29th February 2000 Archive

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Net appliance will boost PC biz, not kill it – survey

Opinion A future, not the future

A US market research report released today claims that the anticipated boom in Internet appliances won't come at the cost of the traditional PC industry after all. Quite the reverse, in fact, reckons eTForecasts. Instead of decimating the PC business, the appliance market will actually drive PC sales. eTForecasts contends that …

Business 29 Feb 2000, 00:01
Cash Register: 15-21 Feb 2000

More tales from the Bubble Economy

21 Feb 2000 WebTV propels e-district into financial stratosphere Virgin is to expand its Aussie mobile phone business. The group has signed a 50-50 deal with Optus – Australia's second-biggest mobile operator - to launch the service down under this autumn. Virgin also hopes to make similar agreements in continental Europe and …

Business 29 Feb 2000, 00:07
Janet Reno dismisses central cyber-security agency

Argument against Big Government reveals fear of dancing to another's tune

As part of a recent government-wide scramble to tame the Wild, Wild Web, Senate Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Fred Thompson (Republican, Tennessee) and Senator Joseph Lieberman (Democrat, Connecticut) announced hearings planned for 2 March on legislation to improve government network security by creating a centralised …

Business 29 Feb 2000, 06:21
Nvidia hides NV11, NV15 under CeBIT bushel

No stand didn't mean it had nothing to say

Nvidia did not show at the world's biggest computer fair, CeBIT. We can only assume because the company is currently the graphical Chipzilla, and doesn't need to. When 3Dfx were asked why Nvidia wasn't there executives said: "They're scared of us" which definitely is not the case. In fact, Nvidia is stronger then ever and ready …

Business 29 Feb 2000, 08:10
Intel jumps on WAP-wagon

More investments on the way

Today's Jerusalem Post is reporting that market cap giant Intel has invested in Haifa company PassCall, which specialises in WAP (wireless access protocol) technology. According to the newspaper, no financial details of the deal were available, but Intel's money will fund research and development as well as expanding PassCall's …

Business 29 Feb 2000, 09:23
Big Q snaps up Kodak-man

And wins big French Alpha deal

Although its share price was rumbling around at the $25 mark yesterday, Compaq had some good news for its shareholders. First, it recruited a former Kodak executive, Jesse Greene, to become its chief financial officer, after a lengthy delay in filling the job after Earl Mason left last year. And, perhaps more significantly for …

Business 29 Feb 2000, 09:47
The NSA begs to differ with CBS

It's all legal....you got a problem, write your Congressman

US National Security Agency (NSA) officials took the step of writing Congress with a few pointers of their own last week, in anticipation of considerable PR damage by CBS News, which aired a programme accusing the Agency of systemic abuses of power a few days later. The "airing of a CBS '60 Minutes' news magazine report may …

Business 29 Feb 2000, 10:03
No easy Itanium-McKinley transition for Intel

Further countdown to conundrum in IA-64

Differences between the architecture of Intel's Itanium (Merced) and its future McKinley design mean that moving from one to the other is unlikely to prove a piece of cake. Sources said that McKinley will differ so radically from the Itanium that Intel is pushing further resources into Itanium to transform it from the …

Business 29 Feb 2000, 10:21
Bill's big deals go MIA – rolls out MSN Mobile 2 instead

AT&T, BT, Sprint don't provide keynote-fodder after all

Numerous dogs didn't bark when Bill Gates delivered his keynote speech at Wireless 2000 in New Orleans yesterday. A leaked memo earlier in the month had trailed a dazzling list of deals Microsoft was on the point of clinching, and which Bill could use for his keynote, but they seem to have been delayed. Microsoft has done deals …

Business 29 Feb 2000, 11:04
Gateway: no support crisis at firm

Europe outsources when it needs to

A senior executive at Gateway in Europe said today that the company's ability to field support calls was based on seasonal differences, and there has been no crisis at the firm. That follows an allegation from a Gateway insider that the firm's support staff was at full stretch last week after it pulled the plug on three of its …

Business 29 Feb 2000, 11:08
Palm IPO stock price doubles to $32 per share

3Com subsidiary to be worth more than its parent

3Com yesterday upped the projected price range for Palm shares to be sold in its subsidiary's upcoming IPO from $14-16 to $30-32. The IPO is due to take place late tomorrow, with public trading commencing Thursday. No great surprise this. Palm's IPO has been eagerly anticipated by investors - you can almost feel the drool - for …

Business 29 Feb 2000, 11:25
MS-owned Slate reports Gates as 1999's top giver

Outstanding editorial decisions of the millennium - not.

