25th August 1999 Archive

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AOL strikes my enemy's enemy deal with Kingfisher

Unite to fight Freeserve

AOL Europe has secured an exclusive distribution deal for Netscape Online sign up CDs with Kingfisher, as we reported yesterday. In return, Kingfisher will become "the exclusive retailer for electrical and home improvement products" for AOL Europe and Netscape Online, the brand new free ISP. It's a 'my enemy's enemy is my friend …

Business 25 Aug 1999, 06:01
Freeserve shares fall on Goldman Sachs research note

Needs to justify high valuation

Freeserve shares fell four pence to 202.5 pence yesterday on the back of an unhelpful Goldman Sachs research note. The investment bank kicked off its coverage of Freeserve, the British template for free ISPs by making it a "Market Performer" rating and has "a downside price target of 200 pence", financial newswire AFX reports. …

Business 25 Aug 1999, 06:40
LA citizens tackle NFL in mass fax spam

Free speech cited

The good people of Los Angeles want an NFL team in their city. And they are bombarding the NFL Commissioner with a mass Web fax petition organised by a local radio station. Techies at the NFL Commission asked Fax4Free.com company supplying the software enabling the mass fax spam, to turn off the taps. Bad move -- for now …

Business 25 Aug 1999, 07:17
Intel price cuts spark PC discount round

HP and Dell take lead by reducing costs on desktops

Hewlett-Packard has announced a swathe of price cuts on its PC workstations, as Intel's lowered chip prices begin to filter through to the US channel. The biggest cut is from the Vectra VL PC, which is now retailing at $1301, down 17 per cent. In return for your cash you get a 500MHz PIII processor, 64MB SDRAM with a 6.4GB Ultra …

Business 25 Aug 1999, 07:42
Fujitsu Siemens sign on the dotted line

JV is consummated with details of directors

As reported here last week, Fujitsu and Siemens yesterday made a joint announcement about their combined PC company (see story). The joint venture will be called Fujitsu Siemens and starts trading on 1 October. It will merge the PC divisions of the two companies, but will effectively allow for Siemens' withdrawal from the PC …

Business 25 Aug 1999, 07:46
Staff flock back to Ingram Micro

Anti-exodus in wake of Sandy Scott's exit

Former top Ingram Micro employees are flocking back to the distributor now that it is under fresh management. Neville Ebanks, who left Ingram to go to Computer 2000 during the general staff cull instigated by ex-Ingram MD Sandy Scott, recently returned to Ingram as its IBM solutions manager. Lex Wallet, who departed Ingram for …

Business 25 Aug 1999, 10:28
Email ‘cheat’ to sue university

Legal action threatened after 117 students were accused of cheating via email

One of the students accused of cheating via email by Edinburgh University, is taking legal action to clear her name. Earlier this month, The Register reported that 117 students were accused by the university of using email to swap answers to programming questions. Now, one of those accused, Henrietta Roe, is threatening to sue …

Business 25 Aug 1999, 11:04
3dfx stock drops on ongoing losses

Q2 revenue nearly doubles, but loss still high

One-time 3D graphics wunderkind 3dfx yesterday saw its stock fall 27 per cent as Wall Street reacted to the company's announcement that posted a Q2 2000 loss of $11.5 million. 3dfx reported revenues of $104.8 million for the quarter, ended 31 July, an increase of 175 per cent on last year's $59.8 million. However, that growth …

Business 25 Aug 1999, 11:18
Apple attacks iMac rip-offs

Analysis eMachines, Future Power slapped with writs. Good

Apple's legal strike against two computer vendors -- Future Power and, just last week, eMachines -- for allegedly ripping off the iMac's styling took me straight back to the early 80s. In that dim, distant and pre-Mac era, Apple regularly sicked its lawyers on computer suppliers -- usually, but not always, Far Eastern ones -- …

Business 25 Aug 1999, 11:26
Cricket web site out for a duck

intro

As the nation mourns the death of English cricket, The Register has found one nugget of solace in an otherwise cheerless world. On Friday, the new TV home of English cricket Channel 4 teamed up with CricInfo to launch its new cricket Web site. Two and a half days later the fourth and final test ended in humiliation. England don' …

Business 25 Aug 1999, 11:57
AOL's Schmidt's got a silver machine

intro

Born again biker Andreas Schmidt posed for photographers astride a throbbing Triumph yesterday at the launch of AOL's new subscription-free ISP Netscape Online. Sporting an NO leather jacket and with the number plate "NET1", was the president and CEO of AOL Europe trying to tell us something with his choice of silver dream …

Business 25 Aug 1999, 12:12
US appeal court breaks trademark/domain name link

Avery trademark too 'diluted', apparently

The US Court of Appeals has reversed a District Court decision to give domain-name protection to a well-established registered trademark. Avery Dennison, a manufacturer of office products and industrial fasteners with sales in excess of $3 billion, had registered trademarks for Avery in 1963 and Dennison in 1908. It also has the …

