Dec. 26, 1998, Newsbytes reports that IBM has announced that it will
be designing DRAM for Taiwan Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
[1998/12/29]
Dec. 23, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that Telus and BC Tel have
announced that they have received notice from Bell Canada, sent
on Dec. 16, 1998, terminating the Stentor agreement effective
Dec. 31, 1999. [The Stentor agreement has to do with long distance
cross networking of telephone calls. I'm not sure at this point
whether it directly affects wireless, but I expect that it will,
at least indirectly.]
[1998/12/29]
Dec. 22, 1998, Responsive Database Services reports that according to
American Banker (Dec. 18, 1998) Bank of America has announced that it
will make some services available via the 3Com's Palm VII wireless
handheld computer.
[1998/12/26]
Dec. 22, 1998, Business Wire reports that Xircom, Inc. has announced
that Bita Katz (Xircom's director of worldwide product marketing) was
recently elected to serve as treasurer for the 1998/1999 PCMCIA Board
of Directors.
[1998/12/26]
Dec. 21, 1998, Business Wire reports that Hewlett-Packard Company has
announced price cuts including:
HP OmniBook 4100, 266MHz Pentium, 6GB HD, 32MB RAM, 14" TFT display,
$3,499 US.
[1998/12/26]
Dec. 21, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Motorola has announced that
it has purchased Lucent Technologies' research and product development
assets related to wireless handsets.
[1998/12/26]
Dec. 18, 1998, Business Wire reports that Synergy Technology Distribution
Limited and Motorola, Lexicus Division have announced the release of
the DragonPen(TM) Chinese character handwriting recognition software
for PalmOS based devices such as the 3Com Palm III. The software
is derived from Lexicus' "WisdomPen" but is limited to about 5,000
characters. According to the article, response time is less than 1 second
and it can be used in as little as 650KB and is compatible with most
existing applications on the Palm Computing Platform. It can be
immediately downloaded for $27.99 US.
http://www.dragonpen.com.hk/
[1998/12/22]
Dec. 18, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that IVI Checkmate Corp.
has announced its Elite 780 handheld wireless debit/credit card
terminal has received certification from the Royal Bank of Canada.
The terminal has been designed for use on the Cantel AT&T Mobitex
network.
[I think the Rogers Cantel announcement about Pizza Pizza below
probably meant to say that the terminal supported debit card transactions
as well as credit card transaction. As I noted below, simply supporting
credit cards is not significant.]
[1998/12/22]
Dec. 18, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that Rogers Cantel has
announced that Scotiabank, Pizza Pizza, Rogers Cantel and IVI
Checkmate are beginning a pilot project implimenting a wireless
mobile payment system. Scotia 2020 Mobile uses a handheld wireless
point of sale terminal through the Cantel AT&T data network for
credit card payments and tips "right at the door." Two Pizza Pizza
locations, one in Toronto (Church and Wellesley) and one in Mississauga
(Derry Road), are participating in this pilot.
[I thought pizza deliveries already had credit card payments?
I don't see any advantage. . . .]
[1998/12/22]
Dec. 16, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Nortel Networks, Microcell
and Panasonic will deploy an experimental wide CDMA (W-CDMA) network
in Montreal. Microcell will host the trial which will begin "early
next year." Key features will include "high-bandwidth Internet
access . . . using prototype personal phones, wireless modems, digital
cameras and other innovative consumer devices from Panasonic. An
advanced data network backbone from Nortel Networks will deliver
these applications and services at speeds up to 384 kbps."
[1998/12/22]
Dec. 16, 1998, John Gartner writes for TechWeb that Zoom Telephonics
has begun shipping a "retail market" version of wireless LAN. Their
ZoomAir products are based on Harris Semiconductor's PRISM chipset
and can transmit data at up to 2 megabits per second. A network
interface card costs $299 US. Software costs $199 US and currently
only supports Windows 95 and 98.
[1998/12/22]
Dec. 15, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Logica announced that
De La Rue, Motorola and Logica's "mobile commerce solution" won
the "Financial Times 1998 Global Telecommunications Award for
most innovative mobile product." The system uses Motorola's
"dual slot" GSM Cellular Phone Dela Rue's SIMphonIC Java based
SIME smart card and Logica's m-Commerce(TM) server. The system
allows making purchases and downloading e-cash "while on the
move."
http://www.logica.com/
[1998/12/22]
Dec. 15, 1998, Reuters reports that Yahoo! Inc. is offering a
special product which will transfer Yahoo online calendars and
address books into the PalmPilot or computer devices running
Microsoft Outlook. The "TrueSync for Yahoo" software was
developed by Starfish Software Inc. which is owned by Motorola.
[1998/12/19]
Dec. 15, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that PageMart has introduced
a new pager plan called "PowerPage". The prepaid plan sells the
service on a "per page" basis within a time frame. A pre-paid card
can be bought in increments of 50 ($9.95), 100 ($17.95) or
200 ($29.95) pages. According to the article "[E]ach PowerPage
card is equipped with extended local numeric paging coverage, 12-hour
voice mail, personalized greeting, the activation fee and the service
for up to one year from activation. Customer accounts can carry
over residual pages with the purchase and activation of any new
card." [I'm not sure what is meant by "equipped with".]
[1998/12/19]
Dec. 15, 1998, Alyson Behr writes for InternetWeek that Option
International Inc has introduced the "Snap-On GSM Adapter" for
the 3Com PalmPilot. The modem connects to the internet through
a cable to a supported cell phone. The article says that the currently
supported speed is "9,600 Kbps", but when read in the article, it
is clearly an error. The supported speed is 9,600 bps (or about
9.6Kbps). Bundled with software it apparently sells for about $199 US.
[The article is a bit vague on this point also.]
[1998/12/19]
Dec. 14, 1998, (Reuters reports that The Ontario government has
awarded a contract to Entrust Technologies to supply 11 million
digital certificates for each Ontario resident and business for
"secure electronic communications." Specific uses mentioned in
the article are application for driver's licences and part of a
child protection ID plan.
[1998/12/19]
Dec. 14, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Toshiba Corporation will use
Geoworks Premion Server+ for its information service program which
will relay over-the-air Japanese news and information to portable
devices.
[1998/12/19]
Dec. 11, 1998, Anthony Cataldo writes for EE Times that the Wireless
Application Protocol (WAP) consortium is developing its "Wireless
Markup Language" which is an "development of XML extensions", but
at least one member -- NTT DoCoMo, feels progress has been too slow.
Catlaldo notes that DoCoMo is planning to deploy a proprietary
scheme which combines HTML and proprietary protocols, and that
Microsoft and Qualcomm's WirelessKnowledge is working on its own
system.
[1998/12/15]
Dec. 10, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Hewlett-Packard showed pen
based "tablet" style computers and wireless products that are still
under development at the 16th annual International Autobody Congress
and Exposition in Dallas.
[1998/12/15]
Dec. 10, 1998, Susan Nadeau writes for Reuters that Ericsson's warning of lower Q4 earnings was not an indication of similar problems for Motorola.
Ericsson Warning Details:
According to Nadeau, Ericsson said that 1998 results would be 15 - 20%
below market expectations and the company would cut up to 10,000 jobs.
Ericsson blamed the result on the "effect of the global financial
crisis on its public phone networking business . . ." and "a shift
in wireless phone demand to lower-margin, entry level phones. The
company said that the rapidly growing pre-paid wireless phone business
now accounts for one-third of the market in Western Europe."
[The article has a good discussion about Motorola's expected
results, but I'm more interested in the two general comments I quoted
above. Look at Nortel Networks' last two quarterly reports and comments
by Nortel officials and you get a different story. Despite the weakness
in the Asian and South American economies, Nortel has done quite well
in those markets. Nortel believes, naturally, that if the economies
were better in those markets, then they could have done even better, but
Nortel is still confident of healthy growth in the coming year. Likewise,
in handsets, it appears that Nokia is simply outselling Ericsson.
The coming of cheaper Asian GSM handsets will probably cut into both
companies in the coming year, but the products will not necessarily be
"entry level" in terms of capabilities. The claim that 1/3 of Western
European market is "pre-paid" is interesting. I don't know how is this
"1/3" was defined.]
[1998/12/15]
Dec. 10, 1998, Reuters reports that Telefon AB L. M. Ericsson fell
on Thursday after announcing that 1998 results would be below
"market expectations" and 1999 results would not meet the company's
long term growth goal. Ericsson said that job cuts would be announced
in January along with the company's annual report.
[1998/12/15]
Dec. 9, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that JAWS Technologies Inc.
has released JAWS L5 Data Encryption PDA Edition software for the
3Com Palm III(TM). The 4096 bit JAWS L5 encryption secures
information in the "memo pad" application. The price for the
software is quoted at $19.95 (presumably Cdn.)
[1998/12/15]
Dec. 9, 1998, Andy Patrizio writes for TechWeb that Intel has released
three new laptop chips. The fastest Pentium II is now 366MHz (Q1
of 1999), a Celeron-based laptop processor will be a "pin-based
design". There will also be a new 300MHz Pentium MMX in Q1 1999.
[1998/12/15]
Dec. 10, 1998 Canada News Wire reports that Microcell Telecommunications Inc. has submitted an application to the CRTC requesting it to mandate "number portability for wireless service providers, including cellular and Personal Communications Services (PCS) operators."
[I have been anxious to see the response in the industry to this move and have been disappointed in apparent lack of interest. I believe that the obstacles for wider use of PCS are 1. ongoing service costs, 2. complexity of packages and 3. obstacles that block subscribing, switching or terminating services. I currently lump together a lot in that third point. Lack of number portability falls into the third category because of the expense of informing people of the new phone number (which can be quite high if it's on your business cards, stationary, and other advertising material). Some people would also argue that some phone numbers achieve almost trademark significance, even if they aren't particularly special like "1234".
Putting this in perspective, I think it is clear that within the current pricing of wireless phone services, the easiest sales to "early adopters" have pretty much been made. In the key largest markets we're entering the second phase in the industry where, on the one hand, "word of mouth" should start helping sales, but new customers are generally less inclined to try new products. This next market is made up of people even less willing to "get stuck with the wrong product". As such, while it is obvious that the newer companies (Clearnet and Microcell) will derive the benefit of being able to "raid the established companies", it's more likely that all the companies will benefit from the decrease anxiety of trying any of their products.
It surprises me that if you look at the share prices of the four provider
from Dec. 8 - Dec. 11, only Microcell's own shares seem to show any
sign of interest in this move.]
[1998/12/13]
Dec. 8, 1998, Associate Press reports that Microsoft has admitted
that a number of "year 2000" bugs have been uncovered in its
recently released Windows 98 Operating System software and
have posted a bug fixes on its website.
[1998/12/12]
Dec. 8, 1998, Canadian Corporate News reports that Eicon
Technology has announced its DIVA Mobile V.90 modem and ISDN
combination PC-Card. It is also backwards compatible with
K56Flex.
http://www.eicon.com/
[1998/12/12]
Dec. 8, 1998, Business Wire reports that Motorola has announced
that Samsung has license its FLEX(TM) protocol decoder chip set.
The resulting products should expedite the conversion from
POCSAG paging to FLEX paging in the Asian markets.
[1998/12/12]
Dec. 8, 1998, Business Wire reports that the Wall Street Transcript
has published an interview with Steven V. Abramson of Universal
Display Corp. UDC is a fabless flat panel display company doing
research in "organic light emitting diode" (OLED) technology. Mr.
Abramson says that he expects to have commercial prototypes available
next year and commercial products in the market in the year following.
[In a sense this isn't a "news report" at all, but I believe that
the topic and perhaps this company will be important to the
mobile industry.]
http://www.twst.com/panl.pdf
[1998/12/12]
Dec. 7, 1998, Steven Titch writes for "tele.com" that Sony Electronics
has voluntarily recalled 60,000 dual mode CDMA/AMPS cellular phones
because 800 MHz AMPS operation exceeds FCC specifications for
radiation levels raising some concern for health. The phones
(models CM-B3200, CM-B2200 and CM-B1201) were manufactured between
Feb. and June, 1998 and mainly shipped to PrimeCo Personal
Communications and Sprint PCS.
[1998/12/12]
Dec. 7, 1998, John Gartner writes for TechWeb that Apple has
reduced prices for its PowerBook laptop computers. The base price
for a 233-MHz PowerBook has been reduced from $2799 US to $2,499 US.
[1998/12/12]
Dec. 8, 1998, Jennifer Hagendorf writes for Computer Reseller News
that NEC's new Windows CE based MobilePro 800 is due to be shipped
in February 1999, waiting for its recently announced VR4121 MIPS
RISC CPU. At an estimated cost of $999 US, it will feature a
9.4" colour SVGA display and weigh about 2.4 lbs. and will have
an optional docking cradle costing $149 US.
[1998/12/12]
Dec. 8, 1998, Lisa Picarille writes for Computer Reseller News
that "Unlike Newton, which used a proprietary operating system,
the P1 [by Apple] will run on a trimmed version of the Mac OS . . ."
[The P1 has been mentioned before, but I couldn't resist including
ths quote. In case you are very new to the computer industry,
the point which is amusing is that Apple's "Mac OS" is about as
"proprietary" as there is in the industry.]
[1998/12/12]
Dec. 7, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Geoworks has announced
the intention of funding it Premion(TM) Information Services
via graphic based advertising.
[1998/12/12]
Dec. 7, 1998, Business Wire reports that AMD has announced an
"advanced NAND flash memory" with improved reliability. The
Am30LV0064 64-megabit device using this technology is currently
being sampled and production is aimed at Q1 1999. "UltraNAND"
combines a smaller cell wit a simplied manufacturing process.
AMD claims 100,000 program/erase cycles without error correction
and a minimum 10 years of data retention, and possible prices
below $1.00/megabyte in the year 2000.
[1998/12/12]
Dec. 7, 1998, Business Wire reports that IBM has introduced new
charge coupled device (CCD) sensors for use in digital photography.
Produced in IBM's 8" fab using 0.5 - 0.35 micron processes, multiple
polysilicon and metal levels, and a fully - planarized back - end
- of - line metalization process. Devices discussed were in the
1.3 - 2.0 Mpixel ranges.
[1998/12/12]
Dec. 7, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Xybernaut Corporation
has announced that it has lincensed IBM's ViaVoice 98 to be its
standard speech recognition package for its Mobile Assistant(TM)
IV (MA IV) series of wearable computers.
[1998/12/12]
Dec. 5, 1998, Responsive Database Services reports that Lynnette
Luna wrote for the Nov. 30, 1998 issue of RCR Radio Communications
Report that AT&T Wireless Services Inc. is testing a new plan
in Plano, Texas which are aimed specifically at using a digital
wireless phone as a substitute for a second phone line. Priced
at $40 and $60 US per month they include unlimited local airtime
but 30 or 300 min. of airtime in the Dallas/Fort Worth area
and $0.60/min roaming beyond that range.
[1998/12/12]
Dec. 5, 1998, Mark LaPedus writes in the Nov. 30 issue of Electronic
Buyers News that Lucent Technologies has announced shipment of
a new GSM handset OEM kit for 900, 1,800 and 1,900 handsets. The
kit consists of Lucent's "Sceptre GSM hardware" and dual-band
software. It includes an SC1688 chip which combines Lucent's
DSP1628 digital signal processor and CSP1089 conversion-signal
processor, a CPP48101 controller, and RF devices. Pricing was
not given by Lucent. GVC is named as a customer.
[1998/12/08]
Dec. 3, 1998, Lisa Picarille writes in the Dec. 3 Computer Reseller News that Palm has announced its new Palm VII organizer which features wireless internet access. Priced at $800 US, it is planned for availability in the second half of 1999.
Likewise Apple is rumoured to have a new "PDA" planned called the P1,
featuring an 832 * 624, 11" screen and costing $1,000 - $1,200 US, and
featuring "a trimmed version of the Mac OS."
[1998/12/08]
Dec. 3, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that Bell Canada and Bell Mobility
has announced their new "Integrated Message Centre" (IMC) developed by
Bell Emergis. This is a new single voice mailbox service which is shared
by wireline and wireless services and costs $3 Can. per month.
[1998/12/08]
Dec. 3, 1998, Reuters reports that according to Dataquest, during
the first three quarters of 1998, US sales of digital PCS phones
were 10.1 million, while analog "cell phone" sales were only
7.9 million.
[1998/12/08]
Dec. 3, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that Nortel Networks is now providing
a "pre-configured" wireless data applications portfolio for Nortel
Networks' Companion line of wireless communications systems. The
Interactive Messaging (text messaging), Interactive Information View (PC
software) and Interactive C3050 Administration software (for programming
the C3050 applications work with the Companion C3050 wireless portable
telephone which is also referred to as a "portable terminal."
[1998/12/08]
Dec. 1, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that Clearnet Communications
Inc. has commenced full digital PCS service in Victoria, BC.
[1998/12/05]
Dec. 1, 1998, Business Wire reports that Sprint has launched its
digital PCS services in Cincinnati, Columbus, Chattanooga, Knoxville,
Charlotte, Raleigh and Greensboro, in the USA, based primarily on
Motorola CDMA equipment. Motorola SC(TM)614T base stations support
IS-41 Rev C.
[1998/12/05]
Nov. 27, 1998, Bill Savadove writes for Reuters that Microsoft has unveiled a Chinese version of Windows CE. 10 companies have announced intentions to develop products including Philips Electronics in early December, LEO Systems by the end of this year at around $350 US, Legend Holdings in December about $420 US, and Casio (no details) and HP (also no details).
Nov. 25, 1998, Newsbytes reports that according to Finjan Inc. there
is a security hole in Microsoft's Internet Explorer Versions 3 and
later. Called the "Fabio Ciucci Denial-of-Service Attack" after its
discoverer, the "hole" involves functions that Microsoft added to the
Java Virtual Machine and IE browsers, particularly the "DirectDraw"
functions and allows a malicious programmer to create Java applets
that can crash desktops. Finjan claims its SurfinGate security
product prevents the Ciucci Java attack.
http://www.finjan.com/alerts.cfm
[1998/12/01]
Nov. 19, 1998, Associate Press writes that business travel
is being cut back as companies are increasingly trying to
reduce costs. Video conferencing is growing to fill some
of the gap. [This is the heart of the evaluation methodology I've
proposed from the beginning. One must evaluate mobile technology
within the universe of alternatives such as teleconferencing.
One can move people, "things" or just data. What is the goal?]
[1998/11/29]
Considering that the new "Windows CE Pro" software is one of the current big buzzes of the mobile industry, it may surprise people to hear that I only upgraded my NEC MobilePro 400 (MP-400) to Windows CE 2.0 this past week (actually I upgraded the MP-400 on Nov. 26, 1998, then loaded the WinCE Services 2.0 on my Compaq on Nov. 27, ran into problems, removed it and the reinstalled it on Nov. 28 with the 2.1 upgrade).
In fact, since my main use of it has been as an "HTML reader",
and at that only for the most basic HTML pages, the upgrade
didn't really gain me much. As an HTML reader the two main
gains were the support of "frames" which is of no immediate
value since I don't store books with frames -- due to the waste
of screen space, and the ability to change the font size. The
changeable font size is actually a compelling reason to upgrade
since the original font and size were often difficult to read.
Also the spreadsheet is better because I can now "lock titles".
But I have lost the ability to do "screen grabs" which is a major
setback for my writing. I'll have more to say about it later.
[1998/11/29]
Nov. 21, 1998, Responsive Database Services reports that Beth Davis
has written for Information Week, Nov. 16, 1998, that WinNet
Metropolitan Communications Systems Inc. has announced its
Win-100 Fast Ethernet wireless system which operates in the
26-GHz and 38-GHz licensed bands and integrates with "off-the-shelf"
Ethernet devices such as routers, switches and hubs. Starting
at $60,000 US per link it can connect buildings up to 6 miles
apart at 100 Mbps.
[1998/11/25]
Nov. 20, 1998, Jennifer Hagendorf writes for Computer Reseller News that Fujitsu PC announced that its LifeBook L series will begin selling "next week" [this week as I write this]. Weighing 4.5 lbs., it uses an Intel 266MHz mobile Pentium II and 13.3" XGA TFT screen it costs $2699 US.
Hitachi PC showed its two new product lines:
VisionBook Traveler 600, 2.9 lb. mini-notebook, 266MHz Pentium MMX,
32MB SDRAM, 4.3GB removable HD, 56K V.90 modem (or 10/100 BaseTX LAN)
$1,999 US
VisionBook 800, 266 - 300MHz Pentium II, 13.3" - 14.1" TFT display,
up to 8GB HD, up to 128MB RAM, from $2,400 US to $4,000 US.
both are targetted for January 1999 sales.
[1998/11/25]
Nov. 19, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Motorola and Iridium
provided free phones and services for relief efforts in Central
America after Hurricane Mitch. The article notes that Iridium
does not rely on ground based infrastructure.
[1998/11/25]
Nov. 18, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Nortel Networks has announced
that they are conducting "live trials of cdmaOne (IS-95 CDMA)
circuit switched data (IS-707) services with Bell Mobility and other
select customers, and in the Nortel Networks Wireless Internet Lab
in Dallas."
[1998/11/25]
Nov. 18, 1998, PR Newswire reports that according to Nortel Networks,
1 in 4 PCs are now mobile. [This number is provided completely devoid
of definition for "PC" or "mobile" or even the vaguest reference to
any methodology for collection of its base data.]
[1998/11/25]
Nov. 17, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Inet has unveiled its Spider II
Type II PC Card format CDPD modem with support for Windows CE. Shipment
is expected to commence in the first quarter 1999. No price was
provided in the article.
http://www.inet.com/
[1998/11/21]
Nov. 17, 1998, Jennifer Hagendorf writes for Computer Reseller News that
Hewlett-Packard plans to market products with biometric security in
1999. According to Stacey Wuste of HP, fingerprint scanners will be
available for HP Omnibook laptops in "early 1999."
[1998/11/17]
Nov. 16, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Geoworks has introduced its new
Premion Interface+ graphical application environment. This new interface
supports the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) standard and HTML, and
is is claimed to run on more than one operating system.
[1998/11/21]
Nov. 16, 1998, Business Wire reports that Motorola, Inc,'s Cellular
Infrastructure Group and Compaq Computer Corporation have announced
that Motorola will market Compaq's "intelligent network products" with
Compaq's IS-41 Home Location Registration (HLR) and Authentication Center
for cellular and Personal Communications Service PCS) networks, on
NonStop Himalaya platforms. Basic HLR functions include automatic roaming,
call delivery, remote feature access. Enhanced services include most
"ANSI-41 Rev. D" features.
[1998/11/21]
Nov. 16, 1998, Reuters reports that Xybernaut Corp and Samsung Electronics
Co. have agreed to develop a miniature wearable computer based on the
DEC (Compaq) Alpha RISC chip, to which Samsung has a licence.
[1998/11/21]
Nov. 16, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Mitsubishi Electric Corporation has
introduced its new Moem-D handset, which will be used by customers of NTT
DoCoMo in Japan. The handset is unique because it is the first to support
3 E-Mail systems: "Short Mail Service", "10-yen Mail" and "NIFTY Serve".
Based on Geoworks software, the Moem-D has a graphical user interface and
supports PC connectivity.
[1998/11/21]
Nov. 16, 1998, Business Wire reports that according to Cahners In-Stat
Group, Motorola is the leading supplier for commercial CDMA network
installations. The number are: Motorola 31, Lucent 17, Qualcomm 16,
Nortel 10 and Samsung 4. According to Ray Jodoin of Cahner, Motorola
also leads in revenue with 41% of the total worldwide revenue.
[Parameters and survey methodology for this measure were not provided
in the article.]
[1998/11/21]
Nov. 13, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that Clearnet Communications
Inc. has announced commencement of full digital Clearnet PCS service
in the London, Ontario area. With the addition of this area, Clearnet
claims their digital Clearnet PCS service covers about 13.21 million
people. Clearnet dual mode phones can also be used in areas of
North America covered by analog cell phone service.
[1998/11/17]
Nov. 13, 1998, Jeff Sweat writes for Information Week that 3Com has
announced a downloadable upgrade for PalmOS products with Infrared
which will allow usage with Ericsson's infrared capable mobile phones
which are used on GSM systems.
[1998/11/17]
Nov. 13, 1998 Canada News Wire reports that MTS Mobility of Manitoba
has announced that its "Mobility To Go" prepaid cellular phone service
will commence Nov. 16, 1998. Vouchers costing $30.00 (Cdn) and $60.00
(Cdn) will be available.
[1998/11/17]
Nov. 13, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that Rogers Cantel claims
that Rogers Cantel wireless systems are meteor proof since its paging,
cellular and Digital PCS systems are completely terrestrial.
[1998/11/17]
Nov. 13, 1998, Business Wire reports that Cyrix(R) Corporation has
announced that it will demonstrate a "proof of concept" of its new
reference design for a hand-held wireless Internet access device
called "WebPAD(TM)" at Comdex in Las Vegas. Cyrix claims that the
design will support "several diskless operating systems, such as
QNX(R), Windows(R) CE and embedded Windows NT."
[1998/11/17]
Nov. 12, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Nortel Networks has announced
new software for its DMS-MTX switches for wireless operators.
Systems based on cdmaOne (IS-95 CDMA), TDMA-IS-136 and AMPS analog
networks can have increased safety, security and performance.
MTX 07 includes "Enhanced 911" which delivers the wireless caller's
phone number to the 911 operator, "Phase 1 local number portability"
which allows a subscriber to keep a phone number when switching from
one wireless operator to another, "over the air service provision"
(OTASP) which allows remote activation of digital handsets, and
"selective authentication" which enhances fraud protection.
[1998/11/17]
Nov. 12, 1998, Canadian Corporate News reports that Epic Data
International Inc. and Intermec Technologies Corporation have
announced plans to produce a Windows CE based "Data Collection PC(TM)"
for release in the first half of 1999. [No technical details or
prices were given in the article.]
[1998/11/17]
Nov. 12, 1998, Amber Howle writes for Computer Reseller News that
Toshiba America Electronics Components has started shipping samples
of Direct Rambus Inline Memory Modules (RIMM) to Dell via Kingston.
[1998/11/17]
Nov. 11, 1998, Business Wire reports that Compaq has introduced
its new "direct sales" product lines, including the new Prosignia
Notebook 100 laptop computer. Prices start at $1,999 US. The
Prosignia line can be bought through "channel" vendors or directly.
Compaq DirectPlus http://www.directplus.compaq.com/
[1998/11/17]
Nov. 11, 1998, Duncan Martell writes for Reuters that according to
the Semiconductor Industry Association, the worldwide semiconductor
market is expected to rise 9.1% to $133.4 billion US next year.
[1998/11/17]
Nov. 10, 1998, Canadian Corporate News reports that Hitachi has revamped
its laptop computer line. [Prices weren't given, so I have omitted
most stats, which were generally "typical".]
VisionBook Traveler 600, mini-notebook, 2.9 lbs. (including standard
battery), 266MHz Pentium MMX CPU, 32MB SDRAM (upgradeable to 160MB),
4.3GB UDMA HD.
VisionBook 800, 12.3" * 10.3" * 1.8", 8.5 lb. (including battery),
266 or 300MHz Pentium II CPUs.
Hitachi PC http://www.hitachipc.com/
[1998/11/14]
Nov. 10, 1998, Business Wire reports that Hewlett-Packard Company
has announced price reductions on its HP OmniBook 2100 laptop computer
and some accessories. The OmniBook 2100 prices will start at $2,199
US (about 8% lower).
[1998/11/14]
Nov. 10, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Qualcomm and Microsoft have formed
Wireless Knowledge LLC which is aimed at developing wireless data access.
The development mandate covers access through GSM, TDMA, CDPD and Mobitex
as well as Qualcomm's CDMA. In Canada, Bell Mobility is noted as a
partner with Wireless Knowledge LLC.
[1998/11/14]
Nov. 10, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Sprint PCS(R) has announced a plan
to partner with Wireless Knowledge LLC (a joint venture company owned by
Qualcomm and Microsoft) to provide wireless data services on the Sprint
PCS (CDMA) network. Projected service commencement is in the first half
of 1999.
[1998/11/14]
Nov. 9, 1998, Business Wire reports that IBM has announced two 18"
flat panel displays. The T85 screens support 1280 * 1024 * 16.7 million
colours with a 160 degree by 160 degree viewing angle range. The
T85A is an analog version with dual video inputs. The T85D uses
the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) standard Plug
and Display interface. The T85A has an estimated street price of
$2,999 will be available in December. The T85D will cost $2,849 US
and be available in eary first quarter 1999.
[1998/11/14]
Nov. 9, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that Lockheed Martin Canada has
announced that it is partnering with Bell Mobility to develop an Adaptive
Notch Filter which use with CDMA systems and enhancing performance by
reducing the effect of radio interference. Product deployment is
expected in mid 1999.
[1998/11/14]
Nov. 7, 1998, according to Responsive Database Services, Jennifer Baljko
wrote for Nove. 2, 1998, Electronic Buyers News that Cirrus Logic Inc.
has announced that it will spin off its communications products group
consisting of about 35 employees in "Basis Communications".
[1998/11/10]
Nov. 5, 1998, Jeff Sweat writes for InternetWeek that Oracle is working
with Symbian on a version of Oracle Lite for Symbian's Epoc operating
system.
[1998/11/10]
Nov. 5, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Bouygues Telecom in France
is using Nortel Networks' "fractional re-use" technology to increase
capacity up to 130% on its GSM 1800 system. Nortel also claims that
voice quality of in-building service has also been shown to improve
by as much as 30%.
[1998/11/10]
Nov. 4, 1998, Reuters reports that on Nov. 10, Qualcomm Inc. and
Microsoft Corp. will launch a new joint venture company which will
work on wireless communications, information technology and computing.
[1998/11/10]
Nov. 3, 1998, Business Wire reports that Motorola has announced a new
ReFLEX chipset. ReFLEX is is widely used bi-directional paging
protocol. The new ReFLEX chipset consists of two subsystems:
The first is a single chip ReFLEX codec and the second is a complete
RF transceiver subsystem chipset. Not all the pieces are made by
Motorola. An application development board will be available in
first quarter 1999.
http://www.motorola.com/FLEXenable/
http://www.diabloresearch.com/
[1998/11/10]
Oct. 31, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Central Command (distributor
of AntiViral Toolkit Pro) has claims that its partner Kasperksy Lab
has isolate a new class of computer virus. Called "WinScript.Rabbit"
it "infects the Windows scripting language. Upon execution, the virus
seeks out other scripts and overwrites them with itself. The most
dangerous feature of this virus is that it is capable of traveling
across the Internet, since many modern web browsers will execute
infected scripts on local computers even if they are located on a remote
web server." [Note: I have doubts about whether the writer of the
article understands the technology. Specifically, the previous details
do not describe a virus that "infects the ... scripting language" but
rather "is based on the scripting language." This is a significant
difference.] Detection and removal of WinScript.Rabbit is available
in AntiViral Toolkit Pro released on Oct. 31, 1998.
http://www.avp.com/
[1998/11/07]
Nov. 2, 1998, Business Wire reports that Compaq Computer Corporation
has announced further price cuts on various models of Armada laptop
computers. Some samples follow:
Armada 3500/PII 266/12.1 TFT w/Windows 95 reduced from $3,299 US to
$2,799 US.
Armada 6500/PII 300/14.1" TFT w/Windows 95 reduced from $4,999 US to
$4,199 US.
