newsbytes@clarinet.com (02/04/90)
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1990 FEB 6 (NB) -- In this weekend edition, police say they've caught the perpetrator of the AIDS disk- based virus, Apple to debut a new computer in March, and much more. ===== APPLE ===== APPLE IIXI TO DEBUT IN MARCH Apple Computer is expected to introduce a high-end Macintosh IIX in March called the IIxi. NEW FOR NETWORKS: MACIRMALAN SERVER GATEWAYS DCA announced MacIRMALan, a new family of server gateways linking Apple Macintosh computers to IBM mainframes using local area networks. CANADA'S FIRST MACWORLD SLATED FOR OCTOBER Canada will become the sixth country to host a MacWorld Expo this October. Laurentian Technomedia of Toronto has announced plans to produce a three-day MacWorld show here with Mitch Hall Associates of Dedham, Mass. APPLE CANADA CUTS PRICES As is customary before the introduction of new computers, Apple Canada has reduced prices on Macintosh computers by C$500 to C$2,300 and on LaserWriter printers by as much as C$2,200. ======== BUSINESS ======== IBM CANADA, BUSINESSLAND FORM JOINT VENTURE Businessland Canada and IBM Canada have joined forces to buy GE Computer Services Canada. The division of General Electric Canada will be renamed PC ServicePartners. COMTERM IN TALKS TO SELL ANOTHER DIVISION Terminal and network hardware maker Comterm is discussing with at least five companies the sale of its field service division. MEAD TO SELL CANADIAN COMPANY Mead Corp. wants to sell Dataline, a provider of financial information here which its Mead Data Central subsidiary acquired in 1987. TAIWAN'S ACER ESTABLISHING GLOBAL SALES NETWORK Stan Shih, chairman of the largest PC manufacturer Acer in Taiwan, has visited Japan to announce an international strategic policy. JAPAN'S DAIHATSU MOTOR BUYS A CRAY Daihatsu Motor has decided to buy a supercomputer from Cray. The machine is 500 mega FLOPS (floating point operations per second), Cray Y-MP2/1 which performs three times faster than IBM 3090, the machine currently used by Daihatsu. ASIA EXPERT LEAVES ASHTON-TATE James B. Lewis has resigned from Ashton-Tate, a U.S.-based leading software house, at the end of 1989. Lewis is now at the Peter Norton Computing where he is managing international business. INTERGRAPH MAPS THE FUTURE FOR HONG KONG ELECTRIC Intergraph Graphic Systems Hongkong Ltd (IGS) has won the territory's biggest automated mapping and facility management (AM/FM) contract in a $3.2 million deal with Hongkong Electric Co Ltd (HEC), one of the two local power utilities. TWO DIVISIONS OF MICROCOMP AUSTRALIA SOLD BY RECEIVERS Receivers of high-end PC house Microcomp Australia have sold the dealership division's Canberra branch as well as the software division of the troubled company. U.S. COMPUTERLAND SLAMS AUSTRALIA OVER RECENT LOSS US computer retailer ComputerLand has suffered its biggest annual loss, and cites mismanagement in Australia as one major cause. ACE MICROSYSTEMS LAUNCHES INTO SPAIN Ace Microsystems, the London-based systems software house, has signed a major distribution with ACU Spain. Terms of the deal call for ACU Spain to supply Ace's offices automation software throughout Spain. COMPANY REPORTS WEEK ENDED, 02 FEBRUARY, 1990 Financial reports on technology companies this week include: NEW YORK STOCK MARKET REPORT FOR THURSDAY, 01 FEBRUARY, 1990 Stocks across the whole industry are in the doldrums except those lucky enough to be in market niches. WEEKLY REPORT ON TECHNOLOGY STOCKS - FEBRUARY 02, 1990 Technology stocks finished mixed this week with the spotlight falling on Compaq, resulting in a $3 increase due to an improving profit situation. ======= GENERAL ======= LOTUS SPONSORS SMALL BUSINESS SEMINARS Lotus Development has undertaken to present a nationwide program of financial management seminars for small business owners in conjunction with the Association of Small Business Development Centers. The seminars will be held in 28 states starting this month. NEW FEATURE-PACKED COPIER FROM XEROX Xerox has announced the 2520 Engineering Copier, a $7,495 plain-paper copier that copies on continuous paper to E-size at the rate of 12 feet-per-minute and has a selective copy feature which copies only specific portions of a document up to 36 inches wide. FIRST AUSTRALIAN CLIPPER CONFERENCE SCHEDULED Nantucket Corporation, makers of the Clipper open-architecture application development system, has scheduled