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11th December 1998 Archive

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  • MS research chief holds court in London

    Nathan Myhrvold boasts about bloatware, among other things...

    "The second most famous person in Microsoft" was introduced to an audience in London yesterday afternoon by the Editor of the Economist. But it wasn’t Steve Ballmer (nor Bob Herbold, who fancies himself as number three). The number two famous person is Nathan Myhrvold, Microsoft's chief technology officer. And Myhrvold certainly …

    Business 11 Dec 1998, 08:22

  • Apple ‘WebMate’ portable to follow iMac

    Like a four pound, mobile iMac -- it's the publicity, stoopid...

    Apple's next portable will be a sub-$1,500 bracket machine with iMac styling and sold under the name WebMate, according to US reports. The machine, which is due out early next year, will weigh around four pounds, have iMac-style translucent casing and a 300 MHz PowerPC processor. It will also follow the iMac (and Steve Jobs' …

    Business 11 Dec 1998, 08:24

  • Is MS Java better than Sun version? Judge queries Gosling

    Judge Jackson might just be zeroing-in on an embarrassing Sun secret

    Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson yesterday showed signs that he might be prepared to buy Microsoft's claim that it was improving Java, rather than simply mounting a cynical campaign to destroy it. It's actually doubtful that the good judge will accept the whole story, given that Microsoft documentation (produced at the Sun- …

    Business 11 Dec 1998, 08:31

  • A year ago: Disties hit again by VAT fraud scandal

    UK authorities show limp approach to DRAM difficulties

    If you talk to Alan Stanley, MD of the UK wing of French company Dane-Elec, he'll tell you, like many another poor soul in the memory distribution business, that times are tough and getting tougher. But while Stanley and his company compete in an ever more cutthroat business, the British authorities are not making it any easier …

    Business 11 Dec 1998, 09:08

  • Email hits the high street

    Multimedia booths could increase Net usage

    BT is to open 2,500 multimedia phone booths up and down the country in March, enabling everyone to surf the Web and collect and send email over the Internet. Each booth is to be fitted with a 10-inch screen which combines a built-in touch sensitive keyboard. Using a browser -- no-one knows which one just yet -- anyone will be …

    Business 11 Dec 1998, 09:54

  • NatSemi makes loss and IBM didn't help

    Halla claims company returning to profitability

    National Semiconductor made a net loss of $48.6 million on revenues of $510.1 million for Q2 of its 1999 financial year but said that it was encouraged by some buoyancy in the market. In the equivalent period last year, it made a net profit of $28.9 million on turnover of $719.9 million. In the period, it had to pay IBM nearly $ …

    Business 11 Dec 1998, 10:13

  • Good times ahead for DVD

    Software releases will be deciding factor though

    According to research undertaken by the media journal, Screen Digest, more than one million DVD players will be in use across Europe by the end of the year 2000. The magazine estimates that some 125,000 DVD players have already found good homes to go to this Christmas, with that number expected to rise to around 485,000 this …

    Business 11 Dec 1998, 10:33

  • IBM puts big boot in own NC mouth

    Won a huge deal with Fedex then lost it big-time

    Earlier this year, The Register scored what we thought was a massive scoop when we reported that IBM had won a huge deal to sell 50,000 of its NCs to courier company Fedex. (Story: Huge IBM NC deal close to fruition). As CeBIT approached, we wondered what had happened to our scoop. Had we made a mistake, and got the whole thing …

    Business 11 Dec 1998, 10:36

  • Intel slashes Slot One Celeron prices… again

    New ramps for old plan will shove inventory through channel

    Intel cut the cost of Slot One Celeron’s last Sunday to $97 for the 333MHz part with 128K cache and $80 for the 300A in a bid to move the market fast to the 370-pin part it will announce in January. Before last weekend, these parts cost $159 and $138 respectively, when bought in large quantities. But the chip giant is still …

    Business 11 Dec 1998, 10:59

  • When Harry met Scally, kinda

    Sometimes you just can’t avoid publicity

    When Harry Thuillier sold his reseller business, Fraser Associates, to Action Computer Supplies last year he dropped out of view altogether. He had been one of those oft quoted sorts that crops up rather a lot in the weekly channel press, and he was greatly missed by hacks in need of a sound-bite. Well, now he has been linked - …

    Business 11 Dec 1998, 11:10

  • 10,000 jobs to go after Ericsson profit warning

    Financial crisis? So why's Nokia doing so well then?