Armada 7800/PII 266/13.3" TFT w/Windows 95 reduced from $4,199 US to
$3,599 US.
Armada 7800/PII 300/14.1" TFT w/Windows 95 reduced from $5,399 US to
$4,799 US.
Armada 7800/PII 300/14.1" TFT w/Windows NT reduced from $5,599 US to
$4,999 US.
[1998/11/07]
Nov. 2, 1998, Business Wire reports that AMD has announced its
PCnet(TM)-Home controller. This single chip device, based on the
Home Phoneline Networking Alliance (HomePNA) specification will begin
production shipments in December. End user products are expected
to be available in the first quarter 1999. Available in a 160 pin
PQFP package it will cost $14.92 US each in quantities of 10,000.
[1998/11/07]
I said previously that I would not be able to maintain this file properly. I have updated some of the information recently, but it is NOT entirely current. Still, if you want to find out what kinds of packages are around, it's a useful starting point. But be especially careful of the dates of various pieces of information. Very old information is particularly doubtful.
The most recent addition is the Clearnet Mike information, which I actually got in Sept. I had to think about how to add it. Actually, now that the old "Prime/Evenings/Weekends" billing methods are disappearing, the original table format is irrelevant and outdated. I've been thinking about changing it. But for now it remains the same.
This file is tab formatted for use with Spreadsheets. In most cases you can use it by loading it into a text editor, "copy" the text and "paste" it into an empty spreadsheet, then format it.
Note: Cantel's new "Pay-As-You-Go" service is NOT a Digital PCS
wireless service. It is a new payment method for ordinary analog
technology cellular phone service. However, it marks a significantly
new way of marketing wireless phone services, so I've added to the
PCS prices file.
PCS Prices
[1998/10/15]
Oct. 31, 1998, Responsive Database Services reports that Computer
Reseller News, Oct. 26, 1998 adds more detail to the reports of
Hewlett-Packard's Windows CE Handheld PC Professional Edition
device that was first announced on Computer Oct. 8, 1998. The
Jornada weighs 2.5 lbs. and is estimate to have a battery life
of 15 hours. Based on Intel's StrongARM 190MHz CPU, at $999 US
it will include a 56Kbps V.90 modem.
[1998/11/03]
Oct. 31, 1998, Responsive Database Services reports that according
to Kevin Merrill (Computer Reseller News, Oct. 26, 1998), Intel has
announced the following devices intended for embedded systems and
handhelds:
Low power Pentium MMX 166MHz, in Socket 7, 296-pin plastic grid array
(PGA), $59 US each in quantities of 1,000 units, in high-thermal, low-
profile plastic ball grid-array (HL-PBGA), $51 US each in quantities of
1,000 units.
Low power Pentium MMX 266MHz, in PGA or HL-PBGA, $104 US each.
StrongARM SA-1100 and SA-1101 [no details provided].
[1998/11/03]
Oct. 31, 1998, Responsive Database Services reports that according to
Jack Robertson, writing for Electronic Buyers News, Oct. 26, 1998,
Micron has filed anti-dumping petitions against most or all of the
Taiwanese DRAM manufacturing industry. The Taiwan manufacturers deny
dumping.
[1998/11/03]
Oct. 29, 1998, PR Newswire reports that customers of Cellular One
Kansas/Missouri are the first to be able to use Motorola's new
dual mode CDMA/cellular version StarTAC phone.
[1998/11/03]
Oct. 28, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that Rogers Cantel has
announced its 3rd quarter results for 1998. As of Sept. 30, 1998
Rogers Cantel had 1,634,400 cellular subscribers which is an
increase of 44,000 over June 30, 1998 and 145,400 more than Sept.
30, 1997. At Sept. 30, 1998, 444,000 subscribers wer on Digital
PCS which is 27% of Rogers Cantel's total cellular subscriber base
and 61,900 were on the prepaid "Pay As You Go" service.
[1998/11/03]
Oct. 28, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Motorola has announced
it has completed agreements to become a shareholder in Symbian
along with Psion, Ericsson and Nokia. Motorola brings with it
Starfish Truesync technology which has been widely praised in the
Franklin REX. It was also announced that Symbian will port EPOC
to the M-CORE RISC architecture. This will be the fourth processor
architecture supported in the history of this operating system.
The original Psion Handheld Computers/Pocket Organizers were, I
believe, Motorola 6800 or 6502 based (I'm not sure), followed by
the Psion Series 3 generation products based on 8086 technology
processors, and then the Series 5 products based on the ARM RISC
technology.
[1998/11/03]
Oct. 28, 1998, Susan Nadeu writes for Reuters that Iridium LLC has
announced their intention to begin its wireless satellite
telecommunications service on November 1, 1998. [This is just
in time for the Nov. 17 - 18 Leonids meteor shower, which may
be a its real acid test.]
[1998/11/03]
Oct. 28, 1998, Business Wire reports that Gateway has announced
availability of its new FPD1500 15.1" flat panel LCD monitor.
Using an 8MB ATI LT Pro AGP graphics accelerator it has a 1024
* 768 * 16.7 million colour resolution. Weighing 12.5 lbs.,
it is 8" thick and is an upgrade option for the G or GP series
computer ($610 extra cost over a EV700 monitor) or for the
E-4200 computer ($465 more than the VX900 monitor).
[1998/11/03]
Oct. 27, 1998, Business Wire reports that NASA's Deep Space 1 (DS1)
spacecraft launched Oct. 24, 1998 contains radio communications
equipment jointly developed by Motorola's Systems Solutions Group
and California Institute of Technology's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
[1998/11/03]
Oct. 26, 1998, Canadian Corporate News Reports that BCE Mobile
Communications has announced its third quarter results and
report cellular and PCS account additions of 59,000 since the end
of the 2nd quarter for a total of 1,347,000 cellular and PCS
subscribers at the end of the third quarter, and an increase
of 206,000 since the end of the third quarter 1997. The churn
rate in the quarter was 1.4% for cellular and PCS compared
to 1.4% in the 2nd quarter of this year and 1.1% in the third
quarter of last year. [Note: The article does not state if
conversion from cellular to PCS is included in churn. I expect
that it isn't.] Pager in service were 528,000 which is up 13,000
from June 30 1998 and up 72,000 over September 30, 1997.
[1998/10/31]
Oct. 26, 1998, Business Wire reports that the NEC Reach 340T laptop
features a 300 MHz mobile AMD K6 CPU.
[1998/10/31]
Oct. 26, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that JAWS Technologies Inc.
has announced "JAWS L5" 4096-bit encryption software for the 3Com
Palm III(TM). First customer shipments are scheduled for November
30, 1998. [No price is given, but there is a phone number: (888)
301-5297.]
[1998/10/31]
Oct. 26, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Xybernaut Corporation and
Hewlett-Packard announced the launch of Mobile Assistant IV
("MA IV(TM)"). Weighing about 28 oz. and "a little larger than a
palm" the MA IV is powered by a 200 or 233 MHz Intel Pentium(TM)
Tillamook CPU, utp to 128MB of DRAM and 4.3GB HD.. I has dual
PCMCIA Cardbus interface and more. [No price is quoted in the
article.]
[1998/10/31]
Oct. 26, 1998, Business Wire reports that Hewlett-Packard Company has
announced the HP PhotoSmart C30 digital camera. Featuring a
1 Megapixel sensor, 2X digital zoom, colour LCD display and 4MB
removable CompactFlash memory card, it has a street price of $399 US.
The camera is immediately available in North America with availability
around the world at later dates.
[1998/10/31]
I have to excuse myself from reporting all the changes going on
in the microchip industry for this week. I don't know how I'm going
to report it in the future. The response to the, now well reported
"bad year" for the semiconductor industry has been wide spread and
is ongoing. There are simply too many changes for me to follow them
all. I was going to include a few more, but I eventually just
decided to give up for now. Companies mentioned in articles that I
have not summarized here include Motorola, Hitachi, Fujitsu, Hyundai,
LG Electronics, VLSI Technology, LSI Logic, and NEC. In effect, I
might as well say that "everybody" is making business plan changes
due to the low sales of semiconductors.
[1998/10/27]
Oct. 23, 1998, Associated Press reports that Nokia has claimed
to have overtaken Motorola as the world's sales leader for cell
phone handsets.
[1998/10/27]
Oct. 23, 1998, Business Wire reports that Queen Elizabeth II was to
visit Motorola's new GSM infrastructure manufacturing plant in
Groundwell West, Swindon, UK for its opening Oct. 23, 1998. The
$140 million US facility will increase Motorola's GSM manufacturing
capacity by 75%. The current size is 315,800 sq. ft., but it is
expandable to 1 million sq. ft. The article notes thatas of July
1998 there were 100 million GSM subscribers worldwide and should
be 120 million by the end of the year. Current global market
penetration is stated to be 16.5% [though the article does not say
to what this percentage is related] but it is expected to rise to
50 - 60% by 2004.
[1998/10/27]
Oct. 22, 1998, John Gartner writes for TechWeb that NEC has reduced
prices on two flat-panel LCD displays and introduced a lower cost
15" display. The NEC MultiSync LCD1500M (1024 * 768) display has two
front mounted audio speakers and 4 USB ports, and has an estimated
street price or $999 US. The MultiSynch LCD 400 14" has be reduced
to $999 US and the MultiSync LCD400V 14.1" display has been reduced
from $999 US to $799 US. NEC claims to have 43% market share.
[1998/10/27]
Oct. 22, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that Ademco Security Group and Rogers Cantel have announced that Ademco's AlarmNet will use Rogers Cantel's Mobitex Network and Aeris Communications' MicroBurst(TM) service which operates on the control channel of the Cantel cellular network.
Oct. 22, 1998, Business Wire reports that IBM has announced a new
series of mobile oriented hard drives featuring even greater densities.
Travelstar 14GS: 14.1 GB, 17mm high, 5.0 billion bits/square inch,
5 disk platters, 4,900 RPM, 6.1 ms avg. latency, 400G/2ms non-operating
shock, 125G/2ms operating shock, 12 ms avg. read seek time,
33.3 MB/sec interface data rate with Ultra DMA mode-2, 182g.
Travelstar 10GT: 10 GB (also an 8.1 GB version), 12.5mm high, 5.6
billion bits/square inch, 3 disk platters, 4,200 RPM, 7.1 ms avg.
latency, 600G/2ms non-operating shock, 125G/2ms operating shock,
12ms avg. seek time, 33.3 MB/sec interface data rate with Ultra
DMA mode-2, 137g.
Travelstar 6GN: 6.4 GB (also 4.8 GB and 3.2 GB versions), 9.5mm high
(for "ultra-portables"). IBM claims this is a new record breaking
technology holding 5.7 billion bits per square inch, 2, 2 or 1 platter
(depending on version), 4,200 RPM, 7.1 ms avg. latency, 700G/1ms [sic]
non-operating shock, 150G/2ms operating shock, 13ms avg. seek time,
33.3 MB/sec interface data rate with Ultra DMA mode-2, 99 g.
All these drives incorporate IBM's new Drive Fitness Test (DFT)
technology, "giant magnetoresistive (GMR) heads, load/unload technology
and Enhanced Adaptive Battery Live Extender 3.0. According to IDC,
about 4 of 10 notebook computer HDs currently being shipped are IBM.
http://www.ibm.com/harddrive/
[1998/10/27]
Oct. 21, 1998, Business Wire reports that Hewlett-Packard Company
has announced it new HP Omnibook 4150 laptop computer weighing under
6 lbs.
HP Ominbook 4150, 300MHz Pentium II, 14.1" XGA TFT display, NeoMagic
MagicMedia AV256-bit AGP multimedia accelerator (w/2.5MB internal
SDRAM video RAM), 6.4GB HD, 64MB SDRAM (expandable to 256MB), dual
pointing devices (pointing stick and track pad), dual monitor support,
estimated price is $4,299 US.
[1998/10/27]
You won't notice anything. In terms of how I maintain this Website,
I have changed over to Netscape 4.07 on most of the computers I use
to create and test these pages. However, 4.5 is now available, so I
may start upgrading one or more computer. Furthermore, I expect to begin
testing on a Linux computer as well as Windows and MacOS. Just yesterday
I successfully used a RedHat 5.1 Linux computer to read Web pages through
one of my ISP accounts. After I'm certain of the state of this software
I'll make a choice of how I'll distribute my workload in the future. I
have not made any final decisions yet.
[1998/10/27]
Oct. 20, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that Clearnet Communications Inc.
has announced that Clearnet PCS service in Quebec City is not fully
digital. The Quebec City area extends to the north to Charlesbourg,
east to Beauport, south to St-Jean-Chrysostome and west to St-Nicholas.
According to Clearnet the are in the midst of a "major capital buildout
program that will convert more metropolitan areas to its PCS service
footprint across Canada in the next few years." And according to
Clearnet, their digital coverage now reaches 12.84 million. Clearnet
also operates "Mobilair Integration" (emergency 911 services) to
municipalities across Quebec.
[1998/10/24]
Oct. 20, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Ericsson Hewlett-Packard
Telecommunications has announced that it will provide "Fault Mangement
Expert" (FMX) software for the OSS "cooperation efforts" recently
announced between Ericsson Communications Inc. and Rogers Cantel Inc.
The software is used to develop systems for analysis of network faults
and performance data.
[1998/10/24]
Oct. 20, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Nortel Networks has announced
that they have formed an alliance with Matsushita Communication
Industrial Co. Ltd. (Panasonic) to collaborate on "wideband CDMA"
(W-CDMA) and in particular to deploy a series of experimental
networks. Targets include "mobile multimedia" applications with
speeds up to 384kbps.
[1998/10/24]
Oct. 20, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that Telus Mobility has
been named 1998 Canada Award for Excellence recipient by the National
Quality Institute. [I do not know the significance of this award.
I have never heard of it or the "National Quality Institute" before.]
[1998/10/24]
Oct. 20, 1998, Will Wade writes for Semiconductor Business News that
Dataquest has projected a DRAM shortage in late 2000 or early 2001.
[1998/10/24]
Oct. 19, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that Rogers Cantel is now
offering "Pay As You Go" to almost everyone with a cellular phone.
To use a cellular phone on this service only requires the ability
to switch to the "A-band" and then press "star, pound", and then
the number they want to reach, wait for a recorded message, than then
enter the 14 digit "Pay As You Go" number on the back of the card.
The number of minutes left in the account will be given, and then
the call will be connected.
[1998/10/24]
Oct. 19, 1998, Business Wire reports that IBM has announced a new smart
card based security system based on a Type II PCMCIA slot, Gemplus GemSAFE
technology, which is based on RSA cryptographic technology, Security
Dynamic's SoftID digital signature and Norton Anti-Virus protection.
Available in late October 1998, the estimated price is $199 US.
http://www.ibm.com/pc/us/accessories/
[1998/10/24]
Oct. 19, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Geoworks has announced that
its OS is used in Toshiba's new Dialo smart phone which is available
for NTT DoCoMo customers in Japan. The Dialo is an updated version
of the Genio PCV-100 Pocket Communicator which is used on the
Personal Handyphone System (PHS) network.
[1998/10/24]
Oct. 19, 1998, Business Wire reports that AMD has announced new
high density Flash memory devices aimed at the cellular phone
market. The DL160 (16Mbit) and DL320 (32Mbit) series devices
feature patented simultaneous read/write and a 64KB "secure silicon"
(SecSi(TM)) sectorwhich can be factory protected to avoid device
duplication ("cloning"). Read access can be as fast as 70 nanosec.
Available in 48 pin TSOP and 48 ball FBGA, the DL160 costs $8.25
in quantities of 10,000 and the DL320 costs $15.75 in quantities
of 10,000.
[1998/10/24]
Oct. 19, 1998, Business Wire reports that Motorola, Inc. has announced
that it as acquired a minority stake in Online Anywhere which uses
patented technology to dynamically reformat web pages to different
layouts for displays such as those used in handheld computers like
the PalmPilot.
http://www.onlineanywhere.com/
[1998/10/24]
Oct. 19, 1998, Business Wire reports that Hughes Network Systems has
chosen Motorola's MRFIC1504 and Global Positioning (GPS) microcontroller
for use in its satellite phone handsets.
Hughes Network Systems http://www.hns.com/
[1998/10/24]
Oct. 19, 1998, Business Wire reports that Nortel has chosen the
Motorola DSP56307 for use in its new Passport 8780 Packet Voice
Gateway. The Nortel system supports 720 voice channels per board
which Ron Morris of Nortel Networks claims is the densest array in
the industry. [This is a borderline article but is interesting because
the combination of packet voice and data is the ultimate form for
wireless PCS.]
[1998/10/24]
Oct. 19, 1998, Business Wire reports that Motorola has announced it
has shipped over 30 million MC68302 integrated, multi-protocol
microprocessors worldwide. Based on the MC68000 core, it debutted
in 1989. Today, the MC68302 at 16MHz in a 144 TQFP costs $12.50 each
in quantities of 10,000. Speeds up to 33MHz are available as well
as a number of other packaging variations. [This is another marginal
article, but variations of the MC68302 are probably still being used
in new handset designs.]
http://www.motorola.com/MC68302/
[1998/10/24]
Oct. 16, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that Microcell Telecommunications
Inc. announced that they have added 30,992 "additional customers"
in the 3rd quarter of 1998. This increase in customer base of about 21%
over the last previous quarter bring their total Fido(R) PCS
subscriber base to 180,838 (as of Sept. 30, 1998), which is 8x its
level of a year ago, and well on their way to its year end target
of 200,000. Microcell also claims a "post-guarantee-period" average
monthly churn rate of 2.8% for the 3rd quarter. This is made up
of a 1.8% voluntary termination rate and a 1.8% rate of disconnection
due to non-payment of accounts. The company claims to have "the
most extensive PCS footprint at 1.9 GHz in Canada and an abundant
supply of single-mode and dual-mode handsets" for the coming season.
[1998/10/20]
Oct. 16, 1998, Business Wire reports that Motorola has announced
its new Version Four (V4) ColdFire embedded processor core which
they claim delivers 200 MIPS (Dhrystone 2.1), or about 2.5x the
Version 3 core. The V4 design which supports the 68K instruction
set uses a Harvard architecture with limited superscalar execution
in a single pipeline. Based on 0.25 micron CMOS technology, the
core is about 4.5 sq.mm. The first devices using V4 are expected
in Q2 1999, priced in the $20 US - $25 US range.
http://www.motorola.com/ColdFire/
[1998/10/20]
Oct. 16, 1998, Jennifer L. Baljko writes for Electronic Buyers' News
that Seagate Technology has announced that it will sell its Seagate
Microelectronics subsidary in Livingston, Scotland and discontinue
manufacturing microchips used in itd disk-drive products.
[1998/10/20]
Oct. 16, 1998, Semiconductor Business News writes that Intel has
announced that it will invest $500 US in Micron Technology. The
article notes that part of the incentive for this investment is
to promote the adoption of Rambus' Direct RDRAM memory interface
[1998/10/20]
Oct. 15, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that Microcell Telecommunications
Inc. has begun Fido Wireless PCS service in the London, Ontario area.
This completes Fido territorial expansion for 1998. According to
Microcell, Fido PCS is now available to 16 million people, or about
52% of the Canadian population, and analog coverage extends this to
94% of the population.
[1998/10/20]
Oct. 15, 1998, Business Wire reports that Glenayre Technologies Inc. and Motorola Inc. have signed an agreement to add Glenayre's enhanced telecom services and "prepaid products" to Motorola's cellular network equipment. Included are Glenayre's modular voice processing system (MVP(R)) which includes voice and FAX messaging, automatic call-back, short message notification "and the ability to make outbound calls directly from the voice mailbox." [I'm not sure what this means.]
Also included is "Glenayre's Constant Touch(TM) which allows a single
phone number to cover all personal and business phone numbers, including
pagers, home, office, cellular and FAX, and Glenayre's "Wireless Prepaid"
application which allows operation of prepaid wireless systems.
http://www.glenayre.com/
[1998/10/20]
Oct. 14, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Microsoft Corp. has filed
lawsuits for Copyright infringement against five resellers in the
California area. The companies were Zenon, Computer Direct Inc.,
Elite Computers of Pasadena, Beta Computers of Long Beach and
US Computers or Norwalk.
[1998/10/20]
Oct. 14, 1998, Reuters reports that LSI Logic Corp. has announced
intentions to lay off 1,200 employees (17% of its workforce). LSI
will close its wafer making plant in Tsukuba, Japan, a testing
facility in Colorado Springs, Colorado (US) and an assembly plant
in Ft. Collins, Colorado, and cut capacity in Fremont, California
(USA).
[1998/10/20]
Oct. 14, 1998, Business Wire reports that Compaq Computer Corporation
has made Citrix Independent Computing Architecture (ICA(R)) thin
client software available for free for Compaq Series-C handheld
computer users. The software turns the handheld into a "WinFrame" or
"MetaFrame" client. The software is freely downloadable from Compaq's
Website.
http://www.compaq.com/products/handhelds/form.html
[1998/10/20]
Because of the number of computers I use, I don't generally use "internal" modems. In fact, so far all my modems have been "external" serial port modems. It is assumed that most mobile users are using PC-Card modems, but I have never recommended them. First, the status lights on an external modem are often useful. Then there are the phone plug attachment systems which are generally flimsy. Furthermore, many serial card modems take most of their power from the computer. That means one usually only uses them when one has a wall plug handy anyway. All this means that there is little space saving you might gain by not carrying a normal modem. The power adapters are about the same size, and any saving from not carrying a "serial cable" is made up for by using a longer telephone line cable. Also, for handheld computers, there are better uses of the PC-Card slots than for modems. Finally there is the fact that many modern "full size" modems, simply aren't very big anyway. My GVC 33.6Kbps Voice/Fax/Modem is 175mm * 120mm * 31mm. This is a fairly typical size for todays external 56Kbps modems.
Unfortunately, I have to report a current problem with my Cardinal
Connecta 3480 external modem. Having upgraded it from X2 to V.90, I was
looking forward to they day when my ISPs upgraded to V.90. While
GlobeNet used X2, which has allowed me full high speed access, Pathway
Communications was K56Flex, which limited my to 33.6Kbps. Roughly
within the last week, both ISPs upgraded to V.90. Unfortunately,
the Cardinal modem has not worked with either ISP. It is apparent
that the Cardinal modem's V.90 implimentation is buggy. I've only
been able to connect at full V.90 speeds for periods up to about 5
minutes. Then the modem seems to lock up and I'm disconnected -- I
believe by the ISP. What's worse is that the Cardinal modems do not
come with documentation, and no documentation is on their Website.
As such, I haven't even been able to create a "downgrade" connection
profile. Luckily Pathway still has some "analog" modem lines I can
dial in on for "slower" connections that are working. But I currently
don't have a way to use the modem on GlobeNet, which is ironic since
it was already giving me "V.90 speeds" via X2. For now, I have to
suggest that people stay away from Cardinal external 56Kbps modems in
general.
[1998/10/20]
Oct. 13, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that IBM Canada Ltd. has
announced their upcoming ThinkPad i Series laptop computers. This
is IBM's first laptop product to be designed specifically for the
consumer market. [Prices were not clearly specified in the release
but the specified processor is an Intel Pentium 266MHz MMX, and
the "starting" price is estimated at $2,399 Cdn.]
http://www.ibm.com/pc/ca/thinkpad/
[1998/10/18]
Oct. 13, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Lucent Technologies has
announced that its WaveLAN IEEE 802.11-compliant wireless LAN card
is now available for a variety of Apple products including the
Powerbook G3(R) laptop computers.
http://www.wavelan.com/
[1998/10/18]
Oct. 12, 1998, Business Wire reports that Compaq has announce more
price reductions for their Armada laptop computers.
Armada 1598DMT is reduced from $2,499 US to $2,299 US.
Armada 1700/PII 233/TFT w/Win 95/98 reduced from $2,499 to $2,799.
Armada 1700/PII 266/TFT $2,999 US to $2,799 US.
Armada 1700/PII 300/TFT $3,799 US to $3,499 US.
http://www.compaq.com/promos/portables/html
[1998/10/13]
Oct. 12, 1998, Business Wire reports that Compaq has announced price
cuts on C-Series handheld computers as follows:
C-Series 2010c from $799 US to $699 US.
C-Series 2015c from $799 US to $699 US.
C-Series 810 from $499 US to $425 US.
http://www.compaq.com/products/handhelds/index.html
[1998/10/18]
Oct. 12, 1998, Business Wire reports that AMD has announced two
new versions of its Comm86(TM) series of integrated microcontrollers
for communications systems. The AM186(TM)CH which features two channels
of "High-level Data Link Control" (HDLC) and AM1867(TM)CU which features
a built in Universal Serial Bus (USB) controller. Both are available
in speeds up to 50MHz (6.6 MIPS) and are 3.3V devices with 5V tolerant
I/O. Both are available in 160 pin PQFP packages. Samples are
currently available and production is projected for 1Q 1999. Prices
start at $9.65 each in quantities of 10,000. [Details of parts at that
price were not given.]
[1998/10/18]
Oct. 12, 1998, Business Wire reports that Hewlett-Packard Company has
announced four CMOS image sensors HDCS-2000 (colour VGA), HDCS-2100
(monochrome VGA), HDCS-1000 (colour CIF) and HDCS-1100 (monochrome CIF),
for higher quality and lower cost digital imaging. The sensors come in
two resolutions and monochrome and colour. The VGA sensors are capable
of 640 * 480 at 15 fps and the "Common Intermediate Format" (CIF) produce
images of 352 * 288 pixels at 44 fps.
[1998/10/18]
Oct. 12, 1998, Business Wire reports that IBM has announced the first
Silicon Germanium based microcircuits aimed at broad distribution
applications. In this case, the devices are low-noise amplifiers,
voltage controlled oscillators, power amplifiers and discrete transistors
intended for wireless applications. IBM claims Silicon Germanium
technology will be less costly to produce high performance devices
than current gallium arsenide technology.
[1998/10/18]
Oct. 10, 1998, PR Newswire reports that the "U.S. Satellite Services
Market: 1998 - 2005" report is published by MRG and Fuji-Keizai
USA. The report is 139 pages and is available in English or Japanese
for $1,195.00 (US?) each. Call Mark Leon (408) 524-9769.
[1998/10/18]
Oct. 10, 1998, Responsive Database Services reports that according to
ITS World, Sept. 1998, the US FCC released its Second Report Order
in PR Docket 93-61 establishing procedures to govern the auction
of location and monitoring services (LMS) licenses in the 902 - 928
MHz band in mid-July. The auction is scheduled for Dec. 15, 1998.
http://www.fcc.gov/
[1998/10/13]
Oct. 9, 1998, Todd Wasserman writes for Computer Retail Week that 3Com
has reduced prices for PalmPilot devices.
Palm Pro reduced from $299 US to $249 US
Palm III reduced from $399 US to $369 US.
[1998/10/13]
Oct. 9, 1998, Canadian Corporate News reports that Metrowerks has announced
that all CodeWarrior development tools now support the Embedded C++
(EC++) draft specification
[1998/10/13]
Oct. 8, 1998 PR Newswire reports that that Microsoft Corp. has announced
Windows CE's third generation version called "Handheld PC Professional
Edition". Some products using this software are expected to be available
later this year, with a broader range appearing in 1999. New features
include:
New hardware options such as Super VGA screens, regular desktop PC
keyboards, USB, more pointing devices such as mice, and additional
processors
A new Email client supporting IMAP4 and POP3 allowing direct e-mail
access to Internet standard servers, LDAP address resolution, on-device
conversion and handling of attachments
Advanced database support including ActiveX(R) Data Object
Improvements to included aplications
New included applications Pocket Access, InkWriter(R) and Voice Recorder
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsce/
[1998/10/13]
Oct. 8, 1998, Business Wire reports that Hewlett-Packard Company has
announced that it plans to support Windows CE 3.0 "Handheld PC
Professional Edition" with a new line of products based on Intel 32-bit
StrongARM SA-1100 processors running at 190MHz. [The article seems
to imply that the current series will be continued for now, which
is in keeping with HP's policy to produce products as long as there is
sufficient market to justify it.]
http://www.hp.com/handheld/
[1998/10/13]
Oct. 8, 1998, Todd Wasserman writes for Computer Retail Week that Sharp
Electronics is expected to announce its Windows CE 3.0 device on Thursday.
Street priced at $899 US, the 2.7 lb. unit will be based on a 129MHz
Philips MIPS CPU, 16MB RAM, 33.6Kbps modem and 8.2" VGA display (supporting
4K colours). Also to be announced will be the Mobilon TriPad which will
have a "pivoting screen" and should sell for $999 US.
[1998/10/13]
Oct. 8, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Object Design, Inc. has announced
that its PSE Pro suite of embedded databases will be available for
Windows CE Handheld PC Professional Edition.
http://www.objectdesign.com/
[1998/10/13]
Oct. 8, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that Bell Mobility has announced
long distance rates as low as $0.10/min. for evenings and weekend calls
and $0.20/min for all other long distance calls within Canada. [Caution:
This article is ambiguous to me. At one point it seems to say that a Bell
Mobility user gets this rate for land-line calls, not wireless. But that
doesn't make sense. There may also be other restrictions.]
[1998/10/13]
Oct. 8, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that PageMart Canada Limited
has announced its launch of Beepware(TM) support in Canada including
PageMart's "infoAdvantage" daily news, weather and sports updates
and "netAdvantage" Internet email and messaging service.
http://www.pagemart.ca/
[1998/10/13]
Oct. 8, 1998, Business Wire reports that AMD has chosen Direct Rambus(TM)
memory interface for its future "personal computers." [In effect, this
means that for AMD, Rambus will take the place of SDRAM as SDRAM took
the place of EDO, etc.]
[1998/10/13]
Oct. 7, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that Clearnet Communications Inc. has announces it subscriber numbers for the third quarter 1998.
Net Additions Net Additions
3 Months Ended 3 Months Ended
Sept. 30, 1998 Sept. 30, 1997
-------------- --------------
Digital 48,148 11,175
- Mike 13,650 11,175
- PCS 34,498 --
Analogue SMR (5,263) (1,800)
Total 42,885 9,375
Total as at Total as at
Sept. 30, 1998 Sept. 30, 1997
-------------- --------------
Digital 242,703 29,650
- Mike 87,743 29,650
- PCS 154,960 --
Analogue SMR 48,000 59,670
Total 290,703 89,320
Clearnet notes that they are proceeding as expected converting
analogue users to the Mike network and that they seem to be on track
for their projected target of adding 200,000 digital subscribers
by the end of 1998, which would bring the total to over 295,000.
[1998/10/13]
Oct. 7, 1998, Business Wire reports that Sun Microsystems, Inc. and
IBM have announced that they will work together to develop the next
release of the Java(TM) Media Framework. The draft API for Java
Media Framework 2.0 is scheduled to be publicly posted in the 4th
quarter 1998 and an "early access" version is expect to be released
by the end of the year.
http://www.java.sun.com/products/java-media/
[1998/10/13]
Oct. 6, 1998, Reuters reports that Motorola Inc. said on Tuesday that it
has not changed its prediction that 1998 semiconductor sales in 1998 will
see an 11% decline however, the 1999 sales should be 7 - 9% higher.
