON)(00005)

UK - Apple Boosts UK Outlets To 1,200 Dealers 05/02/94
UXBRIDGE, MIDDLESEX, ENGLAND, 1994 MAY 2 (NB) -- Apple Computer has
revealed it is aggressively expanding its outlets in the UK for the
Mac Performa product line. The company is also boosting the number of
outlets on its Power Mac range, as well as repositioning the Apple
Direct mail order side of its business.

"Apple has a great product offering for customers at the entry level,
mid-range and high end. Our channel strategy is simple: ensuring that
customers can buy the products they want at the most affordable price
points and where they want to buy them," explained Adrian Weekes,
Apple UK's sales director.

Since Apple signed agreements with Frontline and Ingram Micro last
October, two new distributors, Apple has signed up 450 new authorized
resellers. This means, Newsbytes notes, that there are over 600 Apple
resellers working with Frontline and Ingram Micro, while 60 of
Apple's largest resellers deal direct with Apple Computer UK.

In addition, there are over 500 retailers selling Mac products on the
high street and in superstores such as PC World. The end result is
that there are now around 1,200 outlets in the UK selling Apple
products, compared with a mere 200 a year ago.

According to Apple, this six-fold increase in sales outlets in just a
year has resulted in the company doubling its market share in the UK
to 8.5 percent in the space of just 12 months.

While all this has been going on at the sharp end, Apple has been
quietly revamping its mail order operation, Apple Direct. The service
has been changed after several dealers introduced their own catalog
operations, requiring Apple to make way for such operations. Plans are
now in place, the company claims, to ensure that there is no overlap
between dealer mail order operations and those of Apple UK's.

(Steve Gold/19940502/Press & Public Contact: Apple Computer - Tel:
[phone])


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

Vistapro Virtual Reality Software For Mac 05/02/94
SAN LUIS OBISPO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1994 MAY 2 (NB) -- With the
increase in more powerful, and less expensive, hardware,
graphics-intensive applications like virtual reality (VR) are
gaining popularity. Now Virtual Reality Laboratories has introduced
an Apple Computer Macintosh version of its Vistapro VR
landscape-generating program.

Valerie Devonish, spokesperson for the company, told Newsbytes that
the package "transfers numerical data obtained from the United States
Geological Survey and NASA into three-dimensional (3D) landscapes."

In use, Vistapro can create the 3-D landscapes in 24-bit color, and
over 2,000 expansion landscapes are available. Devonish told Newsbytes
that the resulting images are of "almost photographic quality."

Vistapro for the Mac uses a Surface Map Editor feature to allow for
the precise placement of such elements as lakes, rivers, oceans,
clouds, haze, snow, waterfalls, trees, shrubs, buildings and roads.
Rock texturing is also possible. According to the company, Vistapro
can also generate left and right images for 3D stereo viewing.

Among the real-life landscapes included are Mount St. Helens before
and after the eruption; Yosemite National Park; Oregon's Crater Lake;
the Matterhorn, Switzerland; Mount Fuji, Japan; Mount LaDole in the
Alps, Europe; and Mount Etna, Italy. Additional US and British
landscape sets are available both from Virtual Reality Laboratories
and Confluence Limited in the United Kingdom.

Devonish also said that the main computer-aided design (CAD) software
the company recommends for use with Vistapro is the market-leading
Autodesk. Vistapro for the Mac is available now at the suggested
retail price of $129.95.

(Ian Stokell/19940502/Press Contact: Valerie Devonish, 805-781-2254,
Virtual Reality Laboratories)


(NEWS)(IBM)(DEN)(00007)

72 More Titles Added To InfoNow CD-ROM 05/02/94
BOULDER, COLORADO, U.S.A., 1994 MAY 2 (NB) -- InfoNow Corporation has
announced it has added 72 additional software titles to its list of
electronically distributed software.

The Boulder, Colorado-based company has added software from 18
additional vendors, including Lotus, WordPerfect, Sierra On-line,
Traveling Software, Computer Associates, Celeris and Culinary
Concepts.

InfoNow distributes computer software in CD-ROM (compact disc read
only memory) format. Titles in its catalog now total 280 with the
latest additions. Users can browse and try software. Once they decide
to purchase a program a call to a toll-free number gets an electronic
"key" that unlocks the software for immediate use.

InfoNow disks are distributed through a variety of channels including
direct to the customer and are also included with some personal
computers. In October 1993 Apple Computer launched a similar service,
Apple Software Dispatch. Its CD-ROM disks include a Quicktime movie
tutorial to explain the test drive and purchase procedure.

InfoNow no longer offers its $995 annual subscription service for a
monthly disk containing new titles. InfoNow spokesperson John Ball
told Newsbytes that the company divides the market into corporate and
consumer segments. Individual consumers receive their initial CD-ROM
disks with their PC or from a book or magazine publisher.

Once the consumer purchases software from InfoNow they can sign up for
a no-cost subscription that gets them a quarterly update CD-ROM disk
with more software offerings. Corporate customers get a monthly update
on a floppy disk. That service is also free once the company is an
InfoNow customer.

(Jim Mallory/19940502/Press contact: Ann Theriault, InfoNow
Corporation, 303-545-5012; Reader contact: InfoNow Corporation, 303-
442-6666, fax [phone])


(NEWS)(APPLE)(LAX)(00008)

Video Navigator Makes Quicktime Movies Interactive 05/02/94
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1994 MAY 2 (NB) -- Radiant
Interactive has begun shipping Video Navigator, a package for making
Apple Macintosh Quicktime movies interactive. The product puts
graphical "hot spots" in any video clip that when clicked on, can take
the user off into another movie clip or execute an Applescript.

Gerth Hansson, president of Radiant Enterprises, claims making an
interactive video is simple. The steps to an interactive video are:
draw, move, and edit links between video clips on the screen; move and
edit the hot spots; and then record the Video Navigator tracks.

The editor interface is in the form of a worksheet where the user
"imports" video clips, represented by clip icons. The interactive
links between the clips are programmed by drawing lines between the
clip icons. These links can be edited by double clicking on the link,
which calls up the link editor. There selections can be made about the
location of hot spot areas, what cursor icon will be used, and the
entry and exit point of the interactive link.

There is one hot spot to a video or Applescript, and hot spots can be
indicated by icons, or by having the cursor change as the user passes
over. A video hot spot can have other hot spots or return back to
where the user left off once played. In addition, a single video clip
can be used for the entire interactive video, since the starting and
ending frame of a video hot spot can be used. In fact, Hansson said,
simply using one video clip improves performance of the interactive
video.

The company claims that Video Navigator makes it possible to work with
Quicktime content already recorded to compact disc read-only memory
(CD-ROM) disc, because it can use movie aliases for the interactive
Quicktime track information.

The package is compatible with Quicktime 1.5 and later, including
Quicktime 2.0 and requires a Macintosh with Quicktime in order to run.
Content produced by the product can be played back using the Video
Navigator player, as well as in Macromedia Director and Hypercard
environments.

The Video Navigator software package includes the Video Navigator
Editor, the Video Navigator Player, The Cursorbank and specially
developed Hypercard commands (eXternal ComManDS or XCMDS) for playing
Video Navigator content within Macromedia Director and Hypercard. In
addition, the package includes the Video Navigator CD ROM with several
hundred megabytes of interactive Quicktime movies, Navigable Quicktime
movies, demonstration video, and tutorials.

The package is shipping now, Newsbytes understands. The ability to
transfer interactive videos to the IBM compatible personal computer
(PC) market is being promised for the third quarter of this year.

Retail pricing has been set at $349, but includes a license for title
production up to a quantity of 1,000 CD copies. After 1,000 copies or
for interactive television production, Radiant requires further
licensing fees, estimated to be a one-time fee of $1,000 per title for
unlimited copies, Hansson said. An introductory price of $199 is being
offered to the first 500 people who order the product, as well as free
software updates for one year.

San Francisco, California-based Radiant Interactive is a division of
privately held Radiant Enterprises, maker of multimedia products,
graphics, and graphical user interface software.

(Linda Rohrbough/19940502/Press Contact: Gerth Hansson, Radiant
Interactive, tel [phone], fax [phone])


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00009)

Nominations Still Open For Canada's Top CIOs 05/02/94
TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1994 MAY 2 (NB) -- Judges have been named
and the deadline for nominations has been extended in the first Chief
Information Officer (CIO) of the Year program, meant to honor 10
Canadian information technology executives.

Nominations will remain open until May 15, said the organizers of the
competition. A presentation dinner is scheduled for June 15 in
Toronto, where 10 winners will be presented with mementoes of the
occasion.

The program is sponsored by Novell Canada and Hewlett-
Packard (Canada), along with CIO Canada magazine.

John Pickett, editor-in-chief of CIO Canada, chairs the judging panel.
The judges are: R.P. Gupta, chair of the department of computer
science at Dalhousie University in Halifax, N.S.; William Hutchison,
managing partner of Ernst & Young's information technology practice in
Canada and chair of the Canadian Network for the Advancement of
Research, Industry, and Education (CANARIE); Don Tapscott, associate
of consulting firm DMR Group, founder of The New Paradigm Co. and co-
author of Paradigm Shift; and Sylvain Gagnon, vice-president of
Montreal- based consulting firm LGS Group.

Ten senior information technology (IT) executives will be honored for
management accomplishments, contribution to strategic business goals,
and the benefits their organizations have gained by using information
technology effectively.

