20th October 1998 Archive

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US vs Europe wireless trade war looms

Threatening to refer the EU and ETSI to the WTO is fighting talk...

A couple of months back US Federal Communications Commission chairman William Kennard said he welcomed an EU decision not to discriminate against US cellular standards. We said (Earlier story) he was actually issuing a coded warning. Which now seems to have been the case, as US trade representative Charlene Barshefsky yesterday …

Business 20 Oct 1998, 08:11
DoJ springs trap for Bill Gates

Justice's opening set out to prove Gates less than truthful, and to undermine his credibility as a witness

The US Department of Justice aimed straight for Bill Gates at the opening of the Microsoft antitrust trial yesterday, comparing and contrasting the video testimony he'd given with what he'd said in earlier Microsoft internal documentation. Gates won't be in the court and his credibility, not to mention his courage, is clearly …

Business 20 Oct 1998, 08:39
Zilog brings 8-bit pricing down to 39 cents

Now here's a company that could teach Intel a thing or two about low cost and high volume...

Once upon a time there was a company called Zilog which, before Intel even got to be a medium-sized company, supplied the Z80 CPUs that powered rather a lot of Sinclair Spectrums and ran the CP/M OS that provided a fair old slice of the pre-Intel desktop computing market. And indeed there still is a company called Zilog -- it's …

Business 20 Oct 1998, 09:11
Motorola buys into low resource Web browsing start-up

On the fly page reformatting to help pocket devices browse the Web

Motorola has bought a minority stake in Online Anywhere, a San Jose start-up developing software to make it easier for low-resource devices with variable-sized screens and limited bandwidth to browse the Web. The company, founded last year by a group of former students from Bombay, is building systems that dynamically reformat …

Business 20 Oct 1998, 09:34
Only two per cent of Internet spend last year was on content, says Zona

Now why doesn't that surprise us? Can we have some money now please?

Zona Research's latest predictions for the Internet and intranets are that the market, worth $49.21 billion last year, will be worth $142 billion by 2001. And, wouldn't you know it, Zona reckons the smallest components of the total 1997 spend were be "creation, control and content", at three, two and two per cent respectively. …

Business 20 Oct 1998, 10:08
HP rolls out $999 super-CE machine with added connectivity

Now the handhelds synchronise with credit-card sized devices. Go figure that one...

Hewlett-Packard unveiled its first ARM-based 'Super CE' machine yesterday, (see HP switches to Intel StrongARM for Jupiter CE machines) and said the $999 Jornada 820 would ship in the US next month. The machine runs Microsoft's Windows CE, Handheld PC Professional Edition (aka Jupiter) and weighs-in at 2.5lb. HP is by far the …

Business 20 Oct 1998, 10:32
Speculators ramp up EDO and FPM DRAM prices

How much?

The cry of disbelief, heard not for the first time today, comes from the disillusioned customer, who has just fallen off their chair when you revealed the price of the memory he gladly took from you last week for 30 per cent less. Yes, it's happened again. Memory prices are rising, but not at the normal few points a day rate. …

Business 20 Oct 1998, 10:45
Microsoft trial: How it will proceed

What's going to happen, and what the DoJ needs to prove

The general legal case is that Microsoft has contravened antitrust law, which in the rest of the world tends to be called competition law. The 'antitrust' is, in fact, inappropriate today because business practices involving trusts, which were used to get round ownership issues (hence antitrust) are usually not an issue. …

Business 20 Oct 1998, 11:11
Microsoft spin doctors spin to blunt attack on Gates

After yesterday's assault, Microsoft's legal eagles claim it's all 'out of context'

The Microspin was started yesterday by Bill Neukom, Microsoft's general counsel and former unsuccessful Democrat candidate for the job of Washington state attorney general before he joined Microsoft. As he entered the court, he said that "the relevant evidence, the admissible evidence, will show that Microsoft is a vigorous but …

Business 20 Oct 1998, 11:14
Prosecution says Gates led plan to crush Netscape

Claims company set out to eliminate sources of Netscape revenue

Microsoft was portrayed by David Boies (pronounced "BOYCE") for the DoJ as being worried by Netscape's lead in browser technology, and Sun's Java. One of Microsoft's responses was a strategy to leverage the Windows monopoly to gain browser market share, Boies said. Another response was to steer ISPs to exclusive contracts for IE …

Business 20 Oct 1998, 11:17
Sybase posts profitable Q3

Beats Street predictions

Sybase has beaten Wall Street expectations and turned predictions it would just break even during its third quarter into a profit. The database specialist posted a profits of $2.2 million on revenues of $210.2 million. That represents a fall in revenue from the same period last year, down from $233 million, but a significant …

Business 20 Oct 1998, 11:20
HP unifies server business

Hardware, software and services merged into single division

Hewlett-Packard has merged its Enterprise Systems, and Software and Servives divisions in an effort to unify its development and delivery of corporate server systems. "The merger supports our belief that IT solutions must have equally strong components of hardware, software and services," said Ann Livermore, HP VP and general …

Business 20 Oct 1998, 11:23
Casio launches Windows CE software operation

Today, handhelds -- tomorrow, the world...

