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/nb062994

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(NEWS)(APPLE)(DAL)(00001)

Former Kodak Exec Replaces Stern On Apple Board 06/29/94
CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1994 JUN 29 (NB) -- Katherine
Hudson, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of the W. H.
Brady Company has been elected to the Apple Computer board of
directors to replace Paul G. Stern, CEO of Northern Telecom.

Stern joined the number of executives who have left Apple
lately, resigning after only six months on the board.

Hudson's appointment holds special significance in the light of
the executive exchange that appears to be occurring between
Apple Computer and its largest corporate user, Eastman Kodak.

A native of Rochester, New York, Hudson was previously vice
president and general manager of Professional, Printing and
Publishing/Imaging at the Kodak, where she was the highest-
ranking female executive.

Kodak announced recently that Apple's former CEO, John
Sculley, is working on a freelance basis for the company in the
area of marketing. Sculley, out of Apple for nearly a year,
has been in business for himself since he left the CEO slot at
wireless communication company Spectrum Information
Technologies.

In addition, reports have been circulating that Kodak is trying
to lure back from Apple Computer its former imaging executive
Don Strickland to head the company's new Digital and Applied
Imaging business unit.

(Linda Rohrbough/19940628/Press Contact: Laurence Clavere,
Apple Computer, tel [phone], fax [phone]/
HUDSON940628/PHOTO)


(NEWS)(IBM)(DAL)(00002)

PCMCIA Video Card Turns Notebook PC Into Television 06/29/94
NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1994 JUN 29 (NB) -- Imagine sitting
in an airport with your notebook computer, watching television on
the screen and working on a spreadsheet application you needed
for a meeting at the same time. Notebook computer manufacturer
Toshiba Computer Systems Division says you can do just that with
a new Personal Computer Memory Card International Association
(PCMCIA) card it is demonstrating at PC Expo this week.

Aimed at Windows-based color notebook computers, Toshiba
claims the card allows for recording and displaying real-time
full-motion video. Nogatech, a DSP Group Company headquartered
in Santa Clara, California, developed the real-time, video
display/capture PCMCIA card. When used with a notebook computer
with an active matrix display, a video image in 256 colors can be
played back or recorded.

In addition, the notebook can be connected to a portable
television tuner, the company added. The PCMCIA Type II card can
display US standard NTSC (North American Television Standards
Committee) video signals in 320 by 240 picture elements (pixels)
in multitask mode at 27 to 30 frames-per-second (fps). It can
handle the European PAL video signals in 384 by 288 pixel
multitask mode at 22 to 25 fps. The multitask mode allows
other Microsoft Windows applications to be run as well.

Full-motion video can be captured at 320 by 240 pixels in the
Windows AVI format and still images may be captured in eight-bit
resolution at 320 by 240 pixels or 16-bit resolution at 640 by
480 pixels. Toshiba says the Noteworthy Portable Digital Video
card offers audio volume control and muting but is not capable of
capturing sound.

Like most video and television display cards, users can switch
between running background tasks and television, the company
added.

The Noteworthy Portable Digital Video Card is expected to be
available from Toshiba's authorized dealers in November at a
retail price of $499. An optional external television tuner or
video camera module will also be available.

(Linda Rohrbough/19940628/Press Contact: Howard Emerson,
Toshiba America Information Systems, tel [phone]; Bob
Maples, Maples & Associates, tel [phone], fax 714-253-
8751; Public Contact: Toshiba, Dealers and Accessories,
800-959-4100)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(DEN)(00003)

Zenith Intros Wireless Products 06/29/94
BUFFALO GROVE, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1994 JUN 29 (NB) -- Zenith Data
Systems has announced three new wireless products for mobile
computer users from its Mobile Systems Group.

CruiseLAN/PCMCIA is a wireless, high-throughput PCMCIA
(Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) LAN
(local area network) connector card that installs in a portable
computer. CruiseLAN/ISA (Industry Standard Architecture) is a
PC-based wireless LAN adapter, and CruiseLAN/Access Point is
a wireless bridge for adding roaming range to wireless networks.

According to Alan Soucy, VP of ZDS' Mobile Systems Group, users
with a CruiseLAN/ISA card or a Cruise/LAN Access Point installed
on a network can use the CruiseLAN/PCMCIA card in their portable
computer to exchange data with the LAN at 1.6 megabits-per-second
(Mbps).

ZDS says the technology lends itself to applications such as
bedside computing in hospitals, order entry and inventory in
warehouses, on-site teaching and learning outside the normal
classroom environment, and in applications where running LAN
cabling is either prohibitively expensive or difficult because of
the physical environment.

CruiseLAN technology uses the 2.4 to 2.4835 gigahertz (GHz)
frequency range to send and receive data. It has a 1,000-foot cell
coverage. Frequency hopping spread spectrum, hardware scrambling
and software encryption are provided for additional security. Error
detection and correction are also supported included.

The CruiseLAN PCMCIA is a Type II card with a range of up to 500
feet in the typical office environment and up to 1,000 feet in open
spaces. The card ships with ODI (Open Data-link Interface) drivers
for Novell Netware 2.x, 3.x and 4.x and Personal Netware. It also
comes with NDIS (Network Driver Interface Specification) drivers
for Microsoft Windows for Workgroups, Microsoft LAN Manager and
Artisoft LANtastic. ZDS says notebooks and other PCMCIA Type II
devices can be configured as nodes on any of those networks.

The ISA bus CruiseLAN/ISA card is a 16-bit adapter card for
desktop PCs or servers. Its 15-channel capability allows multiple
LANs to operate within the same physical space without
interference.

The CruiseLAN/Access Point serves as a wireless bridge and
allows wireless users to move beyond the initial 1,000-foot cell.
Bridges can be installed throughout an installation to insure
continual coverage.

The CruiseLAN/PCMCIA and CruiseLAN/ISA products conform to the
recently proposed IEEE 802.11 Standards Committee for dual mode
high- and low-speed wireless LAN environments work. The committee
is expected to complete its draft standard document by late 1994.

ZDS says the CruiseLAN product line is expected to be available in
the distribution channel by July 30. The PCMCIA card has a
suggested retail price of $695. The ISA card is $595, and the Access
Point device is $1,895. The company says the products have been
tested with its Z-Star, Z-Lite and Z-Select notebook computers,
Z-Station 500 desktop systems and the Z-Server family as well
as a number of third party computers.

(Jim Mallory/19940628/Press contact: Steve Bosak, Zenith Data
Systems, 708-808-4855; Reader contact: Zenith Data Systems,
800-553-0331)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(SFO)(00004)

Prodigy Adds Business & Sports News Sound-Bites 06/29/94
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1994 JUN 29 (NB) -- Some online
services are capable of greeting personal computer (PC) users
who have audio boards and speakers with such phases as "hello,"
and "you've got mail." Taking it a step further, Prodigy has now
announced the availability of two-minute sound-bites that cover
top business and sports news stories.

Provided to users at no additional charge, the audio reports
will initially only be available to Windows-based users. A Mac
version is expected late this summer.

According to the company, these introductory audio reports are only
the beginning of an extensive program to provide its customers with
online multimedia features which it plans to deliver over standard
phone lines.

Mike Darcy, manager of communications for Prodigy, told Newsbytes,
"When we offered audio samples of President Bush and then-governor
Clinton, our customers showed a great response. Shortly after that,
we played an audio sample of Jerry Seinfeld and before too long
we had agents and celebrities calling and wanting to join the trend."

Prodigy claims it will be adding substantial sound features to many
different areas of its online service, including the children's
sections and online columnists.

Darcy continued, "People want to see the news online just like it
is in print or television. They do not want to have to download a
photograph and have it come-up separately from the text. Our goal it
to offer the news and other information in an integrated fashion so
that the user has audio, visual and text simultaneously wherever
it is possible."

Prodigy does not have this multimedia feature with every story. It
chooses which stories to add a photograph to. The company said
more audio portions will be added in the near future.

(Patrick McKenna/19940627/Press Contact: Mike Darcy, Prodigy,
tel [phone])


(NEWS)(TRENDS)(SYD)(00005)

Australia - Compaq Links To Resellers Via Lotus Notes 06/29/94
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA 1994 JUN 29 (NB) -- A new communications
service called CompaqLink is being introduced by Compaq Computer
in Australia for use by resellers and major customers. It is an
Australian extension of a global system which distributes Compaq
products, service and technical information from head office in
Houston, as well as local Australian material.

Paul Brandling, sales director for Compaq in Australia said: "The
move signals our commitment to further strengthen links with our
resellers, customers and third-party partners by offering them a
practical communications and business tool that's available all
the time."

He continued: "The project extends our existing strategic corporate
communications platform where we already make extensive use of
Lotus Notes for both in-house and international communications.
Our resellers can now access up-to-the-minute technical and sales
information and correspond with Compaq Australia's sales and
technical employees using Lotus Notes Mail. Local issue can be
escalated to Houston if necessary, in order to utilize our
international resources."

He added: "Notes-enabled resellers can also develop their own
Notes-based commercial applications and make use of the system
to communicate with their customers and partners. The Notes
applications eliminates many manual jobs and provides information
in a more usable form. The significant reduction in paper usage
complements our company's ongoing environmental commitment
worldwide."

One of the resellers using the new system is Taco Kuiper, managing
director of Sydney-based Future Technologies. It runs a help desk,
education center booking system and two marketing databases, all
on Lotus Notes. It also uses Notes to collect ideas for major projects
and in budget planning. Said Kuiper: "Through CompaqLink we can
make use of Compaq staff if we can't answer a customer in-house."

Resellers need a modem, a server with at least 500 megabytes of
hard disk space, and several connections a day to update the data
and messages. In future it is envisaged that the system will
eliminate most paper being sent between Compaq and its resellers.

(Paul Zucker/19940627/Press Contact: Compaq Australia,
tel [phone], fax [phone])


(NEWS)(IBM)(LON)(00006)

Lotus UK Ships ScreenCam Screen Capture Prgm 06/29/94
STAINES, MIDDLESEX, ENGLAND, 1994 JUN 29 (NB) -- Lotus
Development Corporation has announced the UK shipment of
ScreenCam, the company's multimedia screen capture utility.
The package sells for UKP49.

ScreenCam is claimed to be different from other screen capture
utilities in that it is dynamic and does not require the presence of
the original software to execute a video playback. Instead, the PC
screen image is reduced to set of vector commands and, as the
frame changes, only the "change" information is stored. This makes
ScreenCam require minimal space for storage of even quite complex
video playback image sequences.

ScreenCam has been available in the US for several months, so the UK
gets the debugged edition -- version 1.1 -- which reportedly runs on
almost any 80386-based or better machine. According to Andrew
Wyatt, UK brand manager with Lotus, ScreenCam is part of the
company's strategy to provide business practical multimedia
"solutions."

"It solidifies our leadership position in providing business practical
multimedia in the areas of learning, presentation and communication,"
explained Wyatt, adding that the package is the first multimedia
product from the company with the potential for "widespread
adoption, because it can help all businesses train their users on any
application."

He added: "Also, the high degree of information content within a
ScreenCam movie makes this product a great tool for improving
collaborative business processes."

To create a ScreenCam movie, users with a sound card and a
microphone simply click on the record icon to begin a recording
session. Then, by moving the mouse, entering key strokes and
speaking into the microphone, they can capture anything happening
on screen and record explanations.