(Grant Buckler/19940502/Press Contact: Duane Sharp, Argyle
Communications, 416-363-8779, fax [phone]; Michael O'Beirne,
Novell Canada, 905-940-2670; Doug Garnett, Hewlett-Packard Canada,
905-206-3312; John Pickett, CIO Canada, 416-746-7360)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00010)

UK - Datasoft's Viewterm Comms Package 05/02/94
ILMINSTER, SOMERSET, ENGLAND, 1994 MAY 2 (NB) -- Datasoft, the PC
comms software house, has announced a dedicated Windows viewdata
terminal application. Known as Viewterm, the UKP 99 package is claimed
to be one of the best on the market.

"Viewdata has always been our forte. We were first to market with a
software-only viewdata package for DOS. Now this is the first of its
type for Windows," said Jenny White, marketing communications
manager with Datasoft.

According to White, Viewterm exploits the native graphics, printing
and mouse support found in Viewterm. This has enabled Datasoft to
support 40/80 column viewdata terminal emulations, as well as scalable
fonts, and, for the financial marketplace, CEPT and VIA "secure
printing" protocols.

The secure printing protocols allow data to be passed in a secure
(encrypted) format across the viewdata network in much the same way
that the X.25 networks can "carry" data. The analogy is with a truck
that can carry any car, but with the truck conforming to a single
standard, while the car can be pretty well any size and shape.

Secure printing is used by financial intermediaries as a method of
moving data from a financial institution's computer to their own,
using the viewdata network as a common carrier.

Other features of Viewterm includes preconfigured direct dial access
to most major online/viewdata services. According to Datasoft, the
package supports most modems currently available, as well as INIT 4
modem sharing packages that work across a network.

In use, the package features a carousel display, auto-logons with full
learn mode, page directories and "point and click" viewdata services'
menu selection for rapid access to the most commonly used pages on the
viewdata service. Pages can be filed or copied to clipboards in either
text or bitmapped formats.

(Steve Gold/19940502/Press & Public Contact: Datasoft - Tel: +44-460-
57001; Fax: [phone])


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(HKG)(00011)

Hong Kong - New System To Process High School Exams 05/02/94
KWUN TONG, HONG KONG, 1994 MAY 2 (NB) -- When 26,000 Hong Kong
students sit for the territory's new A-level and AS-level exams this
summer, their performance will be tallied by a computer system
developed by COL Limited, a leading Hong Kong computer
services company.

Using advanced relational database techniques, the new system will
process candidates' entry forms, allocate appropriate exam centers,
collate the results, and consolidate each student's marks before
assigning grades.

"We have been using computers for many years to process the A-level
exam but we needed a new system to cope with the introduction of the
Advanced Supplementary exam this year," explained Eva Scott, senior
exams systems officer at the Hong Kong Examinations Authority.
"COL won the contract in open tender and the system will be used for
the first time in this year's exam cycle, which will be completed at
the end of August," he said.

Working with database supplier Oracle, COL developed the new system in
two phases: pre-exam and post-exam. The pre-exam modules include index
tables of schools, exam centers, paper collection centers and exam
subjects. An entry processing module records incoming entry forms from
schools or individual candidates, listing the subject's applications,
checking eligibility, and calculating exam fees.

Additional pre-exam modules handle the allocation of candidates to
more than 200 exam centers across the territory according to
preference and availability as well as printing center stationery,
statistics and labels for the envelopes in which completed papers are
returned.

After the exam, the system collects marks for each candidate from up
to three sources: continuous assessment by candidates' schools;
optical mark readers where papers use multiple choice questions, and
professional markers for essay-based papers or practical exams.

Individual marks are then scaled in a sophisticated statistical
process designed to ensure fairness to candidates, before being
consolidated into a total subject mark. After further statistical
checking, each candidate's grade is assigned and the results are
published. Additionally, the system generates demographic reports that
analyze performance by subject, school, and other criteria.

"Exams are constantly being refined so we deliberately designed the
system to provide maximum flexibility for the future," said Peter
Fishwick, director of sales at COL. "We used advanced application
development tools from Oracle to make modifications as simple and fast
as possible. The relational database approach means that the system
can be expanded almost indefinitely, which is important for a dynamic
system such as this."

Fishwick said that the 18-month project was a textbook example of how
a strong local systems developer like COL can work in partnership with
a multinational specialist like Oracle to deliver a system that uses
proven tools yet addresses a unique application requirement.

(Keith Cameron/19940502/Press Contact: Peter Fishwick (COL): 852-798-
4798)


(NEWS)(APPLE)(TYO)(00012)

Japan - Apple Beefs Up Maintenance Service 05/02/94
TOKYO, JAPAN, 1994 MAY 2 (NB) -- Apple Computer Japan has started a
number of improvements to its service facilities in Tokyo, with the
stated aim of offering a much more convenient maintenance service to
its users.

The first stage of the improvements have already been implemented,
with Apple offering a special technical support
service to its dealers. Plans call for a similar service to be
available for end users by this fall.

The aim of the changes is, obviously, to boost Apple's share in
the Japanese computer marketplace. As part of its plans, Apple has
just set up the Partner's Assistant Center in Makhuri, a suburb of
Tokyo -- the new center is billed as a special technical support team.

According to Apple, the new center has around 20 members of staff and
aims to service the 60 official Apple Centers, as well as the
1,200 registered dealers handling Apple products in Japan. The center
will provide technical support, general maintenance and software
update information. Plans are in hand to offer a similar service to
end users by this September.

Not that Apple is stopping at "back to depot" repairs. Newsbytes
understands that the company is preparing to provide on-site
maintenance services in cooperation with its maintenance partners such
as NCR Japan, CSK and Uchida Esco.

Newsbytes notes that speedy and detailed maintenance support is a
valued service in Japan. Many PC companies have started to offer a
three-year maintenance warranty with their machines -- Apple's move is
clearly designed to leapfrog ahead of the PC companies.

The Apple Mac has been doing very well in sales terms in Japan. During
fiscal 1993, sales rose by around 55 percent, while officials with
Apple are predicting a 75 percent sales rise during the current
(1994) fiscal year.

(Massey Miyazawa/19940502)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEL)(00013)

GE On Indian Spending Spree 05/02/94
NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1994 MAY 2 (NB) -- Wipro GE Medical Systems has
received an export order worth about Rs 25 crore ($8 million). The
order, from GE Medical Systems, is for a series of ultrasound
consoles, as well as other ultrasound and computerized tomography (CT)
components, Newsbytes understands.

Plans call for the equipment to exported around the world, including
destinations as far apart as Europe, the US, Latin America and parts
of Asia. As part of the deal, Wipro has also set up a development
center for GE Systems' worldwide operations.

This new center will provide GE's worldwide operations with off-shore
software development facilities, Newsbytes understands. As part of the
agreement between the two companies, Wipro and GE have invested
considerable sums of money into the new operation, with the aim of
developing skills in software development areas such as information
engineering, client/server and object-oriented methodology.

GE has big plans for its Indian operations. The company predicts that
sales from its joint venture projects in the Indian subcontinent will
top the $1,000 million mark in financial year 1995/96 and twice
that figure by the end of the current decade.

(C T Mahabharat/19940502)


(NEWS)(IBM)(DEN)(00014)

Olicom's Fast Network Drivers 05/02/94
DALLAS, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1994 MAY 2 (NB) -- Olicom USA has announced two
new versions of its PowerMACH software drivers that it claims can
provide a performance increase of up to 30 percent on PCs.

The new drivers work with all versions of Olicom 4 and 16 megabits-
per-second Token Ring adapters including ISA (Industry Standard
Architecture), EISA (Extended ISA), MCA (Micro Channel Architecture),
as well as PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International
Association) units and can operate with Novell Netware, IBM LAN (Local
Rea Network) Server, Microsoft Windows NT, Windows for Workgroups and
LAN Manager.

The company says that the increased performance is possible due to the
PowerMACH design which uses a parallel processing technique.

The PowerMACH drivers come with a set of desktop management
capabilities including SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) and
DMI (Desktop Management Interface) that can be accessed through the
company's Windows-based Olicom Adapter Info for Windows (AIW) utility.
The software translates DMI data into easily understood installation,
configuration and performance information.

An SNMP desktop agent provides information about the workstation in
which the drivers are installed and the network traffic that flows to
and from the workstation. They can also provide DMI-compliant
information to new-generation network operating systems that support
the recently developed DMI standard.

Olicom products are based on the formalized Token Ring standards
IEEE 802.5 and 802.2 as well as IBM's Token Ring standards.

The drivers will be shipped at no extra cost with Olicom adapters
beginning June 1, 1994. Drivers for the EISA 16/4 Server Adapter will
be available a month later. Current Olicom users can download an
upgrade from the company's own bulletin board or on CompuServe (GO
OLICOM).

(Jim Mallory/19940502/Press contact: Max Jensen, Olicom USA
214-423-7560)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00015)

Canadian Product Launch Update 05/02/94
TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1994 MAY 2 (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: Apple's Workgroup Server
9150, Banyan's Intelligent Messaging III and BeyondMail 2.0 for
Intelligent Messaging III, and IBM's PC-DOS 6.3.

In tandem with its US parent, Apple Canada of Markham, Ont., announced
the Workgroup Server 9150 (Newsbytes, April 26), an extension at the
high end of its server line. The company said it estimated the street
price of the machine in Canada will be C$15,000, or C$16,300 with
AppleShare preinstalled. It is due to be available in May.

Banyan Systems' Canadian office in Mississauga, Ont., announced the
company's Intelligent Messaging III enterprise messaging service and
BeyondMail 2.0 for Intelligent Messaging III (Newsbytes, April 11).