its first Australian Clipper Developers Conference for May 20-23, 1990 in Sydney. NETWORK NEWS: NEW "PLUG & PLAY" SCSI DRIVE FROM FUTURE DOMAIN Future Domain has announced its newest "Plug & Play" product, a disk driver for the Novell 386 operating system. New for Networks: Network Courier for OS/2 and Macintosh Consumers Software plans to show its Network Courier electronic mail software running under Microsoft Windows and OS/2 and on the Apple Macintosh at the Networld show in Boston Feb. 13-15. AMDAHL CANADA PRESIDENT KILLED J. Michael Toohey, president and chief executive of Amdahl Canada of Toronto, has died in an avalanche while skiing near here. JAPAN: BUDGET-PRICED WORKSTATION IN MASS PRODUCTION Takaoka Electric, leading maker of power transmission and distribution equipment, has decided to start volume production of its low-price workstations in March as a part of its diversified management. ETHERNET INVENTOR TO KEYNOTE HONGKONG COMPUTER CONFERENCE Dr. Robert Metcalfe, the inventor of the Ethernet computer networking system, will give the keynote speech at the Hong Kong Computer Conference, '90 (HKCC '90), to be held in May. NCR NAMES HONGKONG HEAD OF SYSTEMS ENGINEERING NCR (Hong Kong) Ltd has announced the appointment of Luis Sison as Manager of its Systems Engineering Division. AUSTRALIA: 20% OF HOSPITALS AUTOMATED BY JOHNSON & JOHNSON Medical supply company Johnson and Johnson has installed its OPAL (Order Placement by Automated Link) system in 20 percent of Australian hospitals. AUSTRALIAN DOCTOR'S INVESTMENT SOFTWARE CALLED "RIP-OFF" An Australian doctor has been accused in Federal Parliament of masterminding a computer-based "rip-off" by selling "speculative investment" software. SABENA USES UNISYS MAINFRAMES FOR CARGO HANDLING Sabena, Belgium's national airline, plans to use a Unisys 2200/400 mainframe system to run its cargo handling systems system. The contract is worth around $3 million to Unisys. ========================= GOVERNMENT AND THE COURTS ========================= 'AIDS DISK' MAN ARRESTED IN THE U.S. Joseph Louis Popp, a 39- year-old anthropologist, has been arrested at his home in Willowick, Ohio, in connection with the AIDS information disk mailed to more than 20,000 PC users - predominantly in Europe - late last year. JAPAN INVESTIGATES VIDEO GAME EXTORTION SCANDAL Several wholesale toy and game distributors are under investigation in Japan for allegedly forcing their customers to buy unpopular game software in order to get the latest, hottest new games and game machines. SOUTH KOREA TO MAKE MASSIVE TECHNOLOGY INVESTMENT The South Korean government plans to boost its already considerable investment in science and technology by a further $55 billion in the period to 1996. BBN SUPPLIES TANK SIMULATOR TO GERMANY Bolt, Beranek and Newman has announced that its BBN Systems and Technologies subsidiary has contracted with a West German company to provide the Combat Training Simulator for the Training of Armor Personnel, a simulator for the German Leopard 2 tank. SUN GETS PREFERRED STATUS IN CANADA The Canadian government has given Sun Microsystems of Canada preferred supplier status. AUS$1M+ GOVT TENDERS TOPS 500 FOR 1989 The number of government agency tenders worth AUS$1M or more totalled over 500 for 1989, according to the national Tendernews service. AUSTRALIA: $50 MILLION DEAL WITH IBM STILL PENDING Custom Computer Services (CCS) still has not signed a contract with IBM for the Australian Defence Department's Desine deal despite selling the Big Blue subsidiary more than AUS$400,000 worth of PCs over the past two months. === IBM === WORDPERFECT OFFICE 3.0 DETAILS ANNOUNCED Wordperfect UK has announced that the next version of Wordperfect Office - version 3.0 - will include support for local and wide area networks when it ships in the second quarter of 1990. In parallel with the new PC version, a version for the Apple Macintosh, is being readied for a second quarter launch. NEW FOR IBM: DATASTORM INTROS HOT WIRE FILE TRANSFER PACKAGE Datastorm Technologies, the company behind the Procomm and Procomm Plus communications software for the PC, has launched itself into PC- to-PC file transfer system market with Hot Wire, a $129 package that competes with the likes of Travelling Software's Laplink Plus and SMA's Repaid Relay to name but a few. NEW FOR IBM: CD-ROM KIT FOR $499 COMPLETE! Buckmaster, a company specializing in sales of equipment devoted