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May 23, 1998
News
- Well, it happened. The talks broke down between Microsoft and
the Department of Justice and the DOJ and 20 state’s attorney’s filed separate
suits against the company claiming, essentially, that they’re using their monopoly
position in the operating system market to muscle into other markets—primarily the
one for internet browsers. The initial hearing for the suit happened yesterday and at it
Judge Penfield Jackson—the same one who oversaw the recent case involving
Microsoft’s bundling of Internet Explorer 3.0—granted Microsoft’s request
to combine the suits into a single entity and set a court date of September 8. What that
means is Windows 98’s launch should be unaffected. Later this hour we’ll be
talking with Beth Jordan, a member of Microsoft’s corporate PR team, about the case.
- In an interesting twist related to the case, I read a few
reports this week that several companies, including Gateway and NEC, are planning to
bundle the latest version of Netscape Navigator with their Windows 98-equipped computers.
Many companies have been afraid to make that move for fear of retribution from Microsoft
(and because Microsoft has denied similar types of requests in the past), but with all the
world’s eyes now on Microsoft’s every move, I don’t think Microsoft would
dare give them a hard time. I say good for Gateway and NEC—let’s see who else
has the balls to make a similar type of move.
- Packard Bell this week announced that they will soon be
offering systems based around Cyrix’ low-cost MediaGX and 6x86MX processors. This is
apparently quite a departure for the company because they’ve never built computers
with non-Intel processors. However, the company, which has traditionally gotten much of
sales for offering low-cost computers, has been losing market share as result of all the
vendors entering into their low-cost arena. As a result of this move, Packard Bell hopes
to soon offer brand new systems for as low as $599. So, if you’ve been holding out
for even lower-cost computers, you may finally get what you want.
- Kodak introduced two new digital cameras this week that
include zoom functions. The $999 DC-260 offers up to 1.6 million pixels per image, a
2-inch color LCD for viewing the images, a 3x optical and 6x digital zoom, and a USB port,
as well as serial and infrared ports for transferring images to appropriately-equipped
PCs. The $799 DC-220 offers 1 million-pixel resolution, a 2x optical and 4x digital zoom
and the same 2-inch color LCD and connectors. The cameras are bundled with both
Adobe’s PhotoDeluxe image editing software and their PageMill web authoring software.
- In other Kodak news, the company announced a new service with
AOL this week called You’ve Got Pictures. The way it will work is, when you drop off
your traditional film to be processed at any one of about 30,000 participating photo
finishers, if you fill out the processing form and give them your AOL e-mail account,
digital versions of your pictures will show up in your AOL e-mail box within 48 hours. The
price for the service, which is expected to be available later this year, has not yet been
determined. Sounds pretty cool.
- Are you a PalmPilot user and a news junkie all rolled into
one? Well, then you should check out a product AvantGo, a software package for your Pilot
(and soon for Windows CE machines), that lets you download news from several different
web-based sources and then read it offline. The $99 AvantGo software has been available
since February, but the company just announced some important licensing agreements this
week with several content companies, including the New York Times, Wired Digital,
c|net’s News.com, the San Jose Mercury’s Mercury Center and the publication I
write a weekly column for, InfoWorld. The way this works is, once you’ve installed
the AvantGo client on your Pilot and other software on your desktop, all you’ll have
to do is hit the Sync button on your Pilot cradle and the most recent version of the news
package will be taken from your desktop PC and sent over to the Pilot. At the moment, my
column isn’t included in the package that InfoWorld to Go (which is the condensed
version done especially for AvantGo’s software is called), but I’m working on
it. You can download a free trial version of the product at the company’s web site,
www.avantgo.com.
- Toshiba has made yet another major price cut to their
Libretto 50CT mini-subnotebook computer. Originally priced at $2,000, the tiny computer
can now be purchased for $699. With only a 75 MHz Pentium, 16 MB of RAM, and a 6.4"
640 x 480 screen, the 2-lb Libretto 50CT is pretty underpowered compared to today’s
other mainstream notebooks, but at this price it costs less than many color handhelds that
run Windows CE. The benefit of the slightly bigger and heftier 50CT, however, is that it
is a full-blown Windows 95-equipped machine and can run any standard Windows 95
application—it isn’t limited to the cut-down Windows CE versions.
- Sony, last week, unveiled its entry into the hot new
super-thin notebook computer category with Vaio 505 Notebook. Scheduled to be priced at
just under $2,000 and due in stores around the end of July, the three-pound Vaio 505
incorporates a 200 MHz Pentium MMX processor, 10.4" active-matrix display, 2.1 GB
hard drive, 32 MB of SDRAM and a keyboard that’s 90% of full size, all in a package
that’s less than an inch thick. Mitsubishi’s Pedion and HP’s similar
Sojourner also are less than an inch thick, but those machines currently cost around
$6,000—that is, for now. I have to imagine they will be cut dramatically when the
Sony machine actually becomes available. The Vaio 505 also includes a built-in 56K modem,
USB port, PC Card slot, infrared port, lithium ion battery and connectors for an external
floppy drive (which is included) and port replicator (which isn’t), and most
intriguingly, a touchpad pointing device that also doubles as a mini-graphics tablet. The
Vaio 505 "scribble-pad," as it’s called, works in conjunction with a
bundled stylus that slides into a slot on the computer and lets you do things like
digitally sign your documents or create simple sketches. Very cool.
- Umax, the sole remaining Mac clone vendor, announced price
cuts on its remaining products this week. The company’s current license runs out in
June and is not expected to be renewed so the company obviously needs to get rid of its
inventory. So, if you’re looking for a good deal on a Mac clone that uses older 604e
processors, you might want to check them out.
- Compaq introduced a new line of inkjet printers made by
Lexmark this week. Ranging in price from $129 for the IJ200, which offers 600 x 600 dpi
resolution and print speeds of 1.5 color pages per minute, to $349 for the IJ900, which
offers 1,200 x 1,200 dpi resolution and print speeds of 4.5 pages per minute, the printers
will be marketed under the Compaq Presario brand name. The IJ900 also offers an optional
6-color cartridge for printing photographs. In related news, the company is expected to
unveil a new set of low-cost machines using both AMD’s K6 processors and Intel’s
low-cost Celeron processors a little later this month.
- If you plan on upgrading to Windows 98 specifically to take
advantage of the OS’ support of Universal Serial Bus, or USB, then you’ll soon
need to find out more about various types of USB peripherals, such as USB hubs. This past
week Belkin announced several new USB Peripherals, including the $89 USB Express Bus Hub,
which connects to one of your computer’s USB ports and then gives you four,
additional powered connectors to which you can attach other USB peripherals. One of the
little-known facts about USB is that even though it is capable of providing power to
certain peripherals, many USB devices will either need their own power or need to be
connected to a powered hub to work properly. This powered hub from Belkin should help in
that regard. The company also offers USB-to-parallel and USB-to-serial adapter cables
which lets you attach your existing printers and other external devices to your
computer’s USB ports. The reason this is helpful is because it can free up IRQs and
other computer resources required by your serial and parallel ports.
- Finally, in a nod to good things we can look forward to,
several computer and cellular phone companies this week announced a new technology called
Bluetooth that should ease the creation and use of wireless products. Bluetooth, which
isn’t expected to show up in real products for about a year, is based around a tiny,
inexpensive radio circuit that can be built into portable computers, handheld devices and
cell phones and let them all communicate wirelessly. You can find out more about the
technology at www.bluetooth.com.
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