List prices were released only in US dollars: US$1,495 per server for
Intelligent Messaging III; and for BeyondMail 2.0 for Intelligent
Messaging III, US$995 for the 10-user package, US$1,895 for the 20-
user version, and US$8,500 for the 100-user version. Intelligent
Messaging III will be available in June, with the mail package
following on later this year, company officials said.

IBM Canada of Markham, Ont., introduced PC-DOS 6.3 (Newsbytes, April
28). The suggested retail price is C$79. Free electronic upgrades are
available to licensed users of PC-DOS 6.1 through the CompuServe
online service (GO IBMPCDOSUPGRADE) or the IBM Canada bulletin board.
PC-DOS 6.1 users who want diskettes and documentation can order an
upgrade package from IBM for C$35 through IBM Canada's toll-free order
number, 800-465-7999.

(Grant Buckler/19940502/Press Contact: John Elias, National Public
Relations for Apple Canada, 416-586-0180; David Eisenstadt, The
Communications Group for Banyan Canada, 416-696-9900; Kate Dennis, IBM
Canada, 905-316-2191; Public Contact: Apple Canada, 905-477-5800;
Banyan Canada, 905-855-2971, fax [phone])


(NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00016)

 ****US To Delay On China Software Piracy Sanctions 05/02/94
WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1994 MAY 02 (NB) -- The Clinton
administration has put off an expected decision to crack down on
software piracy in China until July 1, well after the June 3 deadline
for determining whether China should enjoy "most favored nation"
status in the face of its continuing human rights problems.

According to sources close to the action, the decision came after a
series of intense meetings and phone calls between US Trade
Representative Mickey Kantor and the White House, some of which
included President Clinton.

"We are very disappointed," Dianne Smiroldo, spokeswoman for the
Business Software Alliance (BSA), told Newsbytes. "This sends exactly
the wrong signal that China can continue to delay and do nothing about
piracy and not worry about being listed as a priority offender in the
Special 301 procedure."

According to Smiroldo, US trade law specifies that the list of
intellectual property offenders must be made by April 30. She added
that the decision to hold back on listing China for trade sanctions
also included a decision to hold off on listing India and Brazil, two
other countries BSA wants to see listed on the priority list.

Clinton has said he will cancel most favored nation status if China
has not made "significant progress" on human rights. The delay
suggests that the administration is not willing to provoke China prior
to the human rights confrontation.

"I don't want the intellectual property issues becoming confused with
the other questions of human rights and most favored nation renewal,"
Kantor told reporters. He added that China's leaders should not take
the action as a sign of weakness. "China knows the depths of our
concerns about the piracy that is going on," he said.

But others said the Chinese will see the delay as weakness. According
to several sources, Assistant Secretary of State Winston Lord, a China
expert, was advising the administration not to back down on the
Special 301 listing because the case was solid. Delay would be seen as
weakness, he argued.

The delay also came under fire in Congress. "It is another example of
US policy toward China being paralyzed by the linkage between MFN and
human rights," said Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), an administration
critic on foreign affairs and chairman of the Senate Finance
Committee's trade subcommittee.

(Kennedy Maize/19940502/Contact: Diane Smiroldo, tel [phone],
fax [phone])


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00017)

 ****Commodore To Liquidate 05/02/94
WEST CHESTER, PENNSYLVANIA, U.S.A., 1994 MAY 2 (NB) -- After months of
speculation surrounding its financial stability, Commodore
International, one of the personal computer industry's pioneers, has
announced plans to enter into voluntary liquidation.

A month after reporting an $8.2-million second-quarter loss and
admitting it was on the verge of financial collapse, Commodore has
announced it is transferring its assets to trustees for the benefit of
its creditors and placing its major subsidiary, Commodore Electronics
Limited, into voluntary liquidation. Both companies will be
liquidated, officials said.

Repeated attempts to obtain further details from the company
brought no response by Newsbytes' deadline.

Commodore, once a typewriter repair shop and later a maker of
calculators, was among the first entrants into the personal computer
business in the late 1970s. After considerable success with its PET
series of business computers in the late 1970s, the early 1980s saw
the low-priced, eight-bit Commodore 64 computer chalking up
respectable sales volumes in the home computer market.

In 1985, Commodore launched the Amiga, a powerful personal computer
with strong graphics features. By that time, however, IBM and its
imitators had taken the largest share of the personal computer market,
leaving a slice for Apple Computer' Macintosh but not much room for
the Amiga to make its mark.

The Amiga "really was spectacular for manipulating and playing with
video," noted Toronto-based personal computing consultant Richard
Morochove, but it never took a significant market share.

Commodore also tried to get into the home multimedia market, first
with the CD-TV and then with the CD32. Both machines used the same
internal workings as an Amiga, but came with a built-in compact disc
read-only memory (CD-ROM) drive and were meant to play entertainment
and education CD-ROM titles at home.

After the CD32 was launched, Commodore officials admitted the original
CD-TV had been a disappointment. They hoped the more powerful CD32
would do better, but as the company collapsed it was still struggling
to make the device catch on.

Commodore's attempt to grab a piece of the market for PCs compatible
with IBM's met with more success in Europe and Canada than in the
United States, but in recent months that too started to fade.

Early this year, the Canadian subsidiary, Commodore Business Machines
Limited of Toronto, turned over the right to sell Commodore-brand PCs
to most buyers to another company, 3D Microcomputer Wholesale and
Distribution (Canada), keeping for itself only the government,
education, and institutional markets. At the time, Doug MacGregor,
president of Commodore Canada, told Newsbytes that his company was
finding it harder and harder to compete in the DOS PC market.

In early March, the Australian subsidiary, Commodore Business Machines
(Australia), of Sydney, was put into liquidation, with total debts of
about AUS$3 million.

The parent company said in late March that its financial problems were
constraining sales of all its products, while poor economic conditions
and a weak computer game market were further crippling the CD32.

While Commodore was a PC industry pioneer, the company had faded into
relative obscurity in recent years, to the point where few but the
minority of Amiga users will notice it is gone, Morochove told
Newsbytes.

"Somehow they lost their leadership and weren't able to regain it," he
said. "For the last few years they haven't been a major player in the
PC market."

(Grant Buckler/19940502/Press Contact: Commodore International,
215-431-9100/AMIGA940502/PHOTO)


(NEWS)(APPLE)(LAX)(00018)

Apple Expands Opendoc Component Software Group To 1,000 05/02/94
CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1994 MAY 2 (NB) -- Object orientation
is out and component software is the new programmer's buzzword of the
1990s, according to Apple Computer.

Apple jumped on the bandwagon last December, seeding a select group of
developers from its Apple Developer Program with Opendoc for the Mac,
and is now expanding that group to 1,000 software developers.

Much like tools on a workbench, component software allow users to
purchase the functionality they need to perform a task in pieces that
work together. So for a newsletter, a user might purchase a word
processing tool, a spell checking tool, a graphics tool, and a page
layout tool. Developers would be free to write these "components" or
tools, and the idea is each component would work seamlessly with all
the other components.

The vision behind component software is to offer users a cross-
platform, open architecture, according to the Component Integration
(CI) Laboratories industry association. Some of the companies
participating in CI Labs include: IBM, Novell, Oracle, Sun, Taligent
(the company formed by Apple and IBM), Wordperfect, and Xerox. Apple
says Opendoc will eventually be available for Microsoft Windows, IBM's
OS/2, and Unix operating systems.

A.J. Dennis, Opendoc evangelist for WordPerfect Corporation, said:
"Using Opendoc technology, WordPerfect will be able to deliver a
higher quality product in the form of component software... We'll be
able to design, develop and test smaller component modules and bring
them to market faster." Component software is expected to open up new
opportunities for small developers as well.

About 1,000 developers are receiving the alpha test version of Opendoc
for Macintosh, which includes code and documentation needed to
start the development process. The group was chosen based on either
their specific request to be in the alpha test program or based on
their early involvement in development of applications for Apple's
top-of-the-line Power Macintosh computer, Apple Computer public
relations spokesperson Nancy Morrison told Newsbytes.

A beta test version, expected this summer, will be sent to all 20,000
developers enrolled in the Apple Developer Program, the company said.

(Linda Rohrbough/19940502/Press Contact: Nancy Morrison, Apple
Computer, tel [phone], fax [phone])


(NEWS)(TRENDS)(SFO)(00019)

Dataquest Identifies Problems Converting Paper To Digital 05/02/94
SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1994 MAY 2 (NB) -- The much-hyped and
difficult to obtain "paperless office" involves the conversion of
paper documents to digital format so they can be stored on computer
storage media, such as hard drives and tape backup systems. But that
process carries with it its own problems. Now market research firm
Dataquest has come up with a new survey of companies that identifies
the top problems involved in the conversion process.

According to the company, the end-user survey indicates that system
cost and keeping abreast of new technology are the top "challenges"
faced by North American corporations when converting from paper to
digital document management systems.

The survey reportedly examines the current use and implementation
plans for digital document management hardware and software.

According to Jennifer Mitchell, principal analyst for Dataquest's
Digital Documents program: "Companies employing 100 or more people
almost universally want a solution for the document management problem
for the entire company, not just one or two departments. How to
contend with documents already online is considered as pressing as the
problem of converting paper-based documents."

Dataquest says it surveyed more than 250 information systems (IS)
managers in government, health care, manufacturing, insurance,
banking, financial services, and legal services at large- and medium-
size companies in the first quarter of 1994.

The survey asked 188 questions including "which products will be the
basis for future document management systems, and the state of
evolution attained by the companies in electronic information
delivery."

