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22nd September 1998 Archive

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  • Microsoft scoops $60 million from search companies

    Paying money for prominence in the UI? Didn't we hear this one before?

    So is it OK for Microsoft to charge companies for having buttons for their applications included in the user interface? That's exactly what Microsoft announced it was doing with four major search companies yesterday, so the question is worth considering. The four companies, Alta Vista, Lycos, Infoseek and Snap, will pay a …

    Business 22 Sep 1998, 05:53

  • ARM wins deal with the big one – HP

    Broad, long term licence agreement for hand-helds, networking, peripherals

    ARM has scored what may turn out to be one of its biggest deals yet, licensing the ARM7TDMI and ARM740TT microprocessor cores to Hewlett-Packard. HP is a market in peripherals and hand held devices, and says it intends to use the cores for a wide range of products, including portable computing, networking and peripherals. Also …

    Business 22 Sep 1998, 06:37

  • Nortel shuts UK WLL plant

    A vote of no confidence in Ionica's prospects?

    The saving grace for the UK government of Nortel's closure of a factory in Devon is that it can't be blamed on the Asian crisis - not directly, anyway. The company announced it was shutting the Paignton plant with the loss of 586 jobs yesterday, adding to a series of closures and job cuts overseas manufacturers have made in the …

    Business 22 Sep 1998, 07:03

  • Huge Wal-Mart PC deal to bust $500 mark

    Trigem to ship 1.13 million units into US store chain

    Trigem Computer is to ship 1.13 million PCs priced at $499 a pop through the US Wal-Mart chain of stores, and proposes to drop the first batch of 130,000 into the US commodity market before the end of the year. According to this morning's Korea Herald, Trigem's $560 million deal will be operated through Wal-Mart affiliate Sam's …

    Business 22 Sep 1998, 07:54

  • Findows strategy feeds scales of justice

    intro

    If the DoJ subpoenas the latest piece of incriminating Microsoft documentation it will have a tricky logistical problem - it's a billboard advertising MSN, it provides an amazing insight into Microsoft's corporate mindset, and it appears to be stuck to the wall of Picadilly underground station in London. You probably won't …

    Business 22 Sep 1998, 08:30

  • Journey without roadmaps

    intro

    Let's hear it for plucky little CompuServe and its attempts to offer compelling services to its users. Want to plan your travel? Then try Michelin's route planner service. We at The Register tried this repeatedly, puzzling over the way this spanking new service seems to be perpetually down. But maybe it's not - check the url …

    Business 22 Sep 1998, 08:36

  • Larry's wild about… most things

    intro

    Yahoo has been all over the place in the last week and has lost countries, too. Last week, Yahoo lost Israel, Japan and South Korea. There aren't any newspapers according to the famous site, in North Korea, but we're wondering which country will be next...Bulgaria? A PR deep throat calls with an amusing, and we trust, entirely …

    Business 22 Sep 1998, 08:39

  • Roundup: markets

    Yanks take e-trading to Japan, tech stocks ahead of the market

    Sony is talking to Charles Schwab (the largest US online broker, with 5.4 million accounts) about setting up electronic trading in Japan when it is fully deregulated next year. E*Trade is already there in a $20 million joint deal with Softbank. Merrill Lynch also employed 2,000 people made redundant when Yamaichi went bust, and …

    Business 22 Sep 1998, 09:29

  • Broadcom squeezes cable modem chip-set into single device

    Cable modems could now become a commodity

    Broadcom has succeeded in developing a single chip, known as the BCM3300, to replace the three-chip set currently powering cable modems. This should have a significant impact on the price of cable modems, expected to reach the $175-$200 range, with the chip costing around $50 initially. The first modems should be available at …

    Business 22 Sep 1998, 10:53

  • IBM wafts scent over ThinkPads

    Refreshes the entire range

    IBM has refreshed its entire range of ThinkPads and has promised a low-end, retail product called the ThinkPad i which it will launch in November and sell over the Web as well as in shops. It is also launching an additional product for the corporate marketplace, the 390. Sam Dusi, the IBM US segment product manager for the …

    Business 22 Sep 1998, 11:36

  • AMD to launch K6-2 for mobile market too

    Compaq will use K6 300MHz part

    AMD is set to make further incursions into the notebook market and has plans to release a 350MHz K6-2 mobile product this autumn, according to sources close to the company's plans. Today, as revealed here earlier, AMD introduced a 300MHz K6 chip aimed at the mobile market. The price tag for the part is $229 when bought in units …