[1998/10/06]
Oct. 6, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Microsoft Corp. has announced its
new cordless phone system based on Intel PC running Windows 95 or Windows
98. The phone itself is a 40 channel 900MHz technology (the article does
not say whether it is digital spread spectrum or analog). The PC must
have at least a Pentium 90, an available serial port, 16MB RAM (32MB
recommended), 30 - 100 MB of hard disk space, a CD-ROM drive, a 256-color
monitor and adapter, 16-bit Windows compatible sound card, microphone and
speakers or headphone set. To use Caller ID features, the PC must be
on and running the "Call Manager" software, and Caller ID service must
be subscribed from your local phone company. Price is $199.95 US.
[1998/10/06]
Oct. 6, 1998, Business Wire reports that National Semiconductor Corporation
has announced its DSV14196, a 3.3V 5x3 driver/receiver that conforms to
EIA/TIA-232 (commonly still called RS-232) and ITU-T V.28 standards.
The chip supports the common 9-pin format will support data rates up to
230.4kbps. The DSV14196WM in National's 20-pin SOIC package costs
$.63 in quantities of 1,000.
http://www.national.com/pf/DS/DSV14196.html
[1998/10/06]
Oct. 6, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that Bell Canada's "SimplyOne(TM)"
service is now available in Sudbury, Ontario. The service integrates
wire line and wireless telephone services on a single phone number and
combines them with a single voice mailbox and puts them on a single bill.
[1998/10/06]
Oct. 5, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that among other announcements, Cantel AT&T customers using wireless now have a long distance call rate of $0.25/min. (Cdn) from anywhere in Canada to anywhere in Canada or the US. Furthermore, a $3 (Cdn) month Long Distance Saver option reduces this another 40% allowing long distance calls at $0.15/min (Cdn).
On Sept. 21, Rogers Cantel announced its previous "Cantel AT&T One Rate
plans which eliminate long distance charges, roaming fees and time
restrictions. This new plan modifies the earlier announcements.
[1998/10/06]
Oct. 5, 1998, Andrew Craig writes for TechWeb that the Leonids meteor
shower is expected to hit from Nov. 17 - 18. The meteor shower is
caused by the tail of the Temple-Tuttle comet which passes the earth
every year. This year the satellite will pass closer than in other
years going back to 1965. Satellite services such as GPS, pagers,
and telecommunications, such as Iridium are all vulnerable.
[1998/10/06]
Oct. 5, 1998, Business Wire reports that Hewlett-Packard Company has
announced that along with their desktop and workstation products, HP
Omnibook laptop computers are now "smart-card-ready". The are "optimized"
for smart-card readers from Gemplus and Schlumberger. Users can then
log on to a secure network from any workstation or PC on the network
using the "digital signature" and encryption keys on the card.
[1998/10/06]
Oct. 5, 1998, Canadian Corporate News Reports that International Sales
Information Systems Inc. (ISIS) has announced a version of their
workforce automation software for Windows CE 2.0. Modules slated for
mid-4th quarter 1998 are: Journey Planning, Order Entry, Merchandising,
Delivery and Synchronization. More modules will be available in early
1999.
[1998/10/06]
Oct. 5, 1998, Business Wire reports that National Semiconductor Corporation has announced that it is consolidating its wafer manufacturing operations in Greenock, Scotland and is looking for investors to "spin out" the remaining operations as an independent operation. Employment will drop from 1,000 down to 400 beginning in March 1999.
Oct. 3, 1998, Associated Press reports that Hewlett-Packard Co. has announced
their intention to cut 2,500 jobs from their current 127,200 workforce. 800
will be in Silicon Valley. Other savings will be the result of moving employees
and manufacturing to less expensive sites, more extensive December holidays,
reduced travel expenses and a 5% pay cut for managers in this quarter.
[1998/10/06]
Oct. 2, 1998, Canadian Corporate News reports that Metrowerks, Inc. has
announced that they intend to ship their CodeWarrior software development
tools to be hosted on Linux systems based on x86 and PowerPC CPUs.
Prices will probably be similar to current versions of CodeWarrior
("Professional sells for $449 US or for academic use $119 US). [While
Linux is not currently widespread in "mobile" usage, it seems to mean
that Linux based development systems will now be professionally
practical.]
[1998/10/06]
Oct. 2, 1998, George Leopold writes for EE Times that the
Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) and the Alliance for
Telecommunications Industry Solutions' telecommunications standards
group say they will merge their recommendations for 3rd generation
wireless systems (3G). The merged standard is based on CDMA and
is geared to efficient packet data handling. European standards
recommendations are still somewhat at odds with North American
recommendations. The ITU is expected to complete the 3G standard
by December 1998.
[1998/10/06]
Oct. 2, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that 3Com Canada announced 2nd quarter shipments of Palm series handheld computers. According to Evans Research, as reports by 3Com, the PalmPilot(TM) and Palm III account for 77 percent of all shipments in its market segment for the first half of 1998. 3Com claims to have shipped 80% more units in Canada in Q2 1998 than in Q2 1997, and hit their 2 millionth worldwide sale in this quarter.
Oct. 1, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that Bell Mobility has begun CDMA
based Digital PCS service in the area of London, Ontario, which completes
expansion plans for 1998.
[1998/10/06]
Oct. 1, 1998, Business Wire reports that Motorola has introduced its new
LS950v portable answering machine which it claims is 40% smaller than its
predecessor. It is powered by a single AA battery and the price is $160 US.
http://www.motorola.com/pagers/
[1998/10/06]
Oct. 1, 1998, Business Wire reports that Motorola has introduced its new
CP1250 "big screen" text pager. The following is a partial list of features:
- 117,000 character message memory
- 26 character * 8 line screen with graphics capabilities
- enlarged font for "zoomed" viewing (4 lines)
- FLEX Info protocol allows topics search
- can store 26 personal messages and up to 15 information services
- "Quiet Time" receives messages without alerts
- single AAA battery
- Price $209 US
[1998/10/06]
Oct. 1, 1998, Business Wire reports that Motorola has announced the
Bravo(TM) BR850 numerical pager with advanced features:
- memory for 60 messages
- message lock
- 3 alarms
- Urgent message tag
- 5 pre-programmed text messages
- time and date stamp on received messages
- selective or global message erase
- "Private Time" to receive messages without alerts
- compact size (2.4" * 1.7") and light weight (1.8 oz.)
- single AAA battery
- Price: $99 US.
[1998/10/06]
Sept. 30, 1998, Reuters reports that Motorola Inc. has introduced
"Voice Markup Language" (VoxML) which they expect to be used to allow
voice controlled access to World Wide Web sites.
http://VoxML.mot.com/
[1998/10/06]
Sept. 29, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that Microcell Solutions Inc.
has announced "Fidomatic(TM)" prepaid wireless PCS service in
Montreal, Quebec, Sherbrooke and Ottawa-Hull regions. The prepaid
service is based on a $0.35 Cdn. charge per minute, calculated to the
second with "no daily charges", and includes "Call Waiting" and
"Call Forwarding." The basic kit includes an Ericsson 638 PCS
handset ($50), a Smart Card ($25) and a $25 "Super" airtime
voucher. Additional airtime vouchers are "Regular" ($10), "Super"
($25) and "Ultra" ($50.00). The Ericsson 638 handset features
150 min. continuous talk time, 14 ring types, a built-in alarm
clock and a calculator.
[1998/10/04]
Sept. 29, 1998, PR Newswire reports that according to NeoMagic
Corporation, Gateway Solo 5150 laptop computers uses NeoMagic's
MagicMedia256AV multimedia accelerator. This single chip
incorporates sound and graphics processing, including integrated
DRAM.
[1998/10/04]
Sept. 29, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Lotus Development Corp.
has announced Wireless Domino Access which adds wireless connectivity
with Domino for the PalmOS based devices such as the Palm III and
IBM WorkPad, using Novatel's Minstrel Wireless IP Modem and Unwired
Planet's microbrowser. The Minstrel CDPD modem supports transfers
up to 19.2Kbps.
[1998/10/04]
Sept. 29, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Compaq Computer Corp.,
Macromedia Inc. and Microsoft co-submitted their "HTML+TIME"
multimedia extensions to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).
[1998/10/04]
Sept. 29, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Microsoft Corp. has filed
three lawsuits alleging Copyright an trademark infringements, two
of which ("Microsoft v. HT Computers" and "Microsoft v. Computer Works
Inc.") involve Arizona's new anti-counterfeiting law "Arizona
Revised Statute 44-1453" effective Aug. 22, 1998 which allow triple
damages, attorney fees and court costs.
[1998/10/04]
Sept. 28, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that Clearnet Communications
has commenced "The Mike Network" service in the Greater Vancouver area.
Clearnet claims "continuous Vancouver-Seattle coverage" using the Nextel
network in the US, billed at "home" rates, as low as $0.15/min. in
Canadian funds.
[1998/10/04]
Sept. 28, 1998, Andrea Orr writes for Reuters that a new security
problem has been discovered regarding Netscape's browsers. Apparently,
several versions of the browser allow access by others to cache
files. The details of where the breach can occur is unclear, but
Netscape is working on a fix, and advises that the cache is cleared
from the menu bar. [I would have thought that turning the cache "off"
would also be advisable.]
[1998/10/04]
Sept. 28, 1998, Business Wire reports that Gateway claims that their
newly introduced Solo 3100 laptop computer is the world's lightest
portable PC with integrated DVD. Sample configurations:
Solo 3100SE, 12.1" TFT display, 233MHz Pentium MMX, 32MB SDRAM, CD-ROM,
2GB HD, external floppy, lithium ion battery, internal V.90 modem,
leather carrying case, Windows 95 and Microsoft Works 95, $2,099 US.
[1998/10/04]
Sept. 28, 1998, Jennifer Hagendorf writes for Computer Reseller News
that Toshiba has announced the following upgraded products:
Satellite 4010, 266MHz Pentium II, 4.1 billion byte HD, 24X CD-ROM,
32MB SDRAM, 12.1" dual scan display, $1,999 US, or with 12.1"
TFT active matrix display, $2,299 US.
Satellite 4020, 300MHz Pentium II CPU, 6.4 billion byte HD, 64 MB SDRAM,
13.3" active matrix display, $2,999 US.
The Satellite 4000 has been reduced in price as follows:
233MHz Pentium II CPU, 4.1 billion byte HD, 32 MB SDRAM, 12.1" dual
scan version $1,699 US, or 12.1" TFT active matrix screen $1,999 US.
[Throughout this piece the writer refers to "32 MB of SRAM" which
as far as I know is incorrect. Toshiba does not ship these products
with 32MB of Static RAM which is what "SRAM" means.]
[1998/10/04]
Sept. 28, 1998, John Borland writes for TechWeb that California has
passed two anti-spam laws giving the ISPs the right to sue spammers
for $50 US per "piece" of EMai up to $25,000 per day.
[1998/10/04]
Sept. 28, 1998, Business Wire reports that AMD has announced
AM29LV010B and AM29LV040B Flash memory devices that operate in the
2.7V to 3.6V range. Built using 0.32 micron technology, the AM29LV010B
has access times as fast as 45 nanoseconds at full voltage with
20 years data retention and guaranteed 1 million program/erase cycles.
Both are available in 32-pin TSOP and 32-pin PLCC packages. The
AM29LV010B (1Mbit device) is priced at $2.05 each in quantities of
10,000 and the AM29LV040B (4Mbit device) is priced at $2.90 each in
quantities of 10,000.
[1998/10/04]
Sept. 28, 1998, Business Wire reports that Motorola has announced its
new DSP56364 which is capable of up to 100 MIPS or 800 MOPS [I don't
know how this is calculated] at 3.3 volts. Based on 24-bit DSP56300
audio DSP the DSP 56364 includes 8K x24 bits of on-chip ROM and
3K x24 bits of on-chip RAM and audio peripherals. A 1.8 volt version
is also planned. The DSP56364 is priced at $4.95 US each in
quantities of 250,000. Samples will be available Jan. 1999.
[1998/10/04]
Sept. 28, 1998, Reuters reports that Symantec has bought out Intel's
anti-virus business for an undisclosed price. Included is a license
for Intel "systems managment technology" which protects against
intrusions or sabotage. Symantec will support Intel's current 18,000
registered anti-virus customers.
[1998/10/04]
I have left my previous message intact for now, as I wrote it the night of Sept. 29, 1998. Looking back over the week, one might expect me to remember it, but I probably won't. The thrust of my comments were that members of the press have to be careful to get things right. it's not a new topic for me. I'm always concerned about the press doing "a good job." It's only a good example. But while my previous message was intended to be a comment on the press and analysts, it was necessarily also a comment on the drop in Nortel share prices.
Regarding the drop in Nortel share prices, there's not much doubt that there were other factors than "blind panic" at work. Some of the Nortel drop was the result of well founded concerns for the ability of the company to accrue revenue during the clear slowing of the world economy. This isn't a matter of anybody "lying", but sometimes people are simply wrong. Some of it was also justifiable concern over recent changes in the structure and business of the company, not just the often mentioned Bay Networks deal, but whole effect of technological "convergence" which is forcing companies to function in broader markets, which appears to be the opposite of the "reductionist" approach of specialization. So whatever mistakes were made at that meeting, don't put all the blame there.
As usual, because I do not claim to be an "investment advisor," I'm not going to give advice or valuation regarding Nortel Networks shares. But I will say something that I doubt anyone else has said: I think the net result has probably left Nortel Networks shares in hands of more appropriate owners than before.
The simple fact is that Nortel Networks is not the same company that Nortel
originally was. While it has roots in the 1880's, I expect that most of the
current investors bought Nortel shares between the time it was listed
(Mar. 3, 1976) through to 1996. The image in the minds of most of those
investors was probably that of a company that made telephone systems and
related products such as were known from the 1950's to the 1980's. Copper
wire was strung mainly on poles, telephones (which we now sometimes call
"handsets") usually consisted of a speaker, a microphone and a dialing
mechanism, and the connections were made in "switches" which in the earliest
days were simple electrical switches. One still sees TV shows where police
say they need "X number of minutes to trace a phone call", which should be
nonsense in most modern North American cities. But that's what those older
investors probably thought they were buying. See:
http://www.nortel.com/home/about/miccohistory.html
By 1976, when Nortel was listed on the stock market, that was already starting to change, but the implications hadn't really sunk in to most investors until around last year when the significance of the wireless and data markets were brought into focus by major investments, and even "local phone service" lost its monopoly in Canada. I think many investors have been uncomfortable for a long time now. This is simply not the business they bought years ago. They didn't understand the new technology, or the new business environment, which included companies they'd never heard of a few years ago, like "Cisco" or "Bay Networks".
If nothing else, this turmoil has given those investors an excuse to finally put their built up fears to rest by giving them an excuse to bail out. Hopefully, most of those investors didn't really lose money. The shares have been much lower in the past, and I'd hope that many of those who sold can console themselves that they didn't sell for less than they'd bought. Meanwhile, I would hope that those who bought, did so because they were more comfortable in the world of the new technologies, and thus believe in Nortel's path. If this is true, then even if the company rises rapidly in the next few months, it won't come crashing down so fast next time there's a misplaced sneeze.
Simply put, the company will gain much investor confidence if it produces
results in line with its projections over the coming quarters. On the other
hand, many "analysts" now have a chance to revise their estimates downward
without looking silly if Nortel does well, saying "it was Nortel's fault for
bungling that meeting." But it will be difficult to tell whether they do so
based on any real facts, or simply take the opportunity, which perhaps in
part they created for themselves.
[1998/10/04]
Today had to be one of the strangest days in the corporate history of Northern Telecom (aka "Nortel," and now "Nortel Networks"), and perhaps one of Canada's saddest financial world foul-ups.
What Nortel really did was this: Seeing a quarter with lower than expected revenues, they cut costs, with the expected result that they would be able to make estimated "earnings" (earnings are "profits" which is to say "revenues minus expenses"). This is generally considered to be good management, provided it does not put the company in a position in the near future where it may need to expend extra cash later to replace the "cuts" -- if business picks up quickly, or otherwise jeapardizes a company's future position.
What Nortel said was that they made the above noted cuts in the quarter, thus no "profit warning" was necessary. They did make a "revenue warning", perhaps out of a belief that such disclosure was prudent for their reputation as a fair and honest company. On the other hand, their predictions of their future business remained as before. This is not much of a surprise, since their recent predictions were probably made with a fairly good estimate of the "reduced revenues" in this quarter in the first place. They weren't talking about it before, but they probably knew about it.
I wasn't there. I want to point this out right now. Apparently, some of the press and/or analysts in attendance got this wrong. Since I wasn't there, I can't say whose fault it was. Some of them thought that Nortel was saying that they were reducing their 1999 predicted revenues and profits too. The result was panic in the streets and a sudden sell-off of Nortel, which bottomed out today at $54.30 where the TSE halted trading.
Assuming that the financial community will look at the "revenue warning" as Nortel Networks seems to expect -- as "covered" by the reduced expenses, one would expect Nortel to recover most of today's losses fairly quickly. But what of the poor fellow who sold Nortel at $54.30? I'm not sure what lessons there are to be learned from this episode, but as a member of the "press", I don't feel good about it.
Oh, and by the way, Nortel was trying to celebrate their bold move
changing their name to "Nortel Networks" stepping forward into their
new business model based on their merger with Bay Networks.
[1998/09/29]
Sept. 26, 1998, Responsive Database Services reports that according
to Information Week, Sept. 21, 1998, Cisco Systems agreed to acquire
Clarity Wireless Corp. which is a manufacturer of wireless networking
technology. The Cisco has offered a stock swap worth $157 million US.
[1998/09/29]
Sept. 25, 1998, Reuters reports that National Semiconductor Corp. has
ended its agreement with IBM where IBM produced microcircuits for
Cyrix. Nat Semi expects a charge of up to $55 million US in its
2nd fiscal quarter (ending Nov. 29). According to analyst William Milton
of Brown Brothers Harriman, IBM Microelectronics contributes about
4% of IBM total sales and the Cyrix contract was not a large part of
that amount.
[1998/09/29]
Sept. 24, 1998, Canadian Corporate News reports that Metrowerks Inc.
has announced that its Java Acceleration Technology for PowerPC(TM)
just-in-time (JIT) compiler will be provided to Linux users for free
non-commercial use. The JIT compiler may be ported to other
processors.
[1998/09/29]
Sept. 24, 1998, Reuters reports that Cirrus Logic Inc. has said that
would reduce its chip making capacity and eliminate as many as 500
jobs. Restructuring costs are estimated at $500 million US. Timing
of the charges will be announced on Oct. 21 with its 2nd quarter
earnings. Cirrus hopes to sell its 40% interest in Cirent Semiconductor
to its partner in that venture (Lucent) and restructure is 48% share of
Micrus with co-owner IBM.
[1998/09/29]
Sept. 23, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that Microcell Solutions, Inc.
has announced Fido's newest usage package which is 1,000 minutes
of air time for $100 (Cdn) per month, available from Sept. 24, 1998.
As with other Fido packages, Call Waiting, Call Forwarding and
Conference Call (depending on handset) are included in the base
package, with other features optional.
[1998/09/29]
Sept. 23, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Nortel Networks has
announced its CDMA Metro Cell base station featuring modular
scalability and upgradeability to future 3G functionality.
Metro Cell works with Nortel Networks' "Smart Multi Carrier
Traffic Allocation" (MCTA) load balancing which Nortel Networks
claims is capable of increasing network capacity up to 20
percent.
[1998/09/29]
Sept. 23, 1998, Business Wire reports that Motorola has announced
SRAM using 0.15 micron gate technology using copper interconnect
technology. The new MCM64R836FC "8Mbit Late Write" has achieves
333MHz speeds and low power consumptions. The new device requires
50% - 75% less power than previous SRAM in L2 cache applications.
Engineering samples of 300MHz and 333MHz devices in x18
(MCM64R918FC) and x36 (MCM64R836FC) configurations are currently
available with full production planned for first quarter 1999.
http://www.mot-sps.com/press/html/press_rel_index.html
[1998/09/29]
Sept. 23, 1998, Business Wire reports that Motorola Systems Solutions
Group (SSG) has been awarded a five year contract to deliver a
digital software-programmable radio for the US Navy. Motorola
has been working on a Digital Modular Radio (DMR) since June, 1995.
[1998/09/29]
Sept. 23, 1998, Business Wire reports that Hewlett-Packard Company has
announced its HP 58540A GPS time and frequency reference receiver for
CDMA and GSM ($1,850 US), and HP 58533A low cost ($1,600) time and
frequency reference receiver for GSM only. Both receivers can be used
for paging and E-911 networks (which allow a cellular phone to be
located when used to dial 9-1-1). Also introduced was the HP 58534A GPS
timing antenna, which includes antenna, GPS receiver, interface and
power supply and delivers a 1-pulse-per=second (1PPS) signal, for $895 US.
[1998/09/29]
Sept. 23, 1998, Reuters reports that Intel will lay off 675 of its current
1,600 employees in their chip manufacturing plant in Hudson, Mass. This
is part of their 3,000 worldwide job reduction announced in April. Intel
says that production volume will be maintained.
[1998/09/29]
Sept. 23, 1998, Business Wire reports that, as reported by Business
Wire on Sept. 17, 1998, Motorola has announced Code Division Multiple
Access (CDMA) 64Kbps data transmission based on the IS-95B specification
available for CDMA wireless PCS operators. Third generation using
wider band CDMA IS-95C technology will have data rates up to 2Mbit/sec.,
but according to Motorola, will not be available for another year.
[1998/09/29]
Sept. 23, 1998, Business Wire reports that, as reported by Business
Wire on Sept. 17, 1998 Motorola also announced its new "end to end"
plain paper FAX system for "fixed" CDMA digital cellular networks
using Motorola's WiLL(R) 800SC or 1900SC fixed wireless terminals.
These and other products were shown at the Personal Communications
Industry Association's PCS '98 Personal Communications Showcase,
Sept. 22 - 25, Orange County Convention Center, Orlando, Florida.
[1998/09/29]
Sept. 22, 1998, Business Wire reports that AMD announced the availability
of a mobile version AMD-K6(R)/300 CPU. Built using 0.25 micron process
technology, the AMD-K6(R)/300 has 64KB on-chip L1 cache MMX(TM) instructions
and uses only 6.6 Watts (typical power consumption). AMD claims "an
extended Tcase rating (85(Degree)C)." [This is a measure that's new
to me.] It is available in PGA and 1 square inch footprint BGA packages.
The new CPU is immediately available at $229 US each in lots of 1,000.
[1998/09/27]
Sept. 22, 1998, Reuters reports that Compaq has announced the
Presario 1250 laptop computer that uses the mobile version of
the AMD-K6/300 CPU. [A price of $2,400 US is quoted, but without
specifications it's a fairly useless number. See the Compaq
Website for details.]
[1998/09/27]
Sept. 22, 1998, Business Wire reports that IBM has introduced new versions of ThinkPad 770 and 600 series laptop computers.
ThinkPad 770X models 7AU and 7BU support SXGA with 13.7", 1280 * 1024 active matrix screens using aluminum and/or copper connections instead of molybdenum and tungsten. Advances in manufacturing reduce production steps lowering cost. Other features include 300MHz Mobile Pentium II CPU, AGP graphics w/8MB video RAM, 8.1GBHD, 64 or 128MB RAM and DVD. Prices start at $5,399 US.
ThinkPad 600E, Intel(R) 300MHz Mobile Pentium II, AGP graphics,
13.3" XGA display, 2.5MB Video RAM, 6.4GBHD, Windows 98, $4,599 US.
[RAM size and drive configuration at this price were not provided.]
[1998/09/27]
Sept. 22, 1998, Business Wire reports that Motorola, Inc. has introduced
its "first generation ReFLEX(TM) chipset." The chipset consists of
a single chip ReFLEX protocol CoDec which contains the ReFLEX Stack
two-way software and a complete transceiver subsystem. [The text is
a bit ambiguous but probably means that the transceiver subsystem
is on a second chip.]
[1998/09/27]
Sept. 22, 1998, Business Wire reports that Motorola has announced that
their FLEX Messaging Server email VClient software which supports the
PageWriter 2000 two-way pager now covers Netscape Mail, Microsoft
Exchange, Lotus Notes, and Alta Vista Mail as well as other
applications utilizing IMAP4 mail transport.
[1998/09/27]
Sept. 22, 1998, Responsive Database Services reports that Nettech Systems
claims that their "Smart IP" replaces TCP/IP with a transport protocol
optimized for wireless communications without modifying TCP/IP applications.
They claim a reduction of data packets sent by as much as 80% and a
reduction of data transmitted by 30% to 60%.
[1998/09/27]
Sept. 22, 1998, Responsive Database Services reports that according to
the Sept. 21, 1998 New York Times, Qualcomm Inc. will introduce a
"pdQ" wireless phone/PalmPilot combination wireless PCS device in late
Sept. 1998.
[1998/09/27]
Sept. 22, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that J. D. Power and Associates
1998 U.S. Wireless Customer Satisfaction Study(SM) shows no real
surprises in Canada. Bell Mobility scored better than Cantel/AT&T
in all nine areas. Also "[i]n Toronto, one in four customers
subscribe to other providers such as Clearnet and Microcell -- both
PCS providers," which I think means that Clearnet and Microcell
together now hold 1/4 of current wireless users. In importance,
"call quality" was the top followed (not necessarily in order) by
pricing options, corporate capability, customer service,
credibility/customer communication, roaming/coverage, handset,
billing and cost of roaming. Bell Mobility's largest leads over
Cantel/AT&T were in "customer service", "corporate capability"
and "call quality."
[1998/09/27]
Sept. 22, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that MaxLink Communications
has launched its LMCS network in Ottawa-Hull. The services includes
high speed Internet access, local and long distance services, high
capacity private data transmission, enhanced multimedia communications
and broadcast video. Commercial operation will begin in 1999.
[1998/09/27]
Sept. 22, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that AG Communications Systems
announced that AT&T Wireless Service is testing their ROAMEO(TM) 1900MHz
TDMA PCS system to become part of AT&T Wireless Office Service (WOS).
[1998/09/27]
Sept. 22, 1998, Jennifer Hagendorf reports for Computer Reseller News that Fujitsu's new LifeBook E Series laptop computers will be custom configured through a direct sales force. Prices range from $1,999 US to $3,299 US.
Fujitsu also announced the L Series "ultra-portable" which will sell
for $3,399 US - $3,699 US.
[1998/09/27]
Sept. 21, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Apple Computer, Inc.'s AppleWorks 5 (formerly ClarisWorks) is now available for Windows and MacOS systems. Price is $99 US or $79 US for users upgrading from prior ClarisWorks versions.
[It took me a while to decided whether to post this. With CPUs over 200MHz,
RAM over 32MB and hard drives over 2GB all common on new laptops, I wondered
whether the balance of capabilities and size that ClarisWorks achieves is
still important to the mobile user. I think the program is still is
worthwhile, and indeed, I plan on buying both the Windows and MacOS versions,
but I have to say at the same time that WordPerfect Suite 8 (WPS8) seems to
be performing fairly well on my 120MHz Pentium, 16MB RAM and 1.2GB HD Compaq
Armada 1130. While I think upgrades to 32MB RAM and perhaps to a 2GB HD would
make a significantly more comfortable WPS8 platform, I think my experience
shows that most laptops "currently in use" probably don't give AppleWorks 5
the huge "performance" advantage that ClarisWorks users enjoyed a couple of
years ago. The price is still very nice, but that's a general computing issue
rather than a "mobile" issue.]
[1998/09/27]
Sept. 21, 1998, Business Wire reports that Hewlett-Packard Company
has licensed the ARM7TDMI(TM) and ARM 740T microprocessor cores for use
in ASICs. Dick Chang of HP specifically mentions "portable computing"
among other areas, as specific targets for applications.
[1998/09/27]
Sept. 17, 1998, Business Wire reports thatIBM has begun a "12-hour"
depot repair service for all "in-warranty" ThinkPad models 600
and 770. IBM claims that a machine received in the morning will
be serviced and shipped the same day. They expect this will
reduced the standard repair cycle time from 5 days down to 2 days
for most customers. From October 1, 1998 this service will be
available for other IBM ThinkPads.
[1998/09/22]
Sept. 17, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that Microcell Telecommunications
Inc. will be expanding its facilities in Montreal and relocating staff
to Place Bonaventure beginning in mid-November. An expanded call center
for Microcell Solutions Inc. (Fido) and the Montreal staff of Microcell
Connexions Inc. (their wholesaling arm) will be located in the facility.
Microcell expects to add 1,270 jobs in the expanded call center by the
end of 1999. Microcell has received a grant of $8.8 million from
Investissement-Quebec "with the cooperation of Vision Quebec."
[1998/09/22]
Sept. 17, 1998, Associated Press reports that Motorola Inc. has
temporarily halted construction of its new Virginia semiconductor
plant due to weakness in the semiconductor industry. The company
maintains that this is only temporary. Other expansions are under
review.
[1998/09/22]
Sept. 17, 1998, Reuters reports that NationsBanc Montgomery semiconductor
industry analyst Jonathan Joseph expects the semiconductor industry to
"rebound" in 1999. [He does not say how high or exactly when.]
[1998/09/22]
Sept. 16, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Nortel has announced its
DMS-100 Wireless system which turns a Centrex system into an
Integrated Wireless Centrex system with extensions to wireless
handsets of corporate virtual private network (VPN) dialing plan
and PCS functionality with Calling Line ID, Three-Way Calling
and Call Forwarding, and unified messaging through "twinning"
which allows the wireless handset to share the same phone number
and voice mailbox as the wired handset. AMPS, TDMA, CDMA
and PCS technologies are supported and handoffs are transparent
from the office to the public wireless network.
[1998/09/22]
Sept. 16, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that Ericsson Communications
Inc. and Rogers Cantel Inc. are to collaborate in the development
of "Operations Support Systems" (OSS) for D-AMPS IS-136 based wireless
networks. OSS are computer based systems used by network operators
to design, implement and optimize network operation.
[1998/09/22]
Sept. 16, 1998, Business Wire reports that Intel has released their
"Mobile Power Guidelines 2000" for those involve with the designing
and manufacturing of mobile computers. Intel will introduce a new
version Pentium MMX 266MHz CPU which are intended for "mini-notebooks".
Core voltage for this CPU has been reduced from 2.0V down to 1.8V
with a reduction in power to less than 5 watts typical thermal design
power (TDP).
[1998/09/22]
Sept. 15, 1998, Canada Newswire reports that Nortel has announced
their Passport 8300 G wireless gateway which Nortel, GSM Networks
President Pascal Debon says "will allow wireless operators to affordably
evolve towards wireless IP networks. . . " Nortel claims a 200%
improvement in effective GSM data rate and future support of
"General Packet Radio Services" (GPRS) and "Enhanced Data rate for
GSM Evolution" (EDGE). GPRS is expected to raise data rates to
115 kbps and EDGE is expected to allow data rates up to 384 kbps.
Nortel claims that Passport 8300 G will be usable as for Universal
Mobile Telecommunications Systems (UMTS) networks with data rates
up to 2Mbps.
[1998/09/19]
Sept. 15, 1998, Business Wire reports that Motorola has announced its
RF Oncore(TM) GPS fully integrated RF module. The entire RF section
and "GPS down-conversion" is contained in a 24 * 40 * 10 mm shielded
unit. For further information, see their Website at:
http://www.oncore.motorola.com/
[1998/09/19]
Sept. 15, 1998, Reuters reports that Cisco has bought out the
remaining portion of Clarity Wireless Corp. which was privately
held, giving it complete ownership. The price was $157 US in
Cisco common shares.