to the radio amateur field (ham radio), is offering a CD-ROM system for $499. TOSHIBA DROPS T1600 LAPTOP PRICES Toshiba America's Computer Systems Division has announced the reduction of the suggested retail price for the T1600 20MB (megabyte) hard drive and the T1600 40MB hard drive battery-powered models. NEW FOR IBM: WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS PC - DIAGNOSTIC SOFTWARE Computer owners who hate to trundle down to the computer shop every other week to seek help for some new hardware headache may spell relief S-y-s-t-e-m S-l-e-u-t-h 2.0. NEW FOR IBM: READRIGHT CHARACTER RECOGNITION SOFTWARE OCR Systems has released version 2.01 of ReadRight, an OCR (optical character recognition) system for the IBM PC or compatible with 640K RAM and 1.5 MB hard disk space. NEW FOR IBM: MULTIUSER SOFTWARE FROM IGC IGC recently began shipping VM/386 Multiuser Starter software program which allows a user to add two additional text-based terminals to a 386 PC to obtain a 3-user plug and play multiuser system that is DOS compatible. The starter operates by plugging two monochrome text-based terminals into COM ports of a 386 PC and installing the software. Customers wishing to add additional users to the system or graphics capabilities may upgrade to VM/386 MultiUser, which supports up to 32 text and/or graphics station users. NEW FOR IBM: ALPHAWORKS 2.0 DOES RELATIONAL DATABASES Alpha Software Corp. has upgraded its software integration package which combines five widely used computer applications, it is called AlphaWorks 2.0. NEW FOR IBM: DATA CONVERSION FROM CONCEPTUAL SOFTWARE Conceptual Software has released its line of data conversion products and its version 2.0 of DBMS/Copy data conversion utility. LOTUS EXTENDS 1-2-3 REBATE OFFER The $100 rebate offer to those who purchase or upgrade to Lotus 1-2-3 Release 3 or Release 2.2 has been extended through the end of 1990. The deadline had previously been set at December 31, 1989. NEW FOR IBM: ABOVE DISC FOR MEMORY MANAGEMENT Above Software has introduced a series of modular tools for memory management with the new release of their utility program, Above Disc. Version 3.1 of the Expanded Memory Specification (EMS) program gives DOS users control of a PC's conventional, extended and expanded memory. NETWORK NEWS: CORVUS ADDS CARD AND REPEATER TO OMNINET/4 LINE Corvus Systems has added the Omninet/4 Micro Channel network interface card and the Omninet/4 Repeater to the Omninet/4 line of network products. IBM TEAMS WITH 9 OTHERS TO DEVELOP IMAGING SYSTEM IBM announced it is working with nine business partners to develop industry applications on the IBM ImagePlus system, used on its mainframes and minicomputers. MSA DELIVERS FIRST UNIT OF SMARTVIEW Management Science America, which is being acquired by Dun & Bradstreet, announced it is shipping its Smartview-General Ledger, the first component in its new executive information utilities for IBM mainframes. NEW FOR IBM: NITA COMPUTER RECEPTIONIST Innovative Technology announced enhancements to its nitaReceptionist voice board, designed for voice messaging and call processing. IBM CANADA CUTS PRICES ON ASSISTANT SERIES IBM Canada has cut prices on its Assistant Series programs by more than a third. NEW FOR IBM: COGNOS SHIPS WINDOWS INFORMATION TOOL Cognos has begun shipping PowerPlay, a management information analysis tool for Microsoft Windows, and reports more than $1 million in initial orders. CANADIAN FIRM LAUNCHES CLIP ART, PLANS MAGAZINE UpDate Publishing has introduced a package of clip art for PC Paintbrush, and is planning a home business computing magazine. JAPAN: MICROSOFT TO UPGRADE OPERATING SYSTEMS The Japanese arm of U.S.-based Microsoft, Nippon Microsoft, will release several upgraded operating systems and an application within this year. JAPAN: SANYO CREATES SIMPLE AX MACHINE Sanyo Electric has introduced what it claims is a simple-to-operate AX personal computer enabling those without PC experience to operate it at the push of a button. The new machine called Axage comes standard with the icon- based visual user interface "Wavy Desktop" as well as MS-DOS Ver. 3.21, and MS-Windows Ver. 2.1. FIRST 486 FILESERVER SALE FOR APRICOT IN AUSTRALIA Apricot computer has installed what it claims is the first 486 file server in Australia. The VX FT 400/90 is to be used as a Novell server for a network of IBM PS/2 model 50z and 55sx PCs in an insurance company, Federation