Not surprisingly, cost of both the system and storage media were rated
top, with "confusion" and keeping up with new technology coming in
second. Training/retraining and ease of use came next with
software/hardware compatibility rated fourth. The cost of
conversion/scanning and indexing came fifth.

The survey results are published in a Dataquest "User Wants and Needs"
report entitled "Electronic Document Management-Lookers and Leapers in
the Digital Document Era." According to the company the report
includes users' brand preferences, valued features, network
requirements, and scanner and color needs.

The Dataquest report costs $3,495.

(Ian Stokell/19940502/Press Contact: Paul Wheaton, 408-437-8312,
Dataquest)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00020)

Hewlett-Packard's New Laser Printers 05/02/94
PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1994 MAY 2 (NB) -- Hewlett-Packard (HP)
is replacing its LaserJet 4 and 4M laser printers with the new 12
page-per-minute (ppm) LaserJet 4 Plus and 4M Plus. The previous models
were 8 ppm. The new 4 Plus is designed for PC-based workgroups, while
the 4M Plus is designed for Apple Mac networks, as well as for mixed
computing environments.

Evelyn Hart, a spokesperson for HP, told Newsbytes that the 4 and 4M
are "phased out as of today." Speaking of continued support for the
discontinued lasers, Hart said that, "HP does support all their older
products."

The new models use an Intel i960 reduced instruction set computer
(RISC) chipset running at 25 megahertz (MHz), and includes cache and
"advanced" memory management. They both offer 600 by 600 dots-per-inch
(dpi) resolution. HP says they also offer the company's Resolution
Enhancement Technology (RET) and microfine toner to sharpen edges on
text and graphics.

Both models offer 120 shades of gray in Windows PCL at 106-line
screens. The 4M Plus produces 122 shades of gray in PostScript on 106
line screens.

Apart from HP's memory Enhancement technology which increases the
printer's memory, HP says that features also include Raster Operators
which allow Windows users to print graphics faster and improve what-
you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG). Also, user-definable input/output
(I/O) buffering allows the printer to accept print data faster, the
company claims.

The 4 Plus comes standard with two megabytes (MB) of RAM, upgradable
to 66MB, while the 4M Plus comes with 6MB of RAM, upgradable to 38MB.
The 4 Plus printer is equipped with enhanced HP PCL 5 with HP GL/2 for
compatibility with DOS and Windows, while the 4M Plus is equipped with
Adobe PostScript Level 2, as well as PCL 5.

For mixed computing networks, the 4M Plus automatically switches
languages. On the 4 Plus, the PostScript option needs to be installed
first. Both models have 45 scalable typefaces, including 35
Intellifont typefaces and 10 TrueType typefaces with matching TrueType
screen fonts. The 4M Plus includes 35 Adobe Type 1 typefaces. A
TrueType rasterizer is available within PostScript.

The LaserJet 4 Plus is priced at $1,839, while the 4M Plus sells
for $2,479.

In other HP news, the company has announced the HP JetStore 6000 range
of eight gigabyte (GB)-capacity digital audio tape (DAT) products for
the reseller market. The four new drives reportedly include an end-
user-ready internal drive, an external stand-alone drive and two tape
backup systems for NetWare with Windows.

The new drives products reportedly provide read and write
compatibility with HP JetStore 2000 and 5000 products as well as
digital data storage (DDS) format DAT drives from other vendors. HP
says that JetStore 6000 products support 60-meter and 90-meter
cartridges using the DDS-1 format and the new DDS-2 120-meter tape.

The HP JetStore 6000i internal tape drive, C1528A costs $1,981,
typically an 8GB DDS-2 DAT drive using data compression and, like the
other three drives, includes JetSafe Utilities. The HP JetStore 6000e
external tape drive -- C1529A costs $2,195, typically an 8GB DDS-2 DAT
drive using data compression.

The HP JetStore 6000i for NetWare with Windows -- C1531A costs $3,731,
typically an 8GB internal DDS-2 DAT drive using data compression with
ARCserve 5.1. The HP JetStore 6000e for NetWare with Windows -- C1541A
costs $3,945, typically an 8GB external DDS-2 DAT drive using data
compression with ARCserve 5.1.

HP has also announced price reductions on HP JetStore 2000 and 5000
tape products, effective May 1.

The company has also announced enhancements to its DesignJet 650C
color-inkjet plotter, including improved print quality, especially in
solid-area fills, increased memory capability and additional
connectivity options.

The plotter provides 300 dots-per-inch (dpi) color and addressable 600
dpi monochrome output. It is designed for computer-aided design (CAD)
and geographic information systems (GIS) users who work in small
groups of four to 10 people on stand-alone computers or in networked
environments, says the company.

The enhanced DesignJet 650C plotter is $8,495 for the D-size model (24
inches wide) and $9,995 for the E-size model (36 inches wide). The
DesignJet 650C plotter comes standard with four megabytes (MB) of
memory that can be expanded up to 68MB.

(Ian Stokell/19940502/Press Contact: Stacie Savage, 619-592-4451,
Hewlett-Packard)


(NEWS)(TRENDS)(BOS)(00021)

 ****Apple Exec Says Users To "Wear" Interfaces 05/02/94
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1994 MAY 2 (NB) -- As computers
shrink in size and grow in capabilities, the user interface is
evolving from the old context of "user as worshipper" into the new
contexts of "user as porter," "user as reflector" and "user as
wearer," according to S. Joy Mountford, manager of Apple Computer's
Human Interface Group, speaking in the closing keynote at CHI
(Computer-Human Interaction) '94.

"Computer users began as worshippers," Mountford told a packed
audience in the auditorium of the John B. Hynes Convention Center
in Boston. Even now, she said, the entrance way to a supercomputer
room at Apple looks a lot like the interior of a church, displaying a
slide of these "hallowed halls" at Apple to prove her point.

Despite the "reverence" computers continue to receive, much of
today's technology is clumsy in appearance and hard to use,
according to Mountford, the leader of an interdisciplinary team at
Apple that is credited with having done much of the design work on
QuickTime, Publish and Subscribe, Balloon Help, and the Navigable
Movie Toolkit.

Most users today must sit in a space that seems to be modeled after
an airplane cockpit, operating interfaces that resemble "control
panels," Mountford continued. These interfaces can be characterized
as "the interfaces of war," she said.

Gradually, though, user interfaces are changing, as the workplace
becomes more decentralized, and the use of computing expands to
include just about everyone. Some day, systems will be "smart"
enough to sense what individual users want, and small enough to be
embedded in "wearable" objects.

The new age of "user as porter" is already converging with the old
era of "user as worshipper," Mountford told the crowd. Many
computers now on the market can be carried in the arm or hand and
taken out on the road. Often, these computers can be pulled into
smaller "pieces." PDAs (personal digital assistants) such as the
Apple Newton can even be "fit into the pocket."

The age of portable computing is giving rise to social transformations
as well as new interfaces, the Apple exec suggested. "By the year
2000, money will probably have become a rare commodity," she
predicted.

Mountford observed that at one leading advertising agency, the PDA has
become part of a new corporate culture in which company offices are
without walls, supplies are stored in "high school-style lockers"
instead of desks, and employees spend much of their workdays
telecommuting from home.

The first signs of the new contexts of "user as reflector" and
"user as wearer" are also starting to appear, Mountford reported.
The user will truly become the "reflector" when the interface
becomes intelligent enough to "mirror" the user's preferences.

At that point, the interface will be able to automatically identify
the user through technologies such as handwriting and speech
recognition, she elaborated. When the user inserts a card, the
computer will be able to "understand" and act upon user preferences
for certain kinds of restaurants, for example.

Ultimately, the "mirror" interface might come to be embedded in
environments like hotel rooms, she adding, playing a clip from an
Apple video to illustrate. In the video, a hotel room "configures
itself" to suit an occupant's tastes the instant she breezes
into the room.

The hotel occupant then flops on a chair in front of a wall-sized
flat panel display, and issues the spoken command, "Computer, open
my newspapers!" When the computer displays the opened newspapers on
the screen, the occupant orders, "Read that (article) to me!"

The user next issues a spoken request for all the vegetarian
restaurants in the city. When a list of 92 prospects comes up, she
narrows the request to "all restaurants that are vegetarian, but
are within a 15-minute walk from here, and are open this evening."

Mountford noted that she sees the hotel scenario as "do-able."
Already, technologies like AppleSearch are able to retrieve
documents based on user-specified search criteria, she pointed out.

Another new technology that is now becoming available can
sense the user's distance from the screen, and graphically
display its estimates on the screen, she informed the audience.

Furthermore, "smart buildings" are already a reality. A newly
constructed building in Germany, for instance, features exterior
walls that reflect changes in temperature by changing colors. The
same walls also display fluctuations in environmental sound waves.

To make the most of the sound wave capability, the managers of the
building have hired a saxophonist to play music every night. "This
is an example of using computers to create a more aesthetically
pleasing world," she commented.

By and large, though, most of today's user interfaces are "windows,"
as opposed to "mirrors," Mountford said. The full arrival of the
context of "user as wearer" seems be even further off, she said.

While some users now wear virtual reality gear on their heads, this
technology is less than "compelling and useful," according to
the Apple official. A colleague decked out in bulky headgear joined
Mountford on stage to show exactly what the design specialist
meant.

At some point, it will probably become possible to provide virtual
reality functionality in a smaller form factor, such as a pair of
glasses, Mountford asserted. Beyond that, it is more than
conceivable that users wearing special rings will be able to
"exchange data" just by shaking hands.