[1998/09/19]
Sept. 14, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that Rogers Cantel Inc. has
announced that Shoppers Drug Mart/Pharmaprix will retail Cantel(R)
AT&T(TM) Pay As You Go" wireless services. [The article also notes
that "Pay As You Go" cellular and paging services marked its
"50,000 customer milestone by the end of August." While it is not
clear whether this number includes "churn", since the service is
new, one would expect the churn rate is probably low anyway.]
[1998/09/19]
Sept. 14, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that Telus Mobility of Calgary, Alberta has announced new rate plans for wireless services. Prices in Canadian dollars:
YourTime25
Monthly Access Fee: $25.00
Term: 2 or 3 years
Minutes included: 500 evenings or weekends
Peak Rate: $0.30
Off-Peak Rate: $0.10
AnyTime50
Monthly Access Fee: $50.00
Term: 2 or 3 years
Minutes included: 250 anytime, day or night
Peak Rate: $0.20
Off-Peak Rate: $0.20
Unlimited Evenings and Weekends: $15.00
Mobility 30
Monthly Access Fee: $30.00
Term: Monthly
Minutes included: 100 evenings, free weekends
Peak Rate: $0.55
Off-Peak Rate: $0.10
http://www.telus.com/ Telus Mobility
[1998/09/19]
Sept. 14, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Nortel's SuperSleuth fraud
detection system for wireless systems learns about customers and
checks against customer data records to detect identify possible
fraudulent usage.
[1998/09/19]
Sept. 14, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Motorola has introduced its
new DragonBall EZ MC68EZ328 microprocessor which provides increased
integration and lower power consumption and smaller footprint packages
and a lower prices than the original DragonBall. Features include
a new DRAM controller and 16 level grey scale LCD controller, and the
operating speed is 16.58MHz at 3.3 volts. Suggested resale price
in a 100 TQFP package is $8.95 each in quantities of 10,000, or
$9.95 in a 144 BGA package.
[1998/09/19]
Sept. 8, 1998, Canada Newswire reports that Microcell Solutions Inc.
has launched the Fido Nokia 5190 handset which is sold as a dual
mode GSM PCS and analog handset for $150 Cdn., or as an upgradeable
GSM PCS - only handset for $75 Cdn, to which an analog module can
be added later for $75 Cdn. Features include Navi-Key "one-touch"
access to all handset functions, 4 hour talk time / six day standby
battery, calculator w/currency conversion capability, alarm clock,
three electronic games and thirty-five ring types. [The report also
says that it weighs 170g. without the analog module, but does not
state whether that includes the battery.]
[1998/09/19]
Sept. 11, 1998, Business Wire reports that Compaq, Hewlett-Packard, and
IBM have announced joint development of PCI-X which is an extension
of the currently popular PCI buss definition. Speeds are supported
up to 133 MHz and burst transfer rates over 1GB/sec. which is about
8 times current rates. [While this is a proposal for a "stationary"
computer design, the technology will be incorporated fairly directly
into laptop computers and will impact other mobile products over time.]
[1998/09/15]
Sept. 11, 1998, Sandy Chen writes for Electronic Buyers' News that
AMP will close its plant in Taiwan by the end of this year, laying
off about 300 workers. The plant in Hsinchu was built about 12
years ago.
[1998/09/15]
Sept. 10, 1998, Reuters reports that IBM claims to have developed
200 pixel per inch flat panel screens. The code name Roentgen active
matrix screens may reduce eyestrain. Early versions will cost around
$5,000 US, but prices should drop with production. The 16.3" diagonal
screen has 2,560 * 2,048 resolution.
[1998/09/15]
Sept. 9, 1998, Business World and Associated Press report that IBM has
claimed to have built the world's smallest HD drive. The 340MB
Microdrive measures 42.8mm * 1.43mm * 5.0mm, weighing 20g. It fits a
"CompactFlash Type II slot or a PC Card with an adapter. Density
is over 3 billion bits per square inch and rotation speed is 4500 RPM.
IBM claims it will cost less per byte than Flash memory, though prices
were not announced. A 170MB version is also planned.
[1998/09/15]
Sept. 9, 1998, Business Wire reports that Hewlett-Packard has announced HP Omnibook 7100 an 2100 laptop computers using Intel Mobile Pentium II 300MHz CPUs.
HP Omnibook 7150 with Mobile Pentium II 300MHz with 14.1" XGA TFT
display, ATI Rage LT Pro graphics controller, 8.1GB HD, 64MB SDRAM
(expandable to 320MB), 2X DVD/floppy combo module or 24X CD-ROM/floppy
combo module, Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 or dual load Windows(R) 95/98
$4,999 US, available next month.
HP Omnibook 2100, 13.3" XGA TFT screen, NeoMagic 128-bit Magic Graph
128XD, 2MB video memory, 4.0GB HD, 24X CD-ROM and floppy disk drive
$3,399 US, immediately available.
[1998/09/15]
Sept. 9, 1998, Business Wire reports that Gateway has announced immediate availability of Intel Pentium II 300MHz processors in laptop computers. [This announcement seems to say that they are using "Pentium II" rather than "Mobile Pentium II" CPUs, but I expect the announcement is simply an error.]
The Solo 2500SE with 300MHz Pentium II CPU, 12.1" active matrix screen,
32MB SDRAM, 2GBHD, floppy, CD-ROM, V.90 56Kbps Windows Modem, carrying
case and Microsoft(R) Home Essentials (TM) software is priced at $2,499 US.
The Solo 5150XL with 300MHz Pentium II CPU, 14.1" XGA active matrix
screen, 96MB SDRAM, 6.4GBHD, 2 LiIon batteries, 120MB SuperDisk(TM) drive,
DVD II drive, V.90 56Kbps Windows Modem, deluxe carrying case and
Microsoft Office 97 is priced at $3,699 US.
[1998/09/15]
Sept. 9, 1998, Business Wire reports that Compaq announced two new series of lightweight laptop computers. The new Armada 3500 is 4.4 lbs. and 1.3" thick and comes with Mobile Pentium II CPUs at 266MHz and 300 MHz. Prices start at $3,299 US, all models to be available later this month.
The Armada 6500 is based on the Digital HiNote Ultra 2000 and weighs 5.9 lbs. and measures 1.4" thick. It includes an Intel Mobile Pentium II 300 MHz CPU, 6.4GB HD, 64MB SDRAM, 512KB Level II cache, 14.1" 1024 * 768 colour TFT screen, 10/100 Ethernet and 56Kbps (V.90) modem. Prices start at $4,999 US (w/Windows 95 installed) and product will be available world wide within 30 days.
The 7800, 7400 and 1700 series have new models with Mobile Pentium II
300MHz CPUs. Also announced were price cuts on some other models:
Armada 1571 reduced from $1,749 US down to $1,499 US.
Armada 1573 reduced from $1,919 US down to $1,599 US.
Armada 4210T reduced from $2,399 US down to $2,199 US.
Armada 4220T reduced from $2,799 US down to $2,499 US.
Armada 7400 w/Mobile Pentium II 266MHz & Windows 95 reduced
from $3,999 US down to $3,299 US.
[1998/09/15]
Sept. 9, 1998, Business Wire reports that Compaq has announced the
Presario 1810 laptop computer which they claim is the first
"all-in-one DVD notebook" computer to be sold through US Retail
channels. The Presario 1810 includes a Mobile Pentium(R) II 300
MHz CPU, 64MB memory, 6.4GBHD and modem USB connector at $3,599 US
(less $100 rebate "with sign-up for 50-hour free trial of Compaq
Easy Internet Access. . ." which is only available in the US). [It is
unclear to me whether they mean that you have to sign up for the
service to get the rebate or if they mean they are throwing in the
rebate on top of a $100 mail in rebate.]
[1998/09/19]
Sept. 9, 1998, PR Newswire reports that IBM Industry Solutions Lap
in Stuttgart, Germany, the Software Center Boblingen/Sindelfingen e. V.
and Xybernaut Corporation in Fairfax, VA, USA will be developing and
marketing a new portable computer using IBM's ViaVoice. The
Xybernaut Mobile Assistant MA IV will have a 233MHz MMX CPU, up to
128MB memory and 4GBHD. Weighing 750 g. to be worn on a cloth belt.
[1998/09/15]
Sept. 9, 1998, Business Wire reports that Intel has announced the
300 MHz version of the Mobile Pentium II CPU. Using 0.25 micron
process, the CPU has a 66MHz system bus speed, a 1.6 volt internal
core voltage, and operates at 9.0 W (7.8 W thermal design power).
It is available in a mini-cartridge for $637 US each in quantities
of 1,000 units or in an Intel Mobile Module with part of the Mobile
440BX chip set at $710 US each in quantities of 1,000.
[1998/09/15]
Sept. 9, 1998, Ismini Scouras writes for Electronic Buyers'
News that Matsushita Semiconductor of America will close its
microcontroller and memory plant in Puyallap Washington
at the end of this year. The plant dates back to February
1991 and currently employs about 340 employees.
[1998/09/15]
Sept. 9, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Ameritech and IBM have agreed
that IBM will market Ameritech's Cellular Digital Packet Data (CDPD)
services in IBM customers' systems integration projects.
http://www.ameritech.com/
[1998/09/15]
Sept. 9, 1998, Associated Press reports that Iridium LLC is
delaying the commencement of commercial telephone service by
over a month from September 23 to November 1, 1998, for more
testing of the network and handsets.
[1998/09/15]
Sept. 9, 1998, Canada News Wire report that ATI supplies 6 of the
top 12 mobile comptuer OEM's and claims 30% market share in the
3D market for mobile systems (Q2 1998, per Mercury Research's
"PC Graphics and Chip Sets '98, Third Quarter Edition").
[1998/09/15]
Sept. 9, 1998, Business World reports that Lernout & Hauspie
has invested $3.8 million US in preferred stock in Speech
Machines and the two companies will collaborate on vertical
markets
http://www.speechmachines.com/
http://www.lhs.com/ Learnout & Hauspie
[1998/09/15]
Sept. 8, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Lotus has announced Version 5.0 of Lotus Organizer which they claim is the first PIM with "standards-based scheduling capabilities" based on the "iCalendar" data format for Internet based scheduling. Organizer 5.0 also features "enhanced contact management features, synchronization with popular personal digital assistants (PDAs), improved time and information management capabilities and significant improvements to its . . . user interface."
Organizer 5.0 includes synchronization with PalmOS devices (3Com Pilot and IBM WorkPads, etc.) and Texas Instruments 6960si Series. Support for Windows CE, Psion Series 5 and Sharp Zaurus will be available from 3rd parties.
[I recently tried a version of Lotus Organizer and was dissatisfied
with it because it lacked sufficient "granularity and breadth" of
fields. In particular, I wanted more distinct address fields. I don't
know whether this new version would be acceptable, but among the features
I noticed the following: ". . . additional contact fields enable to store
up to 20 telephone numbers, six physical addresses, six e-mail addresses,
six Web pages (URLs) and 20 custom fields epr contact; and, Organizer
now displays addresses in a variety of international formats." I am
currently using a Newton MP-110 for my main PIM and beginning to migrate
data to CorelCENTRAL.]
[1998/09/13]
Sept. 8, 1998, Business Wire reports that Motorola claime that the new
Motorola i1000 handset is the first to use the M.CORE architecture. It
uses the DSP56652 dual-core processor which combines the the 40 MIPS
capable M.CORE 32-bit RISC controller and 60 MIPS capable 16-bit DSP56600
signal processor core in the same chip.
[1998/09/13]
Sept. 8, 1998, Business Wire reports that AMD has announced new 16-Mbit
Flash memory with fast burst mode access times. Initial data access
is 65 nanosecond with subsequent accesses as fast as 18 nanoseconds.
Versions announced were:
Modulo Burst: Four-word sequential burst
Interleaved Burst: Four word interleaved burst
Linear Burst: 32-word sequential burst
Samples will be available in Q3 and Q4 this year with a projected
price of $9.25 each in quantities of 10,000 in 56-pin SSOP or optionally
a 56-pin TSOP..
AMD also announced a Page Mode version (Am29PL160) with access times of 65 nanoseconds for initial data access with subsequent accesses to the same page as fast as 25 nanoseconds. This version is immediately available at $9.25 each in quantities of 10,000 in a 44-pin PSOP.
Voltages for these devices are 2.7 - 3.6V with IO leads tolerate to 5.0V.
[1998/09/13]
Sept. 7, 1998, Mark Lepedus writes for EE Times that the Bluetooth
Special Interest Group is expected to announce its first specification
for small area unlicensed high speed wireless data networking next month.
[1998/09/13]
Sept. 3, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Motorola has announced a $600,000
US grant to Northwestern University for research in the design of
wireless multimedia devices and protocols.
[1998/09/13]
Sept. 4, 1998, Andrew Craig writes for TechWeb that Fujitsu has
announced the closure of their 500 million pound DRAM chip plant in
Newton Aycliffe, County Durham (UK) which began operation in 1991.
About 570 jobs will be lost. Richard Gordon of Dataquest notes that
this is ". . . essentially closing down an old factory" and that
it was due for upgrading and that Fujitsu appear to have decided to
put off upgrading due to current market conditions.
[1998/09/09]
Sept. 4, 1998, Mark LaPedus writes for Electronic Buyers' News that
Intel's recent plans imply the elimination of the "audio-chip business"
by integrating the functionality into the motherboard with two new
specifications. The Audio/Modem Riser (AMR) for general motherboards
and Mobile Daughter Card (MDC) for mobile products specify a new
functional distribution which put most of the digital functions on
the motherboard (in their forthcoming Camino chip set) and leaving the
audio/modem analog IO functions to the daughter card. A new
46 pin buss is defined and the current specification allows audio
on the motherboard or "audio and a modem" on the riser card.
[1998/09/09]
Sept. 3, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that Rogers Cantel has
commenced "Pay As You Go" paging and cell phone services in Saskatoon
and Regina, in Saskatchewan
[1998/09/09]
Sept. 2, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that Clearnet has introduced
the Mike i1000 flip-phone style wireless handset to its Mike service.
The Clearnet claims that the Motorola built transceiver is 11.5 cm high
and weighs under 150 g. [size does not say if it is folded, and only
one dimension was provided, weight does not say whether a battery is
included.] An LiIon battery is said to provide 180 min. of talk time
or 60 hours standby time. The "Mike i1000 bundle" retails for $299
Cdn. including phone, charger, carrying holster with belt clip.
[1998/09/09]
Sept. 2, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that Mobile Data Solutions Inc. (TSE MMD) has announced its Advantex-Enterprise Gateway Version 2.0 which is a set of software components that reside on the server and on the mobile unit and allow or enhance TCP/IP data transfers over wireless systems.
"Advantex-Enterprise Gateway provides connectivity solutions across virtually every major wireless network. Terrestrial and satellite wireless network vendors supported include BellSouth Wireless Data, AT&T Wireless, American Mobile, Bell Atlantic, Mobile, DataTAC, Ericsson, Motorola, Norcom, and others. Wireline networks supported include LU6.2, TCP/IP, and X.25 among others. Advantex-Enterprise Gateway is also able to use multiple wireless networks concurrently. . ."
". . . Advantex-Enterprise Gateway employs a variety of mechanisms, including data compression, data bundling, and data pipelining, to maintain the integrity of information sent and ensure efficient, cost-effective delivery of vital information to the mobile workforce."
[My apologies for the extensive quotes but I'm not familiar with this
product, and this article does not differentiate between this "2.0"
version and previous versions. So I don't know what, if any "news" is
in the article. I'm including it on a "benefit of doubt" basis.]
[1998/09/09]
Sept. 1, 1998, Business Wire reports that National Semiconductor has
introduced their new LM4385 2W power audio power amplifier which they
claim is suited for desktop and laptop applications. The LM4835MTE
is currently available in 28-pin TSSOP with exposed die attach pad
(DAP) is priced at $3.25 US in quantities of 1,000. The 1-Watt version
LM4835MT is priced at $3.00.
http://www.national.com/pf/LM/LM4835.html
[1998/09/09]
Sept. 1, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Apple has announced the PowerBook
G3 with 14" TFT, 233MHz PowerPC G3 CPU with 512KB L2 cache, 32MB SDRAM,
ATI RAGE LT PRO video, 4MB video SGRAM, 2GB HD and 20X CD-ROM at $2,799
US. Higher priced configurations range upward to around $5,000 US.
[1998/09/05]
Sept. 1, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that Rogers Cantel Inc. is
pleased to announce that Cantel(R) AT&T(TM) Digital PCS is now
available in Brandon, Manitoba.
[1998/09/05]
Sept. 1, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that Bell Mobility and Wildfire
Communications Inc., have announced availability of "Wildfire(R)
personal assistant service" in the Toronto area beginning Sept. 16,
1998. Capabilities include "WildDial(TM) Voice Dialing" which supports
up to 150 contacts and 6 numbers per contact, "WildMail(TM) Voice-controlled
VoiceMail" which captures names and phone numbers, "WildFind(TM) Call
Routing" call forwarding, "WildWhisper(TM) Intelligent Call Waiting"
which announces the caller's name and can "take a message" if the
call is declined. The service will be price at a flat rate of "$20 -
$29 per month." A demonstration of the service is at (416) 213-9453.
http://www.wildfire.com/
[1998/09/05]
Sept. 1, 1998, Business Wire reports that IBM has claims shipment of
the worlds first copper technology microprocessors including 400MHz
versions of PowerPC 740/750. IBM also announced "embedded" versions
of PowerPC at 400MHz based on this technology. [While these versions
seem to be aimed at the desktop and stationary applications markets,
copper technology is expected to have the same advantages in the mobile
market. Newsbytes, Sept. 1, 1998, says that coper technology requires
about 60% less power and about 40% less space than aluminum technology.
Newsbytes quotes the price of the 400MHz PowerPC at $605 US each in lots
of 1,000, or $65 US less than 450MHz Pentium II.]
[1998/09/05]
Aug. 31, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Motorola has announced the
availability of the new MM2080 single chip combination of FLEX(TM)
paging decoder and M-CORE(TM) RISC microcontroller which they feel
is suited for combining paging and PDA functionality. Samples are
expected by the end of the year and volume production is expected in
Q1 1999. The suggested resale price for MMC2080 is $9.88 each in
volumes of 10,000. Package options are 144-pin MAP BGA or 100-pin
LQFP.
[1998/09/05]
Aug. 28, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Extended Systems will release
the ESI-B756A Enhanced Port Replicator for the ThinkPad 600 and
the ESI-B758A for the ThinkPad 770 in October. Extended Systems
claims savings of about $150 US by including built in 10/100BaseT
Ethernet. Projected street prices of either product is $375 US.
Extended Systems
http://www.extendedsystems.com/
[1998/09/05]
The above warning of "conflicts of interests" has been added to the bottom
of this Webpage as of today. I have thought about it since June and
discussed it with friends in the industry. I thought about individually
noting purchases and sales of stocks individually, as I did when I bought
Corel and Clearnet, but as I noted before, I do not give investment advice,
nor do I claim expertise in that field, and mentioning purchases and sales
individually becomes more of a comment on companies than I wish to make.
I believe this "blanket" warning is sufficient. If you wish to comment,
feel free.
[1998/09/05]
Aug. 27, 1998, Business Wire reports that Gateway has announced
price cuts on Solo(R) laptop computers.
Solo 2500XL 266MHz Pentium II, 13.3" XGA active matrix display, 64MB
SDRAM, 6.4GBHD, 120MB SuperDisk(TM), and DVD II drive, LiIon battery,
TelePath(R) modem, deluxe case, Microsoft(R) Office '97, reduced
$100 to $3,099 US.
Solo 9100SE, 233MHz Pentium II, 14.1" XGA active matrix display, 64MB
SDRAM, 4GB HD, floppy and DVD II drive, LiIon battery, TelePath(R)
modem, Microsoft(R) Home Essentials(TM), reduced $200 to $2,999 US.
[1998/09/01]
Aug. 27, 1998, Business Wire reports that IBM has introduced their new
T55 15" TFT display under $1,000 US. Resolution is 1024 * 768 * 16.7
million colours, covering VGA, SVGA and XGA. Interface can be analog
(T55A) or digital (T55D -- may need AGP Plug and Display graphics card,
bundled, or may be directly support on some new computers). Dimensions
are 16.3" * 8.1" with stand (3" shorter without stand) and weight
is 14.3 lbs. Price is $1,099 US for the T55A analog models and $949 US
for the T55D digital model, or $1,099 US for the T55D digital model
with Matrox AGP card included. Availability will be early October for
the analog model and mid to late October for the digital model.
http://www.ibm.com/pc/us/accessories/
[1998/09/01]
Aug. 26, 1998, Jeff O'Heir writes for Computer Reseller News that
Acer has introduced its new Extensa 710 laptop series which should
be available in North America by now. Featuring 233MHz Pentium II
CPUs, 32MB RAM, 56Kbps modems prices will start at $1,999 US
for the 710DX with 2.1GB HD and 12.1" "super clear-color" technology
screen. This "middle" price range model range upward to around
$2,699 US for the 710TE model with 4GB HD and 13.3" TFT screen.
The article implies that all models include a docking station.
[1998/09/01]
Aug. 26, 1998, Business Wire reports that Research In Motion has
announced their new RIM Inter@ctive(TM) Pager 950 used by BellSouth
Iteractive Paging(SM) Service. The new unit is smaller and lighter
and features extended battery life, increased memory, improved LCD,
easier to use keyboard, thumb operated roller wheel, menu interface,
enhanced applications and a lower price.
Messages up to 16,000 char.
Intel 386 CPU w/1MB flash memory and 304KB SRAM
2W transmitter and high-efficiency receiver
backlighted LCD (8 or 6 line display)
31 key keyboard
3.5" * 2.5" * 0.93", 3.95 oz (not including batery)
address book holds 1,000 entries
Price is quoted at "$359" but it's not clear whether it's US or
Canadian.
http://www.rim.net/
[1998/09/01]
Aug. 26, 1998, Todd Wasserman writes for Computer Retail Week that
Apple has discontinued the Newton line including the eMate.
Some dealers claim that they were not informed.
[1998/09/01]
Aug. 25, 1998, Business Wire reports that Gateway has announced immediate
availability of their new Solo 5150 laptop computer. Built on the
Solo 5100 form factor and core components, the 5150 adds the NeoMagic
MagicMedia256AV multimedia accelerator, a brighter 14.1" LCD and a new
intelligent 50-watt-hour battery with an external guage.
Solo 5150LS 233MHz Pentium(R) II, 14.1" LCD, 64MB SDRAM, 4GB HD, floppy
drive, DVD-ROM, LiIon battery, Win Modem, Microsoft Office 97 SBE for
$2,899 US.
[1998/08/29]
Aug. 25, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Geoworks Corporation claims
to have "ported" GEOS(R)-SC(TM) to the ITRON specifications. According
to Geoworks, over 1/3rd of embedded system products made in Japan
use the ITRON specifications and Geoworks brings with it a graphical
user interface, HTML 3.2 browser and Sun's PersonalJava(TM).
[1998/08/29]
Aug. 25, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Symantec and IBM have announced
an upgrade to a current OS/2 antivirus product to cover the CIH virus
and have announced that a new OS/2 product will be available later
this year. [The article does not say what the "current product" is
that is being upgraded or terms or availability for the upgrade.]
[1998/08/29]
Aug. 25, 1998, Business Wire reports that National Semiconductor
Corporation has announced that samples of 0.25-micron process
Cyrix MII and MediaGX processors have begun shipping from its
South Portland facility and full production is expected to commence
in September, with 75% of its volume to be produced from that
facility in the 4th quarter of this year. [While the article
seems to imply that NatSemi is focusing on desktop type products,
0.25 micron technology is currently also well suited for mobile
applications.]
[1998/08/29]
Aug. 25, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Nortel has announced its new
Maestro 900 Digital Spread Spectrum (DSS) cordless phones. Features
include up to 1 mile range (clear line of sight to base), autoscan
smart channel hopping, 16 million digital security codes, caller ID,
call waiting display, 30 name and number callers log and personal
directory, voice mail with message light indicator and last 5 number
redial.
http://www.nortel.com/phones/
[1998/08/29]
Aug. 25, 1998, Andrew Craig writes for TechWeb that Microsoft
has confirmed a possible security breach in their Hotmail EMail
service. JavaScripts could be written to trick people into
re-entering their passwords and secretly send them back to
the originator. This problem only occurs in mail readers which
support JavaScript. Microsoft is currently filtering out all
JavaScript and is working on a permanent solution. Craig writes
that for now, JavaScript should be turned off in Web Browsers.
[1998/08/29]
Aug. 25, 1998, Doug Olenick writes for Computer Retail Week that
Royal Consumer Business Products is planning to sell PalmPilot-like
devices for less. The daVinci priced at $99 US comes with 256KB memory
and a docking station and the daVinci Pro costs $150 US for 1MB memory
and docking station. Based on the same Motorola processor and a
proprietary writing recognition system, these products do not work
with Apple computers.
[1998/08/29]
Aug. 25, 1998, Jennifer Hagendorf writes for Computer Reseller News that the Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) Special Interest Group has granted preliminary approval for a Mini PCI specification for standardization of peripherals in mobile PCs. The specification defines a small daughter card about 2/3 the size of a credit card but equivalent to a standard PCI expansion card.
Aug. 24, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Nuance Communications has announced
that Motorola chose Nuance 6 speech recognition technology for a new
service called "Myosphere".
[1998/08/29]
Aug. 25, 1998, Mark LaPedus writes for Electronic Buyers' News that
Ericsson and Smart Modular Technologies are working on GSM compatible
modem/ISDN cards. [No dates or prices were given in the article.]
[1998/08/29]
Aug. 24, 1998, Business Wire reports that IBM Research and the Swiss
Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) have co-developed a new
public-key encryption system called the Cramer-Shoup cryptosystm
which they claim stops "active" attacks.
http://www.zurich.ibm.com/Technology/Security/publications/1998/CS.pdf
[1998/08/29]
Aug. 24, 1998, Business Wire reports that AMD has announced their new
Am29SL800C 1.8V-only flash memory with 100 nanosecond read access
time which is claimed to be the fastest in that voltage and comparable
to 3V flash memory devices. Samples are currently available and price
is $6.50 US in 10,000-piece quantities for the 100 nanosecond version.
[1998/08/29]
Aug. 24, 1998, Mary E. Thyfault and Beth Davis write for Information
Week that MobileStar Network Corp. will bring 1.2-Mbps wireless access
to the Internet for around $40 US per month to 50 American Airlines
terminals and 100 selected ITT Sheraton, Holiday Inn Select, and Crowne
Plaza hotels by the end of this year, and 1,000 locations worldwide
by the end of next year. Customers will need an wireless LAN card
by Proxim Inc. which will sell for $395 US or be rented at $25US/month.
[1998/08/29]
Aug. 22, 1998, Business Wire reports that Counterpane Systems
and Hi/fn, Inc. announced $10,000 US in prizes for the best analysis
of the Twofish encryption system, whether for "a full or partial
break, a theoretical or practical attack." [No contact information
was in the article.]
[1998/08/29]
Aug. 21, 1998, Anthony Cataldo writes for EE Times that Fujitsu and
Hitachi will cooperate on developing plasma display technology. They
are hoping to reduce cost and improve picture quality. Fujitsu has
also agreed with Philips Consumer Electronics to collaborate on
plasma displays for flat panel TVs.
[1998/08/26]
Aug. 20, 1998, Stephan Ohr writes for EE Times that researcher Forward
Concepts believes that programmable DSP sales will grow 20% in 1998 with
sales of $3.9 billion US largely due to wireless communications applications.
Their report ("DSP Strategies 2002") forecasts even stronger 32% growth
in 1999 and 33% compounded growth annually to 2002.
[1998/08/26]
Aug. 20, 1998, Andy Patrizio writes for TechWeb that Symantec Antivirus
Research Center (SARC) has claimed to have found the first Java application
virus. The virus is capable of infecting Java applications but not
Java "applets" that run on Java Virtual Machines within browsers.
Symantec will post an upgrade patch to their website to protect against
this type of virus.
[1998/08/26]
Aug. 18, 1998, Junko Yoshida writes for EE Times that Sirf Technology
is hoping to have its GPS core integrated into half of all cell
phones sold in the US. Nokia and Ericsson have selected Sirf
technology and Hitachi's semiconductor division is jointly marketing
Sirf's GPS chipset with Hitachi's SH MPU. There are other competing
technologies.
[1998/08/22]
Aug. 18, 1998, Business Wire reports that according to Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI), the North American semiconductor equipment industry posted a book-to-bill ratio of 0.69 for July 1998. This means that $69 of orders were received for every $100 worth of product shipped. The three-month rolling average of shipments in July 1998 was $1.1 billion US which is 11% below June 1998 and 15% below July 1997. The three month average booking for July 1998 was $757 million US, which is 19% below June 1998 and 47% below July 1997.
These figures are not audited and are regarding equipment used to
produce semiconductors and not the figure for actual semiconductor
production or sales.
[1998/08/22]
Aug. 17, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Motorola has announced
that they have shipped their 3,000,000th DragonBall(TM) 68328
CPU. This CPU is used in, among other things, the 3Com PalmPilot
(and all devices in that family, such as the IBM WorkPads), and
PageWriter(TM) 2000. Motorola currently offers the DragonBall(TM)
68320 at a "resale" price of $9.95 in quantities of 10,000.
http://www.mot.com/dragonball/
[1998/08/22]
Aug. 14, 1998, Mark LaPedus writes for Electronic Buyers' News that
API (Acer) and GVC, both of Taiwan, who have been making other
wireless handsets have licensed Qualcomm's cdmaOne technology
to produce handsets. Acer expects to begin selling in 1999.
[1998/08/18]
Aug. 14, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Peripheral Enhancement
Corporation has announced a 128MB SDRAM upgrade module for IBM
ThinkPad 600 and 770 Series laptop computers.
http://www.peripheral.com/
[1998/08/18]
Aug. 14, 1998, Peter Nielsen writes for Reuters that Microsoft has
confirmed a date problem discovered by "Prove It 2000" which causes
erratic date setting if the computer is rebooted in the last seconds
before midnight. The date may change restart the day over or may
jump ahead an extra day. The exact moment that this will happen
will depend on a computer's microprocessor and hard drive. Microsoft
has said that they will post a patch shortly.
[1998/08/18]
Aug. 13, 1998, Loring Wirbel writes for EE Times that the "National Wireless Systems Testbed" will work with an Industry Standards and Technology Council in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) to speed development of standard interfaces for broadband wireless networks.
Aug. 12, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Geoworks Corporation and
Fujitsu Software Corporation have signed an agreement to co-market
Geoworks Premion(TM) Information Service via Fujitsu's ByeDesk(TM)
Link server application. Geoworks is offering a "pilot version"
of the service to users of Fujitsu's wireless website. The information
will include general news, stock quotes, directions and dining
information. ByeDesk Link software allows digital cellular phones
and PDA-like devices and pagers to send and receive E-Mail and FAXes,
and access corporate information.
http://www.byedesk.com/
Aug. 12, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that Microcell Telecommunications
Inc. has reported their second quarter, ending June 30, 1998. Subscriptions
for Fido service rose 52,679 from Mar. 31, 1998 (97,167) to 149,846.