The resultant ScreenCam files can be played back on any PC, without
ScreenCam or the original application being present. This is achieved
by each ScreenCam file being compiled to form an executable file.

ScreenCam requires a 386-based or better PC with at least one
megabyte extra memory over and above the "captured" application's
memory requirements.

(Steve Gold/19940627/Press & Reader Contact: Lotus UK,
[phone])


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEL)(00007)

India - Wipro In Distribution Deal With Symix 06/29/94
BANGALORE, INDIA, 1994 JUN 29 (NB) -- Close on the heels of Corel
Corp., Wipro Infotech's Business Solution Division has signed another
distribution deal. This time it has signed with Symix Computer
Systems of the US to market its Symix Enterprise, an integrated
manufacturing control and accounting system designed specifically
for the needs of discrete manufacturers.

Wipro Infotech plans to enhance the manufacturing control and
accounting package. The Symix system begins with order entry and
manages all steps associated with manufacturing. The software is
available in various modules like estimation, order entry, accounts,
receivables, inventory, purchase and shop floor scheduling.

It operates on either Unix or LANs (local area networks) with the
front-end being a PC with DOS or DOS/Windows. The price varies
between R50 lakh to R60 lakh, depending on the number of users
and modules.

Wipro claims to have already received an order worth R1 crore
from a textile machinery manufacturer in Western India.

Symix, based in Columbus, Ohio, reportedly has more than 50
business partners and 1,800 sites worldwide.

(C.T. Mahabharat/19940628)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(HKG)(00008)

Datapoint Reshapes & Expands In Asia 06/29/94
CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1994 JUN 29 (NB) -- Datapoint is reshaping
its business strategy and increasing its resources in the Asian
region as part of a bid to win a leadership position in the fast-
growing multimedia marketplace.

The company will concentrate on networking, telephony and video --
three core technologies on which it has focused for many years.
Datapoint says it will supplement its existing distributor/dealer
channels with direct sales to major customers and will increase
the headcount at its regional headquarters in Hong Kong by 50
percent.

Datapoint's newly appointed managing director for the region, Ross
Millar, is an Australian who has been a Hong Kong resident for 11
years, during which time he worked for a number of software and
professional service companies, including Computer Power, Logica,
and a Nynex subsidiary.

"Datapoint has been in Asia for 10 years and has a successful record
of technological innovation," said Millar." But in recent years, the
company has kept a low profile, relying on its distributors and
dealers to handle all its sales and marketing. That's going to change.
We intend to be highly visible as we bring new technologies and new
applications to the Asian marketplace."

He continued: "Networking and telephony are already essential parts
of the regional infrastructure. Video is the next piece in the
jigsaw -- a key component of the global information superhighway."

As part of its new, high-profile strategy, Datapoint will bring
several new products to Asia within the next few months. The first
of these will be a range of networked desktop video products in its
MINX (Multimedia Information Network Exchange) Network Video
Systems (NVS) series. These products offer full-motion interactive
video across both local and wide area networks.

Through a partnership with telephony specialist Davox Corp., the
company offers high volume outbound call management services for
applications such as credit management, subscription renewals,
customer courtesy calling and telephone marketing.

"Datapoint pioneered the concept of networked videoconferencing,"
said Millar. "Like our customers, we see it as a simple way of
holding meetings more cost-effectively. But I think we differ
from our competitors because we also concentrate on the use of
video to achieve economic benefits and more effective
communications in such areas as distance learning, law enforcement
and remote diagnostics as well as scientific, industrial, military,
artistic and residential applications."

(Keith Cameron/19940629/Press Contact: Ross Millar, Datapoint,
852-9221-2099)


(NEWS)(IBM)(SFO)(00009)

CommTouch Intros Pronto/IP For Windows Internet E-Mail 06/29/94
SAN MATEO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1994 JUN 29 (NB) -- CommTouch
has announced a July shipment of its Pronto/IP electronic mail
product and an August shipment of Pronto/Remote. Selling for
$69, Pronto/IP allows Windows users to exchange e-mail with
Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) hosts
directly with no need for a gateway.

Its graphical user interface allows individual workstations to
use their own processing and storage capabilities as opposed
to the dumb terminal status created in a Unix environment.
Earlier this month, Newsbytes reported Delrina's licensing of
CommTouch.

Pronto/Remote, currently in beta testing, is also a Unix e-mail
client for Windows, but will not require TCP/IP or any other
pre-installed host software, as it connects to a Unix host via an
asynchronous line. It will offer the same features of Pronto/IP.
Shipments are expected to begin August 1.

According to CommTouch, users may perform many mail tasks off-
line, dial their Unix host from a remote personal computer (PC) to
quickly exchange mail, update folders in the host, and take
advantage of editing features such as line wrapping and spell
checking. Its mail features provide standard "forwarding," "reply,"
"reply all," "print," "move," and "copy" commands.

Nahum Sharfman, president and chief executive officer of
CommTouch, told Newsbytes that, "Pronto gives users a smart
way to do e-mail, provides a GUI (graphical user interface) from the
PC to connect to the Unix host, and allows the user to use the PC
storage areas. So that the work is done on the desktop as
opposed to the host."

Pronto/IP uses Windows Sockets API (application programming
interface) to interface with TCP/IP stacks.

Sharfman went on to say that the upcoming Chicago version of
Microsoft's Windows will have built-in sockets, so that users will
not need separate sockets to use Pronto. He added, "It is our goal
to take advantage of everything the PC workstation has to offer.
Pronto has been designed with that goal as its mission."

Speaking of the long-term outlook, Sharfman said that
CommTouch will take a close look at the Macintosh platform as
native applications are written in greater numbers for the
PowerPC platform.

(Patrick McKenna/19940627/Press Contact: Valdis Hellevik,
tel [phone])


(NEWS)(IBM)(DEN)(00010)

Vendors Announce Support For Microsoft TAPI 06/29/94
REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1994 JUN 29 (NB) -- Microsoft
says several computer telephony server vendors have announced
support for the Microsoft Windows Telephony Applications
Programming Interface (TAPI).

Companies announcing TAPI support are Digital Equipment
Corporation, Genesys Laboratories, Octel Communications, Q.Sys,
and Tandem Computers Inc.

Two other companies got on the TAPI bandwagon this week when
Intel and Northern Telecom said they will develop a bridge
between TAPI and the Novell Telephony Services server.

TAPI is Microsoft's interface between hardware and applications
that lets your personal computer do double duty as a telephone.

Previous Newsbytes stories have reported on computer software
that can identify the source of an incoming call and display
information about the caller. The user creates a database that holds
the displayed information. Some of the programs also let the user
control the computer's phone function with voice commands and will
re-dial an outgoing call as frequently as the user wishes.

One form of integration between the PC and the telephone network
is a physical connection between a PC and the phone network using an
add-in board or an external modem that can be used to send faxes,
voice processing, or data, and videoconferencing.

A second model routes the application's requests of the telephone
network through a server to the network, which in turn operates a
telephone associated with a particular PC.

According to Microsoft, TAPI is flexible enough to work across a
broad range of telephone networks as well as with different models
for integration with the PC. TAPI is expected to be included in the
next version of Windows.

Call centers such as those used by telephone marketing companies,
are expected to be a major user of computerized telephone
applications.

Interested parties can obtain diagrams illustrating the different
telephony models from Microsoft or through the Internet on
ftp.microsoft.com in/MSAtWork/Telephony/diagram.

(Jim Mallory/19940629/Press contact: Carol Lucas, Waggener
Edstrom for Microsoft Corporation, 206-637-9097; Reader contact
for telephony model diagrams 206-637-9097)


(NEWS)(GOVT)(DEN)(00011)

 ****Police Seize $2Mil In Counterfeit Microsoft Software 06/29/94
REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1994 JUN 29 (NB) -- A series of
police raids in six states across the country have turned up what
authorities estimates is $2 million worth of counterfeit Microsoft
software.

Police seized over 13,000 packages of counterfeit software in
California, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Texas, and Virginia.
Authorities say the seizures are evidence of a large scale
counterfeiting ring operating across the country.

According to the Business Software Alliance, a trade organization
formed to combat software piracy, American software publishers
lose an estimated $12 billion in sales annually to counterfeiters.

This is not the first time counterfeit Microsoft software has been
seized, and it is not the biggest seizure. However, it may be the
first time the counterfeiting includes software other than MS-DOS
and Microsoft Windows. Authorities also seized CD-ROM versions of
Microsoft's Bookshelf reference library and Microsoft Works.

Microsoft says the counterfeit software was easy to spot, as it did
not contain the version-specific holograms, 3M Confirm labels,
or Microsoft Certificate of Authenticity used to identify legitimate
Microsoft software.

The counterfeiting operation first came to the attention of Maryland
law enforcement officials. Business records seized in a raids at Grey
Computer Inc., in Bowie, Maryland and Advanced Business Concepts
Inc., of Springfield, Virginia, led authorities to Direct Wholesale, a
Houston, Texas distributor, according to Microsoft. That raid
uncovered information that took police and Microsoft to several
companies in California, Georgia, and Louisiana.

Companies raided in those states included Alpha Data Research of
City of Industry, A- Technology of Bandwin Park, Hypertec USA of
Walnut, L.A. Magnatech of El Monte, Zesta Computer in Alhambra,
and Bristone of City of Industry, all in California. Additional
seizures were made at Micro Equipment Corporation of Atlanta and
Sulaco Communications Inc., and Tek-Shop in Sulphur, Louisiana.

Microsoft says it has filed copyright infringement lawsuits
against all of the businesses raided. US copyright law provides
for criminal penalties of up to $250,000 and five years in jail if
convicted. The court can also award civil damages of up to three
times the value of the software.

In July, 1993, Microsoft was awarded a $12 million judgment
following the seizure of hundreds of thousands of copies of
counterfeit software.

Users that suspect they are in possession of counterfeit software
can call the toll-free Piracy Hotline at 800-882-8080. Microsoft
has said the company is not interested in prosecuting the user.

(Jim Mallory/19940629/Press contact: Microsoft Corporation,
206-882-8080 or 800-426-9400)


(NEWS)(APPLE)(DEN)(00012)

WordPerfect 3.1 For Power Mac Due This Summer 06/29/94
OREM, UTAH, U.S.A., 1994 JUN 29 (NB) -- WordPerfect Corporation
says it will ship an update to its word processing program for the
Power Macintosh this summer.

That could mean WordPerfect will get its update to market before
Microsoft ships a native version of Microsoft Word for the Power
Mac.

WordPerfect says WordPerfect 3.1 for the Mac, which will also run
on 68000-based Macintosh computers, adds some new features and
will support some of the technologies expected in Apple's
forthcoming System 7.5 operating system software.

One of those new features will be QuickCorrect, an interactive
spelling checker already available in the latest Windows version of
WordPerfect software. Like Microsoft's AutoCorrect, QuickCorrect
fixes common spelling errors as they are typed. It will also
automatically expand abbreviations designated by the user once
those abbreviations and their expanded versions have been entered
in a dictionary by the user.

The Merge function in the update has been enhanced to improve the
importing of tab-delimited data into tables and mail-merge
documents. There will also be a "fat binary" installation option
that will allow network administrators to install WordPerfect
software that contains both 68000 and Power Mac code on a server.

The System 7.5 technologies to be supported include QuickDraw GX
printing, which provides better control over printing functions.
Users can reorder print jobs and send pages to different printers.