Microsoft-owned online magazine Slate has been getting into a pretty scrappy war with rival Salon over the past few months, but one of the former's current big stories is scarcely likely to help it. A report on America's top 60 charitable donations of 1999? Naturally the Bill and Melissa Gates Foundation tops the poll by a mile …

Business 29 Feb 2000, 11:37
Reports suggest 29 Feb clock trouble

Programmers, eh?

Early reports from around the world suggest that 29 February has caused several problems with computer systems with inadequate programming mainly to blame. A number of Japanese sites collectively fell over after failing to correctly recognise that the year 2000 is a leap year and today is the 29th of February. Outfits such as …

Business 29 Feb 2000, 11:41
Opera goes public with EPOC browser beta

Gloom at Psion as last excuse for not shipping The Reg a netBook vanishes...

Opera Software has gone into public beta with Opera for EPOC. According to Opera EPOC lead programmer Keith Hollis the software is equivalent to Opera 3.62, and includes the same features as the Windows version, including SSL version 2 and 3 and TLS version 1. At this stage it doesn't have Java support, primarily because built- …

Business 29 Feb 2000, 12:02
BT Internet is cheaper than BT Surftime

Evenings free, subs cut, from tomorrow

BT Internet has cut the cost of its subscription service and increased the amount of time its users can spend online without running up a massive phone bill. As of tomorrow, BT Internet users will be able to get unlimited Net access every evening (from 6pm to midnight) on top of the current weekend offer. It has also cut its …

Business 29 Feb 2000, 12:32
Qualcomm does smartphone deal with MS – and Symbian

Cunningly playing both ends of the field

The announcement of a Microsoft-Qualcomm joint effort to produce reference designs for mobile devices yesterday may have been big news as Bill Gates' keynote was concerned, but Qualcomm would seem to be playing fast and loose. Because the company made two remarkably similar announcements, both tagged "New Orleans, February 28 …

Business 29 Feb 2000, 12:49
Lycos comes to US market with free Net access

Cat well and truly among the pigeons

Lycos has delivered a massive boost to the free ISP model in the US by announcing its own subscription-free dial-up access service. The bigshot portal is teaming up with fellow CMGI subsidiary 1stUp.com Corporation, described as a "leading provider of ad-supported Internet access solutions". AltaVista, also a CMGI subsidiary, …

Business 29 Feb 2000, 12:54
Sun tie-in to push Palm as wireless thin client

Java on Palm to power handheld as moble data, application platform

Sun and Palm will today shake hands on a co-operative development program to improve the Palm handheld's utility as a wireless mobile Internet terminal for corporate users. The two companies are already working together to bring Java to the PalmOS. Details of the latest joint venture are practically non-existent - C'Net's …

Business 29 Feb 2000, 12:54
Pick up the phones, your boss is on the screen

2002 launch for NEC three-way video conferencing PDAs

NEC aims to have a PDA with three-way video-conferencing on the market from 2002, it said on Saturday. The Twin Leaf prototype, exhibited at CeBIT 2000, will be a third-generation mobile phone that folds out to show two LCD screens for three-way phone conversations. It will also have a built-in digital camera, while the company …

Business 29 Feb 2000, 13:08
Chip team applies Linux approach to CPU design

OpenCores' OpenRisc 1000 core to debut under GNU licence

Can open source chip hardware shake up the embedded processor market the way Linux is changing the face of the operating system business? That's the question a gang of chip designers called OpenCores will attempt to answer when it launches its free 32-bit Risc CPU core later this week. Certainly OpenCores operates along the …

Business 29 Feb 2000, 13:34
Cheapzilla: I'm a gonna get you Chipzilla

Ding ding. Seconds out as fight heats up

The significance of the AMD keyring shaped like a boxing glove which it was giving away at CeBIT last week became clear today as the company delivered a sock in the jaw to Intel on pricing. As we revealed last week, the price of the Athlon 700 is now around the $270 mark, really piling the pressure on Intel. The other prices are …