According to Microcell the average monthly churn rate after the guarantee
period was 1.6% in the quarter. Microcell has set a goal of 200,000
subscribers within the year. Second quarter revenue was $31.3 million
Cdn. which is about 74% above the first quarter's $18.0 million. Monthly
average revenue per user (ARPU) was $56.59, which is 4% higher than
the previous quarter ($54.55). The average monthly usage was 264 min.
per subscriber in the second quarter. The total net lossese for the
quarter $109.7 million and the total loss for the first half of the year
is $191.7 million.
[1998/08/18]
Aug. 11, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Phillips Business Information,
Inc. announced their new TelecomWeb Direct free e-mail news service
providing weekly coverage of wireless, broadband and satellite
communications industries on a weekly basis. Service will start
Aug. 17, 1998
http://www.telecomweb.com/
Phillips Business Information, Inc.
http://www.phillips.com/pbi/
[1998/08/15]
Aug. 11, 1998, Aaron Pressman writes for Reuters that according to
Hughes Electronics Corp., investigating the May 19th failure of
PanAmSat Corp's Galaxy IV found metallic crystals formed on electrical
relays (switches) plated with tin caused short ciruiting in some
satellites. But Galaxy IV was operating on a backup system after this
problem and no explanation has been found for the failure of the backup
system. The use of tin plated relays had been discontinued "several
years ago." Hughes is reviewing manufacturing records of 35 satellites
currently in orbit to see which might be susceptible to such problems.
[1998/08/15]
Aug. 10, 1998, Business Wire reports that Compaq has announced three new laptop computers. The most significant is a new Intel Mobile Pentium II based Armada 7400 laptop computer which features a new magnesium alloy case. Weighing a bit over 6 lbs., it comes will come first with a 266MHz CPU and 300MHz CPUs when they becom available. Its AGP graphics runs on a 66MHz dedicated graphics buss. The first versions will include a 4GB SMART HD with fault prediction and "DriveLock" for dasta security, a 24X CD-ROM drive, 32MB SDRAM expandable to 128MB, 512KB Level II cache, a 13.3" colour TFT 1024 * 768 screen, S3 ViRGE(TM)/MX graphics accelerator with 4MB of SGRAM and 3D graphics acceleration. Available in August, prices will start at $3,999 US.
Also announced were the Armada SB6233/12T based on the Armada 1700 with Intel Mobile Pentium II at 233MHz, 512KB Level II cache, 12.1" TFT screen, 3.2" SMART HD, 32MB SDRAM expandable to 96MB, 24X CD-ROM, 56K Data/FAX modem and Li-Ion battery, Windows 98, Norton AntiVirus, and Microsoft Office 97 Small Business Edition, available immediately $2,499 US.
Also announced was the SB5266/12S, based on the Armada 1500 with
Intel Mobile Pentium MMX at 266MHz, 512KB Level II cache, a 12.1"
fast response STN display, 3.2GB SMART HD, 32MB RAM expandable to
96MB, 20X CD-ROM, 56K Data/FAX modem, and a Li-Ion battery, Windows 98,
Norton AntiVirus, and Microsoft Office 97 Small Business Edition,
available immediately at $1,999 US.
[1998/08/15]
Aug. 7, 1998, Business Wire reports that Gatway has added DVD drives
to the Solo 2500 priced as low as $2,099 US.
[1998/08/11]
Aug. 7, 1998, Newsbytes reports that according to the New York Times, a bug in Windows versions of Qualcomm's Eudora 4.0, 4.01 and 4.1 email programs can allow virii to passed through email attachments. Qualcomm announced that a patch would be available on Aug. 7, 1998.
According to John Borland ("TechWeb" Aug. 7, 1998) the security flaw
is based in JavaScript capbilities in the body of the EMail that can
run a hidden attached program. The bug was discovered by Richard Smith
of Phar Lap Software.
[1998/08/11]
Aug. 7, 1998, Andy Patrizio writes for TechWeb that Internet Security
Services of Atlanta has pubished an advisory that the"Back Orifice" program
released by the "Cult of the Dead Cow" group can substantially compromise
security of Windows 95 systems by copying keyboard input and thus passwords.
[1998/08/11]
Aug. 6, 1998, Business Wire reports that Clearnet is expanding their
Mike "Industrynet" service which creates "wireless communities" of
similar interests to new client sectors. The six new sectors are
"Professional Services", "Health & Social Services", "Hospital & Travel",
Transportation & Automotive", Media & Entertainment" and "Friends &
Family". The previous "Construction Net" is continued.
[1998/08/11]
Aug. 6, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Telxon Corporation, annoucned that
they have begun work on a new Windows CE device under the project name
CREOSOTE which will feature wireless Voice over IP telephony, with
integrated bar code scanning.
http://www.telxon.com/
[1998/08/11]
Aug. 6, 1998, Jeff Sweat writes for Information Week that amid other
price reductions, Dell has cut prices on Pentium MMX based notebook
computers.
[1998/08/11]
Aug. 5, 1998, Business Wire reports that Motorola has announced
new productivity and entertainment application software for the Pagewriter
2000. The Productivity Suite includes Scheduler 2000, Alert 2000, To-Do
Manager and Note Pad, for $19.95 US. The Entertainment Pack includes
"Ship2ship" which can be played over the air between live opponents, Mines
2000, and Draw 21 (blackjack) for $9.95 US.
[1998/08/11]
Aug. 5, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that Rogers Cantel Mobile
Communications Ince has announced their 2nd quarter results. As of
June 30, 1998, RCM had a total of 1,590,300 cellular subscribers
making an increase of 24,900 since March 31, 1998 or 130,500 more
than at the same date last year. About 400,000 subscribers were using
Digital PCS (about 25% of all subscribers) and 15,900 were on prepaid
"Pay as you go" cellular service. Churn rate (disconnect) was 1.87%
which was up from 1.50% a year ago and slightly up from 1.79% in the
first quarter.
[1998/08/11]
Everybody wants a bargain, but in the computer industry, some
bargains are best avoided. Buying a "demo unit" in particular
can be a great way to save money. In other cases it's a losing
proposition. I bought a "demo unit" model Compaq Armada 1130.
This report mainly covers the first six weeks I had the computer
but with some additions. While this is an ongoing situation, most of
the problems have been satisfactorily resolved, and I'm now in
the process or migrating my workload onto the new computer.
Demo Compaq 1130
[1998/06/09] revised [1998/08/11]
Aug. 3, 1998, Business Wire reports that Motorola has licensed the
T9(TM) text entry system by Tegic Communications for faster text entry
for their iDEN(R) integrated digital wireless handsets. The T9
system features the ability to enter text on a telephone format
keypad with only one key press per character by checking against
a linguistic database.
http://www.tegic.com/
[1998/08/08]
Aug. 3, 1998, Business Wire reports that WolfeTech's new PocketGenie(TM)
software gives PageWriter(TM) 2000 two-way pagers capability to
access Internet-based information services.
http://www.wolfetech.com/
[1998/08/08]
Aug. 3, 1998, Business Wire reports that among other price reductions on
monitors, Compaq reduced their TFT500 15" flat panel display from
$1,557 US down to $1,199 US, and their TFT450 14.5" display from
$1,167 US down to $949 US.
[1998/08/08]
Aug. 3, 1998, Business Wire reports that IBM claims to have developed
a commercially viable process for producing "silcon on insulator" (SOI)
integrated circuit devices. This process improves efficiency leading
to around 25% higher performance chips in otherwise equivalent designs,
or chips requiring around a third less power for equivalent performance.
IBM claims that SOI technology will add little cost to production. It
is currently being used in pilot production and will be utilized in
high-volume chips in the first half of 1999.
http://www.chips.ibm.com/
[1998/08/08]
Sorry for the brevity of the original report. Though still brief, this revision ads some details.
Today, Toshiba Canada introduced their new Tecra 8000 and Portege 7000CT
series computers which seem to be similar in goals to NEC's Versa LX and
SX computers. Emphasizing that unlike Packard Bell NEC, Toshiba Canada
is not a subsidary or part of the US Toshiba arm, but directly under
Toshiba Japan, the Tecra 8000 is a major departure from the US version in
terms of strategy. Toshiba US will use the Tecra 8000 computer to begin
custom user configurations while Toshiba Canada has decided to produce
three distinct model configurations. While noting that "large orders"
can be placed for special configurations, Robert Grossman said that
Toshiba "remains committed to the channel [distribution system]". The
new Portege 7000CT in particular is a major revamp with a new magnesium
chassis and with its DVD docking bay included weighs less than 7 lbs.
[1998/08/04]
Portege 7000CT, 266MHz Intel Mobile Pentium II, 12.1" TFT screen, 512KB
L2 cache, 32MB SDRAM (expandable up to 160MB), 4.3 billion byte HD,
LiIon battery, K56Flex integrated modem, $5,759 Cdn.
Tecra 8000, 266MHz Intel Mobile Pentium II, 12.1" TFT screen, 800 *
600 * 16.7 million colours, 4.0 billion byte HD, 512KB pipelined burst
SRAM L2 cache, 32MB RAM (expandable to 256MB), 24X CD-ROM, 1.44 3.4"
floppy, K56Flex modem, $4,939 Cdn.
Top line version of Tecra 8000 $6,749 Cdn.
http://www.toshiba.ca/
revised [1998/08/08]
Due to a space shortage, the last sample files from the Toronto Prices
Project have been removed. They were over a year old now anyway.
[1998/08/08]
On my last look, about two days ago, Netscape's solution to the "long
file name bug" for their Communicator 4.05 and 4.5 browser EMail systems
was to change the way attachments are handled from "inline" to "as links".
Microsoft has had patches posted to their website, but I have unconfirmed
reports that the patches were withdrawn. Since I don't use Microsoft's
EMail handler regularly, I have not made it a priority to check it.
[1998/08/04]
Aug. 1, 1998, according to Responsive Data Services, Stuart J. Johnston
and Rich Levin wrote in Information Week, July 27, 1998 that Informix,
Netscape and Oracle have announced intentions to port major products
to Linux. Announced intentions include Oracle8 database by the end of
this year, Informix-SE (no delivery date), and Netscape Communicator 4.5
(currently in beta testing) and Netscape messaging and directory servers
next year. Corel Corp. is currently shipping WordPerfect 7 and plans
to ship WordPerfect 8 Personal and server editions for Linux this
summer, as well as a suite of business applications. The article notes
that Corel has begun selling StrongArm based computer with Linux
pre-installed.
[1998/08/04]
July 31, 1998, Canadian Corporate News reports that Electric Mail Company
Inc. claims that their E-mmunity service is able to protect against the
newly found "long filename e-mail bug" which affects attachments (see
reports on July 28 and July 29, 1998). The service has a monthly fee.
http://www.electric.net/
[1998/08/04]
July 31, 1998, Jeff Sweat writes for Information Week that General
Magic has launched their Portico information system, based on voice
recognition technology, which can access information from regular phone,
cell phone or computer.
[1998/08/04]
July 31, 1998, according to Responsive Database Services, Flight
International, July 29, 1998, reports that Comsat has received a two-year
contract to supply Sky Station International's planned 250 blimp fleet
with data communcations equipment for their "Stratospheric
Telecommuncations Service".
[1998/08/04]
July 30, 1998, Mary Mosquera writes for TechWeb that in the wake of the
announced problems with Microsoft and Netscape, other companies have
checked their E-Mail systems for similar problems and made corrections.
WebCom and Network Associates have made corrections to their systems.
"eSafe Technologies" was mentioned, but it's unclear if they had a
problem.
[1998/08/04]
July 30, 1998, Andrew Craig writes for TechWeb that Toshiba has announced
that it will open a wireless phone research lab in the UK with its
initial focus on multimedia applications for cell phones based on the
Universal Mobile Telecommunications System. The initial capitalization
will be about $710,000 US and R&D budget will be about $16 million US
over the coming five years.
[1998/08/04]
July 29, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that Microcell Connexions announced
that it has roaming agreements in Taiwan and New Zealand, bringing
their agreements up to 34 carriers in 20 countries, not including the
US, where Microcell has GSM roaming through over 1,300 cities and towns
and Canadian coverage of over 200 regions, including over 50% of the
Canadian population.
[1998/08/04]
July 29, 1998, Associate Press reports that a flaw has been found by
Finnish researchers in versions of Microsoft Outlook Express which ships
with Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 and 4.01 on Windows 98, 95, NT 4.0
and NT for DEC Alpha, Macintosh and Unix, (but not affecting Windows 3.1
and NT 3.51), Outlook 98, and Netscape' "current Web browser,
Communicator." [The article does not specify versions of Communicator.]
The flaw is serious and allows "booby-trapped" messages which could
be used to erase a hard drive or steal information. Messages can be
triggered even by attempting to delete the message, and cannot be
avoided by either "firewalls" or anti-viral software. [This report
seems to be about the same matter as that reported by Reuters, but
some details seem to conflict.]
[1998/08/01]
July 28, 1998, Reuters reports that the San Jose Mercury News reported
that a security flaw in popular e-mail programs could allow hackers
to erase files or cause damage to users systems. The Secure Programming
Group at Oulu University in Finland found the flaw in Microsoft Outlook
Express and Outlook 98 as well as "Netscape's browser." The flaw
is based on e-mail attachments but can be activated by attempts to delete
the message even if the attachment is never opened. According to
this report the flaw affects only Windows systems and specifically
not Unix or Macintosh systems.
[1998/08/01]
July 28, 1998, Mitch Wagner writes for Internet Week that the latest
updates for Symantec (Norton AV) and Network Associates (McAfee)
anti-virus software programs now protect against the previously
reported CIH virus, following Iris' release of a free anti-virus
program on the Internet. According to this report, the virus only
affects Windows 95 and Windows 98 machines, but can cause severe
damage by corrupting the EPROM. In some cases whole new motherboards
may be required.
[1998/08/01]
July 28, 1998, Business Wire reports that Gateway has reduced prices
on Solo laptop computers.
Solo 9100SE 14.1" XGA Active Matrix screen, CDROM/floppy drive, 233MHz
Pentium II, 64MB SDRAM, 4GB hard disk, LiIon battery, Cell/FAX modem with
X2 Technology and Microsoft Works 4.5 reduced from $3,199 US to $2,899.
http://www.gateway.com/
[1998/08/01]
July 27, 1998, Business Wire reports that Motorola has announced new
high performance, low power 366, 333 and 300 MHz versions of PowerPC
750(TM) RISC CPUs. At 1.9 volts power is less than half of existing
PowerPC 750 designs at the same clock speeds which run at 2.6 volts
internally. For example, the new 1.9V 300 MHz version has a typical
power consumption of about 3.4 watts compared to 7.0 watts for a 2.6
volt version. The 366 MHz version has a typical dissipation of about
5.0 watts. Motorola claims performance of 671 MIPS, SPECin95 16.1 and
SPECfp95 9.9 for the 366MHz version. The new series have 3.3V. I/O, a
32KB instruction cache, 32KB data cache. The 366MHz version costs
$595 US in 360 pin ceramic ball grid array (CBGA) in quantities of 1,000.
[1998/08/01]
July 25, 1998, Steve Gold writes for Newsbytes that Iris software
is offering free software to combat a virus called the CIH virus,
that infects the "portable execution" (PE) executable files in
Windows 95 and Windows 98 and destroys the BIOS of a PC. The virus
is triggered on the 26th day of every month.
http://www.irisav.com/cih.htm
[1998/07/29]
July 24, 1998, John Evan Frook writes for InternetWeek that Secure
Electronic Transaction (SET) proliferation has been slow because of
"expense and complexity". Some proponents of SET such as CyberCash
are including Secure Socket Layer support due to demand.
[1998/07/29]
July 23, 1998, Canadian Corporate News reports that BC Tel has introduced
Anonymous Call Block service. This service blocks incoming calls from
phones which would be reported as "Private" on call displays. If activated
("77") an incoming call will not cause the user's phone to ring and the
originator will get a pre-recorded message informing the caller that the
party does not accept anonymous calls. Anonymous call block is deactivated
by using "87". Automatic call blocking (originator) can be cancelled
on a per-call basis by dialing "82". Anonymous Call Black will not affect
calls from "unlisted numbers" or with "Private Name" service which do not
report names, but do report originating numbers.
[1998/07/29]
July 23, 1998, Jack Robertson writes in Electronic Buyers' News that
Siemens Semiconductors is reducing output of 16 Mb. DRAM and delaying
expansion at White Oaks, Va. and its joint fab with Mosel-Vitelic in
Taiwan. Siemens is projecting an accelerated switch to 64 Mb. DRAM.
[1998/07/29]
July 23, 1998, Kimberly Caisse writes for Computer Reseller News that
3Com and Compaq will form a "Mobile Advisory Council" (MAC) intended to
provide information to standards groups. This MAC is expected to have
about 18 members and will focus on developing standards for notebooks.
Other companies involved are Acer, AMD, Hewlett-Packard, Hitachi, IBM,
Phoenix Technologies, TDK, Toshiba and Xircom.
[1998/07/29]
July 22, 1998, Business Wire reports that BreezeCOM has announced it will
collaborate with the Bluetooth Special Interest Group in developing the
new radio networking specification. The Bluetooth specification has a
gross transfer rate of 1Mbits/s and a range up to 100 M. It also features
a 48 bit addresss derived from IEEE 802.11 and operates in thw 2.4 GHz
ISM "free band".
http://www.breezecom.com/
[1998/07/29]
July 22, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that Microcell Labs Inc., and
Nortel have announced they will form a new wireless data joint venture
which will include Omnipoint Communications (a US PCS provider)
and international venture - capital fund GSM Capital L.P. The plan
is to use Nortel's Distributed Networked Services Platform (DNSP)
to develop new services for accessing data services and general
information services.
[1998/07/25]
July 22, 1998, Business Wire reports that Motorola Semiconductor
Products Sector has created a Nonvolatile Memory (NVM) Technology
Center for the development of high-density/high-speed Flash,
low-voltage/low-power Flash, byte-erase EEPROM and Magneto Resistance
Random Access Memory (MRAM)
[1998/07/25]
July 21, 1998, Nortel announced their second quarter earnings claiming
pre-charge earnings of $0.41 US or including charges a $-0.13 US loss.
Unadjusted gross revenue was $4.16 billion US which was up 12% over
the same quarter last year. Orders increased 22 percent over last
year, and despite the economic problems in Asia, revenue increased
in that region over the previous year. Declining revenue in Canada
was blamed in part on the devalued dollar, down about 7%.
[1998/07/25]
July 21, 1998, Business Wire reports that Motorola has announced a number of new wireless communications devices:
CDMA Digital StarTAC(tm) phones at 800 MHz later this year and
1900 MHz in the Q1 1999.
TDMA Digital StarTAC(tm) 800 MHz / 1900 MHz dual band for Q2 1999.
V Series wireless phones, which are according to Motorola "the
world's smallest and lightest GSM" phones. A dual band 900 MHz /
1800 MHz will be available in Europe and Asia in Q1 1999. A
1900 MHz version will be available in the US in Q1 1999.
TalkAbout SLK(tm) compact two-way radios for families or freinds
which Motorola describes as "about the size of a deck of cards"
and are intended for low cost, short range use between freinds or
family, will ship later this year. The units use the US FCC
"Family Radio Service" band [I don't know this band]. Prices
start at $169 US.
LS350, LS 550 and LS750 numeric pagers were announced with a variety
of features.
i1000(R) Integrated Digital Handset which is the smallest and lightest
iDEN(R) handset, in a clamshell style case.
FLEXsmart SP1300 "smart pager" with PIM functions has a GUI interface
with on-screen keyboard and a 27 character by 9 line display in its
regular font and 20 characters by 6 lines in a large font. It has
1 MB of Flash memory and 256KB of static RAM. It is 90 * 70 * 22 mm
and weighs about 4.59 ounces. Powered by two AAA batteries, it is
expected to cost $249 US.
Two-way PF1500 word pagers have "Confirmed Message Delivery" capability.
These units have 4 lines of display and 100,000 character message
memory. Powered by a single AA battery it will be available in the
summer 1998 with a suggested retail price of $219 US.
Also mentioned were Iridium satellite products.
[1998/07/25]
July 21, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that Rogers Cantel has
enlarged "pay as you go" coverage to over 25 new markets including
Abbotsford, BC; Winnipeg, Man.; Hamilton, Ont.; Quebec City, Que.;
Halifax, NS; and Fredricton, NB.
[1998/07/25]
July 21, 1998, BCE Mobile Communications Inc. announced unaudited
results for Q2. Net income for the quater was $1.6 million (Cdn)
or $0.02/share making total income for the half-year $4.7 million (Cdn)
or $0.06/share, down from $43.7 million (Cdn) or $0.63/share for the
same period in 1997, due to the impact of moving to PCS. Consolidated
gross activations for Q2 were 172,000 which includes 101,000 added
cellular and PCS subscribers, 71,000 pager activations. Deactivation
of cellular and PCS was 1.4% per month compared to 1.3% for the same
quarter in 1997. Total subscribers were 1,807,000 at June 30, 1998
including 1,288,000 cellular and PCS (net growth of 47,500 from March
31) and up 183,000 from the end of Q2 1997. There were 515,000 pagers
in service, up 29,000 from March 31 and up 81,000 from June 30, 1997.
[1998/07/25]
July 20, 1998, PR Newswire reports that according to Prove It 2000,
Compaq has withdrawn their advertising of Y2K compliance advertising
in the UK based on Prove It 2000's complaint to the UK Advertising
Standards Authority which noted that the Real Time Clock was not
actually corrected (as with most current computers), but the date
is compensated on the OS level.
[1998/07/25]
July 20, 1998, Will Wade writes for Semiconductor Business News that
in the wake of the new long term agreement with Motorola, and their
own progress in 0.25 micron process, AMD has informed IBM that AMD will
not be placing orders for K6 CPUs which were to be produced by
IBM. IBM was not surprised by this development since the agreement
was only a short term measure until AMD's foundry was producing
sufficient quantity.
[1998/07/25]
July 20, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Motorola Semiconductor Products
Sector and Advanced Micro Devices announced plans for cross licensing
Patents over a period of seven years. Included are Motorola's copper
interconnect technology and High Performance Logic Process (HiPerMOS)
PowerPC(TM) in exchange for AMD's K86 processors, Flash memory
technology and networking technology. AMD and Motorola will also
collaborate on a number of projects.
[1998/07/25]
July 18, 1998, Jacqueline Emigh writes in Newsbytes that The "Electronic
Frontier Foundation" (EFF) claim to have built a machine capable of
cracking any DES code within 9 days and that they have broken a 56-bit
DES encryption in as little as 2 days and 8 hours. Tim O'Reilly &
Associates will publish a book with instructions to build the machine.
[1998/07/21]
July 17, 1998, Reuters reports that the US FBI has asked the US Senate
to pass laws to require phone companies to provide police with precise
locations of cell phone users without court orders in certain
"emergencies". Specifically mentioned are "suspicion of felony, the
pursuit of a fugitive, or cases where human safety is deemed in
jeaopardy."
[1998/07/21]
July 15, 1998, PR Newswire reports that IBM has licensed Silicon
Storage Technology, Inc. (SSTI) SuperFlash(R) technology which it
plans to use in combination with IBM programmable logic technology
to produce communications and information processing devices.
The SSTI SuperFlash technology is claimed to be superior in
applications below 0.15 micron processes. IBM plans to use it
in 0.18 micron processes and smaller.
[1998/07/21]
July 15, 1998 Business Wire reports that IBM and NEC have agreed to
establish a "digital watermarking standard" to protect digital content
from illegal copying. The current aim is to develop a protection system
for DVD. [Although this isn't an area of current concern, it might
turn out that the technology would have an impact on things like "Smart
Cards", so I thought that this mention might be worth watching.]
[1998/07/21]
July 14, 1998, Business Wire reports that Compaq has reduced prices
by up to 26%. The following are some sample prices:
Armada 1560DM reduced from $1,749 US to $1,559 US.
Armada 1571DM reduced from $1,919 US to $1,749 US.
Armada 4150T reduced from $1,489 US to $1,099 US.
Armada 4160T Slimline reduced from $2,149 US to $1,999 US.
[1998/07/18]
July 14, 1998, Business Wire reports that Motorola has entered
into an agreement to acquire Starfish Software, Inc., the creator
of the technology behind the Franklin REX products. Starfish
will operate as an independent but wholly owned subsidary with
Philippe Kahn remaining as its President.
http://www.starfish.com/
[1998/07/18]
July 14, 1998 Business Wire reports that StockSentry(TM) software
developed by OuterNet Inc. can be added to the PageWriter 2000
allowing gathering of information related to investments.
[1998/07/18]
July 14, 1998, Business Wire reports that Motorola introduced its
Advanced Systems Technology (AST) Laboratory which will be central
in its move to develop "system on a chip" products by the second
half of 1999. Motorola is calling this business model their
"DigitalDNA solutions."
[1998/07/18]
July 14, 1998, Business Wire reports that DDI, the second largest
"carrier" in Japan has commenced commercial operation of its cdmaOne
service in 177 cities including Osaka, Kobe, Kyoto, Nagasaki, Fukuoka
and Naha, while IDO will commence cdmaOne service in April 1999.
The DDI and IDO services use Motorola base stations [frequencies were
not given in the article.]
[1998/07/18]
July 14, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Symantec Corporation claims
to have found 11 new Mac virii within the last few weeks, including
the first "polymorphic" virus for the Mac. Detection and repair updates
for Norton AntiVirus 5.0 for Macintosh have been posted to their
Symantec AntiVirus Research Center (SARC) website and BBS.
http://www.symantec.com
[1998/07/18]
July 13, 1998, Business Wire reports that National Semiconductor
Corporation has licensed ARM's ARM7TDMI-S core.
http://www.arm.com/
http://www.national.com/
[1998/07/18]
July 11, 1998, PR Newswire reports that "Electronic Payments" Newsletter
has announced its 41st issue marking the beginning of its 3rd year
of publication. For an email subscription contact Barbara at
(717) 627-5600 or "Priorityone@fast.net".
[1998/07/18]
July 11, 1998, according to Responsive Database Services, Mobile
Computing and Communications, July 1998 reports that Northstar
Systems has introduced an parallel port to USB adapter and related
products
[1998/07/14]
July 10, 1998, Business Wire reports that Gateway has announced
the availability of their "Upgrade Companion CD", "Upgrade Booklet"
and technical support. The booklet "identifies issues clients may
encounter . . . and contains step - by - step directions to resolve
them. The Upgrade Companion CD contains software fixes . . . [and]
the latest Windows 98 compatible drivers . . ." The Gateway website
will also have links to drivers and fixes. [The article specifically
mentions "Solo(R) mobile products," but no specific problems regarding
these products.]
[1998/07/14]
July 9, 1998, Grant Buckler wrote an article for Newsbytes about
the PageMart Synapse pager card for the 3Com PalmPilot series
products mentioned previously. According to Grant Buckler, the
card will not work in a Palm III. The card itself was co-designed
by Motorola's Flex Architecture Solutions Division and PageMart.
The maximum message size is 300 characters, and the card is expected
to cost $299 Cdn. (list).
http://www.pagemart.ca/
[1998/07/14]
July 8, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Apple has announced a new
DVD-Video kit for PowerBook G3 series laptop computers. The kit
includes a hot swappable DVD-ROM module (drive) capable of reading
previous CD-ROM formats, a DVD-Video PC-Card (MPEG-2 decoder) and
DVD Player software. The kit price is $499 US, and there are
some special offers currently available.
http://www.apple.com/dvd/
[1998/07/14]
July 8, 1998, Canadian Corporate News reports that Clearnet has
announced a new fixed rate for US roaming fees. Local calls
made in US locations will cost $0.95 (Cdn) / min. [Note: The
article actually said "Cdn. 95e per minute" which was probably
an attempt to approximate a "cents sign". If so, it was a bad
decision.]
[1998/07/14]
July, 7, 1998, PR Newswire reports that TII Industries, Inc. has been
awarded a US Patent (No. 5,768,084) for power extraction technology
from television type coaxial cables with integrated serge protection
allowing low voltage AC current to coexist with CATV signals.
[1998/07/14]
July 7, 1998, Business Wire reports that Hewlett-Packard Company has reduced prices for its latest OmniBook laptop computer up to 15% and other models even more. Examples:
OmniBook 2100 has been reduced 6% down to $1,799 US.
OmniBook 800 has been reduced 37% down to $2,299 US.
[1998/07/11]
July 7, 1998, PR Newswire reports that DSP Group, Inc. has announced
that Sony Corporation has licensed its TeakDSPCore(TM) and intends
to use it in highly integrated wireless communications applications.
Included in the transaction are the TeakLite core which is capable of
130 MIPS when implimented in a 0.25 micron CMOS process and the Teak
which is capable of 260 MIPS when implimented in an 0.25 micron CMOS
process.
[1998/07/11]
July 7, 1998, Canadian Corporate News reports that Clearnet Communications
Inc. has announced its 2nd quarter subscription numbers. Within the
quarter Clearnet added 16,656 Mike subscribers (totalling 74,093),
35,754 PCS subscribers (totalling 120,462) and lost 3,876 analog
subscribers (totalling 53,263), for a total subscription of 247,818
users (compared to 79,945 subscribers in the previous year). President
and CEO George Cope expressed confidence in their ability to achieve
the corporate target of adding 200,000 digital subscribers in 1998
while reducing marketing costs by 25%. He noted that while the first
six months total was a bit under 100,000 digital subscribers, the
second half has traditionally shown 60% of additions come in the second
half of the year.
[1998/07/11]
July 7, 1998, Doug Olenick reports for Computer Retail Week that
NEC Technologies has reduced prices on all its LCD monitors. For
example, the 14" LCD400V was cut tor $999 US and the 14" MultiSync
LCD400 was reduced $300 down to $1,199 US.
[1998/07/11]
July 7, 1998, Wylie Wong writes for Computer Reseller News that Microsoft
has posed a fix to a Microsoft Internet Information Server bug that could
be used to access information such as passwords.
http://www.microsoft.com/security/bulletins/ms98-003.htm
[1998/07/11]
July 6, 1998, PR Newswire reports that PageMart Wireless, Inc. has begun shipping the Synapse Pager Card for the 3Com PalmPilot. According to Creative Strategies, there are about 1.6 million PalmPilots "in the market." The pager card fits inside any Pilot, PalmPilot or IBM WorkPad and, except the lack of infrared, will upgrade any of the previous models to Palm III functionality (including 2MB RAM, Palm OS 3.0 software, and the paging application in Flash. The price is $169.00 US.
The features of the PageMart system go beyond traditional paging and
include sender ID, wireless schedule updates and missed message
alters, and specifically with the Pager Card, integration of data with
the various Palm OS databases.
http://www.pagemart.com/
http://www.palm.com/
[1998/07/11]
July 6, 1998, Business Wire reports that Metrowerks Inc. announced
the availability of CodeWarrior Discover Programming Edition 3
for Windows which features a new resource editor and supports
Java, C, C++ and Pascal. The CodeWarrior Discover Programming
license is limited to "personal use only" and "may be used to
develop freeware or shareware software" but not "commercial
software." The price is $79 US.
http://www.metrowerks.com/
[1998/07/11]
On July 6, 1998, at a Bell Mobility press conference in Toronto, a number of interesting developments were brought into perspective. Priority Brokerage is now supporting alert messages sent to Bell Mobility PCS Plus handsets based on settings maintained via their Website. Furthermore, using the service with the Unwired Planet an HDML 2.0 browser, the service is enhanced by tying alerts with the ability to access the broker with a single button click.