Mac drag-and-drop support will allow users to move text and
graphics between documents and other applications. Users will
also be able to drag text to the desktop, where it will reside as a
clipping file until it is dragged back into an application.

System 7.5's interactive online help system, Appleguide, will also
be supported. The PowerPC native version will support integrated
electronic mail through Apple's Powertalk. The 68000 version of
WordPerfect already supports electronic-mail through Powertalk.

WordPerfect spokesperson Dan Cook told Newsbytes the company
has not decided if its Grammatik 6.0 grammar checking software will
be bundled with the new version of WordPerfect or be integrated with
it. "It will eventually be a part of WordPerfect, but it's a question of
what it's going to take (to integrate Grammatik). Some of the writing
tools are such that they can't just stick it in," said Cook. Grammatik
6.0 is scheduled to ship in August.

Version 3.0 of WordPerfect for Mac is also able to take advantage
of the Power Macintosh architecture when the software is installed
on that platform. In addition to the added word processing features,
one of the differences between the current version and the planned
3.1 version is the technology that simplifies installation on a
network, a feature not available in version 3.0.

The company says it expects to ship WordPerfect 3.1 within 30 days
of System 7.5 becoming available. Presently System 7.5 is scheduled
to ship in late August or early September.

Cook said the suggested retail price is expected to be $495.
Registered users of earlier versions of WordPerfect can upgrade
for $89. Users of competitive products can switch to WordPerfect
for $99.

(Jim Mallory/19940627/Press contact: Dan Cook, WordPerfect
Corporation, 801-228-5014; Reader contact: WordPerfect,
tel [phone] or 801-225-5000, fax [phone])


(NEWS)(IBM)(BOS)(00013)

PC Expo - IBM Announces SMP For OS/2 06/29/94
NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1994 JUN 29 (NB) -- "We're in flight,"
announced John Soyring, director of strategic relationships for
IBM, during the product launch of OS/2 for Symmetrical
Multiprocessing (SMP) 2.11, at PC Expo in New York City.

OS/2 for SMP, a product aimed at boosting performance on 486 and
Pentium PCs by distributing threads among processors, will start
shipping next month, Soyring said at the press conference, which
was attended by Newsbytes.

Soyring also used a "family" metaphor in describing the benefits of
OS/2 for SMP. By sharing the same "genetic characteristics," he said,
OS/2 for SMP and other OS/2 family members provide "one interface
to learn, one 32-bit API (application programming interface) to
write to, and a single set of objects."

OS/2 for SMP, he elaborated, supplies the same features as OS/2
2.11, but optimizes the capabilities of multiprocessor computers by
distributing application processes ("threads") among the processors.

OS/2 for SMP furnishes a "stable, reliable environment for OS/2,"
said Dan Lautenbach, general manager, also a speaker at the press
event.

Users can operate multiple Windows, DOS, and OS/2 2.1 at the same
time on a single system and still experience performance benefits,
explained David Barnes, senior product manager, another speaker.

Even single-tasking DOS applications can show improvement, since
OS/2's multithreading allows "overlap of systems services and
application execution," according to the IBM officials. Multiple
DOS/Windows "virtual machines" can operate faster, without
modification, because multiple processors are used, the officials
said. Native OS/2 applications will reflect even more improvement,
by taking advantage of multithreading, they maintained.

In a demo involving operation of OS/2 for SMP on two servers,
Barnes showed the large gathering of international journalists the
performance gains that can be produced in six different applications.

Applications run in the demo included: IBM's DB2/2 for OS/2;
Quantum's new Quantum Leap, also for OS/2; Lotus 1-2-3 for Windows;
and third-party Windows applications for morphing and design.
Barnes also showed the use of IBM's SMP Monitor. At PC Expo, IBM is
announced that DB2/2 1.2 for OS/2 has been enhanced with SMP
support.

Also at the press conference, seven hardware vendors announced
their support for OS/2 for SMP: Advanced Logic Research (ALR); AST
Research; Compaq; Hewlett-Packard; IBM Tricord Systems; VTech;
and Wyse Technology..

"This is the year of SMP," said John M. Paul, VP, Systems Software,
for Compaq, in an interview with Newsbytes during a product
showcase at the close of the press conference. Santa Cruz Operation
(SCO) was the first to announce SMP, followed by Microsoft with its
Windows NT announcement last fall, he noted. Novell is expected to
introduce SMP support in NetWare later this year, he added.

Paul told Newsbytes that Compaq has been working with IBM on OS/2
development for about five years now, and is also supporting the
other SMP players. The week before PC Expo, Compaq announced
support for OS/2 and LAN (local area network) server on Compaq
Insight Manager, as well as the availability of OS/2, LAN Server
and TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol)
on Compaq SmartStart.

Also at the product showcase, a pair of Wyse officials told
Newsbytes that Wyse has also been a long-time partner of IBM.
"This is a significant announcement. We're excited to be able to
offer OS/2 for SMP on our client and server systems," remarked
Jeff McNaught, director of systems product marketing.

OS/2 for SMP will be even more beneficial when more software
products, such as 1-2-3 and other productivity applications from
Lotus, become available in 32-bit versions, added Karl Darr, senior
marketing manager for Wyse.

At PC Expo, Wyse unveiled a new agreement to pre-install IBM
products such as OS/2 for SMP, LAN Server and Advanced Server
for Workgroups on "specific optimized models" of its symmetric
multiprocessor and uniprocessor servers.

OS/2 for SMP will initially be available in the US only. Pricing is
$395 for a 1-2 processor version, $595 for a 1-7 processor version,
and $795 for a 1-16 processor version.

(Jacqueline Emigh/19940629/Reader Contacts: IBM: 800-3IBM-OS2;
Compaq Computer: 713-370-0670; Wyse, 408-473-1200; Press
Contacts: Rob Crowley, IBM, 512-823-1779; Nancy Meyers, IBM,
914-766-1027; MeeLin Sit, Brodeur & Partners for IBM, 914-697-
9711 ext 230; Compaq Computer PR Department, 713-374-0484;
Jeannie Low, Wyse, 408-473-2103; Shelly Gordon or Barbara Kohn,
Thomas Associates for Wyse, 415-6236)


(NEWS)(TRENDS)(BOS)(00014)

PC Expo - Kodak Debuts PCMCIA Digital Camera 06/29/94
NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1994 JUN 29 (NB) -- In a Compaq-
sponsored press event at PC Expo, Kodak debuted a digital camera
that uses a PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International
Association) card for transferring images to a Mac or Windows-
based PC.

Joseph E. Chmill, Jr., manager of image capture products, and
colleagues from Kodak demonstrated the camera at the evening event,
held at The Time Is Always Now, in Greenwich Village, and attended
by Newsbytes.

The Kodak employees snapped photos of the guests, and then
transferred the pictures to the computer via a PCMCIA card right
before the reporters' and editors' eyes.

While showing Newsbytes a montage of journalists' faces, Chmill
explained that, to transfer an image, the photographer inserts a
memory or a hard disk PCMCIA card into the camera and then
connects the new DCS 420 camera to the computer.

The camera, which uses a standard Nikon body, serves as a card
reader for the computer, said Chmill. The memory or hard disk card
plugs into a PCMCIA Type III slot on the camera and the computer.

Special software from Kodak acquires the image from the camera's
card reader into Adobe Photoshop on the Mac or any TWAIN-compliant
application on the PC, he explained.

The DCS 420 Digital Camera also allows more rapid photo taking and
provides much longer battery life than Kodak's previous model, the
DCS 200, he said. The DCS used an internal disk.

Chmill told Newsbytes that, once the shutter release on the DCS 420
is pushed for a burst, there is only a 0.25-second delay for the
first shot, followed by a 0.5-second delay for each of the next
four shots, for a total of five shots in 2.25 seconds.

In addition, unlike the DCS 200, the DCS 420 allows the burst to be
captured by holding down the shutter button, he reported.

The new digital camera is capable of capturing up to 1,000 images
per full battery charge, Newsbytes was told. A dead battery
recharges in about an hour, Chmill added. An AC adapter comes
with the DCS 420.

(Jacqueline Emigh/19940629/Reader Contact: Kodak: 800-242-
2424 ext 77; Press Contact: Compaq Computer PR Department,
713-374-8484)


(NEWS)(TRENDS)(TOR)(00015)

NorTel Loss Shuffles Canadian Profit Ranking 06/29/94
TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1994 JUN 29 (NB) -- BCE Inc., of
Montreal, is still Canada's largest company by revenue, but it has
given up the top ranking by profitability to one of its subsidiaries --
Bell Canada, also of Montreal -- because of heavy losses at another
subsidiary, Mississauga, Ontario-based Northern Telecom Ltd.

The Report on Business 1000, an annual ranking of Canadian
companies by profits published by the business section of the
Toronto-based newspaper The Globe and Mail, lists Bell Canada as
the country's top earner in 1993, with an C$871.1 million profit.
Even though that profit figure is down 13 percent from 1992, Bell
moved from second to first in the rankings as its parent, holding
company BCE, plunged off the profit ranking and onto the
newspaper's list of the year's 10 largest losses.

BCE lost C$656 million in 1993, thanks largely to an even larger
loss -- US$878 million -- at Northern Telecom. That loss put
Northern at the top of the list of large losses for 1993.

Northern reported the loss in January. The results included
special charges of US$536 million, recorded in the second quarter
to cover worldwide cost-cutting that is expected to mean more
than 5,000 lost jobs, as well as work to beef up its central-office
switching software and a writedown of goodwill for STC plc, a
British telecommunications firm Northern bought in 1991.

All in all, the Report on Business figures show 1993 was not a
banner year for the Canadian information technology industry.

Services firm SHL Systemhouse Inc. of Ottawa joined BCE,
Northern, and Bell in the list of the 15 largest profit drops for
the year, losing C$145.12 million. IBM Canada Ltd., of Markham,
Ontario, kept its number-five spot on the list of top private
companies by revenue, but reported a C$130 million loss versus
the C$1 million profit of 1992. IBM Canada's 1993 revenues were
C$6.698 billion, down one percent from 1992.

The Report on Business 1000 also includes a list of the top 10
technology companies in Canada by revenue, with Northern
Telecom and IBM Canada in the first two spots.

Other information technology firms on that list are Digital
Equipment of Canada Ltd., of Toronto, in eighth place with C$1.213
billion in revenues and a loss of C$27.2 million in 1993, and Xerox
Canada Inc., also of Toronto, which reported a C$25.8 million profit
in 1993, down 58 percent from 1992. Others on the technology top
10 list included General Electric Canada and several other makers
of aerospace and electrical products and machinery.

(Grant Buckler/19940629)


(NEWS)(GOVT)(ATL)(00016)

 ****Telecom Deregulation Moves Through House 06/29/94
WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1994 JUN 29 (NB) -- Bills to
deregulate US telecommunications easily passed the US House of
Representatives. However, the Senate may pass radically different
bills next month.

A bill to rewrite the 1982 consent decree which broke up the Bell
System, a compromise between bills from Michigan Democrat John
Dingell and Texas Democrat Jack Brooks, passed 423-5.

The bill allows states to decide whether regional Bells can provide
in-state long-distance service, subject to Justice Department
objections, and allows the Bells into equipment manufacturing as
well, subject to a "domestic content" provision which could be
overturned by the courts. The bill would also pre-empt state laws
that now prevent cable companies from offering telephone service,
after one year. And it lets the Bells provide the long distance
links on their cellular calls, something they cannot do now.