Business 29 Feb 2000, 13:52
Swedes claim world's first Bluetooth mouse

A year before it hits the shops

The Swedes were claiming the development of the world's first Bluetooth mouse at CeBIT 2000 this week. C Technologies, jointly owned by founder Christer Fahraeus and Ericsson Mobile, said it was looking for OEM partners to manufacture and brand the product – currently a prototype. The C-Mouse will have all the normal mouse …

Business 29 Feb 2000, 14:25
Refunds for SurfVeryLimited customers

Telewest teething problems

Telewest has started refunding its SurfUnlimited customers because the service is so poor. A Register reader was offered a £10 refund on his monthly subscription as a "gesture of goodwill" because he was so enraged by the poor quality of the service. Others are understood to have demanded a refund, according to sources. A …

Business 29 Feb 2000, 15:05
Ericsson polices CeBIT bootleggers

Pirates in a Messe

Ericsson has slapped at least ten vendors with legal action for exhibiting pirate products at this year's CeBIT. The Swedish company said it has "a handful" of spies policing the halls at the Hanover Messe, searching for companies using its name on phone accessories. It has so far handed out at least 30 cease and desist letters …

Business 29 Feb 2000, 15:21
Microsoft and Caldera – dispelling the myths

The aborted trial was a lot less important than you might think...

As the dust settles after Caldera's defeat of Microsoft and the Caldera Systems IPO gets nearer, it's perhaps worth dispelling some of the myths that have arisen. The first is that Caldera Systems - the one that filed for the IPO - is closely-related to Caldera Inc, the winner of the settlement from Microsoft. Not only did …

Business 29 Feb 2000, 15:21
Barclays swoops on porn-at-work staff

Fifty under investigation

Barclays Bank is interrogating 50 staff at its Glasgow-based stockbroking operation after hardcore porn was found on computers. The images are thought to have been distributed by email, according to The Sun. A Barclays representative said: "We have strict rules on porn. Our disciplinary procedures will depend on the …

Business 29 Feb 2000, 15:40
Martha Lane Fox hedges bets with Sale of The Century

From clicks to mortar for industry's favourite fat kitten

Lastminute.com queen, Martha Lane Fox, is trading her clicks and mortar crown for a more traditional way to make money. She's named as a non-executive director in a new bricks and mortar venture to create an exclusive club in the heart of London's West End. Called Century, it is due to open in June with a restaurant, bar, and …

Business 29 Feb 2000, 16:06
Rambus Ink goes through the roof

Crash Register News from the front line

Rambus (RMBS) Even hard pressed Rambus executives must be wondering what is happening to its stock price. The last time we looked, while writing this piece, the share price stood at $281, notwithstanding the Phlegm of the Week we received this morning. A very large memory manufacturer, who declined to be named, asked us if we …

Business 29 Feb 2000, 16:30
What a difference a Dot makes

dot net to make Brummie reseller a millionaire

A Birmingham reseller plans to increase the value of his business by almost ten times through adding a dot net to the company name. Mark Abrams, 35, bought Myratech from his former maths teacher for £18,000 11 years ago. The company, which started life as a software reseller (flogging Sage) and has since added a facility for …

Business 29 Feb 2000, 16:46
Channel feasts on live Athlon processors

But it's vulture time for INTCzilla

Are you a system builder? Are you clappy-happy with your supplies of Intel Pentium processors in different flavours? UK firm SMC's direct pages illustrate, rather neatly, how the famine is effecting the marketplace. While the channel may have difficulty getting stock, on the other hand, as several tier two OEMs told us at CeBIT …

Business 29 Feb 2000, 16:49
Autumn leaves will fall before ADSL rolls out in Britain

Updated: BT opens order books on 20 April

BT has extended its ADSL trial until the end of June to enable the telco to continue testing the service and appraise its launch procedures. Oftel confirmed today that BT had asked for an extension to June 30 for its ADSL trials. Curiously, BT says it plans an activation of its service to end-users on 29 June, one day before the …

Business 29 Feb 2000, 17:09
An MS-friendly president? Candidate Bush blinks

Some people will do anything to get elected...

Republican presidential candidate George W Bush has become the first to blink, as far as the Microsoft case is concerned. Campaigning in Microsoft's Washington home state this week, Bush delivered a heavy hint that as president, he'd come down on Microsoft's side. Bush said he thought it was important, "when there is innovation …

Business 29 Feb 2000, 19:03