Also announced was that Nortel would be demonstrating at Comdex this week, the ability to transmit data via current CDMA system technology at 57.6Kbps. While current service is limited to 14.4Kbps. for PCS Plus, the enhancement is coming in the future for Bell Mobility PCS Plus subscribers.
Also announced was an alliance with Microsoft to deliver "wireless
- enabled Windows CE applications and solutions." [Actually, at the
press conference Andrew Coulson mainly spoke on the roll of Outlook as
a working group software system and using it for EMail and noted that
eCommerce was the next big Internet wave, as represented by the
Priority Brokerage announcement. I was surprised when I finally read
the press release which seemed to imply that the center of the
alliance would be Windows CE which was hardly mentioned at the press
conference.]
http://www.prioritybrokerage.com/
[1998/07/07]
July 3, 1998, Rutrell Yasin writes for InternetWeek that the Internet
Engineering Task Force (IETF) is expected to release the "Transport
Layer Security" (TLS) protocol which is an enhanced version of
Secure Socket Layer (SSL) currently in wide use for Internet
security. SSL has had a number of security holes. Ted Julian
of Forrester Research notes that "SSL protects the encrypted
streaming data going from a Web server to a client" and that
"SSL is not a replacement for authentication, and SSL's strongest
proponents would say the same."
[1998/07/07]
July 3, 1998, John Fontana writes in June 29, 1998's InternetWeek that
PlaceWare Inc.'s Conference Center 2.0 "virtual meeting" software
is now capable of meetings with up to 1,000 participants and now
allows "seminar rooms" and recording of meetings. The software
runs on Pentium based Windows NT or Sun SPARCStation based Solaris 2.x
and supports Java applet capable HTML browsers, but is not T.120
compliant. Pricing starts at $9,500 US for a 25 user package.
[1998/07/07]
July 3, 1998, Kristen Kenedy and Gregory Quick write in Computer
Retail Week that ShareWave is manufacturing a chipset for wireless
home networking in the 2.4GHz frequency band capable of 4Mbps
and that with compression, the companies claim capability of handling
"high-end multimedia." The article notes that the "HomeRF Working
Group" is planning to establish a standard for wireless home networking
called "Shared Wireless Access Protocol," expected to be released in
December. [The article does not say whether ShareWave is a part of
this working group.]
[1998/07/07]
July 2, 1998, Andy Patrizio writes for TechWeb that a number of
compatibility warnings have been issued regarding upgrades to Windows
98 and many have particularly been noted for laptop computers which
have problems related to energy saving capabilities. Specifically
named for laptops are Toshiba and Dell. Compaq is noted, but not
laptops are not specifically mentioned. [I have not yet decided whether
it's worthwhile trying to build a database of incompatibilities for this
Webzine. I didn't do so for Windows 95 or any other OS, and this
upgrade should be no worse. It is always advisable to ask the
manufacturer of your computer about the compatibility of your particular
computer model and configuration before trying a major system upgrade.]
[1998/07/07]
July 2, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that Microcell Telecommunications
Inc. has announced that Microcell Connexions Inc., has signed an
Agreement with CityFone Telecommunications Inc. whereby CityFone will
resell wireless services an a private-label basis. [This is significantly
different from the Mainchan contract because different "packages", features
and prices from Fido may be avaiable, but using the same infrastructure.]
[1998/07/07]
July 2, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Nortel has opened its Wireless
Systems Integrity laboratory in Calgary, Alberta. The 10,000 square foot
facility is "electromagnetic ambient-free" and contains a pneumatic turntable
capable of holding up to 15,000 pounds. According to Nortel, it is the only
facility in the world capable of testing equipment at frequencies up to
40 GHz. Environmental testing covers ranges of -60 to 80 degrees Celsius.
[1998/07/07]
July 2, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Nortel is reorganizing and expanding
their efforts in broadband wireless by moving volume production of "Reunion"
products from Winnipeg to Calgary and constructing a new broadband wireless
research and development facility in Winnipeg. Construction of the Winnipeg
R & D facility will begin in July.
[1998/07/07]
July 2, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that Clearnet, Microcell Connexions,
Rogers Cantel and TELUS Mobility co-operated with Edmonton City Councillors
and the City's planning staff and Industry Canada to develop a plan
to improve public consultation within Edmonton. [The article is unclear
on the nature or topics of this consultation.]
[1998/07/07]
July 1, 1998, Wylie Wong writes for Computer Reseller News that Marc
Andreessen said Tuesday that Netscape has ended development of its
Java based HTML browser project "Javagator". Andreessen notes that
independent developers are porting Netscape's Communicator 5.0's source
code to Java and cited performance issues and lack of funds as reasons
for the change of plans.
[1998/07/07]
June 30, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that Microcell has secured
$550 million (CDN) credit from a group of 24 banks and financial
institutions. Of this amount, $350 million will be used to
refinance existing credit at better terms. This amount is expected
to be sufficient for the next two years.
[1998/07/04]
June 30, 1998, Business Wire reports that TriQuint Semiconductor, Inc. has introduced the TGA9070 23 - 29 MHz pHEMT MMIC Power Amplifier for radio applications. Target markets are LMDS/LMCS and Ka-Band satellite, spacecraft and ground terminals. The TGA9070 costs $98 US in quantities of 1,000.
In a separate announcement article Business Wire also reports
that TriQuint has announced the TGA9083 Power Amplifier for X-Band
(6.5 - 11.5) HGz applications. Target markets are digital radio,
phased-array Radar and telecommunications. The TGA9083 costs
$220 US in quantities of 1,000.
http://www.triquint.com/
[1998/07/04]
June 29, 1998, Business Wire reports that IBM has announced the
ISDN International PC-Card Modem which allows analog, cellular or
ISDN connections with automatic detection and self configuration.
Based on K56flex technology it will be upgradeable to ITU V.90.
The modem supports GSM PCS 1900 with an optional connection kit.
The cost of the modem is about $299.00 US.
[1998/07/04]
June 29, 1998, Todd Wasserman writes for Computer Retail Week that
3Com, Motorola, Boca Research, Hayes and Zoom Telephonics have
all dropped street prices of their 56Kbps modems by $20 or more
over May - June prices. PC-Card modems are included in these
drops, such as the Hayes Practical Peripherals ProClass PC-Card
K56flex modem which was reduced from $199 US to $149 US.
[1998/07/04]
June 29, 1998, Business Wire reports that Motorola's Worldwide
Data Solutions Division has announced Private DataTAC(TM) 2.0,
a dedicated wireless data network based on Internet Protocol for
"off the shelf" application compatibility.
http://www.motorola.com/wirelessdata/
[1998/07/04]
June 29, 1998, Reuters reports that AT&T is selling its paging
business to Metrocall for $205 million US in stock and cash
in order to finance the purchase of Tele-Communications Inc.
The transaction also includes AT&T's 50/50-KHz narrowband Personal
Communications Services.
[1998/07/04]
In the wake of the Windows 98 rollout June 25, 1998, there will be a
number of announcements of availability of computers with Windows 98.
Most of the deals will be fairly similar. As such, I'm not going to
bother covering most of them. If there are any exceptional deals,
I'll note them.
[1998/07/01]
June 26, 1998, Andrew Craig writes for TechWeb that a new Microsoft
Word virus called the "PolyPoster" (aka Agent and Embarrassment)
causes infected documents to be posted to internet Newsgroups.
The newsgroups are generally sex related and subject lines
"Free XXX Passwords", "New Virus Alert" or "Important Monica
Lewinski Info" are automatically added. [According to one comment
in the article, a particular newsreader must be used for the current
virus to work, but that newsreader was not identified in the article.
Still, variations are likely to come. In general, it would be
best to read "Word documents" you receive from other people with a
reader that does not support Word macros. I don't know what programs
that would be.]
[1998/07/01]
June 26, 1998, Jeremy Scott-Joynt writes for Total Telecom that
Ericsson, Nokia, Psion and Motorola have partnered to create a joint
venture company called "Symbian" to establish what they are calling
"an open standard for the next generation of wireless information
devices." The platform is based on the EPOC OS. The companies will
cease all work developing competing OS based products. Ericsson
will cease development of Windows CE and Nokia will cease work with
GEOS OS.
[1998/07/01]
June 26, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that as of July 1, 1998,
Bell Mobility will have the first continuous digital wireless
coverage of the Quebec City - Montreal - Ottawa corridor. Coverage
is also being extended in the Eastern Townships (Sherbrooke),
the Laurentians (St-Jerome), the South Shore of Montreal and
Drummondville areas.
[1998/07/01]
June 26, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that Microcell
Telecommunications Inc. has announced an agreement with Mainchan
Communcations Group for its Mainchan's subsidiary Westcomm
Telecommunications to resell Fido services.
http://www.westcomm.ca/
[1998/07/01]
June 26, 1998, James Peng writes for Reuters that Acer has
formed an alliance with IBM to get IBM's 0.25 micron logic-chip
manufacturing technology. Near term plans are to reduce DRAM
production to about 20% of total factory production in early 1999
and get into unspecified logic ICs and made - to - order "foundry"
chip manufacturing. Long term goals are market dependent and
do not exclude a complete exit from the DRAM market.
[1998/07/01]
June 26, 1998, Therese Poletti writes for Reuters that Intel Corp.
has confirmed the bug in the Xeon processor which causes problems
when used in configurations with 4 CPUs, but will go ahead with
the launch of the product. [This isn't a processor which should
be used in any portable configuration, but somebody might.]
[1998/07/01]
June 25, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Nortel has announced plans
to test the ITU's IMT-2000 third generation wireless standards
in three locations. One will be in Canada, another in Western
Europe and another will be determined.
[1998/07/01]
June 24, 1998, Business Wire reports that Gateway has announced that
their Gateway Solo 2500 laptop computer has been included in
Vanstar Government Systems' Army Portable-2 Contract (contract
#DAAB07-97-D-V003). The Solo 9100 will also be available under the
contract.
[1998/07/01]
June 24, 1998, Business Wire reports that AMD has announced plans
to produce low cost single chip implementations of the Home Phoneline
Networking Alliance's (HomePNA) 1Mbps specification for telephone
line wire networking. Samples are expected to be available in the
4th quarter of 1998. The specification is similar to Ethernet.
[This is similar to a system of networking that has been available
for Macintosh computer for some time now, called "PhoneNet." If
you have telephone outlets in many locations in your home, it's
a good method for networking computers that you move around in
the home, and as such is of particular interest to "short range"
mobile computer users.]
http://www.homepna.org/
[1998/07/01]
June 24, 1998, Business Wire reports that Motorola Inc.'s Cellular
Infrastructure Group (CIG) has announced a research and development
complex in Tokyo for "Third Generation" (3G) experimental and
commercial wireless systems based on IMT-2000 systems.
[1998/07/01]
June 23, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Nortel has announced a new
CDMA Minicell base station at the 3rd annual CDMA World Congress.
The Minicell has high transmission power for large radius rural
or highway applications or reduced output for local applications.
Nortel notes that it has wireless networks in service or under
construction in over 80 cities around the world and has shipped
over 5,000 CDMA base stations in the past 18 months.
[1998/07/01]
June 23, 1998, Eileen Colkin writes for Information Week that
Gateway announced on Tuesday that it was reducing prices on it's
Solo laptop computer line from 3 to 11%. Example:
Solo 9100, 14.1" display, 266-MHz Pentium II processor, 128 MB SDRAM,
8GB HD, CD-ROM/3.4" floppy combination drive $3,199.00 US, down about
$100 US.
[1998/06/27]
June 23, 1998, Gregory Quick writes for Computer Retail Week that
by press time, Apple had not shipped "top-of-the-line" PowerBook
G3 systems. [This article is a bit ambiguous. Apparently there is
a shortage of 14.1" display models, but not 13.3" display models,
which seems to mean that it's the display that is in short supply
and not any of the other parts. This is a crucial point because
it says nothing about processors or other parts which many customers
may find more important.]
[1998/06/27]
June 23, 1998, Kimberly Caisse writes for Computer Reseller News
that Acer Group unveiled five reference design specifications
on Tuesday including one for a small mobile unit called Acer
Mobile X100. Based on x86 processors it may run on DOS or
Windows CE or a similar "lean OS" which is not specified in
the report.
[1998/06/27]
June 22, 1998, Business World reports that AMD has announced their
Am29F032 Flash memory device. AMD claims a minimum 1 million cycles
and 20 years retention for this 5 volt, 32 Mbit, byte-wide device
and data access up to 70 nanoseconds. According Walid Maghribi,
Vice-President of AMD's memory group, "the Am29F032 is a cost -
effective flash memory solution for high-density applications
requiring the reliability of proven NOR technology. . . . [and]
AMD plans to continue expanding it's high-density product offerings
with the introduction of a 64 Mbit NOR device next year." The Am29F032
is currently sampling and volume production is planned for
Q3 1998. In quantities of 10,000, in a 40 pin TSOP or 44 pin
SO, the 120 nanosecond version is $15.50 US each.
[1998/06/27]
June 22, 1998, Business Wire reports that Motorola has announced
higher clock speeds for its MPC860 PowerQUICC communications
microprocessors. News speeds are 33, 50 and 66 MHz at the former
prices of 25, 40 and 50 MHz. The 33 MHz version is expected to
be $32.67 US in 10,000 unit quantities.
[1998/06/27]
June 20, 1998, Business Wire reports that General Magic, Inc. will
have demonstrated their prototype voice controlled screen phone
for "Upside/David Coursey's Digital Living Room". Using General
Magics forthcoming Portico service, the phone can retrieve
information such as traffic reports , stock quotes, news, local
weather, movie listings, email and voice mail, without a web
browser, keyboard or stylus.
http://www.generalmagic.com/
[1998/06/27]
June 20, 1998, Steve Gold writes for Newsbytes that the UK
medical journal Lancet has published a letter from Dr. Stephan
Draune of the University Neurology Clinic in Freiburg, Germany
reporting that a small sample research experiment involving
10 young volunteers using GSM phones, electromanetic field
radiation for 35 minutes appeared to causea rise in blood pressure
of between 5 and 10 mmHG (mm of mercury). Braune writes that
the increased blood pressure might be caused by constricted
arteries. The test was blind in that volunteers were not aware
of when the cell phones, attached to the right side of their
heads, were active or inactive. [Note: Frequencies of GSM
phones are not the same as in North America and were not listed
in this report.]
[1998/06/23]
June 19, 1998, Reuters reports that Texas Instruments Inc. announced
that it has agreed to sell its memory chip business to Micron
Technology Inc. for a combination of common stock and assumption of
debt worth about $800 million US and will cut 3,500 jobs in global
restructuring.
[1998/06/23]
June 18, 1998, Motorola's Link Works announced that Developer Kits
for the Pager Card for the PalmPilot will be available in July 1998.
http://www.motorola.com/wireless-innovations/
[1998/06/23]
June 18, 1998, Neal Sandler writes for TechWeb that TelesciCOM of
Israel claims to have developed broadband wireless data transfer
technology capable of supporting up to 10 megabits/sec.
[1998/06/23]
June 17, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that Bell Mobility has
announced new Text Messaging and Info Services for PCS Plus
users. Text messages up to 140 characters in length will be
displayable directly on the handset screen. Info services
include traffic bulletins, weather updates, horoscopes and
personal reminders. The internet messaging gateway was developed
by Yrless Internet Corp.
http://www.yrless.com/
[1998/06/23]
June 17, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Netscape Communications Corporation has announced that Palm Computing devices such as the PalmPilot Palm III, IBM Workpad PC Companion and other produces based on the PalmOS will be able to synchronize corporate phonebooks stored in Netscape Directory Server through Netscape Communicator client software using a new 4.5 Beta release due out next month. Netscape already supports Palm Computing's scheduler through the Netscape Calendar component of Navigator.
June 17, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Geoworks Corporation announced
that it has joined the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) Forum.
Founded by Nokia, Ericsson, Motorola and Unwired Planet in 1997, the
Forum is developing a global standard protocol to be used in all
wireless network technologies and devices.
[1998/06/23]
There is no professional requirement for writers to disclose holdings which may be in conflict with reporting activities, however, I have always thought that I should do so if the case arose. As of today, I own shares of Clearnet and Corel (bought on the 19th and 22nd respectively). I don't feel I need to disclose how many shares, but I think there are enough that if I were a reader I would want to know that the holders were there.
That raises an interesting point. In fact, many writers hold shares in companies, not really for gain, but for access to company information such as shareholder reports, or access to shareholder meetings (such as the Apple meeting, which excluded the press this year). I've been considering doing this myself and I don't feel that such small holdings need to be disclosed. But at what level should they be disclosed?
I have decided for now that I don't feel disclosure is necessary for holdings of less than $500.00 Cdn. That's because any transaction of less than $500.00 (especially when including broker commission fees buying and selling) is in the range of what I might make on a single magazine article. I think most people would agree that it would be pretty stupid of me to jeapardize my reputation and value as a writer for future works, for less money than I could make from that reputation. I might change my mind in the future, but this is my current standard for disclosure.
Note: I am NOT an investment advisor and nothing I write, including
my disclosures of my own holdings and transactions are in any way
recommendations for anyone elses investments.
[1998/06/23]
As I have pointed out, I'm not an expert in investments and I make no recommendations in the field, but I expect some people would wonder about my thoughts on these companies. In particular, my comments on Clearnet may further dispell any thoughts on basing your own investments on my own moves. Actually, I will tend to invest both in "safe" things and "risky things" according to my own formula, and the mere fact that I buy shares won't identify which are the risky ones and which are the safe ones.
Let's take Clearnet as an example. Last Fall, when Clearnet PCS became available in the Toronto area, I looked into its services from a consumer point of view. I wanted to get a wireless phone and I researched the technology and the packages. As I've stated, Clearnet is NOT for "everybody". None of the services can make that claim. But it became apparent that the Clearnet package and basic technology were good. I bought the phone, and I've been happy with it. Again, I emphasize that it meets my own needs, and that may not be the best for "you". However, I did believe that there were a lot of people who would find this a good fit product, and I watched the product sales in the stores. Balancing this however, were the apparent "internal" problems: They had problems in getting billing done, and there were failures to notify me promptly of voice mail, which I believe were probably due to system overloading. But the underlying CDMA technology was and is still promising and I have stayed with Clearnet -- even without a contract. I also named them as an award winning service for 1997.
So I expected that Clearnet (and Fido I should add) would do well in sales, and the reported sales and income would be reflected in the stock market for the early part of 1998 leading to good short term growth. I also expected that eventually, Rogers-Cantel (RC) and Bell Mobility (BM) would have to adjust to their businesses to compete. Following that adjustment, I expected that Clearnet (and Fido) might fall off, depending on how RC and BM adjusted. In retrospect, if I'd bought Clearnet and Fido in January, I would hope that I would have sold them in around April. One can never tell exactly what one would have done. I didn't have the shares, so who knows?
The fact that Morgan Stanley, Dean Witter issued a favorable report on Clearnet in May is no surprise. At that point, I would have expected "slow growth" of share value for these companies as they built their business and got out of debt. The big turning point would be the announcement of achieving profitability. What surprised me, and apparently many other investors, was that Clearnet decided to increase their debt in order to continue "rapid expansion". Since that decision, and throughout the issuance of new shares and bonds, the share price has been falling. It appears to me that Clearnet has misjudged the mood of the investment community. The community would prefer to see concentration, not on expansion, but on debt reduction.
My personal opinion is in agreement with the "majority" who have been unloading Clearnet in the wake of these activities. Clearnet's history has shown that: 1. There is a customer base who do not care whether Clearnet coverage expands any further. They bought Clearnet based on its current digital coverage, and who are satisfied with the analog roaming coverage to fill in where there are gaps. 2. By providing good service at a reasonable cost, this client base appears to be enough to eventually make a profit without further expansion. In this regard, Clearnet claims to be losing money on each sale of a new phone. I believe this to be true. After a few months, if the customer remains, then the loss on the phone is amortized and the monthly service is profitable. 3. That it doesn't matter if the other companies "beat them to a market". Instead, by providing a superior service at fair prices, they can grow a market both from "churn" (of dissatisfied customers from other services) and from word of mouth and their excellent PR work.
There are two other factors which cast doubt on the value of "rapid expansion": 1. Clearnet has pretty much covered the major markets. Further expansion is into areas that are probably "over-serviced" for wireless already and are less likely to be profitable at all. 2. Because this is the "computer/electronics" industry, hardware infrastructure over investment is a mistake. As a rule of thumb, you should not buy hardware, if you can put it off till "next year." In the computer industry, we know that if I buy an unnecessary computer for $2,000 today, I could have waited a couple of years and bought the equivalent for "half the price" or gotten twice the power. Slight overpurchasing is leaving yourself "headroom" for unexpected needs, which is good planning. Extreme overpurchasing is a mistake. Base stations and other infrastructure in the wireless industry are undergoing a similar advancement.
So the rapid expansion by itself is a doubtful policy, and going into further debt in order to accomplish it is even more so. Going into further debt is the biggest apparent difference between Fido and Clearnet which would account for Microcell's stable stock prices and Clearnet's recent fall. All this balanced against the fact that Clearnet's performance so far has been pretty good, which is evidenced by their ability to exceed their projections in the 1st Quarter.
As for Corel, it's not really a "mobile" company, so I won't give my thoughts on its current business in detail. However, I have used QuattroPro for a number of years, and their business plans discussed three months ago appear to be developing on a good schedule. Tomorrow Corel issues it's quarterly report and there will be a press conference, and that should prove interesting.
So at least for Clearnet, I've given some of my opinions on its
underlying services and internal operations and business plans and how
they relate to Clearnet's share value. I think by now, I've made clear
that if you're going to buy shares simply based on the fact that I bought
them, it's not necessarily a very good move. Or to put it bluntly, do
what you want, but don't blame me. . . .
[1998/06/23] revised [1998/07/01]
On June 1, 1998 NEC announced their new Versa LX and SX series laptop
computers. This is a major launch of new chassis/case designs and
not just an upgrade of previous versions. The new NEC series computers
use the same peripherals and many of the same components, reducings
costs for manufacturing and inventory. This single/dual platform will
come in a variety of builds with options for screens, drives and
accessories. In generaly the LX series (12.1"W * 10.0"D * 1.8"H, 6.6 -
7.4 lbs. depending on configuration) is thicker and heavier than the
SX (12.0"W * 9.9"D * 1.3"H, 4.8 - 5.3 lb. depending on configuration),
comes with a built in floppy drive (leaving the VeraBay III for
something else), has better graphics and more CPU selection.
[1998/06/18] revised [1998/06/23]
June 16, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Wright Electronic Publishing
has announced NetLocker service which brings much of the functionality
of a home PC to any Web based computer device. NetLocker includes
"On-The-Road Email", a schduler, file storage, phone books, notepad
and backup capability at $7.95 US/month for 5MB of storage and
Professional and Executive levels.
http://www.netlocker.com/
[1998/06/18]
June 16, 1998. In a Business Wire report ("New Compaq Online Services
Reduce Operating Costs and Create Growth Opportunities for Small and
Medium Businesses") two services stand out as particularly interesting
for mobile users. One is "online.briefcase" which seems like a fairly
basic "file synchronization" system across the Internet (perhaps like
Marimba's push systems) and the other is "online.backup" which is
developed by NovaStor and sounds like StorageTek's REX service. It
is unclear whether Compaq is going to provide the whole service directly
to end users or if it is just meant to be a lease system to allow
companies to use this type of system "internally", but it seems to
clearly be more than just "a software kit" to allow enterprises to
put services together themselves. [I apologize for not being clearer
but I don't have time right now to make inquiries to confirm the
details. However, the two services, if they are what they appear to
be have an obvious impact on mobile workers.]
[1998/06/18]
June 16, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that Bell Mobility has announced two new service packages. The first, "Prepaid" allows all cellular services to be paid in advance (airtime, long distance and cellular access). Initial cost is $129 Cdn. which includes a Motorola 650e flip phone and $30 credit in the Prepaid account. Alternatively, any analog phone can be activated for a $30.00 start-up fee. There is a daily access fee of $0.35, and calls cost $0.35 per minute. Long distance within North America is an additional $0.35 per minute, and international calls are made at Bell Canada international rates. Call costs are automatically deducted. Additional cards are available in $25, $35 and $50 denominations from dealers and retailers. Similar to the recent Cantel system there are no credit checks or contracts.
Bell Mobility's "Out of the Box" service is a "no package" package.
The buyer buys a phone at a set price ($129 for the Motorola
Flip phone) and decides what package (including the Prepaid" service
or regular services) to use later, using an 1-888 number to activate
it at any time later.
[1998/06/18]
June 16, 1998, Business Wire reports that Motorola has announced
"Email VClient(TM)" software for Lotus Notes Mail, a bidirectional
client supporting all basic EMail functions (originate, receive,
forward and reply) using only a PageWriter 2000 for remote access.
http://www.motorola.com/vclient/
[1998/06/18]
June 16, 1998, Business Wire reports that Motorola has announced the
FLEX(TM) Messaging Server which uses a configurable interface for
unified access to enterprise information sources.
[1998/06/18]
June 16,1998, PR Newswire reports that the Cellular Telecommunications
Industry Association (CTIA) has announced the "Wireless Information
Technology (Wireless IT) Expo and Convention, Oct. 12 - 14 at Bally's
Las Vagas, Navada, USA. [I don't post notices of many conferences
but this one is interesting, not just because of the topic, but
because the name is similar to my Website's "Mobile Information
Technology."]
http://www.wow-com.com/ CTIA
[1998/06/18]
June 16, 1998, Jennifer Mateyaschuk writes for Information Week that laptop computer announcements are expected from Compaq, Hewlett-Packard, Mitsubishi and NEC. The Compaq announcement is covered below.
Mitsubishi is expected to announced a revamped Amity CN. The Model 2
2.6 lb unit will have a 166MHz Pentium MMX, 32MB RAM, 2.1GB HD, 256KB
L2 cache, serial and parallel ports, USB and 2 stacked PC-Card slots
for $1,999 US.
Hewlett-Packard is working on their Customer Care program for the
OmniBook series with a 48-hour turnaround for service repairs.
NEC is expected to feature the BreezeNet Pro 1.1 wireless LAN.
[1998/06/18]
June 15, 1998, Business Wire reports that Compaq has announced the new laptop computers and price drops up to 20% for 8 current Armada laptop computers.
New computers announced were:
Armada 1700 series "all in one" value notebook computers with a MultiBay,
optional DVD, built in AC adapter, built in K56Flex modem, "Premier
Sound", USB port and uses the 1500 series "Convenience Base."
Armada 1700 266MHz Intel Mobile Pentium II, 13.3" colour TFT 1024 * 768
LCD screen, 24X CD-ROM, 32MB SDRAM, 4GB SMART HD, Li-Ion battery,
w/Windows 95 $3,349 US available in July.
Armada 1700 233MHz Intel Mobile Pentium II, 12.1" colour TFT 800 * 600
LCD screen, 24X CD-ROM, 32MB SDRAM, Li-Ion battery, 4GB SMART HD,
w/Windows 95, $2,869 US available in July.
The new Armada 7800 laptop computer with AGP w/66MHz graphics bus,
MultiBay design, uses ArmadaStation desktop expansion base.
Armada 7800, 266MHz Intel Mobile Pentium II, 14.1" colour TFT screen,
64MB SDRAM, 512K Level 2 cache, 8GB SMART HD, 24X CD-ROM, Li-Ion battery,
with Windows 95, $5,359.00 US. A 33.6Kbps data/FAX modem is an additional
$190.00 US and Window NT is also an additional $190.00 US.
Armada 1505DM, 200 MHz Pentium MMX, 12.1" Fast Response Colour STN LCD,
2.1GB SMART HD, 20X CD-ROM, USB, NiMH battery and w/Windows 95, $1,599 US.
[1998/06/18]
June 15, 1998, Canadian Corporate News reports that Clearnet has
launched the Clearnet Web Store for purchasing Clearnet PCS phones
and accessories online.
http://www.clearnet.com/
[1998/06/18]
June 15, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Telxon Corporation has
announced that the PTC-1124 pen-based computer will use a 66MHz
AMD ElanSC400(TM) CPU and will be available with Windows CE.
The new version will be available in the 4th quarter of this year.
[1998/06/18]
June 15, 1998, Business Wire reports that Motorola has announced
a new 266MHz PowerPC 603e(TM) capable of operation in -40 C to
+85 C temperature ranges for industrial and military usage. At
266MHz, the 603 achieves 376MIPS and is estimated at SPECint95 6.7
and SPECfp95 5.6. In a 255-pin CBGA package the 266MHz version sells
for $289 each in quantities of 1,000.
[1998/06/18]
June 12, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that on June 4, 1998
Canon Canada introduced the new BJC-50 Color Bubble Jet printer.
This mobile printer is capable of four-colour printing at 2
pages per minute (ppm) or 5.5 ppm in black and white. The
estimated street price is $624 Cdn.
[1998/06/16]
June 12, 1998, David Lieberman writes for EE Times that industry
reaction has been mixed for The MicroDisplay Corp.'s request for
a standard for small displays. Phillip Alvelda of The MicroDisplay
Corp. identifies the forseeable need for bidirectional data
communication not addressed by current standards.
[1998/06/16]
June 12, 1998, Yoshiko Hara writes for EE Times that Sony has
proposed its "Open Robot" (Open-R) to be an open platform.
Their prototype robot is a 5" * 10" * 9", 3 lb. robot controlled
by a MIPS RISC CPU and 8MB of DRAM.
[1998/06/16]
June 10, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that Microcell Solutions
Inc. has announced that Fido(R) Service became available in
Sherbrooke, Quebec on June 11, 1998.
[1998/06/16]
June 10, 1998, Business Wire reports that IBM has announced its
intention to spend over $100 million US in expansions to their
custom chip business. According to IBM's Mike Attardo (GM IBM
Microelectronics Division), "IBM's custom chip business grew by
more than 70% in 1997". IBM has added over 25 new cores, including
a DSP core compatible with TI's TMS320C54X DSP, the picoJava core
and the ARM7TDMI core.
http://www.chips.ibm.com/
[1998/06/16]
June 10, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that Cell-Loc Inc. has
hired Michael L. Hryciuk as Vice President of Engineering and
Manufacturing. [The only reason I'm including this item is so
I can mention the Website and note that Cell-Loc's product is
Cellocate which is a patented technology to locate analog or
digital cell phones in a network.]
http://www.cell-loc.com/
[1998/06/16]
June 9, 1998, Patrick McKenna writes for Newsbytes that Intel
has confirmed that Pentium II prices will drop up to 20%. The
266MHz Celeron will be reduced 32% to $106 US and a 333MHz
version has been introduced at $159 US each in quantities of 1,000
units. The 333MHz Celeron is claimed to be 11% faster than
a 266MHz Celeron and 35% faster than a 233MHz Pentium MMX.
[None of these are mobile products, but I expect movement in
prices of mobile products will follow.]
[1998/06/16]
June 9, 1998, Business Wire reports that Compaq has announced
two new laptop computers configured for the educational market.
Presario 1230ES, 12.1" High Performance Addressing display,
128-bit graphics, 233MHz Media GX MMX enhanced CPU, 32MB SDRAM,
3.2GB HD, 24X CD-ROM, JBL Pro Audio, 56Kbps/10/100Mbps Ethernet
PC-Card, and education oriented software, for $1,849.00 US.