Life. ================== TELECOMMUNICATIONS ================== COMPUSERVE'S EUROPEAN RATES CLARIFIED As reported in the last edition of Newsbytes, Compuserve has now begun operating European host-paid access to its US service via a number of European country networks. Following enquiries from a number of Newsbytes' European readers, here is a full run-down on the costs involved. BOOK HAS FACTS ON FAX If you want the low-down on fax machines, from halftone transmission to automatic paper cutting, you can find it in a new book called "The Book of Fax." MOTOROLA, IBM DEVELOP RADIO DATA SYSTEM A network based on radio waves was announced by Motorola and IBM through a joint venture called ARDIS. NORTHERN TELECOM UNVEILS MERIDIEN 1 LINE Northern unveiled the Meridian 1 business communication systems product line, a set of phone switches, private branch exchanges, phones, modems, and data communications gear it says has double the capacity of any other system available in the United States. TELECOM USA DEAL TO BUY ALLNET IS OFF ALC Communications of Birmingham, Michigan, owners of the Allnet long distance system, decided not to follow up on a letter of intent it signed to merge with Telecom USA on January 8. TELESPHERE CUTS WATS PRICES Telesphere Communications announced a 5.2% price reduction on its TeleWATS long distance service effective February 1. MCI SIGNS BILLING AGREEMENT WITH SOUTHWESTERN BELL MCI has signed an agreement for Southwestern Bell to provide billing and collection for MCI customers in its service area. UNISYS' TIMEPLEX ANNOUNCES NEW NETWORKING PRODUCTS Timeplex introduced a series of local area and wide area broadband networking systems, including so-called T-3 equipment which moves data at up to 45 million bits/second. TELECOMMUNICATIONS NETWORK CUTS ITS PRICE TO INFOPAGE Telecommunications Network has amended its merger agreement with TNI Acquisition Corp., an affiliate of Infopage, cutting Infopage's cost of acquiring the company from $7.25 per share to $7. QUOTRON TO BE DISTRIBUTED IN AUSTRALIA The Quotron Systems subsidiary of Citicorp signed an agreement making Equinet Pty Ltd. of Melbourne its exclusive agent to market Quotron's financial information services throughout Australia and New Zealand. CANCOM REVENUES, INCOME UP Canadian Satellite Communications (Cancom) has reported a 19 percent revenue increase and expects a federal regulatory ruling to boost its profit in 1990. NATIONAL ISDN TESTS UNDER WAY IN CANADA Telecom Canada, the consortium of Canadian telephone companies, is testing integrated services digital network (ISDN) connections linking three provinces over some 5,000 kilometers (3,000 miles). JAPAN: FUJITSU USING HABITAT TO LURE BUYERS TO FM-TOWNS Fujitsu is hoping to lure more Japanese buyers to its FM-Towns computer with the new online high-tech game called Habitat. AUSTRALIA AND MALAYSIA JUMP ON S.E. ASIAN TELECOM MARKET Australia's international carrier, OTC, has signed a memorandum of understanding [MOU] with Syarikat Telekom Malaysia [STM]. The two carriers plan to take advantage of business opportunities in the rapidly growing Southeast Asian communication services market. MESSITER SOFTWARE UPDATES TRANS-SEND PLUS Messiter Software has updated Trans-send Plus, the MNP Class 5 error-correction and data compression communications software package for the IBM PC and close compatibles. ===================== TRENDS AND TECHNOLOGY ===================== COMPUTERLAND U.S.S.R. COINCIDES WITH SOVIET COMPUTER SHOW The first Computerland store will open in Moscow in time to receive traffic from the Soviet Union's largest computer trade show, due to open March 6. HITACHI TO SET UP THIRD 4-MEG CHIP PLANT Hitachi has decided to establish a new production base for 4-megabit DRAM (dynamic random access memory) chips in Hokkaido, in order to meet future demand from makers of book-size computers. INTERNATIONAL ALLIANCES FORMING CHIP VENTURES To finance and hasten development of highly integrated computer memory chips, collaborative ventures among American, European and Japanese makers are popping up around the world. BIOTECHNOLOGY ADVANCES LIQUID CRYSTALS The LCD or liquid crystal display market is expected to be one of the fastest growing markets in the future, and Japanese scientists believe they are advancing it further with an innovation in the field of biotechnology. U.S. FIRM TO ADOPT JAPAN'S ULTRA CLEAN TECHNOLOGY A key technology for the next generation memory chips, so-called Ultra Clean Technology, created by Professor Tadahiro Ohmi of Tohoku University, is coming into the limelight. The U.S.