BellSouth has objected to AT&T's acquisition of McCaw, claiming
its long distance network would give it an advantage in local
service unless the Bells have equivalent powers.

A second bill, from Massachusetts Democrat Edward Markey and
Texas Republican Jack Fields, requires the Bells to open their
markets to competitors. The courts have recently held that the
Federal Communications Commission cannot force such openings
under the 1934 Communications Act. The Markey-Fields bill passed
423-4. Compromises were reached in the bill on such contentious
issues as guaranteeing competition in rural and poor urban areas,
as well as public education and government access issues.

A Senate bill, far less favorable to the regional Bells, comes
before the Senate Commerce Committee next month. The Bells have
been accused of trying to scuttle deregulation legislation unless
they win rules their potential long distance and cable competitors
say they cannot accept.

The Administration's point man on telecommunications issues,
Larry Irving, chief of the Commerce Department's National
Telecommunications and Information Administration, praised the
House action, saying "We are ecstatic." The Administration had
hoped to get the bills through by March, even canceling plans to
offer its own bills to speed the process along, and many
observers thought telephone deregulation was dead for this
session as the Congress moved toward the more contentious issue
of health reform.

Passage of the bill came as two regional Bells, NYNEX and BellSouth,
filed "Section 214" papers with the Federal Communications
Commission to build new high-speed interactive networks.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19940629)


(NEWS)(APPLE)(DAL)(00017)

Apple's DOS Card For Power Mac Is Demo Only 06/29/94
NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1994 JUN 29 (NB) -- Apple Computer is
demonstrating another attempt at putting DOS-compatible hardware
for running DOS and Windows applications in its computers, but
this time with the Power Macintosh. The company is demonstrating
a prototype DOS compatibility card with an Intel DX2/50
microprocessor at the PC Expo show in New York City this week.

Apple announced its first DOS compatibility card for the Quadra
610 at Fall Comdex. But some reports have maintained the company
stopped production of the DOS card, called the Houdini, just last
month after its introduction in February of this year.

However, Apple representative Maureen O'Connell told Newsbytes
that the Houdini and the Quadra 610 DOS Compatible computer
were not killed. A limited production run was planned from the
beginning and when the company completed that run it did not
intend to make any more of the units. When asked what the
production run was, O'Connell said Apple does not release that
information.

The Houdini included a 25 megahertz (MHz) 80486SX microprocessor,
but was tough going when running DOS applications because of the
differences between the Quadra and IBM-compatible personal
computer (PC) keyboards, the lack of sound for PC applications,
and no PC expansion slots. Reviewers widely reported that the
Houdini was fine for Mac users who occasionally ran DOS
applications, but PC users should stay away.

This latest demonstration on the Power Macintosh of a DOS card
with a DX/2 50MHz microprocessor is simply a technology
demonstration, according to O'Connell. Apple is firm in its
assertions that it is not making a product announcement, nor
is it committing to producing such a card in the future. "The
demonstration is to show Apple is committed to cross-platform
compatibility," O'Connell told Newsbytes.

Ian Diery, executive vice president and general manager of
Apple's Personal Computer Division said in a prepared statement:
"The technology demonstration underscores our commitment to keep
our customers' options open by developing the most flexible, most
compatible personal computer platform."

Power Macintosh enthusiasts already know that the reduced
instruction-set computing (RISC)-based computer offers the
ability to run DOS and Windows applications, but in a slow
software emulation mode via Insignia Solution's SoftPC product.
Hardware is always faster than software, especially emulation
software, so a hardware card could be attractive to those
interested in DOS and Windows compatibility. The lack of software
applications that run native on the Power Macintosh, currently
about 100, is not helping Apple's push of the unit.

Apple claims that more Power Macintosh computers have already
been sold than PCs based on Intel's top-of-the-line Pentium chip.

Said Diery: "Apple will continue to be relentless in making it
easier for DOS and Windows users to come over to Macintosh, as
well as making it easy for Macintosh users to fit into mixed
computing environments.

(Linda Rohrbough/19940629/Press Contact: Maureen O'Connell,
Regis McKenna for Apple Computer, tel [phone],
fax [phone])


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00018)

BellSouth Plans Interactive Multimedia Test 06/29/94
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1994 JUN 29 (NB) -- BellSouth has filed
documents asking Federal Communications Commission permission
to test interactive multimedia services in Chamblee, just outside
Atlanta, starting next year.

Chamblee is a suburb just northeast of the city which has become
a magnetic for Asian and Latin immigrants to the area. It also has
a number of large commercial and small manufacturing plants
which could benefit from the new services.

BellSouth's proposed video service trial would serve about
12,000 homes and offer 60 channels of cable television service
with access to up to 300 other interactive digital services.

BellSouth said its trial is unique, combining analog cable service
and digital video dial-tone over a shared network. The analog
cable service would come from Vanguard Cable, a unit of Prime II
Management in Austin, Texas.

BellSouth is buying a 22.5 percent equity stake in Prime
Management, but emphasized in a press statement it will have no
equity interest in either Vanguard or Prime II. The areas are
presently served by North DeKalb Cable, a Scripps-Howard affiliate,
and the new network will be what is called in the cable business
an "overbuild."

The fact that consumers would get a choice of providers in the
trial was seen as encouraging by analysts. The test will show
whether there is a viable market for such things as movies-on-
demand or interactive education, with consumers given a choice
between these offerings and standard cable. BellSouth will also
perform a strict profit-and-loss analysis on the operation,
giving more valuable data to the industry.

The three primary equipment suppliers to the test are Oracle
Corp., Scientific-Atlanta, and Hewlett-Packard. Oracle will
provide media server software and handle integration of the
servers, Hewlett-Packard would provide video servers, and
Scientific-Atlanta would provide integrated analog and digital
video equipment as well as TV set-top boxes.

All have experience working with regional Bell companies on
interactive video. Fees for services, including cable TV, would be
set by the programming service providers. Costs for the trial will
be separated from telephone service and will have no impact on
local rates, BellSouth said.

Bill Brobst of Scientific-Atlanta told Newsbytes that his
company's offerings continue to evolve, and BellSouth will get
the latest revisions in the equipment. An integrated fiber and
coaxial cable network will be used to deliver all services,
rather than the twisted-pair wires used to deliver phone service
in current versions of US West and Ameritech's advanced networks,
for instance. The delivery of phone service via cable is also
unique, from a technical standpoint, Brobst noted.

"We'll be testing several ways to deliver telephone service,
including fiber to the curb," said BellSouth spokesman Kevin
Doyle, "as well as coaxial cable." Homeowners will still use the
same twisted pair they have now and new coaxial cable for
BellSouth video, Doyle indicated.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19940629/Press Contact: Bill Brobst,
Scientific-Atlanta, 404-903-6306; Tim Klein, BellSouth,
404-249-4135)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00019)

Broadband Technologies Upgrades FLX System 06/29/94
TRIANGLE PARK, NORTH CAROLINA, U.S.A., 1994 JUN 29 (NB) --
Broadband Technologies Inc., has announced what it is calling
"a major upgrade" to its fiber-to-the-curb Fiber Loop Access, or
FLX System, supporting over 1,500 channels of interactive video
programming.

That is up from 64 channels previously. The new system meets a
pledge made by Broadband President Salim Bhatia in a March, 1993,
hearing before a House subcommittee. The new equipment will be
part of the company's planned contract with Bell Atlantic for
New Jersey.

Broadband said that software on the FLX System and on set-tops
will let customers easily select among these services. Customers
would pre-select the type of programming they want to watch,
eliminating the need for "channel surfing," Broadband said.

Broadband said the breakthrough is based on two industry
standards -- asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) cell switching and
Motion Pictures Expert Group (MPEG) compression technology. ATM
can simultaneously handle voice, data, image and video
transmission at gigabit speeds, Broadband said, while MPEG
allows compression ratios of 100:1 to 2000:1, depending on the
type of data being compressed.

Broadband uses MPEG technology to encode video signals and ATM
technology to multiplex the MPEG signals into its data streams.
General availability of the new release will be in the fourth
quarter of 1994.

Broadband's FLX system has been tested for years by the regional
Bell companies and GTE, but only Bell Atlantic has made a major
commitment to it, with plans to make it available to about
50,000 New Jersey homes once documents clear federal regulators.

Critics have said it costs too much to build, compared to systems
combining fiber and coaxial cable similar to upgraded cable
television networks. Broadband insists, however, that FLX costs
less in the long run, and is more capable.

Because of increased functionality, software costs are higher
than for existing FLX systems, said Vice President Rick Jones,
but hardware costs remain the same. The set-top switches to MPEG
from a proprietary scheme, up at first because of the costs of
MPEG but down in time because it is a standard.

Jones noted that the video codec being re-sold by Alcatel for
videoconferencing and distance learning uses the older,
proprietary scheme. "This is a new codec," he said.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19940629/Press Contact: Beverlee Hanley,
Broadband Technologies, 919-405-4816)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00020)

BellSouth Offers Arguments Against AT&T-McCaw Deal 06/29/94
WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1994 JUN 29 (NB) -- In papers filed
with US District Judge Harold Greene, BellSouth detailed its
arguments against AT&T's proposed acquisition of McCaw Cellular,
the nation's largest cellular operator.

BellSouth said AT&T has "failed miserably" to prove it is entitled
to acquire McCaw through a waiver from the Modification of Final
Judgment, the agreement that broke up the Bell System in 1984.

Spokesman John Schneidawind said a bill passed by the House on
June 28 deregulating the telephone system would not make the
AT&T acquisition issue moot, since it retains prohibitions against
AT&T acquiring assets of regional Bell companies, many of whom
like BellSouth co-own and operate cellular systems with McCaw.

On April 5, Greene sided with BellSouth and ordered AT&T to
prove it should be granted a waiver of the decree. For AT&T
to win, Greene said, it must show that a significant change in
circumstances warrants revision of the decree, or strict
enforcement of the decree would be detrimental to the public
interest. This, BellSouth, AT&T has failed to do.

Specifically, AT&T said it should be able to acquire McCaw
because of changes in federal cellular licensing procedures which
BellSouth says are not changes at all. AT&T also claimed strict
enforcement of the decree would be against the public interest,
another claim BellSouth disputes. BellSouth cited a May 26
affidavit from AT&T Executive Vice President Alex Mandl it
claims acknowledges that it desires the merger as a mechanism
for re-entering the local exchange market.

"While paying lip service to competition, AT&T nevertheless is
unwilling to saddle McCaw with the same restrictions faced by
the regional Bell companies' cellular operations," BellSouth
concluded. "McCaw does not face the costly requirement of
providing its cellular customers with access to the long-distance
company of their choice. By contrast, McCaw is able to buy long-
distance service in bulk at a discount from AT&T and sell both
cellular and long-distance services as a single package."

But, Schneidawind added to Newsbytes, BellSouth is willing to
settle for less than a halt to the AT&T-McCaw merger. If it is
given free entry into AT&T's long distance business, it will drop
its objections to the merger.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19940629/Press Contact: John Schneidawind,
BellSouth, 202-463-4183)


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

WordPerfect Announces Presentation 3.0 For Windows 06/29/94
OREM, UTAH, U.S.A., 1994 JUN 29 (NB) -- WordPerfect Corporation
says it will ship WordPerfect Presentations 3.0 for Windows, the
next version of its presentation graphics program, this fall.
The company says Presentations 3.0 will ship as a standalone
product and as a component of its new software suite being
announced at PC Expo this week.