Casio has formed a separate company to develop Windows CE applications and begun shipping three titles for the handheld PC platform. The new organisation, called CasioSoft, will initially develop business-oriented applications. Its initial offerings, CSI Project, CSI Outliner and CSI PowerPack, offer additional features for the …

Business 20 Oct 1998, 11:24
Kauffman joins Ten-TV

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Technology Education Network Inc, Ten-TV, has poached IT training veteran John Kauffman, formerly with Azlan Training and CBT Systems. Kauffman is joining as European operations manager, aiming to expand Ten-TV’s business-to-business distance learning business in the European marketplace. Ten-TV is a leading distance learning …

Business 20 Oct 1998, 11:47
How Microsoft squeezed Netscape out of contracts – Barksdale

Netscape CEO's testimony details 'anticompetitive' allegations

Netscape CEO Jim Barksdale will take the stand in the Microsoft antitrust trial later today with his testimony already in the court records. Barksdale will be cross-examined on his testimony, but in accordance with Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson's wishes to speed up the trial, the text of his 127 page deposition was released by …

Business 20 Oct 1998, 12:49
Broadcom tweaks cable modem chip for Europe

One of those fabled MIPS customers

Broadcom Corp’s first single chip for cable modems is now available for European markets, customised and made compliant with the recently-approved International Telecommunications Union J.112 cable modem standard. Available already in the US, the BCM3300 chip is designed to cope with high-speed Internet access and Voice over IP …

Business 20 Oct 1998, 13:29
Who will buy these wonderful patents?

Toshiba looks in the locker for fresh revenus streams

Toshiba Corp said the sale of intellectual property rights could garner up to 100 billion yen ($870 million) by 2003, and the Japanese giant announced yesterday that it will sell designs drawn from several business units, including PC and data storage. The company is making definitive moves to control its research and …

Business 20 Oct 1998, 13:33
HP touts stress-free, EMC-rich strategy

Aberdeen Group likes it

Hyped as ushering in a new era of stress-free enterprise storage, HP’s new strategy got the thumbs up from analysts with the Aberdeen Group. Senior analyst David Hill said: “HP is positioning itself well to compete in the changing storage market with a broad range of high availability and online and offline its fibre channel …

Business 20 Oct 1998, 14:04
Digital TV to lead information appliance market

Yes, but will anyone actually connect to the Net this way?

Devices bringing the Internet to the TV will lead a massive 76 per cent annual growth rate for the information appliance market between now and 2002, an IDC report, Forecast of the Worldwide Information Appliance Marketplace, has predicted. The company also highlighted the Internet-enabled game console and PDAs as important …

Business 20 Oct 1998, 14:52
Microsoft on Trial

intro

During the period of the Microsoft antitrust trial The Register will be maintaining this page in order to provide readers with easy access to all our trial coverage. If you've a special interest in the trial, then we suggest you bookmark this page. If you have a special interest in avoiding the trial, we suggest you unplug your …

Business 20 Oct 1998, 15:09
Oh No! not another convergence story

Nortel's vision, this time

Nortel Networks is showcasing a raft of products and systems at NetWorld+Interop, its first major trade show since the August acquisition of Bay Networks. CEO John Roth is delivering the keynote speech in Atlanta, focusing on future possibilities, including the total integration of voice and data and the delivery of anywhere- …

Business 20 Oct 1998, 15:38
Intel does not use toilet rolls…

intro

For weeks we here at The Register have been intending to write a story about Intel's vast consumption of toilet rolls. We repeatedly asked the question, given that there are 60,000 people or so working for the Great Stan. We were worried about pollution, given reports years ago by the Republic of California that there was …

Business 20 Oct 1998, 16:00
DVD shortage now, gluts in 1999

Pick up can't keep up with DVD pick up

The DVD market is drastically undersupplied as Japanese production of pick-up heads remains slow but demand for DVD-ROMs speeds up rapidly. Global demand for DVD-ROM peaked at 300,000 units a months between January and June, jumping to 900,000 in September as PC manufacturers increased their OEM orders. Observers say the …

Business 20 Oct 1998, 17:07
'Linux made it, so what's the problem?' says Microsoft attorney

It's official -- any smart Helsinki student has a chance to destroy the Gates Empire

Hitting back at the case laid out against his employer by the Department of Justice yesterday, Microsoft attorney John Warden described it as being an effort "to demonise Bill Gates... long on rhetoric and short on substance". He then proceeded to rely on, er, rhetoric and to recruit Linus Torvalds as exhibit A. "This is not …

Business 20 Oct 1998, 21:01