Computer technology will also be embedded in "wearable" watches,
cufflinks, pins, and earrings, and even, perhaps, in clothing
labels, Mountford went on.

When computers become completely wearable, the "parts" of the
machine will be viewed by users as "personal statements," she
predicted. Considerations used in choosing the "parts" will include
concerns for "customization" like those seen today when people shop
for pins with slogans or logos, or order "vanity" license plates
for their cars.

(Jacqueline Emigh/19940428/Press and Reader Contact: Rosemary Wick
Stevens, CHI '94, 415-328-3600)


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

Gateway 2000 Stock Drops 25% On 1Q Results 05/02/94
NORTH SIOUX CITY, SOUTH DAKOTA, U.S.A., 1994 MAY 2 (NB) -- The price
of Gateway 2000 stock dropped nearly 25 percent after the company
announced first quarter profits were lower than analyst's anticipated.

Gateway closed down $4.94 at $15.50 per share Friday with about six
million shares traded. That's about 10 times the company's normal
trading volume. It rebounded slightly in early Monday trading. The
company went public in December 1993.

Gateway says it realized a $25.4 million profit, or $0.32 per
share, for the first quarter. That's five cents less than earnings
for the same period last year when the company reported net
profits of $26.1 million. The quarter closed March 31, 1994.

Gateway officials said they are disappointed with the quarter's
results and aren't particularly optimistic about the short-term
future. A prepared statement released with the results said "some of
the issues that affected the first quarter could continue into the
second quarter."

Gateway spokesperson Wendell Watson told Newsbytes those factors
included a faster-than-expected customer migration from VESA to PCI-
based systems, new Intel chips coming to market sooner than
anticipated, and higher costs associated with an unanticipated
increase in support costs due to more and longer calls.

"We're selling more multimedia systems than we anticipated, and that
requires more support," said Watson.

Gateway says it shipped 236,500 units in the first quarter. That
appears to make it the nation's sixth-largest PC maker.

(Jim Mallory/19940502/Press contact: Wendell Watson, Gateway 2000,
605-232-2723; Reader contact: Gateway 2000, 605-232-2000, fax
605-232-2023)


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

CHI '94 - Software Designers Are Like Architects 05/02/94
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, 1994 MAY 2 (NB) -- When it comes to user
interfaces, form should follow function, explained Thomas T. Hewett,
Ph.D., and Wendy Kellogg, the two co-chairs of CHI (Computer-Human
Interaction) '94, at a meeting with Newsbytes in Boston.

The annual CHI conference, now in its eleventh year, is aimed at
helping software designers to develop interfaces and applications
that support the way users live and work, according to Hewett, who
is also a professor of psychology at Drexel University, Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania.

The need for more "humane" interfaces is gaining increased
attention in the industry, he told Newsbytes. Apple, Microsoft,
IBM, Nynex, Lotus, Philips, and SunSoft all provided financial
backing for the CHI '94 conference in Boston, he said. These
vendors, along with many other employers, also allow members of the
ACM's CHI SIG (Special Interest Group), sponsor of the conference,
to spend long hours every year planning and putting together the
event.

But the nature of the "interface" is sometimes misunderstood,
according to Hewett. Many people in the industry continue to think of
the "interface" strictly in terms of speech and gesture recognition,
pen input, and other I/O (input/out) technologies, he maintained. "In
reality, though, while I/O is part of the interface, it is only a
small subset."

The interface constitutes the top layer of the software program, noted
Kellogg, who is also an employee of IBM's T.J. Watson Research Center
in Yorktown Heights, New York. Since the interface is the layer the
user experiences, it should receive priority over other software
layers in software product planning, she asserted. "We're constantly
trying to think of new ways to get these ideas across," she said.

Kellogg added that Mitchell Kapor, co-founder of the Electronic
Frontier Foundation and former CEO of Lotus, presented a highly
effective metaphor for the software design process in his opening
keynote at CHI '94. In his talk, Kapor equated the software designer
with an "architect," and software engineers with a construction team.

The software designer should be placed in charge of the software
development project, in much the same way that the architect oversees
a building project, according to Kapor, who designed the pioneering
Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet application.

As such, the designer should direct the software engineering team in
creating the underlying code that supports the interface and overall
software design, Kapor said in his keynote.

But Kellogg told Newsbytes that, as things stand today in the software
industry, the reverse is more often the case. "The `lead construction
manager' is put in charge of the whole (software) development project,
a situation that often leads to unusable software," she said.

Lots of valuable time can go down the drain by the time the developer
realizes that a project was "flawed in design, to begin with,"
Newsbytes was told.

Software design calls for a set of skills and knowledge that is
separate from, though complementary to, what is required in
software engineering, concurred the two co-chairs. Just as an
architect should know about the capabilities and limitations of
various building materials, the software designer should know about
constraints and possibilities in software engineering, Kellogg
elaborated.

A good software designer, though, is acutely aware that an
application should be modeled after the actual thought processes of
the user, according to Kellogg. More so than other professionals,
designers can tell, for example, what kind of I/O is indicated by
a particular application, and beyond that, exactly how the I/O
should be implemented. "It really does take an expert," she said.

Kellogg also suggested that people have designers to thank for the
fact that growing numbers of ATMs (automated teller machines) now
require users to retrieve their bank cards before receiving cash, an
enhancement intended to prevent the cards from being inadvertently
left behind in the machines.

Hewett explained that a designer who has been schooled in the
principles of cognitive psychology will immediately realize that a
"task" (such as retrieving a bank card) is more important to a person
if the task is "instrumental" to achieving a goal (such as receiving
money).

Both of the 1994 conference co-chairs believe that more colleges and
universities should establish degree programs in software design. Some
programs of this kind exist already, but most are strongly focused on
usability testing, the chairs told Newsbytes.

Designers who are trained in usability testing can greatly improve
the validity of this testing, Kellogg said. The "untrained" tester
will tend to intercede when users are having trouble with a
software program, showing them how to "solve" the problem. Instead,
the "trained" tester will let users try to resolve difficulties on
their own, taking note of how well the application does at letting
the users do so.

The annual CHI conference assists software designers in maintaining
their sense of professional identity, as well as providing them
with state-of-the-art information that they can bring back to the
job, according to the two co-chairs.

In addition to the keynotes by Mitchell Kapor and S. Joy Mountford,
manager of Apple Computer's Human Interface Group, the six-day CHI
'94 conference included an exhibition called "The Interactive
Experience," tours of Lotus and EDS, several theme-oriented social
events, and dozens of demos, tutorials, workshops, panels,
"interactive posters," "organizational overviews," paper
presentations, and videos.

Hewett told Newsbytes that this year, for the first time ever, CHI
published written materials on all conference events, including
activities like videos, in its "Companion Overview" guidebook. In
future years, CHI's annual "Companion Overview" will be published on
CD-ROM (compact disk - read only memory).

Next year's CHI conference is set to take place in Denver, Colorado
from May 7 to 11, 1995. CHI '95 will be subtitled "Mosaic of
Creativity." For more information on either CHI '94 or CHI '95,
call 415-328-3600.

(Jacqueline Emigh/19940502/Press and Reader Contact: Rosemary Wick
Stevens, CHI '94, 415-328-3600)


(NEWS)(IBM)(TOR)(00024)

ATI Video Boards 05/02/94
MARKHAM, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1994 MAY 2 (NB) -- ATI Technologies has
announced two new video capture boards. Both are aimed at the low-cost
segment of the video market, the company said.

The Video Basic and Video-It! boards both offer high-quality motion
video capture in NTSC and PAL formats, with 24-bit color, as well as
full-color still-image capture, the company said. They handle live
video at any graphics resolution, and come with a bundle of software
that includes MediaMerge, Action!, and other software.

The key difference between the two boards is that the costlier Video-
It! can compress video and store it to the hard disk in compressed
form as it is captured, company spokesman Andrew Clarke told
Newsbytes.

With the Video Basic card, which does not include compression, the
captured video must first be stored uncompressed. It can be compressed
later using a separate compression package, he said. Both are suitable
for the novice or experienced user, according to the company.

List prices are US$249 for the Video Basic board and US$499 for
the Video-It! board. Both are due to begin shipping May 30, ATI
officials said.

(Grant Buckler/19940502/Press Contact: Andrew Clarke, ATI
Technologies, 905-882-2600, fax [phone])


(NEWS)(TRENDS)(BOS)(00025)

 ****CHI '94 - Auditorium Converted To "Virtual New England" 05/02/94
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1994 MAY 2 (NB) -- For what may go
down as the most "interactive" conference reception in the annals
of computer industry history, the CHI '94 conference committee
converted the auditorium of the Hynes Convention Center from an
ordinary room into a "virtual New England."

"A One Night Walking Tour of New England" used live rock and scat
music, fortune tellers, a fish shanty, a "country store," T-shirt
making, a farmer's market, a trampoline, international food buffets, a
lighthouse, and many other real-life elements to integrate New
England's seaside, urban/ethnic, and rural "country fair" environments
into a single, interactive indoor "experience."

"We wanted to create a reception that would encourage people to
interact as professionals in the field of computer-human interface
design,'" Thomas T. Hewett, Ph.D., CHI '94 co-chair, explained to
Newsbytes.

As such, all attendees were given a "map" of the virtual environment,
embellished with "icons" that represented such spots along the way as
"The Town Gazebo," "Carousel," "The New England Academy of Essential
Arts," "Nick's Nine Holes by the Sea," "Giovanni's Ristorante," and
more.

The gazebo, a fixture in many true New England town squares,
served as the stage for CHI's live musical performances. In front
of the picturesque platform, conference attendees freed themselves
of their ties and suit jackets, to boogie to the rhythms of The
Andy Baer Group and Flashback.