Features include OLE (object linking and embedding) 2.0 support,
spelling checker, a thesaurus, and macro support that lets users
execute macros created in Presentations or other applications.  A
Startup dialog offers users various options when they launch the
product that guide them through the process of creating a slide
show or a drawing. A feature called ShowExpert helps define a
presentation and organize its content.

For help with specific tasks in Presentations 3.0 WordPerfect has
provided Coaches, a feature also used in other WordPerfect
products that walks the user through the steps to complete a task.
Direct text editing and in-place chart editing are also provided.
The product can access MAPI-compliant electronic mail programs
to send and receive presentations with other users.

Other features include the ability to import multiple graphics and
data formats. Presentations supports Intel's ProShare Personal
Conferencing, a product that lets users concurrently view and edit
a presentation file. Like its predecessor the new version supports
TWAIN, sound, video and animation and offers a variety of special
effects. Thirteen new bitmap filters are available to modify
the look of bitmap images. Bitmaps are dot-by-dot descriptions of
an electronic image, with each dot represented by a one or a zero.

WordPerfect is trying to attract users of competitive packages
like Harvard Graphics and other software by including a feature in
Presentations called UpgradeExpert. It is designed to help users of
other programs become familiar with how to accomplish common
tasks in Presentations. The software also includes conversion
filters WordPerfect says allows work created in competing
packages to be used by Presentations 3.0 for Windows.

WordPerfect launched a Presentations promotion this week that
runs through the end of August. Users who purchase a full or tradeup
package of Presentations 2.0 for Windows for $99 or a $79 upgrade
will get a free upgrade license for version 3.0 when it ships.

The term "tradeup" refers to switching from a similar program
published by another company.

Disks and documentation will be offered for the cost of the
materials and shipping. To get the free upgrade you have to send in
your dated purchase receipt and the completed registration card by
September 30, 1994.

The company has not announced the initial purchase price for
Presentations 3.0 for first-time buyers.

(Jim Mallory/19940629/Press contact: Hank Heilesen, WordPerfect
Corp., 801-228-5035; Reader contact: WordPerfect, tel 800-451-
5151 or 801-225-5000, fax [phone])


(NEWS)(IBM)(TOR)(00022)

Delrina Boosts FormFlow's Database, Fax Support 06/29/94
TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1994 JUN 29 (NB) -- The ability to
exchange editable forms by facsimile and to interact with a
longer list of database management and electronic mail systems
are the interesting news about a new release of Delrina Corp.'s
FormFlow forms management software.

FormFlow 1.1 introduces a feature called Forms Data Interchange,
which uses the Binary File Transport (BFT) protocol to send forms
and data as live documents via fax. This means that software at
the receiving end can accept the form as a live, editable
document rather than just as an image of the form as would happen
with an ordinary fax. It will work with software compatible with
Microsoft Corp.'s At Work, Delrina spokesman Josef Zankowicz told
Newsbytes.

Zankowicz said Forms Data Interchange is rather like electronic
data interchange (EDI), which relies on data modems, but is
cheaper, easier to use, and simpler to install. "It's 10 times
less expensive than implementing a traditional EDI seat," he
said, then added that in fact the savings may be greater than a
factor of 10.

As reported in Newsbytes previously, the new release also
incorporates the integration with Lotus Development Corp.'s Notes
workgroup software that Delrina announced last December. It also
adds support for the Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) standard,
so that users can create forms front-ends to databases that
support that standard. Support for the structured query language
(SQL) standard, announced last year and available as an option to
users of the previous release, is also incorporated in FormFlow
1.1, Zankowicz said.

FormFlow's electronic-mail support has also been expanded with
this release to include links to WordPerfect Office. Since
FormFlow now uses the same internal dynamic data exchange (DDE)
calls as WordPerfect's own forms package, InForms, users can now
route forms through WordPerfect office as with InForms, Delrina
said.

Delrina FormFlow 1.1 is to be available in July. The company is
introducing a Starter Kit with one copy of FormFlow Designer --
the software used to create forms -- plus two of FormFlow Filler,
a training video, and the Crystal Reports 3.0 report generator,
for US$399 or C$479. Single copies of FormFlow Filler are US$129
or C$169. User packs containing 10, 25, and 50 copies of FormFlow
Filler are also available.

Currently the software runs on personal computers equipped with
Microsoft Windows. A Unix client is due in the next few weeks,
and a client for the Apple Macintosh will be out later in the
summer, Zankowicz said.

(Grant Buckler/19940629/Press Contact: Josef Zankowicz, Delrina,
tel [phone], fax [phone], Internet [e-mail];
Public Contact: Delrina, tel [phone], or
800-268-6082)


(NEWS)(IBM)(TOR)(00023)

IBM Adds ATM Networking Products 06/29/94
TRIANGLE PARK, NORTH CAROLINA, U.S.A., 1994 JUN 29 (NB) -- IBM
has announced a group of new products that support asynchronous
transfer mode (ATM) network technologies, built around a new
transport control architecture for high-speed networks that IBM
calls Broadband Network Services (BBNS).

The new ATM devices include switches and concentrators as well as
adapters to connect various types of computers to an ATM network.

ATM is an emerging standard for high-speed communications that
resembles the familiar packet-switching technology used in
today's wide-area communications networks, but is faster and can
handle a combination of data, voice, and video.

New products for larger networks include two Nways Broadband
Switches and a 3172 adapter for connecting mainframe computers to
an ATM network. For campus and local area networks (LANs), IBM
introduced Turboways adapters operating at 100 megabits-per-
second (Mbps) and 25 Mbps, as well as a Turboways ATM Workgroup
Concentrator. IBM also announced the Nways switching module,
which adds ATM support to the company's 8260 Multiprotocol
Intelligent Switching Hub, and an ATM LAN Link for connections
between different types of LANs.

IBM said the new campus products support its own OS/2 and AIX
operating systems, Microsoft Corp.'s Windows and DOS, and Novell
Inc.'s NetWare, and Token Ring and Ethernet LAN standards.

Two key developments in the new product line are BBNS and a
switching chip developed by IBM's Zurich research laboratory.

BBNS lets customers consolidate networks and increase the number
of connections possible on existing lines by using bandwidth more
efficiently, IBM said. It monitors changes in user needs and adjusts
bandwidth to prevent congestion, and it matches service quality to
application requirements. For instance, IBM said, video transmission
has different needs than data in multi-protocol networks.

The products just announced are only the first built on BBNS,
company spokesman Dennis Drogseth told Newsbytes, and IBM plans
to extend its family of ATM switches both upward and downward
next year.

The Nways switches and the ATM switch module for the 8260
Intelligent Hub will use a new "switch-on-a-chip"  design
developed at the Zurich laboratory. With 16 input and 16 output
ports, all of which can operate simultaneously, IBM said one of
these chips can drive more than eight gigabits of aggregate
throughput. The design will let multiple chips work together.

IBM formally announced two Nways Broadband Switches -- the
low-end Model 300 and the higher-capacity Model 500 -- and
informally announced two others -- the Model 200, extending
the line downward, and the Model 700, extending it upward to
the telephone-company market. The switches currently support
fast-packet traffic, and full ATM cell capabilities will be
available next year, IBM said.

The 300 and 500 models will be available in the second half of
this year at prices from $40,000 to $400,000, and can be ordered
now, Drogseth said. The 200 and 700 models, which cannot be
ordered now, are scheduled to be available in the second half of
1995.

IBM said the Nways switching module for its 8260 Intelligent
Hub will let customers add client and server ATM connection to
existing LANs.

The $395 Turboways 25 adapters are network adapter cards for
desktop personal computers. IBM said they will offer ATM
emulation support for Windows, DOS right away, and versions
supporting OS/2 will be available in limited quantities in the
fourth quarter. New Turboways 100 ATM adapters offer 100-Mbps
ATM with emulation support for OS/2 and NetWare and for Token
Ring and Ethernet. NetWare support is to be available in September,
OS/2 support in limited quantities by year-end, and the price is
$1,795.

The ATM Turboways Concentrator, costing $3,995 to $5,994 and
shipping now, makes it possible to consolidate work groups of as
many as 12 25 Mbps ATM users onto a single 100 Mbps line to the
nearest ATM hub or switch, IBM said. It works with the 8260
Intelligent Hub, which is due to provide full ATM support by late
this year.

The ATM LAN Link will provide ATM network connection to Ethernet
and Token-Ring LANs.

IBM also said it will offer, as part of its NetView/6000 network
management platform, individualized management applications to
support Nways Switches with Broadband Networking Services and
the 8260 Intelligent Hub with ATM.

(Grant Buckler/19940629/Press Contact: Ray Gorman, IBM, tel
914-766-1761; Dennis Drogseth, IBM, tel [phone])


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

PC Expo - Sony Intros Monitors & Peripherals 06/29/94
NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1994 JUN 29 (NB) -- In a press
conference on the eve of PC Expo, Sony Electronics announced a
palm-sized portable MiniDisc (MD) data drive, in addition to two
new Trinitron monitors, a pair of CD-ROM drives, and a computer
speaker system that is designed to save desktop space.

Sony stands as a prime example of the growing convergence
between computing and consumer electronics, said Rich Clancy,
vice president of corporate communications for Sony, at the start
of the press event, which was attended by Newsbytes at the world
headquarters of Sony Music in midtown Manhattan.

Carl J. Yankowsky, president of Sony Electronics, underscored that
point, noting that although many people tend to associate Sony with
music publishing or VCRs, the largest single entity in Sony USA is,
in fact, Sony Electronics.

The overall Sony organization looks to the electronics arm of Sony
USA for innovative engineering ideas he added, speaking to an
audience that included journalists from the computer, consumer
electronics, and general press, as well as Sony dignitaries from
the US, Europe, and Japan.

The computing side of Sony originally focused on "high-end
mainframes," before moving in the past few years to the quickly
growing PC side of the industry, said Tom Rizol, VP of graphic
display and multimedia in Sony Electronics' Component and Computer
Products Group.

Sony's high-end Trinitron monitors have "become a staple of
corporate America," maintained Jim Sortino, senior marketing
manager. But recognizing that new markets are emerging, Sony has
decided to split its Trinitron family into two different product
lines, he explained.

The new Multiscan 20se monitor represents Sony's new "se" line of
Trinitron monitors for high performance areas like engineering,
multimedia, and design, he said. The new 15sf is a member of the
new "sf" line of monitors for business applications.

The Multiscan 15se, which is priced at $549.95, features an Energy
Star and VESA (Video Electronics Standards Association) DPMS-
compliant power management system, plus a 0.25 millimeter (mm)
Super Fine aperture grille from Sony. The 20-inch Multiscan 20se,
priced at $2,449, offers a 0.30mm SuperFine aperture grille.

Each monitor also uses Sony's new Multiscan, a technology designed
to increase reliability by reducing the number of serviceable
parts, and to improve consistency of performance by "automatically
adjust image geometry over a continuous range of video modes."