    A profit warning plus up to 10,000 projected job cuts from Swedish giant Ericsson yesterday provided ample evidence that the company's expansion plans are miscarrying. Earlier this year Ericsson came under fire for its climbing marketing expenses, and now it appears these aren't being translated into sales. Ericsson CEO Sven- …

    Business 11 Dec 1998, 11:15

  • NEC to use Cyrix chip

    Odd. Two days ago it was slagging non-Intel chips off

    Packard Bell said yesterday that it will use the Cyrix MediaGX chip in a consumer notebook called the NEC Ready 120LT. This is strange. Two days ago, Colwyn Munro, general manager of NEC Direct, said that his customers wanted Intel and not non-Intel chips. (See Red faces all round in PB-NEC Intel chip fiasco) According to spin …

    Business 11 Dec 1998, 11:52

  • IBM, SGI in frame to buy Intergraph?

    A sugar daddy of some form may be at hand for the small but perfectly formed workstation outfit

    Predators are stalking workstation manufacturer Intergraph, according to industry sources, with both SGI and IBM tipped as possible buyers. If a deal with either went ahead, it could have interesting consequences both for Intergraph's legal tussle with Intel and for Intel's plans for the workstation market. The sources suggest …

    Business 11 Dec 1998, 12:00

  • Oracle bounces back with 46 per cent profit rise

    The doomsayers of yesteryear are eating quantities of humble pie

    Oracle has beaten financial expectations with the announcement of a stonking 46 per cent rise in quarterly profits, with strong computer services revenues helping it past expectations. Net income for Q2 (ended 3o November) jumped to $274 million from last year's disappointing $187 million. Turnover grew 27 per cent to $2.1 …

    Business 11 Dec 1998, 12:12

  • High noon for thieving B-*!&%*!&-S

    2b shamed or not 2b shamed, that is the question

    News aggregation Web site NewsNow has hit out at rival site, 2b, accusing it of stealing headlines to aggregate on its own site. As of noon today, anyone trying to click on to a topical new story posted on 2b's site from The Register, for example, will instead get a message telling them that the story has been nicked from the …

    Business 11 Dec 1998, 12:29

  • Elonex sues Dell, P-Bell, Micron over monitor patents

    The UK PC company reckons its power management IP has been liberated

    Elonex is going for a lawsuit hat-trick, suing Dell, Packard Bell-NEC and Micron Electronics over the use of what it claims is its patented technology for reduced power-consumption in colour monitors. The British PC manufacturer filed the three lawsuits in the District Court in Wilmington, Delaware yesterday. It accused each …

    Business 11 Dec 1998, 13:13

  • Updated: LG Electronics to can seven foreign HQs

    North America, Europe affected with additional action promised

    South Korean English language newspaper the Korea Herald has reported that LG Electronics is to shut down seven of its eight overseas business HQs. The division, part of massive chaebol LG, currently employs well over 30,000 employees, but it is not known how many jobs will go following the move. The division has offices in …

    Business 11 Dec 1998, 13:51

  • BT to buy Spanish ISP, allegedly

    Ohhh Spanish eyes…

    A Spanish newspaper has reported that BT is to buy the Spanish Internet service provider Arrakis for an undisclosed sum. The financial daily newspaper, Cinco Dias, said an announcement is due at the beginning of January. But a spokesman for BT refused to shed any light on the proposed deal. "We do not comment on rumour or …

    Business 11 Dec 1998, 13:54

  • Big Blue smokes reefers?

    Why has it registered a hemp domain name?

    At The Reg we're quite fond of www.companysleuth.com. It sends you emails which tell you, for example, what domain names large corporations have rented. Can it really be true that IBM has registered cannabis-sativa.com? Or obituarypage.com? Someone please tell us this is all a terrible mistake...

    Business 11 Dec 1998, 14:32

  • Court slaps injunction in Umax

    Scanner maker slammed for 'misleading' image quality claims

    Umax has been forced to cease promoting its Astra 1220 scanner in the US as a 36-bit device, thanks to an injunction granted to rival scanner maker Visioneer. Visioneer's suit claimed that the 1220 is actually a 30-bit scanner with added interpolation software to approximate the higher image quality. The higher the number the of …

    Business 11 Dec 1998, 15:16

  • Survey: chips sales volatile throughout 1999

    But overall sales trend is upwards

    The recent levels of growth experienced by the worldwide semiconductor industry are unsustainable for "any length of time", market analyst IC Insights has warned. The company, which will next month publish the next edition of its annual McClean Report into the semiconductor business, reported thath the month-to-month sales …

    Business 11 Dec 1998, 15:29

  • Graeme Allan to leave Nortel-Bay, join Madge

    He’s on gardening leave. Bit cold for that, isn’t it Graeme?

