[AppleSurf Inbox] May 22, 2000

[applesurf at myapplemenu.comapplesurf]

AppleSurf Inbox

== Top Stories ====================

Mi iMac Es Su iMac (Wired News)
<http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,36480,00.html>
Spanish speakers are coming online in droves. Recognizing this lucrative user base, Apple, for the first time, is set to start selling iMacs pre-configured for Spanish speakers in the United States.

Quake 3 Arena For OS X Coming Next Week, Says Developer (MacCentral)
<http://www.maccentral.com/news/0005/22.quake3osx.shtml>
OS X is a great platform for games. There's a good deal of thought put into the core OS to take care of game like media, instead of being a layer on top of the OS, it's there right on top of the kernel. This is a good thing.

== Seize the Day! (Great news for Mac users) ====================

Mi iMac Es Su iMac (Wired News)
<http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,36480,00.html>
Spanish speakers are coming online in droves. Recognizing this lucrative user base, Apple, for the first time, is set to start selling iMacs pre-configured for Spanish speakers in the United States.

== Listen Up! (Opinions around the web) ====================

The Vision Thing (Macworld)
<http://macworld.zdnet.com/2000/07/opinions/vision_thing.html>
Combine the Palm's Bondian gadget arsenal with Apple's interface acumen, and the results could be World dominating.

Some Personal Discoveries At WWDC (Applelinks.com)
<http://www.applelinks.com/warpcore/may00/wc-64.shtml>
Apple went from near failure to rebirth; and in the rebirth there was the distraction and excitement of being reborn. Now, a few years later, with routine success and a mature strategy, it's becoming quite clear how Apple did it. 

It's The Interface, Stupid (Holy Mac!)
<http://www.holymac.com/news/itstheinterface.shtml>
The Pokemon crowd will probably love the new look, but I can see myself sticking with OS9 after the novelty of Aqua has worn off.

The WWDC & Apple Handheld: Discounting The Fear (The Mac Observer)
<http://www.macobserver.com/columns/appletrader/00/000522.shtml>
Perhaps the current Mac line is perfectly suited for Apple to grow revenues and market share on for the rest of 2000.

Save $49,000? (Low End Mac)
<http://lowendmac.net/scope/2k0522.html>
Which is it, a huge loss or an unfair price?

Cheap Power Macs: The $500 G3 And $750 G4 (Low End Mac)
<http://lowendmac.net/misc/2k0522.html>
How would you like a Power Mac G3 for less than $500? Or perhaps a G4 Power Mac for less than $750? Both deals are currently available from Web sources with a little mixing and matching.

== Reviews (The good and the bad) ====================

American Civil War Soldier (Inside Mac Games)
<http://www.insidemacgames.com/reviews/00/acws/>
The game appears to have been crafted with a half-hearted attitude towards making a quality piece of entertainment software.

Railroad Tycoon II (MacNerds.com)
<http://www.macnerds.com/reviews/railroad2.shtml>
The overall gameplay is pretty smooth. However, the interface for the game is a bit clunky.

New Quake 3 Mod "Weapons Factory Arena"  (The MacJunkie)
<http://www.themacjunkie.com/archives/5.22.00.wfa.html>
If you're a fan of Quake 3 Fortress, you'll at least have some fun with this mod, and at best have a new favorite pastime.

== Thousand Flowers (News on Macintosh third-parties) ====================

The Real Second Coming Of Diablo (WIred News)
<http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,36263,00.html>
One of the most anticipated PC games in recent memory is due out within the next few days, but years of delays may take some of the fire out of Diablo II. 

Filling Mac's Software Gaps (Pfeiffer Report)
<http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/comment/0,5859,2573199,00.html>
[T]he really good news is in the application space: a dramatic price cut to WebObjects ($699 instead of $50,000) and the announcement that Maya (Alias Wavefront's heavyweight 3D software) will reach Mac OS X. 

Adobe Ships LiveMotion 1.0 (MacWEEK.com)
<http://macweek.zdnet.com/2000/05/21/0522liveships.html>
The battle begins. Adobe Systems on Monday announced that it is shipping LiveMotion 1.0, a $299 Web-animation program that's been dubbed the "Flash-killer" because it can produce Flash movies (and animated GIFs) while offering features not available in Macromedia's Flash 4 authoring software, such as the ability to export HTML tables incorporating static and animated graphic elements.

Quake 3 Arena For OS X Coming Next Week, Says Developer (MacCentral)
<http://www.maccentral.com/news/0005/22.quake3osx.shtml>
OS X is a great platform for games. There's a good deal of thought put into the core OS to take care of game like media, instead of being a layer on top of the OS, it's there right on top of the kernel. This is a good thing.

== Know Thy Enemy (Keeping track of the Wintel empire) ====================

Microsoft's Jim Allchin Takes A 'Vacation' (ZDNet)
<http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2573577,00.html>
The Windows chief is taking a two-month break. For other company execs, though, that's been a euphemism for 'he's outta here.'

Microsoft Gets In The Last Word Before Penalty Hearing (CNET News.com)
<http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200-1920944.html?tag=st.ne.1430735..ni>
In today's brief, Microsoft argued that rather than looking at the best interests of consumers, the government is seeking to punish the Redmond, Wash.-based software maker for its actions against competitors. Microsoft contends that based on comments during a legal proceeding five years ago, the government is well aware that breakup would be harmful to consumers and the software company.

Micrsoft Patches Windows Security Hole (CNET News.com)
<http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200-1923284.html?dtn.head>
Microsoft today released a security patch that it hopes will prevent hackers from targeting Windows computers with the type of attacks that swamped sites such as Yahoo and eBay earlier this year.