To reflect the higher reliability, Sony is offering the monitors
with a new three-year parts and labor warranty, with a two-year
CRT (cathode ray tube) warranty, according to Sortino. The 15se
offers 1024 by 768 resolution with a 76 hertz (Hz) refresh rate.
The 20sf provides 1290 by 1024 resolution (non-interlaced) with
a 76Hz refresh rate.

Each monitor is bundled with the Windows version of Berkeley
Systems' After Dark Starter Edition with Ecologic Power Manager
software.

Takasai Sugiyama, director of multimedia peripherals, introduced
Sony's new Portable MD Data Drive, CSS-B100 Computer Speaker
System, and CD-ROM drives.

Ultimately, the new MD Data drive will revolutionize the way people
compute when on-the-road to the same degree that the Sony Walkman
has changed the way people listen to music, he predicted. Similar in
design to Sony's new portable Minidisc audio player, the palm-sized
unit provides up to 140 megabytes (MB) of data storage on 2.5-inch
MD media.

Sony's new CSS-BS100 Computer Speaker System is envisioned by
Sony as an "ideal companion" to the Multiscane 15se monitor,
Sugiyama said.

The new double-speed high performance CD-ROM drives are compatible
with both Photo CD and MPC Level II, and provide a choice of ATAPI-
compatible or SCSI (small computer systems interface) interfaces,
he said.

Also at the press conference, Sugiyama said that Sony will be
introducing a new portable CD-ROM drive in the second half of this
year.

In an interview with Newsbytes at the close of the press
conference, Sugiyama said that the portable CD-ROM drives will
provide the same data transfer rate as Sony's desktop drives.
Access and seek times will probably not be as high, though, because
the portable drives will use battery power, he added. The CD-ROM
drive will play audio CD disks in addition to CD-ROM disks, he said.

Sugiyama also noted that another CD-ROM drive is now on the market.
Unlike the competing product, though, Sony's upcoming portable
drive is not going to allow disks to "skip around inside," he told
Newsbytes.

(Jacqueline Emigh/19940627/Reader Contact: Sony Electronics: 800-
352-7669; Press Contacts: Manny Vara, Sony Electronics, 408-955-
5142; Barbara Hagin or Marilyn Young, Technology Solutions/PR for
Sony, 415-617-4523)


(NEWS)(IBM)(BOS)(00025)

PC Expo - Lotus Announces SmartSuite 3.0 06/29/94
NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1994 JUN 29 (NB) -- Lotus SmartSuite
3.0, a major product introduction at PC Expo, will add a CD-ROM
version, "cross-application help," ScreenCam, and initial support
for OLE 2.0 (object linking and embedding version 2.0), as well as
tighter integration across applications and with Notes, said Jack
Armstrong, senior product manager, in an interview with Newsbytes.

The first CD-ROM edition of SmartSuite will take advantage of the
"extra space available on CD media" by including online
documentation, in addition to as many as ten new applications for
Notes.

The floppy and CD-ROM versions of SmartSuite 3.0, each priced at
$795, are slated for shipment in the third quarter, as the
"culmination" of the step-by-step release of the six individual
applications in the suite, the senior product manager added.

The centerpiece to the new suite is SmartCenter, a "second
generation" to the earlier Lotus application manager, according to
Armstrong. SmartCenter will include a customizable icon palette
that lets users launch or switch between any Lotus and non-Lotus
applications in SmartSuite or Notes with just a "single click," he
said.

In addition, help will be available in SmartCenter through three
vehicles: "task-oriented help cards;" ScreenCam 1.1 movies;
and "guided tours."

ScreenCam will make its SmartSuite debut in Version 3.0 of the
suite, he noted. Other constituent applications will include the
Lotus 1-2-3 Release 5.0 spreadsheet, Ami Pro 3.1 word processor,
Approach 3.0 database, Freelance Graphics 2.1 presentation graphics
package, and Organizer 1.1 personal information manager (PIM).

All of the applications in SmartSuite, with the exception of
Organizer, have been simultaneously upgraded, for stronger
integration and a more consistent user interface, Newsbytes was
told. An upgrade to the standalone edition of Organizer is targeted
for delivery in the second half of this year.

"You can see from Microsoft Office what happens when you don't
upgrade applications simultaneously," Armstrong said. Microsoft
shipped the first application in its productivity suite, in
November, 1993, but did not come out with PowerPoint until
February of this year, he added.

To assure that all applications in Microsoft Office would work well
together before investing in the suite, most corporations did not
deploy Microsoft Office until a couple of months after PowerPoint
shipped, he contended. "It's getting to the point where upgrades
are costing almost as much as the applications themselves. And
corporations are saying, 'We won't do it.'"

The four applications in SmartSuite that work with Lotus Notes all
support Notes F/X 1.1, a new version that adds the ability for
Notes documents to be "automatically updated and saved while the
user is still inside a desktop application," Armstrong continued.

Approach will be supporting Notes F/X for the first time, the
senior product manager pointed out. The other three SmartSuite
applications that work with Notes are Lotus 1-2-3, Ami Pro, and
Freelance Graphics.

Also in SmartSuite 3.0, Lotus has initiated support for OLE 2.0 in
both 1-2-3 and Ami Pro, Armstrong added. Another enhancement,
"common install," supplies the ability to install all applications
in the suite through a single installation process. Options will be
offered for "full install," "minimum install," or "customized
install."

The new applications in the CD-ROM edition are intended "to
demonstrate to users at large the advantages of using our
applications with Notes," he explained.

Armstrong characterized the SmartSuite 3.0 enhancements as
meeting the needs of three "constituencies:" individual end users;
workgroups; and IS (information systems) departments.

With the end user thrust, Lotus is pursuing a "task orientation,"
he explained. "When users think about applications, they think in
terms of the tasks they want to complete, rather than in terms of
OLE or some other technology." IS organizations, on the other hand,
are "very much interested in cost control aspects," he said.

The new "cross-application help" capabilities in SmartCenter will
benefit all three constituencies, Armstrong indicated. "Up to now,
there has been a minimum of help available for cross-application
tasks in any set of products in the market," he remarked.

"Usability tests show that this has been a real problem for users.
They want answers to questions like, 'Where do I look to find out
how to import a range of data from the spreadsheet into the word
processor?'"

The new help cards in SmartCenter, which will be accessible from
a "help icon," will provide information on 50 different cross-
application topics, according to Armstrong. Topics will run the
gamut from "every day types of occurrences" to "`how to quickly
take an address out of the name and address book in Organizer and
drop it into an Ami Pro letter.'"

Designed as an enhancement to WinHelp, the help cards will take
users through each cross-application topic in step-by-step manner,
Armstrong said.

"The card will sit above whatever happens to be the top screen in
your Windows environment. As you switch between applications, the
card will stay on top. And to take this all even further, we have
added the ability to play a ScreenCam movie, either from within the
card or from directly within SmartCenter."

ScreenCam lets users capture screen activity, cursor movement,
and sound into "movies" that can either be stored in a specific
application or distributed to others as an executable file.

"We will include a handful of 'help movies,' but ScreenCam is also
designed to let end-user gurus and help organizations create
their own movies," he explained.

When the ScreenCam movies are added to a directory, they will
automatically be displayed by name and with a "full text
description" under a "movie guide menu" in SmartCenter, according
to Armstrong. A third help component in SmartSuite 3.0, "guided
tour," will help teach users about SmartSuite concepts, he said.

SmartSuite will be the first environment to support Notes F/X 1.1,
giving the suite from Lotus "important productivity advantages over
other folks that are beginning to support Notes at this point, most
notably Microsoft,"

Workgroup users will be the primary beneficiaries of these
advantages, but IS organizations will also gain somewhat from
the standpoint of application development, he asserted.

Support for F/X 1.1 will allow a user working in a 1-2-3
spreadsheet, for instance, "to simply say 'save update,' and
automatically save all changes not only in 1-2-3, but in the Notes
application from which it was launched," he explained. In contrast,
SmartSuite 2.0 "would not save the changes until the user closed
the OLE object or spreadsheet."

F/X 1.1 is particularly useful in cases where the user has multiple
applications open on the desktop at the same time, according to
Armstrong. Users find that, in these situations, they sometimes
forget to close all of the applications before exiting, and as a
result, the Notes database is not updated, he explained.

"What will happen now is that, before Notes closes down, it will
automatically solicit new information from all the objects that
might be open at that time, get that information, and save it,"
Newsbytes was told.

SmartSuite 3.0 will continue with the common menuing initiated
in SmartSuite 2.0, but will add more shared functionality across
applications, a benefit geared to individual end users as well as
workgroups and IS organizations, he said.

"We're approaching SmartSuite from the standpoint of a component
architecture, where one application complements the other." Through
this concept, Lotus aims to help users "carry out complete jobs, as
opposed to simply tasks," he added.

"Bubble help" will be the same across all applications in
SmartSuite 3.0. Also, the "fast format" feature previously
introduced in Ami Pro has now been added to Approach, he said.

But the stronger integration is most evident in Approach and 1-2-3,
he pointed out. Lotus Assistants and WorkPlace View now appear in
both Approach and 1-2-3, and the SmartMasters templates that
originated in Freelance have been incorporated in both the database
and the spreadsheet package. "Ultimately, you'll see SmartMasters
in a new version of Ami Pro," he noted.

Like Microsoft's Wizards, Lotus Assistants help users through
a series of steps, he said. "But the Lotus Assistants give them
freedom to go through the steps at their own pace, to move
backwards or forwards, or to hopscotch around." In contrast, he
contended, Microsoft's Wizards are more like "painted
dancesteps on the floor."

Further, Approach and 1-2-3 each support the ODBC (Open Database
Connectivity) driver for Notes, according to the senior product
manager. "This means that they can query Notes databases from both
applications now. And in the case of Approach, you can also update
Notes databases. In fact, you can create a form in Approach for use
in entering data into a Notes database."

In addition, he said, Approach and 1-2-3 now support OLE 2.0. "But
there are multiple levels of support for OLE 2.0," he cautioned.
Lotus 1-2-3 supports O2.0 drag-and-drop only. Approach not only
supports OLE 2.0 drag-and-drop, but is also able to act as an OLE
2.0 container and an OLE 2.0 server.

However, in the next release of SmartSuite beyond 3.0, Lotus will
add support for all three levels to every applications in the
suite, and could also possibly support OLE automation, the fourth
and final level of OLE 2.0 functionality.

"As we go through the next major revisions of the applications, we
will support OLE 2.0, hopefully at all four levels," Armstrong told
Newsbytes.

The fourth and final level of OLE 2.0 functionality, OLE automation
"exposes the application interface to a scripting language, so it
can actually be automated or driven from an external language like
LotusScript or Visual Basic."

Like the support for F/X 1.1 that has been added in SmartSuite 3.0,
the new applications in the CD-ROM version of the suite will also
be targeted mainly at workgroups, he said. Lotus has not yet
decided exactly how many of the new applications will be
incorporated in the disk, or settled on names for the applications,
he added. "But there could be as many as ten of them."

The new, off-the-shelf applications "will be designed to provide a
general set of workgroup services, beginning with straightforward
libraries that can be employed by the whole range of users, all the
way up to applications that incorporate joint authoring," the VP
said.

A "presentation library," for example, might allow organizations to
collect different versions of presentations, and distribute the
presentations to a national or global sales force, he illustrated.
Other libraries might be used to maintain SmartMaster templates or
Approach forms.

