5th January 1999 Archive

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IBM loses in e-symbol war

Where do you find the pesky symbol?

Big Blue today looked like it backed the wrong symbol when it invented KeyBUK. A search of our keyboard has revealed that the small letter e with two strokes through it -- the symbol of the Euro -- is harder to find than the mighty $, the former mighty £ or even the tiny µ or weak currency the yen. UK keyboard users are used to …

Business 5 Jan 1999, 00:47
Why Microsoft wanted to buy Intuit

And why it threatened the company with a $1 billion in development cash for Money

The uneasy relationship between Intuit and Microsoft can be traced back to at least early 1990 when Intuit discussed collaboration on a finance program for Windows with Microsoft. By late 1990, Microsoft told Intuit that it intended to compete, having induced Intuit not to develop a Windows program. Despite very strong …

Business 5 Jan 1999, 10:22
MS moves to block Intuit testimony

Which means we should look closely at the bits it wants ruled out

In his direct testimony Intuit CEO William Harris fingered Microsoft for discriminatory and exclusionary behaviour, forcing Intuit to agree to have no dealings with Microsoft's competitors. Harris' testimony deals with a significant part of the DoJ's Complaint that started the present action last May: the power that Microsoft …

Business 5 Jan 1999, 10:25
DoJ stirs pot over MS sabotage denial

Microsoft's attempt to neuter Felten's testimony seems to be misfiring badly

After Microsoft cut short the cross-examination of Edward Felten last month, it filed a Representation to the court that it had not sabotaged Felten's prototype program to remove browsing capability from Windows 98. The DoJ has now filed a very strongly-worded Response asking for Microsoft's Representation to be struck from the …

Business 5 Jan 1999, 10:27
Intuit exec claims MS pressure killed Compaq deal

Even a successful competitor's alliances are limited by Microsoft, it seems

The difficulty that William Harris, Inuit's CEO, faced in court yesterday was that Intuit is a shining example of a company that has successfully managed to hold Microsoft at bay - at least so far. On the surface, this made it difficult for the DoJ to show that Microsoft has monopoly power, but Harris' direct testimony contained …

Business 5 Jan 1999, 10:30
UMC to fab Rise chips

Has access to x.86 technology

Sources said that Taiwanese company UMC (United Microelectronics Corp) will be the foundry that will make the mp6 family of processors for x.86 start up company Rise. UMC, a Taiwanese company, has access to the x.86 technology and the foundry ability to make the parts, the source said. Last month, we reported that Rise was …

Business 5 Jan 1999, 11:02
Compaq stays tight lipped over Ts&Cs

Resellers left in dark as Great Stan of PCs puts squeeze on top tier

Compaq resellers face an uncertain start to the New Year as the PC giant continues to sit on its plans to reduce the number of resellers it will sell to directly. According to channel sources, Compaq plans to double the sales targets for these tier one resellers, making it impossible for all of them to hang on to their direct …

Business 5 Jan 1999, 11:15
Vodafone plans rival Airtouch bid

The UK company is attempting to head-off Bell Atlantic's offer

UK cellular leader Vodafone is attempting to outbid Bell Atlantic's $45 billion offer for Airtouch Cellular, according to US sources. A Vodafone offer for Airtouch was rumoured last year, but it appears Bell Atlantic's bid in the past few days has prompted the British company to make its move. Aside from being higher, a Vodafone …

Business 5 Jan 1999, 11:15
Contractors' lawyer tells MS to withdraw ‘invalid’ contracts

Cynical attempt to browbeat them into signing away their rights, says here...

Microsoft is being accused of attempting to intimidate temporary contract workers into signing away their rights to benefits, according to the Washington Alliance of Technology Workers. MS' relations with contractors are presently the subject of litigation, and according to the Alliance, new contracts introduced this year are …

Business 5 Jan 1999, 11:40
LCD PC display market set to grow in 1999

Technology finally taking off

A market research company said today that sales of flat screen desktop LCD displays will experience strong growth during 1999. Bob Raikes, director of research at UK company Meko, was responding to reports that Sharp would manufacture 50,000 14-inch or greater LCDs per month during this year. Raikes said: "For a long time, this …

Business 5 Jan 1999, 11:42
Mobile frenzy boosts market values

Phone-in-a-box schemes prove big seller in run up to Christmas

Mobile phone companies saw their market values leap following bumper sales in the run up to Christmas. Some 2.5 million mobiles were sold prior to Christmas - three and a half times the number sold in Christmas 1997. In Q4 98, Vodafone added 933,000 new connections to its lists, a 287 per cent increase on the same period last …

Business 5 Jan 1999, 11:50
Big cache Xeons launched for big cash

SMP market processors costa fortune

Intel formally introduced three 450MHz additions to its high-end Pentium II Xeon chip family. The processors come with 512K, 1Mb and 2Mb of level two cache and are aimed at the server and workstation markets. The chipset and processors will support four way symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) machines. Intel claimed that systems …

Business 5 Jan 1999, 13:10
VideoLogic boosts UK channel

Imago Micro to take full range

Graphics and audio component manufacturer, VideoLogic, has given its UK channel a shot in the arm by signing a distribution deal with Imago Micro. Imago Micro will take on the full range of VideoLogic products, which includes 2D/3D graphics accelerators and audio products for PCs, games consoles and arcade machines. Imago will …