-based semiconductor manufacturing machine maker, Applied Materials, is seeking the technology. HITACHI TO MAKE 32-BIT COLOR LAPTOP IN THE U.S. Hitachi will produce a 32-bit color IBM-compatible laptop computer in the U.S. JAPAN: NEW ELECTRONIC ORGANIZER CAN SPEAK Seiko Instruments will enter the hand-held organizer market now dominated by Sharp and Casio with the release of industry's first electronic organizer with voice features on the 15th of this month. HONGKONG COMPUTER SOCIETY STANDARDIZES CHINESE The Hongkong Computer Society has embarked on a scheme to establish international standards for the use of Chinese characters in computing. INDIA TECHNOLOGY INDUSTRY FOLLOWS FAMILIAR PATH India's budding information technology industry is experiencing the same kind of shake-up and reorganization that has afflicted other nations rushing to enter the information age. TAIPEI EYES AUSTRALIAN TECHNOLOGY MARKET A change in legislation paves way for AUS$1B investment in the Australian information industry. Highly competitive Taiwanese firms are set to use their technological superiority to exploit weak spots in the field. AUSTRALIA TESTS ELECTRONIC TAX FILING The Australian Taxation Office has on trial a new computer and communications system it claims will reduce the personal income tax return assessment period from 10 to two weeks. ==== UNIX ==== OPEN DESKTOP FINALLY SHIPS Santa Cruz Operation has announced that Open Desktop, the graphical user interface for Unix-based 80386 and 80486-based PCs with either an industry standard, extended industry standard (EISA), or Micro Channel Architecture bus, is shipping. INTERGRAPH SUBSIDIARY DELIVERS PROLOG FOR SUN Quintus Computer Systems, a subsidiary of Intergraph of Huntsville, began deliveries of its Quintus Prolog Release 2.5 for Sun workstations. UNIX TEXT MANAGEMENT TOOLS FROM UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO Open Text Systems has been formed to market software developed by researchers at the University of Waterloo here while working on the Oxford English Dictionary. DIGITAL CANADA GETS MICROVAX MANDATE Digital Equipment of Canada will manufacture MicroVAX and VAXserver 3100 systems at its plant here for all world markets except Europe, the company has announced. MIPS DEAL OFFERS EXTRA VALUE TO JAPANESE BUYERS SRA or Software Research Associates will cooperate with U.S.-based MIPS Computer Systems' to offer new software features for MIPS' RISC-(reduced instruction set computer) architecture-based machines. RISC SWEEPS OVER JAPANESE WORKSTATION MARKET RISC or reduced instruction set computer, is sweeping the Japanese WS (workstation) market. OSF PICKS BURCH FROM RIVAL AT&T OSF or Open Software Foundation, a counter-force against standardization of the Unix operating system of AT&T's UI (Unix International), has enlisted the support of a former enemy, Marie Burch, as director of business area management. JAPAN: NEXT MACHINE WITH HARD DRIVE DEBUTS Canon has released a NeXT computer system with a standard hard drive unit into the Japanese market, following Palo Alto, California-based Next Computer. NCR WINS UNIX CONTRACT IN QUEENSLAND The Queensland state stamp duties office has awarded a contract to NCR for the installation of a system consisting of Tower 32/850 supermicros, NCR intelligent terminals and dumb terminals. Software developer QCOM is to developUnix software for the network. NEW FOR UNIX: WORDSTAR LOOKALIKE FOR THE ICL DRS SERIES Saracen Marketing has announced the availability of Fenix, its Wordstar workalike package for Unix, for the ICL DRS-6000 series of computers. Fenix claims to be first standalone word-processing package that runs under Unix System V release 4.0. ========= EDITORIAL ========= SOFTWARE PIRACY: MORE THAN ONE VIEW Software piracy has long been a hot topic and never more so than in Hongkong. Perhaps that statement should be widened somewhat to cover much of the Far East. The true capital of computer piracy for the last decade and more has been Taiwan, but to people all over the world mere mention of piracy in relation to software means one particular building. ======= REVIEWS ======= Review of: Star Wars, game for the Macintosh Review of: Prodigy software, Macintosh front-end software for Prodigy (Wendy Woods/19900202)