Presario 1625ES, 12.1" High Performance Addressing display,
2MB video memory, AMD-K6 266MHz CPU, 32MB SDRAM,
512KB L2 pipeline burst cache, 3.2GB HD, 24X CD-ROM, and
education oriented software, for $2,349 US.
Both products will be available in mid-June 1998.
[1998/06/10]
June 9, 1998, Business Wire reports that Compaq Computers has
announced that according to International Data Corporation
(IDC) World Wide Quarterly Market Tracker, Compaq lead in US
consumer and business portable computer sales with 17% of the
overall market (55% growth year over year). Worldwide, Compaq
grew 42% over the previous year, taking 12% of the market and
the 2nd place position. The figures include direct sales and
sales into channel.
[1998/06/10]
June 9, 1998, Mathew Ingram writes for the Globe and Mail that
Zi Corp. has agreed with L. M. Ericsson that Ericsson will use Zi's
software in a new line of cellphones to allow Chinese character
input through a phone keypad. In the article, Ingram points out
that Zi's Chinese language interpreter effort has been phased out
and a 1995 agreement with a Chinese company for Zi software has
not resulted in any orders. Also, a 1996 agreement with a Vancouver
company to sell computers to the Chinese education ministry is
"not likely to proceed." Mr. Ingram notes that the Zi software
is highly regarded by PC World's Chinese edition and South China
Morning Post, but also notes that IBM believes that "voice-recognition
technology will break the language barrier."
[1998/06/10]
June 9, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that ATI Technologies Inc.
announced that Compaq is using their XPERT LCD(TM) graphics accelerator
in the Presario 5600 Series which allows use of digital flat panel
displays such as the Presario FP500.
http://www.atitech.com/
[1998/06/10]
June 9, 1998, Jacqueline Emigh writes for Newsbytes that Oracle
is planning two stages of support for the PalmPilot. First, a
"PalmConduit" program will allow sharing data between Oracle
and "Oracle Lite" databases and a PalmPilot. Early next year, a
full fledged "Oracle Lite" database will be available to run
directly on a Palm Pilot. Oracle is targetting August for
PalmConduit and OracleLite for WinCE.
http://www.oracle.com/
[1998/06/10]
June 9, 1998, Business Wire reports that MOSAID Technologies has
announced completion of the design of Synchronous Link Dynamic
Random Access Memory (SLDRAM) which features a high-speed 400
megabits per second per pin interface, allowing data transfer
rates up to 800 MegaBytes per second, which is 8 times faster than
current SDRAM and an "adaptive interface" which adjusts its own
timing. The design was commissioned by a group of companies
including NEC, TI, IBM and Toshiba and will be an "open standard"
usable by these members of the consortium.
http://wwwsldram.com/
http://www.mosaid.com/
[1998/06/10]
June 9, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that Rogers Cantel has
announced new integrated services combining cellular phones and
pagers called "Page Partner +". There are two options to this
service. One option is to use the same phone number for cell
phone and pager. The pager receives calls not received by the
cell phone. The other option combines billing of pagers and
cell phones but does not use them on the same phone number.
[1998/06/10]
June 8, 1998, David Lieberman writes for EE Times that the digital
interfacing of the Compaq Presario 5600 series noted above uses
the 20-pin "digital flat-panel" (DFP) connection system which is not
standardized and in fact is intended to only be an interim
solution which may be supplanted by the Video Electronics Standards
Association's (VESA) 30-pin "Plug & Display" interface. But
more than pin counts and signals are lacking standards. The
digital interfacing itself is still in development. While
adapters might become available, buyers of current DFP technology
might find themselves orphaned in as little as the next couple
of years.
[1998/06/10]
June 8, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Psion Incorporated and
Lotus Development Corporation have announced that beginning
June 8, 1998, a copy of Lotus Organizer 4.1 Premium Edition
will be offered free with every Psion Series 5 handheld computer
sold in the North American market. A coupon for the Lotus software
is attached to the Psion Series 5 box. The duration of the offer
is not stated in the article.
[1998/06/10]
June 8, 1998, Business Wire reports that AMD announced a new
chipset for 900 MHz digital spread spectrum cordless phones.
The Am79C440 direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) controller
chip contains and 8051-class microcontroller and a CCITT G.721
compliant ADPCM codec. The Am79RF440 radio transceiver chip
contains a US900 DSSS digital cordless transceiver architecture
operating in the 902 - 928 MHz ISM band. In a 68-pin PLCC
the Am79C440 DSSS will cost $5.95 in 100K - unit quantities
shipping in quantity in August 1998. The Am79RF440 in a 48-
pin thin plastic quad flat pack will cost $3.95 in 100K-unit
quantities, also shipping in quantity in August 1998.
[1998/06/10]
June 8, 1998, Business Wire reports that Compaq has announced
the Compaq Microcom 550 combination Modem/Ethernet PC-Card. The
K56Flex technology modem is flash upgradeable to V.90 standard
and is usable in many countries. A cellular/GSM connection upgrade
kit will be available the third quarter of 1998. At $299.00 US
the card comes with a 5 year warranty.
[1998/06/10]
June 8, 1998, Business Wire reports that IBM has announced 1998 versions
of its ViaVoice speech recognition software. ViaVoice 98 Features "Natural
Language Commands" for creating, editing and formatting documents in
"Microsoft Word 97" and "hands-free editing and correction mode" for
popular applications such as "Word 97" and "Lotus Word Pro."
ViaVoice 998 Executive Edition, a dictation and control package that
includes "ViaVoice Computer" and "ViaVoice Business & Finance"
extensions for $149.00 US (English version available in June 1998).
ViaVoice 98 Office Edition, a dictation and control package includes
ViaVoice Business & Finance Topic extensions for $89.00 US (English
version available in June 1998).
ViaVoice 98 Home Edition, an entry level dictation package that includes
"Cuisine Topic" vocabular extension for $49.95 US (English version available
in July 1998).
All versions come with noise canceling headsets. Other language
versions will follow, and a customized version will be included with
Lotus SmartSuite Millennium Edition from June 17, 1998.
[1998/06/10]
June 8, 1998, Business Wire reports that Micron Technology, Inc.
is supporting the "fine-pitched ball grid array" (FBGA) standard
chip package proposed by AMD to the Joint Electron Devices Engineering
Council (JEDEC) Committee. The package uses a 6 * 8 * 0.8 mm - pitch
and will hold 4 - 64 Mbits in density.
[1998/06/10]
June 8, 1998, Business Wire reports that Motorola's Lexicus Division
has licensed its Chinese speech technology to Lernout & Hauspie (L&H).
L&H will used the speech technology to build Chinese dictation engines.
[1998/06/10]
June 8, 1998, Business Wire reports that Motorola has announced
new CMOS SRAM based on copper metallization 0.15 micron technology.
According to Motorola, fully functional 4Mbit SRAMS have been
produced. Details will be presented at the 1998 Symposium on VLSI
Technology, June 9 - 11 in Honolulu. First samples are expected
in the 4th quarter of 1998.
[1998/06/10]
June 8, 1998, Salvatore Salamone writes for InternetWeek that
V-One is teaming up with SkyTel Communications and Wireless Access
to link two-way pagers via Virtual Private Networks with
encryption security via V-One SmartGate 4.0 VPN servers.
[1998/06/10]
June 8, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that the Canadian Wireless
Telecommunications Association (CWTA) in conjunction with the Radio
Advisory Board of Canada (RABC( will host a one day conference on
3rd generation mobile technology and services (wireless telecom)
on June 18, 1998 in Ottawa.
http://www.cwta.ca/
[1998/06/10]
June 8, 1998, PR Newswire reports that The University of Oklahoma Center
for the Study of Wireless EMC will conduct a special workshop on basic
EMC immunity design in the 800 - 3000MHz bands on June 18 - 19, 1998.
http://www.ou.edu/engineering/emc/
[1998/06/10]
June 6, 1998, Responsive Database Services reports that according
to Computer Retail Week, June 1, 1998, Panasonic plans to
introduce a 15" LCD monitor with Universal Serial Bus support.
The 3" deep active matrix LC50S monitor has a 0.29mm dot pitch
and a $1,799 US expected street price.
[1998/06/07]
June 6, 1998, Responsive Database Services reports that according
to the "Stores", May 1998, the Uniform Code Council (UCC) has proposed
a 14-digit bar code called "reduced space symbology" (RSS) for the
supermarket industry which could allow superior tracking of produce
due to increased resolution of products compared with the current
4-digit system.
[1998/06/07]
June 5, 1998, Jeff O'Heir writes for Computer Reseller News that
Acer has introduced a new small notebook computer family called the
Extensa 710. Three models will be available, all coming with 233MHz
Intel Pentium II, 32MB RAMand 56kbps modems. The units include
a fixed floppy drive port and a modular bay which can hold a
24X CD-ROM drive, DVD drive or LS120 Superdisk drive.
The new line falls
between Acer's low end Extensa line and upper end Travelmate line.
710DX, 12.1" "super clear-color" screen (STN?), 2.1 GB HD, $1,999
US street price.
710T 12.1" TFT screen, 3.2 GB HD $2,399 US street price.
710TE, 13.3" TFT screen, 4 GB HD, 2.699 US street price.
[1998/06/07]
June 5, 1998, Matt Hines writes for Newsbytes that Intel has
announced that some of its new processors will get to market
earlier than earlier projected, including the Katmai multimedia
processor which is now targetted for 1st quarter 1999 instead of
2nd quarter 1999, running at 500MHz. Also, production for
Pentium II and Celeron processors will be increased. [This
announcement somewhat offsets Intel's May 29 announcement that
their new 64 bit Merced processor will be delayed with sampling
in 1999 and volume production in mid-2000. -- JO]
[1998/06/07]
June 3, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that Microcell's Fido(R) digital PCS Service is now available in a large part of the Niagra region of Ontario.
June 3, 1998, PR Newswire reports that IBM Corporation and QNX
Software Systems Ltd. have announced that they will work together
to develop "pervasive computing devices." According to the
report "[t]he QNX/Neutrino Realtime Operating System is a scalable,
fault-tolerant OS with fully distributed processing and . . .
advanced MMU support. A true microkernel operating system, QNX runs
virtually all OS services in separate MMU-protected address spaces
. . . ."
http://www.qnx.com/
[1998/06/07]
June 3, 1998, PR Newswire reports that in an anticipated move, Northern
Telecom (Nortel) has formed an alliance with Plaintree Systems Inc., a
LAN company. Nortel will invest $9 million Cdn in Plaintree subject
to regulatory approval.
[1998/06/07]
June 2, 1998, Carol Leitch writes for The Globe and Mail that Ted
Rogers announced plans to cut the debt load of Rogers Communications
Inc. and to pay dividends within five years. Rogers' current debt
is over $5-billion (Cdn.). Rogers Cantel Mobile Communications Inc.
which is 80% owned by Rogers Communicationsadded to this debt
with a $335.3 million restructuring charge last year. Selling
its "local telephone" unit for $1 billion and applying $600 million
will reduce its debt to $5.6 billion. While some stock watchers
were positive, another noted "... massive amounts of debt, money-losing
operations, a difficult regulatory environment and negative consumer
views."
[1998/06/07]
June 2, 1998, PR Newswire reports that InterQuest Communications Inc.,
Microsoft Corp. and ATCOM/INFO Inc. have announced that InterQuest
will expand its Internet access services to the hotel industry with
IPORT(TM) Ethernet based high speed Internet access for hotel
guests.
http://www.iqci.net/ InterQuest
[1998/06/07]
June 1, 1998, Business Wire reports that AMD has announced their
Comm86(TM) microcontroller family. The Am186CC(TM) combines a 16 bit
x96 core with 8 serial interfaces including 4 High-level Data Link
Controller (HDLC) channels and a Universal Serial Bus (USB) peripheral
controller. At 50MHz it achieves 6.6 MIPS and AMD claims "performance
superior to competing 32-bit designs at significantly lower costs."
Each HDLC has a maximum data rate of 10 Mbps and the USB interface is
rated at 12 Mbps. The Am186CC also includes 2 UARTS, one of which
is capable of autobaud operation up to 460Kbaud [note: "baud" in this
context is ambiguous -- JO]. The device is 3.3v with 5v tolerant
I/O ports. Available in a 160-pin PQFP, the Am186CC is sampling now
and is targetted for full production in the 3rd quarter 1998. Prices
start at $13.50 each in quantities of 10,000.
[1998/06/07]
There are a number of Websites that I haven't noted yet. The following
are a few that I think are timely:
http://www.etsi.org/ European
Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI)
http://www.nortel.com/ Northern Telecom
http://www.csd.toshiba.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/Home/ Toshiba US Comp Sys Div.
[1998/06/07]
While I've never promised a fixed schedule for updating this
webzine, long time readers might have noticed that recently I've
been updating my news summaries earlier than usual. This was
because of time conflicts with my other activities this past
Tuesday. Changes in the way I gather this information made it
necessary for me to keep up this accelerated pace, resulting in
today's posting. I'm relieved to say that I expect my activities
to allow me to return to my previous routines -- to a point. When
the changes are complete, there may be a slight delay coming up
in the next week or two. That is to say, for a particular week
I might not update postings as frequently, and thus fall back into
my previous schedule. I'm not certain about this yet, but if a
week goes by that doesn't see much activity, that's what
happened.
[1998/06/04]
June 3, 1998, Business Wire reports that CommQuest Technologies
has announced the availability of a "fully Type-Approved GSM
Solution for wireless handset manufacturers." CommQuest can
now supply "everything necessary to build a GSM phone, including
RF and baseband hardware, integrated software, test support,
a certified reference design and now a type-approved handset
design." This will allow smaller OEMs with limited design
capabilities to enter the GSM handset market.
http://www.commquest.com/
[1998/06/04]
June 2, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Motorola Information Systems
Group has announced a V.90 version of its software modem (SM56)
for Windows. The software will be available in July and will
be made available to OEMs who can pass it on to existing end
users.
[1998/06/04]
June 2, 1998, Jessica Hall writes for Reuters that Sprint Corp.
is planning to move to a digital business model, integrating their
billing to be based on bits transmitted or received instead of
time used. Based on fiberoptic digital transmission, the new
Integrated On-Demand Network (ION) will require a $200 US router
in the customer's home or business site and will require support
by the local Baby-Bell for the "last mile".
[1998/06/04]
June 2, 1998, Business Wire reports that Teknor Industrial Computers
Inc. has announced the release of their PCI-941 Intel Mobile
Pentium II based single board computer. Featuring a 233 or 266 MHz
Mobile Pentium II, 440BX AGPset, 64-bit PCI Flat Panel/CRT controller
with 2MB EDO RAM, PanelLink(TM) interface, and PCI UltraDMA/33 IDE,
Utra Fast/Wide SCSI 3 and 10/100Base-TX Ethernet controlles, the
PCI-941 prices start at $2,650 Cdn. without video controller or SDRAM.
[1998/06/04]
June 2, 1998, Business Wire reports that SignalSoft has announced that
it will offer its Wireless Location Services(TM) on Tandem's
NonStop(R) Himalaya(R) S-Series Intelligent Network Server. The
SignalSoft products allow Location Sensitive Billing, Wireless 9-1-1,
Emergency Roadside Service, Fleet Tracking and Area Number Calling.
http://www.signalsoftcorp.com/
[1998/06/04]
June 2, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Motorola, Inc. and Lucent
Technologies have entered into a wide ranging processor cross
licensing agreement. Included are Motorola's DSP 56800 DSP core,
Lucent's DSP16000 DSP core and Motorola's M*CORE(TM) RISC MPU
core, and cores developed at a joint design center in the future.
The companies will collaborate on core designs from this new
effort, but will develop and market separate DSPs from these cores.
[1998/06/04]
June 2, 1998, PR Newswire reports that MT&T Mobility has announced
that they will provide CDMA digital wireless PCS services for
Nova Scotia based on Nortel base stations and switches.
[1998/06/04]
June 2, 1998, George Leopold writes for EE Times that Microsoft
has released fixes for security problems in Windows NT Point-to-Point
Tunneling Protocol (PPTP) and is preparing more for an encryption flaw.
[1998/06/04]
June 1, 1998, Business Wire reports that Compaq Computer Corporation
has announced their C-Series 2010c and 2015c Windows CE 2.0 based
handheld computers. According to the article, the Compaq devices are
differentiated from its competitors by "a robust line of security
and management features". In particular, the C-Series features a
non-erasable encrypted password stored in integrated 256K Flash
memory.
The C-Series 2010c: MIPS RISC cpu, 640 * 240 colour screen, 20MB
"FAST EDO RAM" expandable up to 32MB, NiMH battery, cradle with security
lock, software includes Pocket Carbon Copy, River Run's Mail on the Run,
bSquare's bFAX, CIC QuickNotes and Spell Check, Oddyssey's BizCalc
and a SpryNet Client, suggested list $899 US.
The C-Series 2015c seems to be the same as the 2010c but with software
aimed at a more general consumer which is described as an "entertainment
software bundle."
[1998/06/04]
June 1, 1998, Business Wire reports that Satellite Emergency Tracking
Corp. (SETCO) has introduced Personal Electronic Tracker (P.E.T.)
Series 100 and the Real-Time Security (R.T.S.) Series 400 for personal
and business applications. The palm sized 14 oz. P.E.T. 100 is wearable
and can be used for monitoring children, medical patients or house arrest
prisoners. The R.T.S 400 is vehicle mounted. The systems receive
and process GPS signals and then transmit locations through a DataTAC(R)
two-way wireless data system operated by American Mobile's ARDIS network
in the US and Bell Mobility in Canada.
http://www.AmMobile.com/
[1998/06/04]
June 1, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Lotus Development Corp. announced
plans to add real-time collaboration to its "LearningSpace" distance
learning product. Currently code named "Live", it will be part of
Lotus' recently announced Sametime product family.
[1998/06/04]
June 1, 1998, Andy Patrizio writes for TechWeb that Learnout & Hauspie
has begun a second beta test of its Web basedlanguage translation software
"Coronado" and expects to release it later in June. Final product
price is currently estimated at $100 - $200 for subscription and
possible charges for usage.
[1998/06/04]
June 1, 1998, Reuters reports that NEC Electronics has announced that
they will build a $1.4 billion US advanced semiconductor plant in
Roseville, California. NEC expects that the new plant which will make
high performance multimedia chips, system-on-a-chip and 256Mb and 1Gb
DRAM will create 700 new jobs and begin operation in 2002. NEC expects
to spend $1.4 billion on the plant over the next 4 years.
[1998/06/04]
May 29, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Motorola's new paging website
contains information for paging companies to realign antennae for
corrections needed due to the Galaxy IV satellite outage.
http://www.pagingsystems.com/
[1998/06/04]
May 30, 1998, Business Wire reports that G-LINK Technology has
announced the formation of a new business unit for its
CMOS HDRC(R) technology photo sensors. The sensor technology
allows logarithmic response like the human eye rather than
the linear response of previous technologies.
http://www.glinktech.com/
[1998/05/31]
May 28, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that Microcell Telecommunications
Inc. has announced that it has filed wit the CRTC for "co-carrier" status
equal with local phone companies.
[1998/05/31]
May 28, 1998, PR Newswire reports that "Prove It 2000" has
reported Compaq to the UK Advertising Standards Authority because
Compaq computers still use a real time clock without Year 2000
coverage but instead, are relying on common software techniques
to adjust for the error. Programs that directly read the
real-time clock would not be corrected. Compaq replies that
programs that access the real-time clock are "bad" programs.
Further Y2K info http://www.solace.co.uk/
[1998/05/31]
May 26, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Object Design, Inc.
announced that Ericsson Communications Inc.'s Operations
Support Systems Product Unit in Canada has selected ObjectStore
database management system for Java based data management
with a wireless network.
http://www.objectdesign.com/
[1998/05/30]
May 26, 1998, Associated Press reports that Sprint Corp. has
agreed, with Tele-Communications Inc., Comcast Corp., and Cox
Communications, subject to shareholder approval, to assume full
ownership of Sprint PCS, a wireless services provider which was
40% owned by Sprint.
[1998/05/30]
May 26, 1998, Newsbytes reports that Motorola has announced a
300MHz version of their 32-bit PowerPC EC603e microprocessor.
Based on a 0.29 micron process, the device features a 16KB
instruction cache and a 16KB data cache allowing 300MHz operation
achieving 423 MIPS at about 7.4 SPECint95 at a typical power
consumption of about 4 watts. In a 255-pin "ceramic ball grid
array" package, list prices start at $109 US in quantities of
10,000 units.
http://motorola.com/PowerPC/
[1998/05/30]
May 26, 1998, Semiconductor Business News reports that according to
the Electronic Industry Alliance, first quarter US factory sales of
eletronics equipment rose 10.6% to $118.7 billion US compared to
$107.3 billion US last year. Electronic component sales, including
semiconductors, rose 6.1% from $35.3 billion US last year to
$37.5 billion US this year. Computer and peripheral sales were up
18.1% from $21.1 billion US last year to $24.9 billion US this year.
[1998/05/30]
May 26, 1998, Business Wire reports that Hewlett-Packard Company
has bought out Samsung Electronics Company's 45% interest in
Hewlett-Packard, Korea for $36 million US. Samsung hopes to
raise $5 billion US by selling some of its subsidiaries.
[1998/05/30]
May 23, 1998, Kelly Spang writes for Computer Reseller News (May 18,
1998) that on May 28, 1998, Advanced Micro Devices Inc. will unveil
their K6-2 CPU which uses Socket 7 at 100MHz (up from 66MHz).
Internal speeds will begin at 300MHz. AMD chairman Jerry Sanders
claims performance will be comparable to a 400MHz Pentium II.
Intel moved to 100MHz bus speeds with their 440BX chipset in
April. The K6-2 will feature 21 new added instructions that will
extend MMX capabilities in 3D rendering. According to Sanders,
Microsoft will support the new instructions in their release
of DirectX 6.0 in July.
[1998/05/30]
May 22, 1998, Christopher Michaud writes for Reuters that
pager and other services handled by by PanAmSat Galaxy IV which
failed May 19, 1998 were rerouted to Galaxy IIIR and other
satellites. By May 22, over 90% of the over 40 million customers
had services restored. TV signals will be redirected to Galaxy VI
which is being moved to Galaxy IV's original position and Galaxy
IV is being moved to a higher orbit.
[1998/05/26]
May 21, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that Rogers Cantel has introduced
a new "Pay-As-You-Go" prepaid wireless service system. There are
no credit checks, activation fees, security deposits contracts or
even monthly bills. A cellular package includes a cellular phone
and a card allowing 60 minutes of calling in Canada, including
long distance. When the time is used up, you buy another card.
The system can also be used to re-activate older analog phones.
Pagers and voice mail services can also be bought in this system.
[1998/05/26]
May 21, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that according to the Information Technology Association of Canada (ITAC) new Industry Canada guidelines for wireless R & D investment should enable more funds to flow to small and medium sized businesses.
May 21, 1998, Sega has announced that their next console will be
based on WindowsCE software, Hitachi' SH-4 RISC CPU, a 128-bit
graphics engine, 64-channel sound by Yamaha, and NEC and VideoLogic
Power VR 3D graphics (capable of 3 million drawn polygons/sec. and
200 megapixels/sec fill). It will have 16MB main memory and 33.6Kbps
modem and a 12X CD-ROM. Launch in Japan is projected for Nov. 20, 1998.
[1998/05/26]
May 20, 1998, Business Wire reports that Ericsson, IBM, Intel,
Nokia and Toshiba have unveiled a new open specification short-range
radio technology known as "Bluetooth". Bluetooth is intended
to connect mobile phones, mobile PCs, handheld computers and
peripherals. It operates in a globally available 2.45GHz ISM "free
band" for unrestricted use by travelers.
http://www.Bluetooth.com/
[1998/05/26]
May 20, 1998, Business Wire reports that Kodak is using Motorola
PowerPC MPC823 MPUs in the Kodak Digital Science DC220 and DC260
zoom digital cameras.
http://www.motorola.com/ADC/
[1998/05/26]
Microsoft Anti-Trust Suit Stepped Up
As with other "general interest" computer issues that have
hit high levels of saturated coverage, I have decided to reduce
coverage of the current anti-trust suit against Microsoft.
I expect you will get as much information as I would have
posted just about everywhere else, so I believe you will be
better served if I cover other matters. My recommendation
for a for research starting point would be to go to TechWeb,
Newsbytes or Cnn.com.
[1998/05/23]
May 19, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Lotus Development Corp.
announced that the purchase of DataBeam Corp. and Ubique Ltd.
Both companies are involved in real-time messaging. DataBeam
works in real-time conferencing and based on ITU T.120 and
H.323 standards and Ubique developed patented document based
"Virtual Places" based on web page awareness.
[1998/05/23]
May 19, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that Bell Mobility will
introduce the "Beepwear" wristwatch pager at Wireless '98 in
Toronto, May 20, 1998.
[1998/05/23]
May 19, 1998, Mark Hachman writes for Electronic Buyers's News that
Opti's CEO Jerry Chang has resigned and has been replaced by Bernard
Marren. According to Hachman, a though Opti has "essentially exited the
desktop core logic market, it still has recently announced design wins
for its mobile chip sets."
[1998/05/23]
May 18, 1998, Business Wire reports that Compaq has reduced prices
on flat panel monitors. The TFT450, 14.5" monitor has been reduced
to $1,199.00 US and the TFT500 15" monitor has been reduced to
$1,599.00 US.
[1998/05/23]
May 18, 1998, Business Wire reports that Motorola has shipped its
10 millionth accelerometer chipset. Introduced in 1995, the "Motorola
Micromachined Accelerometer" is best know for its use in the
automotive industry.
[1998/05/23]
May 17, 1998, Business Wire reports that the May 15th launch
was the 15th and final launch, completing the Iridium communications
satellite constellation, completing the set of 66 satetllites
in 12 months. Testing and integration will be carried out for the
next four months and commercial operation is expected to begin
in September.
http://www.iridium.motorola.com/
[1998/05/23]
May 14, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that Microcell's Fido
digital wireless PCS phone service is now available in
southwestern Ontario. The new territory includes Guelph,
Kitchener-Waterloo, Cambridge and Brantford. Also announced,
a portion of Fido handset sales made in the region will be
donated to a foundation dedicated to training seeing-eye
dogs.
[1998/05/19]
May 14, 1998, Business Wire reports that Motorola has developed a
technique called "Extended Range Cell" to extend the range of GSM
network coverage in some geographical areas from the current
standard 35km up to 121km. The modified system works in areas of
flat terrain with low call density (because it reduces the number
of multiplexed calls per channel). Trials have been conducted
in Spain with Telefonica Moviles.
http://www.mot.com/cig/
[1998/05/19]
May 13, 1998, Business Wire reports that Intel Corporation's
new "Advanced+ Boot Block Flash" addresses security issues by allowing
a "silicon serial number" which when used with an "unalterable,
one-time programmable module" adds a second level of unique
serial number in each phone. According to Hans Geyer, VP and GM
of Intel's Flash Products Division, "Intel has combined its
expertise in Flash technology with software innovation to address
two of the the most pressing issues for cellular phone, set top
box and handheld computer manufacturers -- tamper protection
against cloning and data corruption, and solving system performance
bottlenecks."
[1998/05/19]
May 13, 1998, Canadian Corporate News reports that Corel WordPerfect(R)
Suite 8 with Dragon NaturallySpeaking(TM) is now shipping. Th
suggested retail price is $129.00 US for the upgrade version and
$425.00 US for the full version. A special upgrade version for
current owners of WordPerfect Suite 8 for $39.95 adds Dragon
NaturallySpeaking with a headset microphone, bought direct from Corel
Customer Service (888) 296-5589.
[1998/05/19]
May 13, 1998, Newsbytes reports that according to CT Magazine, overclocked
Pentium II's with forged cases or markings may be in the US market.
Specifically, 233 or 266 MHz devices might be marked and sold as
300MHz devices. A test program has been written which looks for
Error Correction Code which is usually not found on the slower chips
has been written and is available for downloading. While this isn't
a decisive test, its result will show some probability of genuine
chips. [There is no indication that this problem exists for mobile
Pentium devices, but it's something to be wary of.]
http://www.heise.de/ct/p2info/
[1998/05/19]
May 13, 1998, Business Wire reports two of Japan's cellular
service providers, DDI and IDO have announced that they will be
testing Wideband cdmaOne(TM), also know as Third Generation
Code Division Multiple Accesss (cdma2000) based on Motorola
technology in the 2 GHz frequency band (part of the proposed
IMT-2000 frequency band reserved for worldwide wireless use).
Construction will start immediately.
[1998/05/19]
May 13, 1998, Wylie Wong writes for Computer Reseller News that
Hewlett-Packard has announced licensing its embedded Java
Virtual Machine to four real-time OS vendors: Microware Systems,
Lynx Real-Time Software Systems, Integrated Systems and QNX Software
Systems.
[1998/05/19]
Clearnet has added two new business plans to their digital PCS services.
The first "Work" plan for $60.00 per month gives 300 min. included
and free weekend calling, with $0.20/min for added airtime. For
businesses that only use phones during the week, this doesn't add
much over the basic "Talk" plan. But the fact that it is actually
very competitive compared to the competition is a testimony to the
original plan. The $120.00 per month "Work -A- Lot" plan however
drops the added airtime down to $0.15/min, and adds advanced
Voice Mail and FAX capabilities.
[1998/05/19]
I dropped in briefly to Cantel's Website and was disappointed to see their comparison chart. It was, as one might expect, misleading. I didn't read it in detail, but they list the "free incoming minutes" for Bell and Cantel, but fail to mention that Clearnet offers free Call Answering service -- which is far more valuable to me, and I expect to many other people. But then I recall comparison charts by others being similarly misleading, and I think one of them was by Clearnet. In fairness, my own chart is largely outdated and is best used as a checklist of things to ask about when you make your own calls. It's very hard to be thorough and cover all aspects of the services that people might feel are relevant, and then keep up with the changes.
On May 18th I looked at the page again and noticed an error regarding
Bell's PCS Plus 250 plan which implied that the 250 min. was for
evenings and weekends only. In fact, the 250 min. is usable any time.
There may be other errors.
[1998/05/17] revised [1998/05/19]
As I mentioned, there's been a lot of activity in the wireless phones, but I haven't had time to make the necessary calls to find out the details. If you're interested in getting one, check the Websites and call around for the latest change. Cantel is apparently about to make changes. Clearnet has something new in the Clearnet "Business" series.
Bell Mobility has a significant new feature which they are calling
"free local mobile - to - mobile". If you are receiving a local call
from a Bell Mobility user, then the caller is billed their normal amount,
but your "receiver's airtime" is free. This is an excellent feature
for largely mobile businesses ("fleets") and families. I haven't asked
about the discount for keeping old analog accounts along with new
PCS service still applies, but if so, it could be particularly
good for families.
[1997/05/17]
May 12, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that Northern Telecom has
announced a major expansion of its "Westwinds" site in Calgary
including a research and development Wireless Systems Integrity
Laboratory.
[1998/05/16]
May 12, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that Microcell Telecommunications
Inc. announced first quarter results on May 11, 1998 with revenues
of $18.0 million (Cdn), 30% higher than the last quarter of 1997
($13.8 million) resulting in an operating loss before depreciation
and amortization of $43.8 million. Total quarterly losses of
$82.1 million ($1.57 per share) are down from $92.5 million ($1.93
per share) in the previous quarter.