A "joint authoring" application could permit a designated "author"
to send a document to a series of reviewers, who have been granted
revision rights but not authoring rights. "Notes would take care of
collecting the responses. The author would then be able to go in
and decide whether or not to accept the (reviewers') changes."

Aside from stronger support for OLE 2.0, the next major release of
the suite after SmartSuite 3.0 will also incorporate support for
Chicago, Armstrong said.

"The next set of major revisions to the products, beyond SmartSuite
3.0, are very much targeted as 32-bit apps. But our release dates
will boil down to when Chicago finally does come out, and when it
comes out in a stable form. Again, there is the issue of how many
upgrades people will accept," he said.

Also in the future, Lotus plans to extend the "common install"
feature in the upcoming SmartSuite 3.0 to "all our applications,
including those not currently in SmartSuite," he said. Users will
be given the ability to "use a single program to install all or any
subset of the software," he added.

Newsbytes asked Armstrong whether SmartSuite might ultimately
encompass Lotus' communications products. "That's something we've
certainly looked at," he responded.

"But if we do that kind of thing, we will provide different
packaging that allows people to buy SmartSuite either with or
without the communications products. I want to make it clear that
we are not going to combine all our applications into SmartSuite,
and simply sell SmartSuite," Armstrong told Newsbytes.

(Jacqueline Emigh/19940628/Reader Contact: Lotus Development
Corporation: 617-577-8500; Press Contacts: At Lotus: Kim
Commerato, 404-828-5272; Peter Cohen, 617-577-8500; Paul
Santinelli, 415-306-7890; At Lois Paul & Partners: Randy Wambold,
Peter Barolik, Nancy Prendergast, Rick McLaughlin, Dan Chmielewski,
Mary Leddy, Kristina Girard, 617-862-4514; Shelly Eckenroth,
415-286-3990)


(NEWS)(IBM)(BOS)(00026)

PC Expo - Fax-On-Demand For Notes, "File-On-Demand" 06/29/94
NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1994 JUN 29 (NB) -- At PC Expo, Ibex
Technologies, the maker of FactsLine fax-on-demand software, is
debuting FactsLine for Lotus Notes, plus new features that let
users perform feats like requesting faxbacks while waiting in a
voice queue, and asking for data files to be sent to fax modems.

Ibex, which was initially established in 1989, introduced the first
Windows-based fax-on-demand product in 1992, said Ney Grant,
company president, in an interview with Newsbytes. From the start,
FactsLine has been able to deliver fax images to any fax machine on
request, he explained.

Today, FactsLine is used for "literature fulfillment" and customer
support over 100 major organizations worldwide, ranging from
Lotus and Microsoft to Exxon, PC World, The Interface Group, Zales
Jewelers, and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Ibex is now
the "industry leader" in fax-on-demand software, with over 4,000
ports installed, he maintained.

FileBack, the newly added ability to send a data file on request,
will be offered as a standard feature of FactsLine for Windows 1.3,
a product slated to ship July 15, he said. The new "file-on-
request" function will work with any Class 1 fax modem, he added,
citing Delrina's new Winfax Pro 4.0 as an example.

The newfound capacity to request a fax from within a voice queue
will come through Aspect Call Center Integration, a product that
will integrate FactsLine with Aspect's Aspect Call Center,
according to the company president.

The new FactsLine for Notes, which integrates FactsLine with Notes,
will permit organizations to use Notes documents for faxback
without having to print out the documents or fax them manually, he
explained. FactsLine for Notes and Aspect Call Center Integration
are being provided as separate add-on modules to FactsLine.

Computer hardware and software vendors were the first adopters of
FactsLine, Grant told Newsbytes, recounting a list of users that
includes IBM, HP, Sun, Sony, Toshiba, Hayes, AST, Adobe, DCA,
Dialogic Europe, BellSouth, Bell Atlantic, and Pacific Bell, among
many others.

But since 1992, use of FactsLine has quickly broadened to
incorporate a wide variety of "mainstream" applications, he added.
Exxon Chemical, for example, uses Factsline to distribute order
confirmations, status logs, and shipping updates.

PC World employs the software to send out article reprints and
advertiser information, and to carry out "interactive surveys."
Car and Driver magazine transmits road test information, complete
with grayscale photos. The Interface Group uses FactsLine for
conference and trade show registration.

In a few of the many other applications in use today: the Bank of
America is faxing back loan information and application forms; Fax
Scoreboard is relaying sports scores; Aoogen Laboratories is
sending out information on "how to determine the gender of exotic
birds; and Resume Classified is allowing Maryland/Virginia
employers to receive designated resumes.

In outlining the newly announced FactsLine features to Newsbytes,
Grant explained that FileBack permits end-users to select a data
file via a touch-tone phone, enter the fax number of a fax modem,
and receive the file on the fax modem instantaneously.

Potential uses for FileBack include distribution of new
applications, software upgrades and "bug fixes," he said. By using
a phone instead of a modem to request the files, users avoid the
need to enter modem parameters and learn logon procedures, he
pointed out.

The upcoming Aspect Call Center Integration module is designed to
let users calling into an Aspect Call Center to receive documents
while they are waiting "on hold," without having to exit the voice
queue.

Targeted largely at tech support applications, the product will
help to reduce the anxiety of waiting for assistance, and will also
permit users to start tackling the technical problem while they
wait, the president predicted.

The Call Center add-on is also able to list the documents requested
by the caller on the tech support specialist's screen, giving the
support specialist an advance indication of the nature of the
support call.

FactsLine for Notes, the other new module from Ibex, will
automatically create a fax document from a Notes document
when the document is requested by a caller, according to Grant.

FactsLine for Notes provides an index that is automatically updated
each time a new document is added to Notes or an existing document
is modified. Non-Notes documents can also be scanned or faxed into
the system, and will be automatically added to the index, he said.

FactsLine for Notes is able to cache frequently requested
documents. In addition, features of FactsLine such as account
number access, call accounting, "complete reporting," and the
ability to charge calls to a credit card number are made available
to Notes users, he said.

Additional modules that are optionally available for FactsLine
include Fax Broadcast, Interactive Forms, and Intelligent Forms,
according to the company president.

Pricing on FactsLine for Windows starts at $6,700. The FactsLine
for Lotus Notes and Aspect Call Center Integration add-on modules
are priced at $2,495 each. FactsLine for Notes is available
immediately.

(Jacqueline Emigh/19940624/Reader Contacts: Ibex, 916-621-4342;
FactsLine Demo System, 800-289-9998; Press Contacts: Xenia Moore,
619-457-4490, Franson, Hagerty & Associates for Ibex, 619-457-
4490; Margaret Hansen, Ibex, 916-621-4342)


(NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00027)

 ****UK - First "Paperless" Hospital Enters Service 06/29/94
GLASGOW, SCOTLAND, 1994 JUN 29 (NB) -- One of the dreams of the
National Health Service in the UK has always been a hospital which
runs without the mountain of paper that usually accompanies most
patient activities. Now that dream has been released at a private
hospital, the 260-bed Health Care International (HCI) unit in Glasgow,
Scotland.

The hospital cost around UKP180 million to commission and opens for
business this week. The problem with computerizing all paper
transactions to date has always been the issue of medical ethics and
patient privacy. At the HCI unit, these problems have been solved, HCI
claims.

Traditional hospitals operate on a paper mountain with the patient's
medical records at the center. By computerizing the medical records
system, any nominated and security-authorized official of the hospital
can gain access to the patient's medical record files, which are
maintained at a central point on computer.

This means that any patient "transactions" such as blood or urine
tests, prescriptions for drugs and anything involving the patient's
welfare, can be added to the medical record file instantly, allowing
other officials in the hospital to read the most up-to-date
information on the medical records file for the patient.

Since all transactions feed into the main medical records computer,
security can be maintained, and staff in the various patient services
facilities only get to input data to the system, and cannot see any
other data on the patient. In this way, HCI claims that medical
records security and the patient's privacy is maintained.

The HCI hospital has 64 intensive-care beds, along with a four-
staff 168 bed "hospital hotel," which is linked to the hospital for
patients, as well as their relatives. In addition, the facility
includes a postgraduate education center and an ambulatory care
department with full diagnostic and therapeutic facilities.

(Steve Gold/19940629/Press & Reader Contact: HCI,
[phone])


(NEWS)(GOVT)(LON)(00028)

UK - Police Hold 17 In British Telecom Fraud Inquiry 06/29/94
LONDON, ENGLAND, 1994 JUN 29 (NB) -- British Telecom has revealed
it has been working with the police in a major fraud investigation --
code named Operation Conifer -- that led to dawn raids on 17 people
in the London area earlier this month.

The investigation centers on the allegations that the 17 people, who
have not yet been charged, were involved in a major phone line fraud
that involved their setting up premium rate phone line services and
then programming equipment to call the premium rate numbers on new
phone lines. The idea was that the alleged fraudsters would collect
their commission on the calls from BT and flee before paying their
first phone bills.

Newsbytes was told that 17 men and women were arrested in a series
of dawn raids in the Brixton, Croydon, and Ealing areas of London in the
middle of June. Most of those arrested have since been released,
although members of the South-East Crime Squad have confirmed that
bank records and other personal correspondence has been sized.

According to Detective Chief Superintendent Alan Elms, the senior
officer in the case, further arrests in connection with the case are a
possibility.  "It's quite a large inquiry. We anticipate that there
are going to be several matters that will need to be looked at very
closely," he said.

According to BT, meanwhile, the heavy dialing to specific numbers
was quickly detected by the telecom operators computerized
exchanges, before massive phone bills were run up.

In the past, BT has refused to reveal details of its anti-fraud
programs on its computers. However, Newsbytes has learned that
as each phone exchange is updated from older step-by-step and
crossbar technology to computer-driven systems, hooking the
exchange diagnostic equipment into the national anti-fraud
computer network is a relatively simple task.

(Steve Gold/19940629/Press Contact: British Telecom Corporate
News Room, [phone])


(NEWS)(GOVT)(LON)(00029)

Spain - Gov't Fund For Catalan Language In Computing 06/29/94
BARCELONA, SPAIN, 1994 JUN 29 (NB) -- The General Assembly of
Catalan, the self-governing region of Spain, has announced plans to
fund a project to encourage the use of the Catalan language in the
world of computing in its domain.

The Catalan region of Spain is an area where, for historical reasons,
a much purer and older version of Spanish is spoken. This version of
Spanish is referred to as Catalan.

Almost UKP300,000 has been given to the regional Catalan government
by the main Spanish government for an extensive media campaign, all
of which aims to encourage PC hardware and software manufacturers
and suppliers that, if their products and services are to sell in the
Catalan region, then they must support the local language.

The campaign is no "pipe dream" either. Lotus, Microsoft and
WordPerfect have already produced versions of Ami Pro, Windows
and WordPerfect 6.0 that support the Catalan language for sale in
Spain.

According to the Spanish Cultural Affairs Section, these companies
were willing to produce local language applications after the
government approached them and pointed out the sales potential
of a Catalan version of a software package.

The path has not been easy, however, as the Spanish government has,
in many such cases, had to invest considerable resources itself in
finding and funding the extra costs of translating applications into
the Catalan language.

According to the General Assembly of Catalan, Microsoft has been
the most willing to assist it in translating its applications to the
regional language. After approaching the company three years ago,
MS-DOS 5.0 was translated and released for sale in 1992. As a result,
persuading Microsoft US and Spain that a Catalan version of Windows
3.xx was desirable was relatively easy, once the sales potential of
MS-DOS 5.0c was realized.