    The UK MD of Bay Networks, Graeme Allan, left the company last Thursday and is on gardening leave until he takes up his new position. According to sources close to his plans, Allan is to become the VP of worldwide sales and marketing at Madge Networks. Allan became MD of Bay after the merger of Wellfleet and Synoptics. It is not …

    Business 11 Dec 1998, 15:36

  • Copyright cop out by Eurocrats

    After all, it is nearly the Xmas hols

    The Legal Affairs Committee of the European Parliament has delayed work on legislation crucial to protecting copyright because of what it is calling "procedural issues". The delay means that anyone who produces original material, such as authors, musicians and journalists, still has no rights over who can make copies of their …

    Business 11 Dec 1998, 16:09

  • MCI WorldCom set to axe up to 4000 jobs

    Or will CEO Bernie Ebbers keep his word...

    Around 3700 MCI WorldCom employees will be up for grabs to competitors, due to predicted layoffs following the merger. According to telecom and research analysts, WorldCom's $37 million acquisition of MCI will lead to expense cuts and the trimming of duplicate areas in the two companies. The most likely affected areas are …

    Business 11 Dec 1998, 16:57

  • IE – app or OS? Microsoft case grinds to another weekend

    The latest might be a narrow victory for the DoJ, but it was largely adrenaline-free

    Fruitless skirmishes between Professor David Farber of the University of Pennsylvania and Steven Holley for Microsoft continued for a second day yesterday, but gained no points for Microsoft. Farber said that Hadi Partovi, a Microsoft employee, had said in testimony that IE was an application. It turned out that Partovi had said …

    Business 11 Dec 1998, 17:34

  • Palm founders drop hints about Handspring handheld

    PalmPilot for kids, anyone?

    Handspring, the company set up this year by Palm Computing founders Donna Dubinsky and Jeff Hawkins, is working on an education-oriented handheld computer. According to a report in USA Today, while not making an specific comments about what products they're working on, did become intensely enthusiastic when the conversation …

    Business 11 Dec 1998, 17:46

  • Mandelson to re-target DTI handouts on e-commerce ventures

    White Paper to boost plan to make UK world's number one e-commerce market

    Trade and Industry secretary Peter Mandelson is to reshape the Department of Trade and Industry's $1 billion budget to provide better support for e-commerce, it has emerged. Changes due to be revealed in next Wednesday's white paper on competitiveness will redirect funds to promote the Internet and "modernise the micro-economy …

    Business 11 Dec 1998, 17:51

  • Watchdog snaps at BT's heels

    Obstacles to development of latest telecoms services being investigated

    Oftel, the UK telecoms regulator, is to investigate the take-up of high speed Internet access, video-on-demand and videophones among the great British public. Launching its latest consultation process, the watchdog organisation said it wants to discover if there is a latent demand for such services and, if so, whether there are …

    Business 11 Dec 1998, 17:51

  • Survey: SMEG explosion to benefit channel

    Services bonanza en route

    A report from IDC said that additional spending by the small and medium enterprises groupings (SMEGs) in the UK is set to benefit the services sector of the channel. The market research demonstrated that Compaq, MS and IBM are considered the most strategic partners for service channel companies, but according to Marianne Kolding …

    Business 11 Dec 1998, 18:00

  • Update: MCI WorldCom sacks 2000 staff

    So Ebbers didn't keep his promise, after all

    MCI WorldCom today confirmed it will slash 2000 jobs by the end of the year, following four months of speculation since the company's formation. Jamie DePeau, a company representative, confirmed: "We will be notifying approximately 2000 employees today that their jobs will be eliminated by the end of the year." The cuts will be …

    Business 11 Dec 1998, 18:12

  • News wars 2 – the swiper swipt?

    In the latest instalment of the news aggregation wars, the swiper's swiper has moved on...

    The great news aggregration thieving war appears to be over. Allegedly. The MD of 2b -- which was accused of swiping news and headlines from the aggregation service NewsNow -- has apologised publicly for doing it, claiming that he didn't even know it was happening. Seventeen-year-old Tim Dunton -- who makes several references in …

    Business 11 Dec 1998, 18:33