[1998/05/16]
May 11, 1998, Business Wire reports that Motorola has announced their
latest member of their 68K/ColdFire processor series, the MCF5206e
with about 3X the performance of the MCF5206 and at a lower price.
Capable of 50 Dhrystone 2.1 MIPS at 54MHz on 3.3 volts, the MCF5206e
is based on 0.35 micron technology. Prices are as low as $7.97 US
each for 40MHz parts in quantities of 50K and $9.89 US each for
54MHz parts in quantities of 50K.
[1998/05/16]
May 11, 1998, Jacqueline Emigh writes in Newsbytes that Intel
and Motorola have both, along with others, invested in Nuance
Communications, a developer of speech recognition technology.
http://www.nuance.com/
[1998/05/16]
May 11, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Applied Language Technologies
(ALTech), a company developing speech recognition technology,
announced that Intel has made an equity investment in their company.
http://www.altech.com/
[1998/05/16]
May 11, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Hayes has announced their
intention to market USB based external Cable Modems to be sold
in stores in the 4th quarter of 1998. I don't generally feel
announcements for future products are worth mentioning, but it's
good to have Hayes' website.
http://www.hayes.com/
[1998/05/16]
May 11, 1998, Business Wire reports that Intel has opened its
first 0.25 micron technology factory in Europe, located in Leixlip,
Ireland. The factory, called "Fab 14" is slated to produce
Pentium(R) II, Pentium(R) II Xeon(TM) and Intel(R) Celeron(TM)
processors.
[1998/05/16]
May 11, 1998, Business Wire reports that Motorola has entered
into an exclusive license of Telogy Networks ActiveAir(TM)
embedded communications software technologies and made a
minority equity investment in the company. [I don't know
the ActiveAir technology, so I am guessing at the significance
of this announcement.]
http://www.telogy.com/
[1998/05/16]
May 11, 1998, Andy Patrizio writes for TechWeb that ATI Technologies
has shown a prototype set-top device with DVD and Internet capability.
Called the "Set-Top Wonder CE" it is based on Windows CE. There
was no mention of the CPU technology in the article.
[1998/05/16]
May 8, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that Microcell Labs
(a subsidary of Microcell Telecommunications Inc.) and
Nortel announced that they will form a joint venture to
provide a range of value-added data services for wireless
telecom operators, including bureau services, software,
hardware and applications in the areas of Internet access,
next-generation messaging, information, electronic
commerce and entertainment services. The technology will
be based on Nortel's Distributed Networked Services
Platform middleware.
[1998/05/12]
May 8, 1998, Reuters reports that Clearnet Communications Inc.
was to release details of a debt issue last Friday as part of
a $1.4 billion (US?) proposal filed on Apr. 10, with the U.S.
Securities & Exchange Commission which also includes an
equity offering of 9.5 million shares at $18 (Cdn) each and
$498.2 million (US?) of unsold debt carried over from a
previous registration. Clearnet's stock fell to as low as
$17.95 (Cdn) last Friday. According to the report, "all
proceeds will be used to widen Clearnet's wireless reach
in Canada although the company added that the money may be
used for selective acquisitions of complementary businesses."
[1998/05/12]
May 8, 1998, Newsbytes reports that Apple has unveiled their
new Powerbook G3. The new Powerbook replaces all previous mobile
products and will be built to order in configurations ranging
from $2,000 US to $5,000 US with displays ranging from 12.1"
to 14.1" and PowerPC G3 processors from 233MHz up to 292MHz,
1 MB Level 2 cache and 32MB RAM up to 192MB. See their Website
for details.
[1998/05/12]
May 8, 1998, Business Wire reports that IBM has announced a free
upgrade to Windows(R) 98 for purchasers of some ThinkPad models
bought through authorized dealers or IBM Direct Sales between
May 1, 1998 and June 30, 1998.
[1998/05/12]
May 8, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Go Call Inc. has announced
signing a contract with Source One Wireless to merchandize
their ForeverPage, no monthly free paging service throughout
North America.
http://www.go.ca/
[1998/05/12]
May 7, 1998, Semiconductor Business News reports that the
Semiconductor Industry Association has reported that world
semiconductor revenues were $10.429 billion US in March 1998.
This is an 0.9% drop from February's $10,525 billion and a 4.9%
drop from the $10,967 billion in March 1997. In the Americas,
sales of $3.416 billion were down 3.4% from $3.537 billion in
February based on a 3 month moving average and down 7.2%
from the $3.680 billion for March 1997. The SIA attributed
the figures to overcapacity in memory chips. European sales
were up 0.4% compared to February, and Asia was up 0.7%
over February, but Japan was down 0.1% from February.
[1998/05/07]
May 7, 1998, Business Wire reports that according to Motorola's
Messaging Systems Products Group (MSPG), the Wireless Applications
Protocol (WAP) Forum specifications will support Motorola's
FLEX(TM) and ReFLEX(TM) paging protocols.
http://www.wapforum.org/
[1998/05/12]
May 6, 1998, Neal Sandler writes in TechWeb that Isreali company
Schema has developed a new program called "Channeling" that
improves the efficiency of frequency spectrum usage to improve
network quality by improving "line quality" and reducing line drops,
and increase capacity.
[1998/05/12]
May 5, 1998, Jeremy Scott-Joynt writes for Total Telecom reports
that recent survey indicate that 45% of US cellular phone
users don't know their phone numbers and 80 give the number out
to less than 10 people. The "Cellular and PCS (Personal
Communications Services) Consumer Trends: Year-End 1997" survey
by The Strategis Group also shows similar reluctance to use value
added services. According to the article, in March, the Cellular
Telecommunications Industry Association asked the US FCC "to
facilitate a new system known as 'calling party pays,' where the
calling party would pay for a call to a cellular phone."
["Facilitate" is an odd word to use in this context. I don't
know is meant by this.]
[1998/05/09] revised [1998/05/10]
May 5, 1998, Bill Pietrucha writes for Newsbytes that Microsoft's
Hotmail e-mail network has bee granted an injunction against
eight defendants who falsely used Hotmail's domain name in
return addresses.
http://www.hotmail.com/
[1998/05/09]
May 4, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that Tele-Direct Publications Inc. announced the release of YellowPages.city(TM), the Toronto and London Yellow Pages(TM) directories on CD-ROM. The Yellow Pages website has also been enhanced.
I do not believe that most people have a really pressing to
use a mobile version of the Yellow Pages. After all, there are
phone booths around most cities and towns, and Yellow Pages in
restaurants, and hotel and motel rooms. The bottom line is
that it's really not that hard to get access to them throughout
the day. However, if you have access to the Internet anyway,
or if you have room to carry an extra CD-ROM, it may be that
the online version is more up to date, or the CD-ROM version
a bit easier to search. The CD-ROM version, which I received
a couple of days ago, is Windows 3.1, and 95, and MacOS 7.0
compatible. It is also very slow on a 2X CD-ROM.
http://www.YellowPages.ca/
[1998/05/09]
May 4, 1998, Business Wire reports that Compaq has announced the latest model of the Armada 1500 Series of laptop computers, the Armada 1573DM using a 233MHz Mobile Pentium MMX CPU, 32MB standard RAM, 12.1" fast response STN screen, 3.2GB SMART HD, 20X CD-ROM drive, K56flex modem and LiIon battery. The new model is immediately available at $2,399 US.
Compaq also announced a number of price reductions on other laptop
computers.
http://www.compaq.com/promos/portables.html
[1998/05/09]
I am considering reducing my coverage of Proximity cards for the time being. The technologies are proven and are essentially being refined and deployed. The market for the support hardware is currently limited to people who should be able to get better information than I'm posting via other means, and those who end up using the cards will not have a choice of technology.
May 4, 1998, Business Wire reports that Indala Corporation announced
the PowerProx ASR-620+ radio frequency proximity card reader capable of
reading at up to 71cm and manual selection of receiver frequencies.
Operating on 12 - 24 VDC, it is 28.4 * 28.4 * 4.6 cm.
[1998/05/09]
Due to recent discussion about Toshiba's Support in the US, I decided to call Toshiba's representatives in Canada and see how support is handled in Canada lately.
Mar. 9, 1998, Toshiba invest $1 million CDN in new, state-of-the-art customer service and support centre. According International Data Corporation (IDC) Canada's 1997 "Customer Directions and Buying Behaviour: Mobile PCs" study, Toshiba's customer support was rated by customers as the best, even before the company's $1 million investment in its improved Service and Support Centre.
Moreover, Robert Grossman, Vice President and General Manager of
Toshiba of Canada, ISG notes "While other computer companies pull
resources out of this country, Toshiba is investing in Canada. . .
Toshiba of Canada made the strategic decision to strengthen our
customer service, while also providing new jobs for Canadians."
http://www.toshiba.ca/html/body_customer_service_news.html
[1998/05/06]
Apr. 30, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that IBM Canada has announced
three new Pentium II laptop computers. The ThinkPad 770E/ED starting
at $6,499 Cdn, ThinkPad 380XD starting at $3,999 and ThinkPad 600
starting at $4,399. The ThinkPad 600 marks a departure for IBM
with a new form factor featuring a closed thickness of 1.4" and
configurations as light as 4.89 lbs.
http://www.ibm.com/pc/ca/thinkpad/
[1998/05/05]
May 1, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that Bell Mobility has announced
completion of expanded coverage in Southern Ontario. Coverage
now spans continuously from Oshawa to Fort Erie and north from
Toronto to Cookstown.
http://www.bellmobility.ca/
[1998/05/05]
Apr. 30, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that Microcell Solutions
Inc. announced that Fido(R) Service (GSM PCS) will be available
throughout Edmonton from May 1, 1998.
[1998/05/05]
Apr. 30, 1998, The Globe and Mail News Wire reports that Rogers
Cantel Mobile Communications Inc. announced a loss of $19.7 million
(Cdn) or 21 cents per share for the quarter ending Mar. 31, 1998
compared to the same quarter in prior years. Revenues increased
12% to $297.1 million. Cantel claims 1.56 million cellular
subscribers at the end of the quarter.
[1998/05/05]
Apr. 30, 1998, Information Week reports that Gateway 2000 will cut
prices on its notebook computer line. Examples:
Solo 5100 XL, 266MHz Pentium II reduced from $3,899 US to $3,799.
Solo 2300 SE, 200MHz Pentium MMX reduced from $1,899 US to $1,699.
[1998/05/05]
Apr. 29, 1998, PR Newswire reports that a survey conducted
by International Data Corporation covering 5,000 US households
during February and March indicates that 50% of all pagers are
used by people under 30 years of age and that 21.6% of households
have used a paging or messaging device for less that a year.
[1998/05/05]
Apr. 27, 1998, PR Newswire reports that CellPort Labs has introduced
an embedded vehicle-based wireless data server AutoServer. Based
on Patented technology, the AutoServer separates vehicle data
communications from modular wireless airlink transceivers.
[1998/05/05]
Apr. 27, 1998, Business Wire reports that IBM has announced a 56K PC
Card Modem with GSM cellular capability. Based on 56Kflex technology,
the modem is currently compatible with phones from Alcatel, AEG,
Hagenuk, Nokia, Nortel, NEC and Panasonic and will cost an estimated
$255 US.
[1998/05/05]
Apr. 28, 1998, Business Wire reports that Lernout & Hauspie
have shipped L&H Voice Xpress(TM) and L&H Voice Xpress PLus(TM)
which combine continuous speech recognition and Natural Language
Technology (NLT) for document creation, formatting and editing.
Supporting Microsoft's "Speech Application Programming Interface"
(SAPI) the products come on CD-ROM and include a noise cancelling
microphone. L&H Voice Xpress costs $49.99 US and L&H Voice
Xpress Plus costs $99.99. A minimum system for L&H Voice Xpress
would be a Pentium 166MHz MMX CPU and 40MB RAM under Windows 95,
130MB HD space, a VGA or better monitor and a 16-bit sound board
from Creative Labs or other Windows - compatible 16-bit
soundcard.
http://www.lhs.com/
[1998/05/02]
Apr. 28, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Siemens AG and Motorola
formally opened their new White Oak Semiconductor manufacturing
facility near Richmond, Virginia. The 8" technology plant has
recently achieved "first silicon" of 64-megabit DRAMs in 0.25
micron. The DRAM will be marketed by Siemens. Motorola will
manufacture Fast Static RAM (FSRAM) commencing later this year.
The plant employs about 1,000.
http://www.motorola.com/sps/
http://www.siemens.de/Semiconductor/index.htm
[1998/05/02]
Apr. 28, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Nortel has announced that
according to data published by Phillips InfoTech, Nortel has
shipped 1,234 Companion Wireless PBX system in the US in 1997
giving them a 32.7% share.
[1998/05/02]
Apr. 28, 1998, Neal Sandler writes in TechWeb that Israeli company
First Access has developed an infrared smart card to log users
onto computers. This contactless smart card is that it is
capable of recognition at greater distances than current technologies.
[1998/05/02]
Apr. 27, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Northern Telecom (Nortel)
has announced a new fraud detection system for both wired and
wireless telecom operators. The SuperSleuth system is based
on neural network technology and rules-based detection. It
scans customer data records (CDRs) in near real time and learns
when incidents are confirmed as fraudulent.
[1998/05/02]
The other day I decided to look into my Samsung Notemaster N486S/25N to see if I had a bad Year 2000 problem. Actually, I know that some of my computers may have a problem, but I only have a small number of time critcal functions and I've kept them on an even smaller number of computers, so I can move quickly to correct any problems.
First, having called Samsung Canada, they informed me that the last BIOS upgrade was version 1.03 and that there would be no further updates. Samsung Canada no longer sells laptop computers, so they feel that they don't need to update their past products. I should point out that the BIOS never did work satisfactorily since I've always had problems with the suspend mode and energy saving functions, and also the limit of the BIOS in not supporting HD's larger than 512MB. But checking out the Samsung Website, I was disappointed to see no real support, even for "our American cousins."
To begin testing for problems, I started with date entry. The date entry in MS-DOS 7.0 is "2 digit". That was a bad sign. However, I was able to set the date through Windows 95 to 2100 Apr. 28. I then shut off the computer and restarted it, and call the date in Windows 95 and it came back correct. So whether or not the date trips over automatically on December 31, 1999, I will still be able to reset the date and continue to use my computer.
I then sent EMail to myself through my ISP using Eudora Lite for Windows 95 version 3.0.5(32). I received the message back on the Mac LC630 using Netscape Communicator 4.5 and the date showed up correctly. I also received the message back with Eudora and it reported the correct date sent.
Having left the mail on the ISP, I decided to try another program on the
Mac, just to see the results. I tried Claris EMailer 1.1 and it came
Apr. 24, 1920, so I still have a need to be careful.
[1998/04/30]
Apr. 28, 1998, IBM announced their version of the 3Com Palm III.
The "IBM WorkPad PC Companion" estimated selling price is $549 Cdn.
[1998/04/30]
Apr. 24, 1998, Mark LaPedus writes for Electronic Buyers' News that
3Com says that the problem with their V.90 upgrade for the X2
56Kbps modems. From the article it seems that the actual upgrade
has not changed, but the documentation now says to turn of
battery saver and screen savers.
[1998/04/28]
Apr. 23, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that NCR and England's
Nationwide Building Society are testing "Automated Banking
Machines" (ABM) using Sensar Inc's iris identification system.
The devices scan the user's eye for identification and thus
do not require PIN numbers.
[1998//4/28]
Apr. 23, 1998, Business Wire reports that the Intel - DEC Patent
suit settlement has been approved based on Intel's agreement to allow
further licensing of the Alpha RISC to other semiconductor manufacturers.
[1998/04/28]
Apr. 22, 1998, Mark Harrington writes for Computer Retailer Week
that Uniden has announced that they will market a Windows CE
based handheld computer for $399 US in August. Uniden also
announced a $399 US PC Card cellular digital packet data (CDPD)
modem to be shipped in September.
[1998/04/28]
Apr. 22, 1998, Business Wire reports that Motorola has introduced
a 900 MHz version of their iDEN digital wireless communications
system including two handheld models (DM900 dispatch-only model and
DM900 multi-service model).
[1998/04/28]
Apr. 22, 1998, Neal Sandler writes for TechWeb that Netline Technologies
is developing a product called "C-Guard" which will block cellular
phone calls in small geographical areas such as movie theatres or
concert halls.
[1998/04/28]
Apr. 20, 1998, Business Wire reports that Motorola has announced
their new ADSP56651 and DSP56652 combination microcontrollers
which incorporate both a 16-bit DSP56600 Digital Signal Processor
and M-CORE 32 bit RISC processor with an "MCU-DSP interface" (MDI)
which allows bi-directional controls as well as data passing.
Optimized for 1.8V operation and costing under $20 (US) in volumes
over 10,000 units, the DSP56652 was developed for TDMA (IS-136)
handsets.
http://www.motorola.com/wireless-semi/
[1998/04/25]
Apr. 15, 1998, Business Wire reports that IBM has announced that
all ThinkPad notebook computers will ship with Tivoli Systems Inc.'s
Tivoli Management Agent software which automates system management.
http://www.tivoli.com/
[1998/04/25]
I have recently been looking at budget laptops and been thinking of how fast things have moved since I bought my Samsung Notemaster N486S/25N. The following piece traces the changes in the low end lines of Compaq notebook computers which are fairly typical of the industry, and ends with the price history of the Armada 1130 computers which product life was really only about four months. Some may argue that the Armada 1130 wasn't really typical, but I would reply that the changes from 1995 to 1997 saw quite a few products live that briefly, depending on whether you looked at case designs, motherboards or product names.
Four years. Is that all it's been? We have seen a whirlwind. Looking at Compaq as an example, in 1994 their direct competitor for my Notemaster 486S/25N was the Contura series 4/25. This pre-PCMCIA laptop required an externally attached trackball and according to PC Laptop Magazine, in its least expensive configuration had a 640 * 480 * 4-bit monochrome DSTN screen with a 9.5" diagonal.
On Sept. 19, 1994 Compaq announced the Contura 400 Series with two PCMCIA slots, an integrated trackball and 486DX2/40 CPU which evolved through 1995 up through DX4 series CPUs. There was no monochrome version in the Contura 400 series. Through the Contura 4 and Contura 400 series, the primary circuitry really didn't have to change much. But from 1996, the technology really moved.
On June 17, 1996 Compaq announced its first low end Pentium laptops, the 1100 series, beginning with the 1120 and 1120T. As far as I can tell, there is no significant difference between the Contura 400 series case and the Armada 1100 series case. The changes were mainly in the new motherboard.
In July 1996, Compaq split their lower end product line by announcing the Presario 1000 line of "home" oriented laptop computers with MultiMedia capabilities. The first Presario laptops (1020) were announced as shipping on Oct. 24, 1996.
On Dec. 9 1996, Compaq announced and shipped the Armada 1130 and 1130T as the latest of the low end Armada 1100 series priced at $1,899 US and $2,299 respectively. More than just an upgrade from 100MHz to 120MHz, its ciruitry was substantially revised. EDO RAM replaced "Fast Page" mode RAM and addressing was extended to 48MB. The first price drop came only a month later, on Jan. 16, 1997 with the 1130 and 1130T now respectively $1,599 US and and $1,999.
On Apr. 7, 1997, Compaq announced their Armada 1500 series and immediately dropped the price of the 1130 and 1130T down to $1,099 US and $1,399. With its MultiMedia focus, the 1500 offered built in CD-ROM and speakers, and a trackpad. On June 16, 1997, the 1130 and 1130T were dropped to $999 US and $1,199. That was the last announced price cut, and was clearly an effort to move the last remaining units.
On June 30, 1997, Compaq announced the Presario 1200 series and 1600 series beginning with the 1210 and 1610. The 1200 series eventually replaced the original Presario 1000 series, becoming their lowest priced consumer laptops while the 1600 series is similar to the business Armada 1500 series. I don't have shipping dates, but the Armada 1500 probably became available around July or August and the 1210 probably became available on Nov. 6, 1997.
By the Fall of 1997, most of the remaining 1130's were probably sold
out of the retail level stores. This, on the one hand, ends the long life
of the Contura 400 case design, and on the otherhand the short production
life of the Armada 1130's motherboard. As of April 1998, I found one last
"demo" 1130 for $999 Canadian, or about $700 US.
[1998/04/24] revised [1998/04/25]
Apr. 17, 1998, Business Wire reports that Telular has announced
a new handheld data collection terminal by their Granite subsidiary.
The NOVAS, available in late summer 1998 with a price of $1,695 Cdn.
weighs 16 ounces and has a touch screen display, 2MB DRAM, up
to 4MB Flash, one PCMCIA II slot, IrDA port and NiMH battery.
[1998/04/21]
Apr. 17, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that the GSM Alliance, LLC
provides the following information in response to "erroneous"
reports:
1. GSM phones are not vulnerable to cloning. According to
the article researchers claimed that they had been able to
copy information from a SIM card, but admitted that they had
only accomplished it with physical access to the SIM card
and not by taking data from the air.
The Alliance concludes that rather than cloning a SIM, it would
be easier to steal the whole phone. Nevertheless, customers
are advised to protect their phones and SIM cards as they
would wallets and bank cards. [This article was terribly
garbled, so I can only say that this is what I believe it said.]
[1998/04/21]
Apr. 16, 1998, Kimberly Caisse writes for Computer Reseller News that
Hewlett-Packard had reduced prices for its OmniBook notebooks up
to 20 percent. Examples:
OmniBook 5700, 166-MHz Pentium MMX, 3GB HD, 32MB RAM reduced from
$2,559 US to $2,049.
OmniBook 3000, 266-MHz mobile Pentium MMX reduced from $3,369 US down
to $3,031
Apr. 16, 1998, Business Wire reports that Mitel has bought the
Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) Business Unit of Centigram
Communications Corporation for $22 million (US) in cash and
will also purchase reeivables and inventory related to the
business for about $4 million in cash.
[1998/04/21]
Apr. 15, 1998, Todd Wasserman writes for Computer Retailer Week
that at least eight laptop vendors have been affected by
the problem previously reported caused by the V.90 update
for 3Com's X2 PC Card modems. The only one mentioned by name
was Dell.
[1998/04/21]
Apr. 14, 1998, The Globe And Mail News Wire reports that Intel has
announced that it will cut 3,000 jobs from its current 63,000
payroll over the next six months due to lower than expected earnings.
Preferably the cuts will be made by attrition.
[1998/04/21]
Apr. 14, 1998, Canada News Wire reports that Microcell Solutions Inc., has announced that Fido wireless PCS phone services have commenced in the Barrie, Ontario area and down Highway 400 to Toronto. [1998/04/18]
Apr. 14, 1998, Todd Wasserman writes in Computer Retail Week that
3Com has temporarily withdrawn its V.90 upgrade software from
distribution. According to Rich Redelfs, about 20 people out of
about 4,500 who downloaded the software reported that loading
the software disabled the modems. All were PC Card versions
of the modem. Apparently, in order to prevent problems one disable
a laptop's "power-saving feature" and must not touch the keyboard
during the download. [Actually, this is not possible on my Win '95
Samsung laptop. I have found that the power saver cannot be
trusted to not be active, and in fact, I constantly hit the "Ctrl" key
to ensure that it doesn't go into sleep mode during downloads.]
[1998/04/18]
Apr. 14, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Silicon Graphics, Inc.
has announced its new strategy. Iris workstations and servers
will be migrated to Intel processors and NT and MIPS, Technologies,
Inc. will be spun off into an "independently owned company."
SGI will still hold a majority interest and will continue development
of MIPS processors as part of the Silicon Graphics Computer Systems
Organization. IRIX will be ported to Intel 64 bit machines.
[1998/04/18]
Apr. 14, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Triton PCS, Inc., has
chosen Ericsson to supply D-AMPS 1900 base equipment to support
TDMA (IS-136) based Personal Communications Services in Virginia,
North Carolina, South Carolina and northern Georgia.
[1998/04/18]
Apr. 13, 1998, Darryl K. Taft writes for Computer Reseller News that
Cidco has licensed Sun's JavaOS with the intention of bringing out
new "Web phones" and other personal communcations products
incorporating Java technologies in early 1999.
[1998/04/18]
Apr. 13, 1998, John Borland writes for "Net Insider" that Sanford
Wallace has said that he will abandon his plan to make a "spam friendly"
backbone and retire from the bulk E-Mail business.
[1998/04/18]
Apr. 11, 1998, Newsbytes reports that as a concession to antitrust
investigators, Microsoft no longer requires Active Channel Web
partners to promote Microsoft Internet Explorer on there Websites.
[1998/04/14]
Apr. 10, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Apple denies the claim of
patent infringement filed by Imatec, Ltd. filed in the US District
Court for the Southern District of New York on February 13, 1998
which contends that Apple's ColorSync products infringe on Imatec's
patents related to colour calibration of computer equipment. Apple
has counterclaimed to invalidate the patents.
[1998/04/14]
Apr. 10, 1998, Newsbytes reports that MIPS Technologies, Inc., has
announced that they are suing Lextra, Inc., in the US District Court
for the Northern District of California for false advertising, trademark
infringment and related claims for offering "MIPS-compatible"
microprocessor cores which comply with some but not all of the MIPS
Instruction SEt Architecture.
[1998/04/14]
Apr. 9, 1998, Newsbytes reports that Silcon Graphics, Inc. will
help build a robot to analyze and repair damage to teh Chernobyl
Nuclear site. The robot will be a project of a team of Russians,
the US DOE and US NASA called "Pioneer".
[1998/04/14]
Apr. 9, 1998, PR Newswire reports that Silicon Graphics INc. has
announced that they will sue NVIDIA Corporation in the US District
Court of Deleware seeking an injunction restraining NVIDIA from
manufacturing or selling or importing their RIVA family of processors,
and additional monetary damages.
[1998/04/14]
Apr. 8, 1998, Craig Matsumoto writes in Electronic Engineering Times
that SRI has developed a safer Lithium-Ion battery. When the
battery reaches a trigger temperature, CO2 is released by a
chemical reaction, preventing combustion. The battery will not
be operational after such an event and will need replacement, but
fires will be prevented.
[1998/04/14]
Apr. 7, 1998, PR Newswire reports that AvantGo, Inc. will present
AvantGo's enterprise oriented Web technology based software
intended to allow free flowing information between the enterprise
repository and handheld devices based on 3Com's PalmPilot
technology such as the IBM WorkPad and 3Com's own PalmPilot
products.
http://www.avantgo.com/
[1998/04/14]
Apr. 7, 1998, Responsive Database Services reports that according
to Computergram International, Apr. 3, 1998, the US International
Trade Commission has ruled that Korea is not guilty of dumping
SRAM but Taiwan is guilty of dumping SRAM.
[1998/04/14]
Apr. 7, 1998, Responsive Database Services reports that according
to the Wall Street Journal, Apr. 2, 1998, Aspect Telecommunications
Inc. will acquire Voicetek Corp. for $71 million US.
[1998/04/14]
A possible problem in appointment handling in the Windows CE 2.0 based HP-360LX was discussed in series of messages posted to Usenet from April 6 to April 7, 1998. Upon reading the messages I made some quick tests on my NEC MobilePro 400 (Windows CE 1.0) and could not confirm the problem in a "free standing" device. I expect that there may be a problem, but it might be caused by synchronization between the Windows CE handheld and a "main computer".
My test procedure: I set an appointment at 12:00 PM (noon) Toronto time Feb. 16, 1998 and set it to repeat monthly (on the 16th of the month) for 1 year. I then reset the handheld to various time zone settings and checked the appointments at various random months, usually Feb., Mar, Apr. and May. The results were as follows:
I'm going to summarize the problem and make my comments. Excerpts from the messages posted to Usenet are included below.
The user started at Boston, Massachusetts. On March 29 he set the clock to Paris, France as a "Visiting City", which then went on Daylight saving time. The HP-360LX adjusted the time correctly. Appointments were not checked. On March 30, he returned to the US and set the clock for the Home city. An entry was made between Mar. 30 and Apr. 5 for an appointment on Apr. 7 13:00. On April 5, Boston went on Daylight Savings Time, and the palmtop adjusted the clock correctly. [No mention was made of dates and times of synchronizations between the handheld unit and the main computer.] At this point, appointments that had been entered prior to the Paris trip were now an hour late, but the entry that was made between March 30 and April 5 was correct (13:00).
All of the problem appointments were repeating appointments.
After the user "corrected" the times of the repeating appointments in the the HP-360LX, synchronizing the appointments results in those appointments being displayed 1 hour later on the "main computer" (a PC running NT4.0/SP3 Schedule Plus) despite the system clocks of both the PC and handheld indicating the same time.
Many years ago I wrote a program for monthly payment scheduling for loans. I recall handling days in months, months and years as individual parameters. It seems to me that the problem here may be arising from some programmers trying to "short cut" data handling by compressing times of days into "minutes of a day", or even single 32-bit numbers for seconds within a year -- which is how system time is handled in most computers.
Dave's comment that this kind of error is "reasonable" is wrong. Knowning that "daylight savings time" is a locally controlled legal construction which has changed occasionally within some jurisdictions, (as is "standard time" for that matter) and knowing that it is not currently a change that occurs on the same date in all places, this sort of problem is forseeable. And knowing that all this could change again in the future on the whim of various governments makes it even more forseeable.
Most people think of appointments as based on local time and always including compensation for the local "daylight savings" time settings. That is to say 1:00 PM is 1:00 PM on a given date, at a given place regardless of whether it's going to be daylight savings time or not. Therefore, such times should not be "adjusted". If you just leave the times alone then everything is fine. That's also the way data should be handled during sychronizations. So the answer is to record appointment times as separate parameters relative to the day, and leave them alone during synchronizations, daylight savings time changes and time zone changes during travel.
While on on the subject, I should add that while appointment times should be scheduled relative to a date, they should not be restricted to falling within a 24 hour period. I have always looked at scheduling situations such as Easter and its preceding Good Friday and following Monday. I have never found a scheduler that covers the Easter weekend properly. In Toronto, the proper scheduling must include the Easter Sunday, which is the "2nd Sunday of April", the "Good Friday" which is the preceding Friday, which may be either the 1st or 2nd Friday of the month, and the Monday following Easter Sunday, which may be the 2nd or 3rd Monday in a month. Any of these days may be a "holiday" for various people. The best way I could think of to handle these problems was to schedule the Good Friday as an Event on Easter Sunday, but starting 48 hours before Easter Sunday, and the following Monday as an Event scheduled on Easter Sunday, but beginning 24 hours after. Furthermore, and more commonly, there's no reason not to be able to schedule events that cross Midnight. I may schedule a phone call to someone in Japan that will start at 11:45 PM and end 01:30 the next morning. That must be a very common occurance for modern business people.
Another forseeable situation is that sometimes you do want to see an
appointment in compensated time. For example, I'm in Toronto and I am
scheduling some telephone conferences betwen people in Los Angeles,
Houston, Texas and Hawaii. I definitely want to see the appointments
in my local Toronto time, but it would be nice if I had an easy way of
seeing some of the appointments in their parallel times in other
locations. In international situations, I would probably also want to
see those times compensated for Daylight Savings Time according to
local rules.
[1998/04/12]
The following are excerpts from messages posted to Usenet. The
participants were:
Don Allen
Manfred Winter in message <352d45c3.1476111@news.netway.at>
annonymous in message <6gbtsj$oi8@bgtnsc02.worldnet.att.net>
aultmaan@mindspring.com (Dave)