(Sylvia Dennis/19940629)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00030)

UK Networks '94 - Sonix First To Market With V.34 Modem 06/29/94
BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND, 1994 JUN 29 (NB) -- Sonix, the UK modem
manufacturer, took the occasion of the Networks '94 show in
Birmingham, UK, to announce the shipment of the UK's first "true"
V.34 standard modem.

The V.34 modem standard, which was submitted to a meeting of the
International Telecoms Union earlier this month in Geneva, was
formally agreed by the V.34 ITU study group, according to Bill Pechey,
technical manager with Hayes' Northern European operations, who is a
main member of the group.

"The agreement now has to go to ballot among the members of the
study group, but that is almost certain to go through. To all intents
and purposes, the V.34 standard has been agreed as a standard,"
Pechey told Newsbytes.

Over the last six months, several modem manufacturers have been
shipping so-called V.Fast Class (V.FC for short) modems. These
modems are capable of the same data throughput as the full V.34
standard (28,800 bits-per-second (bps), but represent the status
of the fledgling proposed V.34 standard as it stood late last year.

The Geneva meeting earlier this month agreed on a number of
enhancements to the V.FC system, notably in the area of modem
handshaking, as well as the data encoding system. As a result, a
V.34 modem is not backwards compatible with the V.FC system.

Fortunately for the modem industry, Rockwell, which produces 80
percent of the driver chipsets for the fast modem industry, has agreed
to make its V.34 chipsets backwards compatible with the V.FC system.

Sonix' V.34 modem, the Volante Fast, is not based on the Rockwell
modem driver chipset. As a result, Bob Jones, Sonix' MD, told
Newsbytes, the Volante Fast is not backwards compatible with V.FC
modem. "That isn't too much of an issue with us, as virtually all of
our V.34 modems are sold into major companies who simply want
fast point to point modem links. This issue could be a problem for
any modem manufacturers selling into the main dial-up modem
marketplace, but who aren't licensees of the Rockwell chipset."

So how is that Sonix, a specialist player in the modem market in
the UK, can be first to ship a V.34 modem? Jones told Newsbytes
that his modems are software upgradable. "The key with our
modems is that they're flash-memory upgradable. We introduced
a 19,200 bps V.32terbo product, pretty well six months ahead of
anybody else. Whilst I think it would be presumptuous to say that
we will beat our competitors by six months with V.34, we are
first and are certainly well ahead."

The Volante Fast sells for UKP795. Like pervious products in the
Volante modem series, the unit comes with send and receive fax
facilities, INTRO "easy" installation software, data compression,
and error correction.

(Steve Gold/19940629/Press & Public Contact: Sonix,
tel [phone], fax [phone])


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00031)

Newsbytes Daily Summary 06/29/94
PENN VALLEY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1994 JUN 29 (NB) -- These
are capsules of all today's news stories:

1 -> Former Kodak Exec Replaces Stern On Apple Board 06/29/94
Katherine Hudson, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of
the W. H. Brady Company has been elected to the Apple Computer
board of directors to replace Paul G. Stern, CEO of Northern
Telecom.

2 -> PCMCIA Video Card Turns Notebook PC Into Television 06/29/94
Imagine sitting in an airport with your notebook computer, watching
television on the screen and working on a spreadsheet application
you needed for a meeting at the same time. Notebook computer
manufacturer Toshiba Computer Systems Division says you can do just
that with a new Personal Computer Memory Card International
Association (PCMCIA) card it is demonstrating at PC Expo this week.

3 -> Zenith Intros Wireless Products 06/29/94 Zenith Data Systems
has announced three new wireless products for mobile computer users
from its Mobile Systems Group.

4 -> Prodigy Adds Business & Sports News Sound-Bites 06/29/94 Some
online  services are capable of greeting personal computer (PC)
users  who have audio boards and speakers with such phases as
"hello,"  and "you've got mail." Taking it a step further, Prodigy
has now  announced the availability of two-minute sound-bites that
cover  top business and sports news stories.

5 -> Australia - Compaq Links To Resellers Via Lotus Notes 06/29/94
A new communications  service called CompaqLink is being introduced
by Compaq Computer  in Australia for use by resellers and major
customers. It is an  Australian extension of a global system which
distributes Compaq  products, service and technical information
from head office in  Houston, as well as local Australian material.

6 -> Lotus UK Ships ScreenCam Screen Capture Prgm 06/29/94 Lotus
Development Corporation has announced the UK shipment of
ScreenCam, the company's multimedia screen capture utility.  The
package sells for UKP49.

7 -> India - Wipro In Distribution Deal With Symix 06/29/94 Close
on the heels of Corel  Corp., Wipro Infotech's Business Solution
Division has signed another  distribution deal. This time it has
signed with Symix Computer  Systems of the US to market its Symix
Enterprise, an integrated manufacturing control and accounting
system designed specifically for the needs of discrete
manufacturers.

8 -> Datapoint Reshapes & Expands In Asia 06/29/94 Datapoint is
reshaping  its business strategy and increasing its resources in
the Asian  region as part of a bid to win a leadership position in
the fast- growing multimedia marketplace.

9 -> CommTouch Intros Pronto/IP For Windows Internet E-Mail
06/29/94 CommTouch has announced a July shipment of its Pronto/IP
electronic mail product and an August shipment of Pronto/Remote.
Selling for  $69, Pronto/IP allows Windows users to exchange e-mail
with  Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)
hosts  directly with no need for a gateway.

10 -> Vendors Announce Support For Microsoft TAPI 06/29/94
Microsoft says several computer telephony server vendors have
announced  support for the Microsoft Windows Telephony Applications
Programming Interface (TAPI).

11 ->  ****Police Seize $2Mil In Counterfeit Microsoft Software
06/29/94 A series of  police raids in six states across the country
have turned up what authorities estimates is $2 million worth of
counterfeit Microsoft software.

12 -> WordPerfect 3.1 For Power Mac Due This Summer 06/29/94
WordPerfect Corporation says it will ship an update to its word
processing program for the Power Macintosh this summer.

13 -> PC Expo - IBM Announces SMP For OS/2 06/29/94 "We're in
flight," announced John Soyring, director of strategic
relationships for IBM, during the product launch of OS/2 for
Symmetrical Multiprocessing (SMP) 2.11, at PC Expo in New York
City.

14 -> PC Expo - Kodak Debuts PCMCIA Digital Camera 06/29/94 In a
Compaq- sponsored press event at PC Expo, Kodak debuted a digital
camera that uses a PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card
International Association) card for transferring images to a Mac or
Windows- based PC.

15 -> NorTel Loss Shuffles Canadian Profit Ranking 06/29/94 BCE
Inc., of Montreal, is still Canada's largest company by revenue,
but it has given up the top ranking by profitability to one of its
subsidiaries --  Bell Canada, also of Montreal -- because of heavy
losses at another  subsidiary, Mississauga, Ontario-based Northern
Telecom Ltd.

16 ->  ****Telecom Deregulation Moves Through House 06/29/94 Bills
to  deregulate US telecommunications easily passed the US House of
Representatives. However, the Senate may pass radically different
bills next month.

17 -> Apple's DOS Card For Power Mac Is Demo Only 06/29/94 Apple
Computer is demonstrating another attempt at putting DOS-compatible
hardware for running DOS and Windows applications in its computers,
but this time with the Power Macintosh. The company is
demonstrating a prototype DOS compatibility card with an Intel
DX2/50 microprocessor at the PC Expo show in New York City this
week.

18 -> BellSouth Plans Interactive Multimedia Test 06/29/94
BellSouth has filed  documents asking Federal Communications
Commission permission  to test interactive multimedia services in
Chamblee, just outside  Atlanta, starting next year.

19 -> Broadband Technologies Upgrades FLX System 06/29/94
 Broadband Technologies Inc., has announced what it is calling  "a
major upgrade" to its fiber-to-the-curb Fiber Loop Access, or  FLX
System, supporting over 1,500 channels of interactive video
programming.

20 -> BellSouth Offers Arguments Against AT&T-McCaw Deal 06/29/94
In papers filed  with US District Judge Harold Greene, BellSouth
detailed its  arguments against AT&T's proposed acquisition of
McCaw Cellular,  the nation's largest cellular operator.

21 -> WordPerfect Announces Presentation 3.0 For Windows 06/29/94
WordPerfect Corporation says it will ship WordPerfect Presentations
3.0 for Windows, the next version of its presentation graphics
program, this fall. The company says Presentations 3.0 will ship as
a standalone product and as a component of its new software suite
being announced at PC Expo this week.

22 -> Delrina Boosts FormFlow's Database, Fax Support 06/29/94 The
ability to exchange editable forms by facsimile and to interact
with a longer list of database management and electronic mail
systems are the interesting news about a new release of Delrina
Corp.'s FormFlow forms management software.

23 -> IBM Adds ATM Networking Products 06/29/94 IBM  has announced
a group of new products that support asynchronous  transfer mode
(ATM) network technologies, built around a new  transport control
architecture for high-speed networks that IBM  calls Broadband
Network Services (BBNS).

24 -> PC Expo - Sony Intros Monitors & Peripherals 06/29/94 In a
press conference on the eve of PC Expo, Sony Electronics announced
a  palm-sized portable MiniDisc (MD) data drive, in addition to two
new Trinitron monitors, a pair of CD-ROM drives, and a computer
speaker system that is designed to save desktop space.

25 -> PC Expo - Lotus Announces SmartSuite 3.0 06/29/94 Lotus
SmartSuite 3.0, a major product introduction at PC Expo, will add a
CD-ROM  version, "cross-application help," ScreenCam, and initial
support  for OLE 2.0 (object linking and embedding version 2.0), as
well as tighter integration across applications and with Notes,
said Jack Armstrong, senior product manager, in an interview with
Newsbytes.

26 -> PC Expo - Fax-On-Demand For Notes, "File-On-Demand" 06/29/94
At PC Expo, Ibex Technologies, the maker of FactsLine fax-on-demand
software, is debuting FactsLine for Lotus Notes, plus new features
that let users perform feats like requesting faxbacks while waiting
in a voice queue, and asking for data files to be sent to fax
modems.

27 ->  ****UK - First "Paperless" Hospital Enters Service 06/29/94
One of the dreams of the National Health Service in the UK has
always been a hospital which runs without the mountain of paper
that usually accompanies most patient activities. Now that dream
has been released at a private hospital, the 260-bed Health Care
International (HCI) unit in Glasgow, Scotland.

28 -> UK - Police Hold 17 In British Telecom Fraud Inquiry 06/29/94
British Telecom has revealed  it has been working with the police
in a major fraud investigation -- code named Operation Conifer --
that led to dawn raids on 17 people  in the London area earlier
this month.

29 -> Spain - Gov't Fund For Catalan Language In Computing 06/29/94
The General Assembly of Catalan, the self-governing region of
Spain, has announced plans to fund a project to encourage the use
of the Catalan language in the world of computing in its domain.

30 -> UK Networks '94 - Sonix First To Market With V.34 Modem
06/29/94 Sonix, the UK modem manufacturer, took the occasion of the
Networks '94 show in Birmingham, UK, to announce the shipment of
the UK's first "true"  V.34 standard modem.

(Ian Stokell/19940629)