    Business 22 Sep 1998, 12:10

  • IBM offers downgrade from Win98 to Win95

    Not everyone likes Software Stan's miracle OS

    IBM is offering downgrades from Windows 98 to Windows 95 to its customers, it has emerged. And Big Blue is having to pay Microsoft twice for the privilege. Sam Dusi, IBM Thinkpad segment product manager, said: "Windows 95 is not a pre-loadable option and we are offering customers downgradeable Windows 95 as an option." He said …

    Business 22 Sep 1998, 12:38

  • Celeron "has bombed" claims IBM

    But Dataquest says jury still out on its success

    IBM said today that its sales of Celeron processors have been poor. But the jury is still out on how successful the chip has been. The original Celeron, released in April, is expected to be phased out some time next month. Bill Holtshauser, a marketing director from IBM US, said that the original Celeron chip "had bombed" but …

    Business 22 Sep 1998, 13:06

  • Survey: ISP churn rate still high

    Most users have been with their ISP less than two years

    A World Research survey suggests that 16 per cent of Internet users will change ISPs in the next six months. The self-selected sample of 3,590 users mostly accessed the Internet from home, and were dominantly male (73 per cent). Particular dislikes with ISPs were a slow log-in and too many busy signals. The geographic …

    Business 22 Sep 1998, 14:21

  • 3Dfx sues arch-rival

    Alleged Nvidia patent infringement could hit Microsoft's DirectX 6.0 roll-out

    3Dfx has slapped a patent infringement suit on rival 3D graphics specialist Nvidia. The suit alleges Nvidia has incorporated 3Dfx's multi-texturing technology in its own products. The 3Dfx suit contends that Nvidia's Riva TNT chip-set uses technology it developed in 1996 that allows multiple textures to be applied to a single 3D …

    Business 22 Sep 1998, 14:43

  • Latest Opera beta takes the stage

    It ain't over til the fat lady pings...

    A new version of Opera, the browser developed in Norway, has been released in beta. Although it still lacks some highly desirable features, like a good email subsysten, it has features not to be found in the big two. The new features include an implementation of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS1 and part of CSS2), closely following …

    Business 22 Sep 1998, 14:45

  • Apple to open Korean branch

    Spring in Jobs' sole due to over-demand

    Encouraged by reports of clones of the iMac PC, Apple is expected to open an office in Seoul in October. According to English language paper The Korea Herald, Jobs has authorised a startup in the peninsula, using Korean sales agent Elex as the source. Apple US will put money into the venture, according to the newspaper. That …

    Business 22 Sep 1998, 15:19

  • Further Japanese DRAM domino falls

    We've almost a set now, at The Register

    Yesterday, NEC announced it would shed 6,000 jobs worldwide, the latest in a long sad tale of Japanese semiconductor firms to predict a loss. Now Matsushita Electronics has fallen flat on its face on the semiconductor front with the news that it will postpone two fabs' production. According to Matsushita, demand for memories …

    Business 22 Sep 1998, 15:39

  • Kicking Pat plugs 101 dalmations into USB

    intro

    HP goes NDA bananas...or what says another hack who went to the gig at the Cafe La Paris rather than the Lernout & Hauspie thang we were subjected to at La Registere... The hack tells us that before getting into the gig, the mad HP geezers made 30 or so journalists sign stringent NDAs about the new LaserJet printers that HP does …

    Business 22 Sep 1998, 16:20

  • Novell's Merced Modesto could be half way 64 bit house

    Intel and Novell closer partners than ever suspected

    NetWare 5.0 is to be ported to the Merced platform, it emerged today. At last week's Intel Developer Forum in Palm Springs, California, Rumi Zahir, chief architect of the Merced platform, said that Novell Modesto was supporting the Merced platform. Netfire is a virtual Java machine that will sit on top of the Intel IA-64 …

    Business 22 Sep 1998, 16:25

  • Azlan takes Sylvan test

    Pan-European deal

    Azlan Group has become the first Pan-European Premier Plus partner for Sylvan Prometric, the IT industry certification company. The signing represents a strong endorsement of certification training and testing, according to Sylvan. It says European training companies have not traditionally offer a wide range of certification …

    Business 22 Sep 1998, 23:01