Behind the gazebo, others stood in line to grab a pony ride on a
real merry-go-round. Additional carnival activities surrounded the
carousel: fortune-telling booths, a "washable tattoo" parlor, a
giant trampoline, and a speed-pitch baseball contest, complete with
stuffed animals for prizes.

In another corner of the room, at the New England Academy, conference
attendees from all over the world received "elocution lessons"
calculated to qualify them to "pahk the cah in Havahd Yahd."
(Translation - park the car in Harvard Yard).

Also at the virtual school, Cranberry Childs outlined "100 Uses for
the Cranberry." Childs recommended culinary uses ranging from
"cranberry yoghurt" and "cranberry Jello molds" to the even bolder
"cranberry tuna melt," "cranberry gelati," and "cranberry fat-free
Twinkies."

But there were more applications than that for the cranberry. "Turn
your backyard into a cranberry bog to avoid mowing the lawn," Child
suggested. "Shoot them at your co-workers with your slingshot!" the
cranberry expert exhorted.

In the back of the room, visitors got in a few practice swings at
Nick's Nine Holes of Golf. A few yards over to the right, next to
Giovanni's, other participants played boccie, a game similar to
bowling that started in Italy and is now popular in pockets
throughout New England. Meanwhile, upstairs at "The Uptown Cafe,"
jazz fans were listening to their favorite kind of music.

Walking through the tour, it seemed like you came across a new food
bazaar every few feet. At the entrance to the event, you could
take your pick of an array of fresh fruits and vegetables out of
the cart at McChiver's Farmers Market.

Penny candy -- including sourballs, Hershey's kisses, miniature
Tootsie Rolls, and more -- was dispensed out of baskets at the
country store. Shrimp, calimari, and other seafood was there for
the asking at Molly's Fish Shanty, a few yards away from the
lighthouse on the tour.

Italian delicacies like sausage and tortellini were ladled out
generously at a "street fair" in front of Giovanni's. The nearby
"Citizen's Club" handed out plates heaping with turkey and
cranberry sauce, and ham with (optionally available) horseradish.
Elsewhere, carnival hawkers gave out ice cream and popcorn.

The four-hour event also featured a number of surprises that got
people talking, or motivated them to move to previously unexplored
sections of the room. At one point, a carnival barker casually
ambled by on an extremely tall pair of stilts, for instance.

Several times, balloons appeared unexpectedly in the air. People
bopped the floating toys from one "section" of New England to
another.

When the carnival hawkers added cotton candy, and then ice cream
bars, to their carts, people leaped from their chairs, often
returning with extra portions for everyone in the immediate
vicinity.

Besides being a lot of fun, the interactive activities in "The
Walking Tour" did help participants to share on a professional
level, by giving them an intriguing common focus for discussions
related to the human interface and the computer industry.

Newsbytes, for example, ended up trading professional experiences
and observations with people as diverse as a computer programmer
from Japan, a technical writer for a large, West Coast-based Unix
systems vendor, and two "human interface" specialists from a
leading software development company.

(Jacqueline Emigh/19940428/Reader and Press Contact: Rosemary Wick
Stevens, CHI '94, 415-328-3600)


(NEWS)(TRENDS)(BOS)(00026)

 ****CHI '94 - "Experiencing" Futuristic Interfaces 05/02/94
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1994 MAY 2 (NB) -- A method for
creating 3-D "self-portraits" out of frames of captured video, a
"half-Qwerty keyboard," and a way of teaching kindergarteners to work
with databases. These were three of the dozens of advanced interface
technologies not just shown to, but experienced by, journalists and
conference attendees in "The Interactive Experience," a one-of-a-kind
showcase at CHI (Computer- Human Interaction) '94 in Boston.

Furthermore, other CHI '94 participants had a chance to "share" in
these experiences remotely through "Eye on CHI," a live two-way video
linkup between the Sheraton Boston Hotel, site of the exhibit, and the
nearby John B. Hynes Convention Center, where the CHI conference
sessions took place.

The "Eye on CHI" linkup was designed to give attendees "mirror
views" of what was going on at either site, explained one of
the two volunteer "tour guides" who escorted reporters through the
interactive exhibits in a special "Meet the Authors" event for
members of the press.

After the press tour, Newsbytes returned to "The Interactive
Experience" several times for hands-on experimentation with
interactive interfaces such as "Video Streamer," "DesignSpace: A
Manual Interaction Environment for Computer-Aided Design," and
"Memory Map: An Interactive Installation that Maps Memory Space to
Physical Space."

Also after the tour, the CHI Cafe opened up just outside the
technology showcase, allowing attendees to interact with the "taste
experiences" of nachos with saltza, Syrian bread with Greek humous,
and pretzels with multiple flavors of mustard, in between visits to
the various technology booths.

Newsbytes notes that the interactive nature of the showcase
encouraged lots of "interactive exchanges" among attendees. In the
cafe as well as at the booths, people who had previously been
strangers shared personal observations, and gave each other tips on
how to use the various new technologies.

At the "Eye on CHI" stop on the press tour, for instance, a journalist
from Europe observed that, because no monitor was present, the focus
for viewers was on what was happening at the other site. "Usually,
when a camera is there, people just tend to look at themselves in the
monitor," the reporter said.

The CHI volunteer tour guide concurred with this assessment, adding
that, in his opinion, "The best user interface is no interface at
all."

Newsbytes learned from another conference participant how to use
the Macintosh-based software program, video camera, and printer in
the "Video Streamers" booth, and subsequently passed that knowledge
along to a third participant.

Developed by Glorianna Davenport and Eddie Elliott of the MIT Media
Lab, "Video Streamers" lets users select and capture still video
images of themselves from the video stream, and extrude these
images, along with shot transitions like dissolves and wipes, into
3-D "collages" that reflect movements in time and space in a manner
similar to the old-fashioned flip book.

When a "collage" is finished, the results can be printed out in
color on glossy paper, with the image organized into blocks
representing the planes of a 3-D cube. The printout also provides
written directions on where to cut, fold, and glue in order to
generate the cube.

To give attendees a concrete concept of what the "completed" 3-D
cubes should look like, examples were hung from a string stretched
across the "Video Streamers" booth.

At the "Memory Map" booth, other visitors stopped to watch
Newsbytes experiment, and then stepped to the mike to take their
own turns. The participants were asked by a Mac-based computer
program to click on their age brackets and genders, and then to
make a spoken statement about the past, present or future. Each
statement was digitized for integration with other data.

San Francisco State University's Stephen Wilson, the "author" of
the installation, showed the group how the computer program is able
to direct an "electronic choreography" in which the various
digitized voices are moved physically among sound speakers in
rhythms and spatial patterns that explore the ages and genders of
those who have spoken.

The program also provides continuously updated pie charts that show
the percentages of participants by age bracket, gender, and type of
spoken statement. By clicking on a "slice" of the chart, the
visitor could hear, for example, the statements of all participants
who have spoken about the present, in order of their ages, with all
the male voices emanating from a speaker on one side of the booth,
and all female voices from another speaker.

Wilson told Newsbytes that technology of this kind might some day
prove useful for calendaring applications, in which users "speak"
calendar entries to the computer, and then hear the entries played
back in chronological order or in terms of other user-selectable
categories.

Another section of the room, dedicated to "DesignSpace," was
equipped with two big stages, each with a giant flat panel display,
a jumbo-sized joy stick, headphones, and a microphone. Pairs of
participants sat on-stage, trying to collaborate in building
designs by exchanging 3-D objects and manipulating the objects in
other ways.

Meanwhile, other participants, including Newsbytes, listened in on
the "DesignSpace" discussions with "3-D headphones." The special
headphones respond to changes in the listener's position in space
by altering the perceived location of audio input. If the listener
moves, the sound will seem to "move," as well.

At the time Newsbytes was listening, the two people on stage were
trying to establish how they could be more "collaborative." One
participant suggested that perhaps they could both "hold" and move
a shared object simultaneously. The other person, who had been on
stage longer, advised his new partner that the 3-D system would not
let them do that.

One of the authors of "DesignSpace" informed Newsbytes that the
installation is envisioned as a 3-D advancement on the "shared
whiteboard." The new technology might eventually make its way into
fields like architecture, he predicted. The three authors are William
L. Chapin, Timothy A. Lacey, and Larry Leifer, all of the Virtual
Space Exploration Lab at Stanford University's Center for Design
Research.

In an area nearby, I. Scott Mackenzie of the University of Guelph
showed visitors two different configurations of a "half-Qwerty
keyboard," consisting of the left-hand half of the standard
computer keyboard.

In one configuration, the half-keyboard was placed in the usual
keyboard space on the desktop. The other half-keyboard, worn
on Mackenzie's left forearm, was used with a miniature LCD (liquid
crystal display) strapped to his right arm.

In both configurations, the letters on the missing right-hand side
were "mapped" to the left-hand side in a way that lets the user
"enter" characters from the right-hand side by hitting the
corresponding key on the left-hand side, together with the space
bar. To enter a "j," for example, the user would hit the letter
"f," plus the space bar.

Mackenzie told Newsbytes that the desktop configuration could be
useful to someone who wants to use a mouse or trackball at the same
time as the keyboard, as well as for a user with one disabled arm.

The "wearable" configuration, he added, come in handy for
entering data in a mobile situation, such as walking around on a
factory floor. Other authors of the "Half-Qwerty Keyboard" exhibit
included Edgar Matias of the Matias Corporation and William Buxton
of the University of Toronto and XeroxPARC.