Business 25 Aug 1999, 12:13
Direct vendors to out-sell indirect channel

Resellers can expect a beating in the next two years

The direct channel will outstrip the indirect channel in PC shipments by 2001, according to IDC. The analyst group forecast that worldwide sales would be bigger for direct sellers for the first time thanks to changes in distribution and business customers using internal technical staff. The report, part of the IDC's US PC …

Business 25 Aug 1999, 12:16
NTL to back “fair deal” free ISP Freedomi

Promises there will be no charges at all, but there's not much detail either

Cable company NTL and global advertising agency Leo Burnett are behind the soon-to-be-launched subscription and toll-free ISP Freedomi. A number of industry insiders have already expressed amazement – privately - about NTL's connection, although no one from the Hampshire-based cable company was available at press time to discuss …

Business 25 Aug 1999, 13:25
Cadence Celeron design has double the cache

But Chipzilla has not yet implemented it

Sources close to Intel have suggested that the Mendocino design, which saved the Celeron from utter oblivion, has 256K cache designed in, not just the 128K cache, as widely advertised. According to the source, Cadence was called in after the original Celeron performed disastrously and designed the Mendocino core. The Intel …

Business 25 Aug 1999, 14:20
Chip soccer shocker will let refs photo fouls

They'll wear it next to their whistle

Sources close to Cadence US said today that one of its OEMs will release a piece of clever technology that will allow soccer referees to view the last 30 seconds of an incident. According to the source in Cadence US, that will make it easier for fouls or penalties declared by referees to be thought over. Refs will have a full 30 …

Business 25 Aug 1999, 14:48
S3 brings Diamond merger vote forward

Shareholder ballot on 20 September

S3's attempt to buy Diamond Multimedia took a step closer to completion today when the graphics company announced it had been allowed to limit the period it needs to wait before it can put the merger proposal to a shareholders' vote. The US' Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvement Act enforces a waiting period between the …

Business 25 Aug 1999, 14:52
Clever box set to slash cost of international calls

But how much will it cost to buy?

An OEM using Cadence technology said today it is set to release a box that will plug into phone sockets and save international phone bills by using the Internet Protocol. The box will plug straight into normal Bell or BT sockets, but will bypass the telcos by using clever chip technologies to use the IP protocol, it has emerged …

Business 25 Aug 1999, 14:55
Siemens/3Com telephony deal cut off

But it's not the end of the line just yet

3Com and Siemens have canned plans for their $100 million joint telephony venture designed for local corporate networks. But the two firms, who originally announced the move in December, said they would continue to work on similar technology. According to reports on US newswires, the two have decided not to go ahead with the …

Business 25 Aug 1999, 15:01
Samsung to spend its way to RAM market domination

Company chairman to spend $2.93bn on retaining RAM chip lead

Korean combine Samsung today pledged to shell out $2.93 billion to ensure the company's dominance of the RAM chip market. The investment plan was announced today by Samsung chairman Lee Kun-hee at a South Korean presidential meeting to review how much the nation's five major companies will be pumping into its economy. The …

Business 25 Aug 1999, 15:07
Apple takes anti-eMachines suit to Japan

Ban-requesting writ slapped on Japanese eOne distributor

Apple today extended its legal action against eMachines to Japan by firing off a writ against the cut-price PC vendor's Japanese distributor, Sotec. The Mac maker alleges eMachines, and its Korean parents Trigem and Korean Data Systems (KDS), ripped off the design of the iMac for their own consumer computer, the eOne. Last week …

Business 25 Aug 1999, 15:21
E-shopping researchers warn of too much traffic

Survey firm pretends to be a complaints hotline to get to the core of eshoppers' problems

There are many ways of doing consumer research on the cheap, and posing as a complaints hotline is apparently one of them. US IT research firm, Computer Economics (CE), has set up an online shopping complaint hotline to gather data as part of its research into ecommerce. The company says that the popularity of online shopping is …

Business 25 Aug 1999, 15:25
Great Santa of Software shows off new kit

Christmas goodies unveiled

Today Microsoft revealed a wealth of consumer products intended for release in the run up to Christmas. The company has produced a range of new hardware and software, ranging from PC gaming add ons, like the Sidewinder Dual Strike control, to reference material, like the new version of Encarta, or Works Suite 2000. On the …

Business 25 Aug 1999, 15:25
Ziff Davis loves Intel, The Register AMD

Lie Straw poll of adsales people reveals levels of marchitecture

A quick ring round of ad sales people in the UK metropolis has revealed how duplicitous marketing, and marchitecture, can be. A series of spoof calls to ad sales people in London, today, seemed to suggest that The Register, like AMD, is a contender, like Ziff Davis -- an Intel lookalike. Said one adsalesperson from Ziff: "Your …

Business 25 Aug 1999, 20:22