Business 5 Jan 1999, 13:18
Elcom streamlines ecommerce operations

Branches out into chairs and tables, too

Hybrid dealer/distributor, Elcom, plans to bundle all its ecommerce business into one wholly owned subsidiary called elcom.com, replacing existing online sales division Elcom Systems. It will continue to design and build technology, but will move the emphasis towards buying kit electronically. Elcom.com will go live this month …

Business 5 Jan 1999, 13:48
Intel bucks general semiconductor decline in 1998

Dataquest survey shows industry had turbulent time

A survey by Dataquest Europe said that most of the top tier chip companies, with the exception of Intel, Philips and ST Micro, suffered big declines in sales in 1998. Joe D'Elia, associate director for Dataquest Europe, who compiled the report, said: "Semiconductor vendors around the world are glad to see the back of 1998." He …

Business 5 Jan 1999, 14:06
ISP Prodigy wins four-year court battle

Net libel action rests on 50 year-old case law

Internet access providers in the US are not legally responsible for defamatory emails or newsgroup postings even though they may have carried them. This ruling in New York State draws a line under a libel suit that has dogged Net access provider Prodigy since 1994 when, according to one judge, some "infantile practical joker" …

Business 5 Jan 1999, 14:08
SAP profit warning saps UK strength

German company blames Japanese woes

SAP issued a profits warning and caused shares in UK IT companies to fall on the Stock Exchange this morning. The German software company said that while sales for 1998 rose by 40 per cent, its earnings growth at 15 per cent was below its expectations, due to falling sales in the Japanese market. Shares in CMG fell by 75 pence …

Business 5 Jan 1999, 14:09
Poirot catches up with Gates cream pie terrorists

And at $90, entartement is cheap at the price...

The long arm of the Belgian law has finally caught up with the two miscreants who cream-pied Bill Gates last February. The price of turning His Billness into a temporary confectionery Freddie Kruger is apparently around $90 a head, which does seem like something of a bargain. The practice of entartement, as it is known in French …

Business 5 Jan 1999, 15:51
Corel beefs up support for NetWinder Linux machines

A deal with Wang Global should help broaden its sales

Corel Computer is preparing to pitch its NetWinder Linux-based network computers at larger customers, following the signing of a service and support deal with Wang Global. Wang operates over 15,000 engineers and technicians world-wide, and these days specialises in providing round-the-clock service and support to international …

Business 5 Jan 1999, 15:54
Amazon.com sales rocket

But cyberbookstore still making a loss

Mega online bookstore Amazon.com has reported fourth quarter sales of $250 million -- almost four times what it made during the same period last year -- but it's unlikely to lower net losses, the company has warned. Joy Covey, Amazon's CFO, blamed the disappointing news on "aggressive product pricing" and increased fulfilment …

Business 5 Jan 1999, 17:01
Review: Freeserve – free Dixons interconnectivity

I had a lovely ThinkPad, 600 was its name, and then I installed Freeserve, and ne'er it was the same

The Register tipped up to a branch of Dixons in New Bond Street yesterday to try out Freeserve, its Internet service which is free. The disks are free at any branch of Dixons, and presumably PC World and Currys too. We installed it on our ThinkPad 600, which has Win98 installed, fully expectant that it would turn out to be a …

Business 5 Jan 1999, 17:41
Apple launches 'world's fastest PC'

Brings iMac styling to professional desktop line

Apple unveiled and began shipping the latest generation Power Mac G3 machine today, which it claimed is the fastest personal computer, offering the best graphics and the best design. The new G3 is based on a 400MHz PowerPC 750 processor using copper technology (Apple is buying chips from both Motorola and IBM) with 1MB of …

Business 5 Jan 1999, 23:01
Apple apes Swatch as iMac ships in multiple colours

Consumers more interested in shades than CPU cycles, claims Jobs

As iMac sales passed the 800,000 mark, Apple announced the latest revision of the consumer computer, increasing its spec, lowering its price and introducing a range of new colours. The new version, which began shipping in the US today, sports a 266MHz PowerPC 750 (aka G3) processor, up from 233MHz, and a 6GB hard drive (up from …

Business 5 Jan 1999, 23:04
Apple drops QuickDraw 3D in favour of OpenGL

Open graphics standard to be integrated into MacOS, made standard Mac 3D API

As a sign that it has finally abandoned the 'not invented here' philosophy that dogged it for most of its life, Apple has licensed the industry-standard 3D graphics technology, OpenGL, and said it will use the Silicon Graphics API in preference to its own, more sophisticated QuickDraw 3D API. OpenGL will be integrated into …

Business 5 Jan 1999, 23:08
MacOS X Server to turn iMac into fully-fledged NC

Server OS to ship in February

Apple interim CEO Steve Jobs effectively admitted that the iMac was a Network Computer after all today when he announced that the first commercial release of MacOS X Server will be available next month. Early iMac buyers quickly discovered that the computer had been designed to boot from a network. That, plus its built-in …

Business 5 Jan 1999, 23:10
PlayStation emulator launched for Mac

Provided Sony doesn't sue the pants off the developer...

Mac users could soon have access to one of the largest selections of computer games in the world, thanks to a neat utility from developer Connectix. Connectix Virtual Game Station (VGS), released today at MacWorld Expo, allows any Power Mac G3 and iMac to run almost all PlayStation titles out of the box. The snag: will Sony, …

Business 5 Jan 1999, 23:13