Over at another booth, entitled "TableTop and TableTop Junior,"
adults lined up to try their hand at two database development
programs designed for kids.

"TableTop Junior," a program for students in kindergarten
through grade five, lets students build "data" in the form of
"Snoids," "party hats," animals, and other icon objects that "carry
visible features," according to the designer of the two programs,
Laura Bagnall of Cambridge, Massachusetts-based TERC.

The "TableTop Junior" icons can also be sorted, selected, arranged
and manipulated in ways that help kids to develop concepts of
logic and data representation, Bagnall told Newsbytes.

The "Snoid," for instance, is created by choosing a hairstyle,
a kind of yes, a nose color, and a foot style. Once built, the
object is moved onto the "TableTop," joining other icons that have
already been arranged into a Venn diagram according to two iconic
features.

Kids have the choice of moving the "Snoids" into the spaces they
think are appropriate, or of having the computer "animate" the
icons into the right places.

"TableTop," a program for fifth-graders through high school, lets
students build their own databases and view graphs of the
information, in addition to working with predefined databases. Also
unlike "TableTop Junior," the more advanced program uses "smiley"
icons that are not "direct physical representations of they
underlying data they represent," Bagnall said.

Also open to "experiencing" as well as viewing were "Making It
Macintosh: Process, People and Product," "3-D Interactive
Percussion: The Virtual Drum Kit," and "Still Dancing: Interacting
Inside the Dance."

Other exhibits in "The Interactive Experience" included "The Future
of Programming Interactive Experience," "Portraits of People Living
with AIDS: An Interactive Documentary," and "The Pantograph: A
Large Workspace Haptic Device for Multimodal Human Computer
Interaction." For more information on "The Interactive Experience,"
call CHI '94 at 415-328-3600.

(Jacqueline Emigh/19940502/Reader and Press Contact: Rosemary Wick
Stevens, CHI '94, 415-328-3600)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00027)

Motorola Working On Cellular Messaging Protocol 05/02/94
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1994 MAY 2 (NB) -- Motorola
and Centigram have agreed to work together on Motorola's Cellular
Digital Messaging Protocol. The two companies said CDMP will allow
more rapid introduction of enhanced messaging services for cellular
phone users.

In addition to making Centigram the first to work with Motorola using
CDMP, Motorola also agreed to offer Centigram's VoiceMemo voice
messaging service to its cellular customers. Previously Motorola had
offered a protocol called Cellular Digital Messaging Services or CDMS,
available since 1992 in Sprint Cellular's Las Vegas operation and now
available in 10 other cellular networks.

Among the new services which will be implemented using the new
protocol are fax notification and custom text messages. The first
notifies a cellular phone user that a fax has arrived in their voice
mailbox. The second lets a caller send a text message to the phone
user. Centigram will also create e-mail notification, text-to-speech
conversion and online service access using CDMS.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19940502/Press Contact: Centigram, Pam
Ferguson, 408/428-3722; Motorola, Judy Soohoo, 708/632-4474)


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

 ****AT&T Creating Special Novell Netware Network 05/02/94
BASKING RIDGE, NEW JERSEY, U.S.A., 1994 MAY 2 (NB) -- AT&T will create
a special online network for users of Novell's NetWare, similar in
concept to the network it agreed to create a few months ago for users
of Lotus Notes.

Pricing for the new service will be announced later, but AT&T said
pricing will be similar to that of current Internet service providers.
Novell expects significant revenues, not only from the network but
from products which enable network connections.

AT&T Netware Connect Services is aimed at easing Internet connections
for Netware network users, Newsbytes was told in a teleconference from
the Interop show in Las Vegas, where the announcement was made. As
spokesmen from both companies noted: "The private infrastructure is
secure, but often connects only a single company. The Internet is
inexpensive, and uses a common protocol, but it lacks security and
performance assurances."

The new network will bridge those capabilities. The Internet uses a
protocol called TCP/IP; Novell's Netware uses an incompatible protocol
called IPX, and the new network is seen as a bridge between the two.

This was the first major Novell announcement hosted by Bob
Frankenberg, a former Hewlett-Packard executive hired to succeed
Novell Chairman Ray Noorda, since he came to the company. If the
AT&T press conference is any indication, he'll quickly gain a
reputation for clear-speaking and quotability -- one statement he
made was to call this the "industrial-strength version of the
Internet."

The two problems addressed related to the information highway by the
AT&T-Novell announcement are getting on the highway, and not being
able to see what you want. As spokesmen for both companies noted, the
nation's data infrastructure until now has developed along parallel
public and private lines. The public path is the Internet, a
collection of cooperating networks supporting collaboration. It's
self-governing, transports 35 billion packets a month on 1.5 million
computers, growing 100% a year. The private infrastructure is secure,
but often connects only a single company. The Internet is inexpensive,
and uses a common protocol, but it lacks security and performance
assurances.

"What people realize is the need of Internet users, corporations, and
the public are converging," AT&T spokesmen said at the press
conference. "We're offering the best of the public and private model -
- the high level of security in private data networks with the ready
availability of the Internet. This will be a next-generation network.
Our public data services will make the benefits of data technology as
available as the freeways made transportation infrastructure
availability to drivers. Combined with our AT&T Network Notes
offering, we're creating electronic collaboration."

Noted Frankenberg: "This is a giant step toward making computing
pervasive. We'll know we've arrived when we're surprised when we can't
reach the network, rather than when we can. This will change the way
we work, play, govern and educate. Our next step is connecting
enterprise networks -- an inter-enterprise network."

"Networks are too difficult today, to address and through which to
find services. We need to make them more available, reduce barriers to
entry. Networks must be capable of moving the lifeblood of companies.
they must be secure, ubiquitous, offer data integrity, and offer the
right sets of services and applications. We're delighted Netware was
chosen to provide these capabilities. Together, AT&T and Novell will
address a lot of the barriers we mentioned."

The first customers will be on the network in a beta-test mode later
this year. Full service availability is expected next year. The hiding
of complexity will take place over time, and improve as time goes by,
Newsbytes was told.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19940502)


(NEWS)(APPLE)(LAX)(00029)

Sharp Expert Pad Upgrade - Costs Less Than Newton's 05/02/94
MAHWAH, NEW JERSEY, U.S.A., 1994 MAY 2 (NB) -- While Sharp Expert
Pad personal digital assistant (PDA) users get the upgrade for
their Newton Messagepad clones nearly a month after the upgrade
was announced for Apple Computer customers, they also get the
benefit of getting the upgrade for less. Sharp Expert Pad
users can perform the hardware upgrade for $49 plus $14.95
shipping/handling and a software upgrade is free.

A true clone, the Sharp Expert Pad has all the functionality of
the original Newton Messagepad and will run all the software that
will run on the Newton, but with a couple of differences. The
unit offers a round pen that fits into the case and comes with a
built-in lid -- features that have been added to the brand new
Messagepad 110 from Apple.

Apple has announced an upgrade for its original unit to give it some
of the functionality of the new 110 model, which is essentially the
upgrade Sharp is introducing for its Expert Pad clone. Apple calls the
upgraded original Messagepad the Model 100. While Sharp is offering
the upgrade, it has announced no plans to offer a Messagepad 110
clone.

One of the major improvements to the Messagepad was the ability for
users to switch between whole word handwriting recognition and
character-by-character recognition. The ability to perform character-
by-character recognition speeds the process of entering proper names
and addresses, as those words were rarely in the Messagepad's word
vocabulary and required painstaking work in order to get this type of
data entered.

The Expert Pad 1.3 hardware upgrade requires installation of a new
read-only memory (ROM) chip, which also upgrades the handwriting
recognition, as well as an operating system software upgrade. The
hardware upgrade also necessitates shipment of the unit to Sharp and
can be scheduled by calling a toll-free number. Upon return, users
receive an Expert Pad videotape offering useful operating tips and a
new Expert Pad pen, that is weighed and telescopes, but still fits in
the unit. Original Newton Messagepad users may upgrade through Apple
for $99 and do not receive a new pen.

The software-only upgrade to version 1.05 is available for download
from electronic bulletin board services such as America Online and
Compuserve, or the upgrade may be ordered by trading the Personal
Computer Memory Card International Association (PCMCIA) card that came
with the unit for the new one with the 1.05 software.

A credit card is needed for the exchange, as Sharp charges the user
for the PCMCIA upgrade, then credits the account when the old PCMCIA
card is returned, the company said. The Expert Pad can also be updated
by shipping it to a Sharp service center.

Additional PCMCIA cards may be ordered toll-free from Memory Card
Associates for the following retail prices: 1 megabyte (MB), $120; 2
MB, $155; and 4 MB, $275.

(Linda Rohrbough/19940502/Press Contact: Ray Vincenzo, Dorf &
Stanton for Sharp, tel [phone], fax [phone]; Public
Contact: Sharp, Expert Pad Upgrades, 800-237-4277; Memory Card
Associates, 800/283-4080 ext 870/SHARP940502/PHOTO)


(NEWS)(IBM)(LAX)(000030)

Toshiba Cuts Notebook, Accessory Prices 05/02/94
IRVINE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1994 MAY 2 (NB) -- Notebook computer
maker Toshiba has announced it is cutting prices on its Satellite
line of portable computers, two other portable models, and a range of
accessories. The company said most of the price cuts were below
10 percent, although one model was marked down 20 percent.