Intel To Unveil New Pentium III Xeon Chip (Reuters)
<http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000522/tc/intel_pentium_1.html>
Analysts said the new chips will provide even higher profit margin potential for the world's largest chip maker, than the current Xeon family, because of their cost-saving design.

== Breaking Barriers (About the internet and the web) ====================

MSN For Novices -- Can It Challenge AOL? (Reuters)
<http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2574003,00.html>
That's Microsoft's hope for its 'next-generation' Internet service, to be released in a test version later this week. But overtaking AOL will take some doing.

Internet Crash? Humbug, Says The New York Times (Inside)
<http://www.inside.com/story/Premium_Story?art_id=4824>
It's now up to the oldest of old media to lead the new-media charge back onto Wall Street.

RealNetworks Targets Microsoft With New Media Software (CNET News.com)
<http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-1920767.html?tag=st.ne.1430735..ni>
Marking its latest effort in its battle against Microsoft, RealNetworks today unveiled a product that packages many of its online media delivery services into one offering. 

Go.com Shines Spotlight On New Movies Site (CNET News.com)
<http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-1923402.html?tag=st.ne.1430735..ni>
Disney Web network Go.com raised the curtain on Movies.com this afternoon, marking the company's latest attempt to lure entertainment-hungry Net users.

Readers Love The Net Effect (USA Today)
<http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/cth947.htm>
USA TODAY asked readers if the Internet brings their families closer or pulls them apart. No one who sent us an e-mail reply to the question said the Net weakened family connections - rather the opposite.

Streaming Rivals Square Off With Facts, Figures (CNET News.com)
<http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-1923257.html?dtn.head>
Just as RealNetworks launches its all-in-one media software and commences its weeklong conference in San Francisco today, Microsoft is trying to steal a little of the company's thunder with a handful of announcements not-so-subtly aimed at its chief streaming rival.

Vignette Plans OnDisplay Acquisition In Response To Competition (CNET News.com)
<http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1007-200-1923377.html?dtn.head>
As enterprises become more serious about business-to-business e-commerce and Web content management, they face the perplexing choice of which vendors and technologies to use.

RealNetworks Just Can't Shake That 'M' Question (San Jose Mercury News)
<http://www.mercurycenter.com/svtech/news/indepth/docs/dp052200.htm>
Is Real going to be the great exception -- the company that can continue to define its own destiny in the face of a full-blown standards war with Microsoft?

Selling To The Global Village (New York Times)
<http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/05/cyber/commerce/22commerce.html>
To keep their businesses growing, Internet merchants have to look outside the United States. But the merchants can hardly justify the expenses associated with rolling out international sites.

== Technology (The Technology Scene In Singapore) ====================

StarHub To Put Up Broadband Network At Suntec City (Business Times)
<http://business-times.asia1.com.sg/2/fprop/fprop22.html>
StarHub has signed an agreement with Suntec City Development to wire up the entire Suntec City complex with its broadband fibre optic cable infrastructure as well as to provide a host of telephony services to its retail and office tenants.

== Entertainment (The Entertainment Scene In Singapore) ====================

J-Pop Videos Coming Soon On TCS 8 (Asia E!Online)
<http://asia.eonline.com/News/Stories/Content/1,1028,1878,00.html>
The J-Pop fever in Singapore is set to rise even further as TCS 8 (Television Corporation of Singapore) announces today that it will be screening the latest Japanese music videos on the free-to-air channel.

== Around Town (News out of Singapore) ====================

SingTel Distances Itself From GLC Image (Straits Times)
<http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/money/sinb4_0523.html>
Singapore Telecom (SingTel) would not last five minutes in the increasingly competitive telecommunications environment, if it were really as bureaucratic and inflexible as people perceived it to be, said its chairman Koh Boon Hwee yesterday.

Stanchart Says 'No' To Shared ATMs (Straits Times)
<http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/money/sinb1_0523.html>
ABN Amro and Citibank will roll out network by end of the year; Banque Nationale de Paris plans not known yet.

Keeping Foreigners Off Political (Straits Times)
<http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/singapore/sin13_0523.html>
Political parties and candidates cannot accept foreign funds as they contest elections and can influence the policies and political process in Parliament, if elected.

Good For Virgin, But Not For SingTel? (Business Times)
<http://business-times.asia1.com.sg/2/views/views03.html>
The proposed deal begs more questions than it answers and leaves a hazy view of SingTel's strategy both in Singapore and in the region. But time will tell if this is a brilliant stroke or one to be forgotten.

New Scheme Halves Tax On Stock Option Gains (Business Times)
<http://business-times.asia1.com.sg/2/news/nfrnt05.html>
Called the Entrepreneurial Employee Stock Option Scheme, it applies to qualifying employee stock options (ESOPS) issued on or after June 1. It will exempt 50 per cent of the gains arising from exercising an ESOP.

Night Buses To Make Their Debut (Channel NewsAsia)
<http://www.channelnewsasia.com/articles/2000/05/22/singaporenews27966.htm>
>From Friday, eight more night buses will be launched by the Trans Island Bus Services to bring party-goers and night owls home after a night out.

Public Service Price Hikes Unlikely To Cause Hardship: BG Lee (Channel NewsAsia)
<http://www.channelnewsasia.com/articles/2000/05/22/singaporenews27964.htm>
Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has said the recent and upcoming price increases in public services are unlikely to impose hardship on Singaporeans, including lower income earners.

More Stress As Dual-income Families Become The Norm (Channel NewsAsia)
<http://www.channelnewsasia.com/articles/2000/05/22/singaporenews27880.htm>
Dual-income families became the dominant trend in Singapore for the first time last year, overtaking traditional households with sole-breadwinners.