Besides the Satellite line, Toshiba has made some of its largest
cuts on the T4700 notebook and the Portege T3400 monochrome
portable. For example, the color T4700CS notebook with the 200
megabyte (MB) hard disk was reduced 19 percent from $4,599 to
$3,699, and the 320 MB version was reduced 20 percent from $4,999
to $3,999. The T4700CS models feature dual-scan Dynamic-Super
Twist Nematic (STN) passive matrix color screens.

Steve Lair, vice president of marketing for the Toshiba Computer
Systems Division, said the T4700CS models are attractive to Windows
users because of a "...brighter and faster display with a sharper
contrast than earlier generations of single-scan color STN displays."

The company has also cut prices on its Personal Computer Memory Card
Industry Association (PCMCIA) accessories. The PCMCIA 14.4 bit per
second (bps) fax modem has been cut 7 percent from $399 to $369, and
the PCMCIA Type III 105 megabyte (MB) hard disk drive has seen an 11
percent reduction to $469, down from $525.

Irvine, California-based Computer Systems Division of Toshiba America
Information Systems (TAIS) offers a toll-free number for product
information and dealer locations. The company is a subsidiary of the
$39.9 billion Japanese electronics giant Toshiba Corporation.

(Linda Rohrbough/19940502/Press Contact: Howard Emerson, Toshiba,
tel [phone], fax [phone]; Public Contact: Toshiba, Info
and Dealer Referral, 800-334-3445)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(LON)(00031)

Newsbytes Daily Summary 05/02/94
LONDON, ENGLAND, 1994 MAY 2 (NB) -- These are capsules of all
today's news stories:

1 -> Company Offers Direct Mail Management Software 05/02/94
An Arizona company is offering Direct Mail Made Easy!, a software
package it claims doesn't just keep track of prospects, it teaches you
how to run an effective direct mail campaign.

2 -> Aussie Package Logs Phone Sales Calls; Generates Quotes 05/02/94
Ozflex Software has announced SalesEdge, a PC software package which
it claims is for anyone who has to take or make telephone sales calls.
The package is billed as automating the process, right up to
generating quotations for immediate delivery.

3 -> Lasertechnics Develops Low Cost Fraud-Resistant Technology 05/02/94
Lasertechnics has introduced two proprietary dye sublimation PVC card
printers designed to print four color, photo-quality digitized images,
magnetic stripe encoded data and other information directly on PVC
(poly-vinyl-chloride) credit cards, drivers' licenses and other forms
of secure identification.

4 -> Watcom SQL Shipped For OS/2 05/02/94
Watcom International, a subsidiary of Powersoft Corporation of
Waterloo, Ontario, has announced that it is now shipping its Watcom
SQL network servers for OS/2 in single-user and multiuser versions.

5 -> UK - Apple Boosts UK Outlets To 1,200 Dealers 05/02/94
Apple Computer has revealed it is aggressively expanding its outlets
in the UK for the Mac Performa product line. The company is also
boosting the number of outlets on its Power Mac range, as well as
repositioning the Apple Direct mail order side of its business.

6 -> Vistapro Virtual Reality Software For Mac Debuts 05/02/94
With the increase in more powerful, and less expensive, hardware, such
graphics-intensive applications as virtual reality (VR) are gaining in
popularity. Now Virtual Reality Laboratories has introduced an Apple
Mac version of its Vistapro VR landscape-generating program.

7 -> 72 Software Titles Added To Electronic Distribution List 05/02/94
InfoNow Corporation has announced it has added 72 additional software
titles to its list of electronically distributed software.

8 -> Video Navigator Makes Quicktime Movies Interactive 05/02/94
Radiant Interactive has begun shipping Video Navigator, a package for
making Apple Macintosh Quicktime movies interactive. The product puts
graphical "hot spots" in any video clip that when clicked on, can take
the user off into another movie clip or execute an Applescript.

9 -> Nominations Still Open For Canada's Top CIOs 05/02/94
Judges have been named and the deadline for nominations has been
extended in the first Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the Year
program, meant to honor 10 Canadian information technology executives.

10 -> Datasoft Unveils Viewterm Comms Package 05/02/94
Datasoft, the PC comms software house, has announced a dedicated
Windows viewdata terminal application. Known as Viewterm, the UKP 99
package is claimed to be one of the best on the market.

11 -> Hong Kong - New System To Process High School Exam Results 05/02/94
When 26,000 Hong Kong students sit for the territory's new A-level and
AS-level exams this summer, their performance will be tallied by a
purpose-designed computer system developed by COL Limited, Hong Kong's
leading computer services company.

12 -> Apple Computer Japan Beefs Up Its Maintenance Service 05/02/94
Apple Computer Japan has started a number of improvements to its
service facilities in Tokyo, with the stated aim of offering a much
more convenient maintenance service to its users.

13 -> General Electric Goes On An Indian Spending Spree 05/02/94
Wipro GE Medical Systems has received an export order worth about Rs
25 crore ($8 million). The order, from GE Medical Systems, is for a
series of ultrasound consoles, as well as other ultrasound and
computerised tomography (CT) components, Newsbytes understands.

14 -> Olicom Intros Faster Network Drivers 05/02/94
Olicom USA has announced two new versions of its PowerMACH software
drivers that it claims can provide a performance increase of up to 30
percent on PCs.

15 -> Canadian Product Launch Update 05/02/94
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:
Apple's Workgroup Server 9150, Banyan's Intelligent Messaging III and
BeyondMail 2.0 for Intelligent Messaging III, and IBM's PC-DOS 6.3.

16 -> US To Delay On China Software Piracy Sanctions 05/02/94
The Clinton administration has put off an expected decision to crack
down on software piracy in China until July 1, well after the June 3
deadline for determining whether China should enjoy "most favored
nation" status in the face of its continuing human rights problems.

17 -> Commodore Hits The Financial Buffers 05/02/94
After months of speculation surrounding its financial stability,
Commodore International, one of the personal computer industry's
pioneers, has announced plans to enter into voluntary liquidation.

18 -> Apple Expands Opendoc Component Software Group To 1,000 05/02/94
Object orientation is out and component software is the new
programmer's buzzword of the 1990's, according to Apple Computer.

19 -> Dataquest Identifies Problems Converting Paper To Digital 05/02/94
The much-hyped and difficult to obtain "paperless office" involves the
conversion of paper documents to digital format so they can be stored
on computer storage media, such as hard drives and tape backup
systems. But that process carries with it its own problems. Now market
research firm Dataquest has come up with a new survey of companies
that identifies the top problems involved in the conversion process.

20 -> Hewlett-Packard Intros New Laser Printers 05/02/94
Hewlett-Packard (HP) is replacing its LaserJet 4 and 4M laser printers
with the new 12 page-per-minute (ppm) LaserJet 4 Plus and 4M Plus. The
previous models were 8 ppm. The new 4 Plus is designed for PC-based
workgroups, while the 4M Plus is designed for Apple Mac networks, as
well as for mixed computing environments.

21 -> CHI '94 - Apple Exec Says Users To "Wear" Interfaces 05/02/94
As computers shrink in size and grow in capabilities, the user
interface is evolving from the old context of "user as worshipper"
into the new contexts of "user as porter," "user as reflector" and
"user as wearer," according to S. Joy Mountford, manager of Apple
Computer's Human Interface Group, speaking in the closing keynote at
CHI (Computer-Human Interaction) '94.

22 -> Gateway 2000 Stock Drops 25 Percent On 1Q Results 05/02/94
The price of Gateway 2000 stock dropped nearly 25 percent after the
company announced first quarter profits were lower than analyst's
anticipated.

23 -> CHI '94 - Software Designers Are Like Architects 05/02/94
When it comes to user interfaces, form should follow function,
explained Thomas T. Hewett, Ph.D., and Wendy Kellogg, the two co-
chairs of CHI (Computer-Human Interaction) '94, at a meeting with
Newsbytes in Boston.

24 -> ATI Launches Video Boards 05/02/94
ATI Technologies has announced two new video capture boards. Both are
aimed at the low-cost segment of the video market, the company said.

25 -> CHI '94 - Auditorium Converted To "Virtual New England" 05/02/94
For what may go down as the most "interactive" conference reception in
the annals of computer industry history, the CHI '94 conference
committee converted the auditorium of the Hynes Convention Center from
an ordinary room into a "virtual New England."

26 -> CHI '94 - "Experiencing" Futuristic Interfaces 05/02/94
A method for creating 3-D "self-portraits" out of frames of captured
video, a "half-Qwerty keyboard," and a way of teaching kindergarteners
to work with databases.

27 -> Motorola Working On Cellular Messaging Protocol 05/02/94
Motorola and Centigram have agreed to work together on Motorola's
Cellular Digital Messaging Protocol. The two companies said CDMP will
allow more rapid introduction of enhanced messaging services for
cellular phone users.

28 -> AT&T Creating Special Novell Netware Network
AT&T will create a special online network for users of Novell's
NetWare, similar in concept to the network it agreed to create a few
months ago for users of Lotus Notes.

29 -> Sharp Expert Pad Upgrade: Later, But Costs Less 05/02/94
While Sharp Expert Pad personal digital assistant (PDA) users get the
upgrade for their Newton Messagepad clones nearly a month after the
upgrade was announced for Apple customers, they also get the benefit
of getting the upgrade for less. Sharp Expert Pad users can perform
the hardware upgrade for $49 plus $14.95 shipping/handling and a
software upgrade is free.

30 -> Toshiba Cuts Notebook, Accessory Prices 05/02/94
Notebook computer maker Toshiba has announced it is cutting prices on
its Satellite line of portable computers, two other portable models,
and a range of accessories. The company said most of the price cuts
were below 10 percent, although one model was marked down 20 percent.

(Steve Gold/19940502)