[AppleSurf Inbox] May 25, 2000

[applesurf at myapplemenu.comapplesurf]

AppleSurf Inbox

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

Apple Scoops Top Design Gongs (Macworld UK)
<http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/top_news_item.cfm?NewsID=1359>
The Apple Cinema Display took the Gold Award for Product Design for Work. The PowerMac G4 won a silver in the same category, while the iBook won a Silver Award for Product Design for the Home.

Apple Execs Talk QuickTime (MacWEEK.com)
<http://macweek.zdnet.com/2000/05/21/0524fconqt.html>
Apple has big plans for extending the reach of its QuickTime multimedia software, but the company could be in for stiffer-than-expected competition from RealNetworks, which on Wednesday introduced a new version of its streaming-media technology that reportedly offers full-motion VCR-quality video, even for users with dial-up connections.

Voodoo 4 And 5 In Depth (Inside Mac Games)
<http://www.insidemacgames.com/features/00/voodoo_4_5/>
Early January 2000, 3dfx announced that they would be releasing fully supported Mac versions of the Voodoo 4 and Voodoo 5 cards, priced similarly to the PC versions and released within a couple of months of them. This was a very exciting development for Mac gamers and could eventually have implications for the entire Macintosh product line. To fully appreciate why we’ll consider some history as well as the features of the new video cards themselves.

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

Apple Scoops Top Design Gongs (Macworld UK)
<http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/top_news_item.cfm?NewsID=1359>
The Apple Cinema Display took the Gold Award for Product Design for Work. The PowerMac G4 won a silver in the same category, while the iBook won a Silver Award for Product Design for the Home.

IBM Plots Next PowerPC Chips (ZDNet)
<http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2576364,00.html>
The company's late-summer processor releases could make their way into a variety of embedded applications as well as the next wave of Apple PowerBooks.

Apple Execs Talk QuickTime (MacWEEK.com)
<http://macweek.zdnet.com/2000/05/21/0524fconqt.html>
Apple has big plans for extending the reach of its QuickTime multimedia software, but the company could be in for stiffer-than-expected competition from RealNetworks, which on Wednesday introduced a new version of its streaming-media technology that reportedly offers full-motion VCR-quality video, even for users with dial-up connections.

Mac OS X On A PowerBook (Go2Mac)
<http://www.go2mac.com/articles/read.cfm?id=204>
This article will guide you through the process of installing and running Mac OS X DP4 on a PowerBook G3.

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

Curtains For Corel? (MacEdition)
<http://www.macedition.com/op/op_corel_20000525.shtml>
The computer graphics pioneer could have owned the Macintosh productivity market.

Apple's Legacy Advertising Opportunity Coming To Fruition (osOpinion)
<http://www.osopinion.com/Opinions/kellymcneill/kellymcneill14.html>
If you're not an individual who's privy to such advertising opportunities that arise around that time of the year, then I suppose that I must clue you in by mentioning that January is the time when the Superbowl occurs.

Microsoft, Others Comment On X's Delay (MacCentral)
<http://www.maccentral.com/news/0005/25.macosx.shtml>
With the "final, final" (Apple's description) version of Mac OS X pushed back six months to January 2001, many software developers we spoke with feel it's no big deal, perhaps even a good thing. The reasoning is that it gives Apple time to polish and refine the next generation operating system and gives developers more opportunity to have OS X native applications ready to go.

To Understand Apple (Mac OS Daily)
<http://www.macosdaily.com/opinion/columns/train_009_20000525.html>
I'm not saying not to discuss, debate, and muse. Just give them a break every once in a while huh? They earn it.

Is A Mac Better Than A PC? (Low End Mac)
<http://lowendmac.net/meta/2k0525.html>
We can look at this question from many angles, such as performance, stability, ease of use, price, expansion, and total cost of ownership.

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

Comfort Is The Key(board) (Arizona Central)
<http://www.azcentral.com/computing/steinberg/>
An uncomfortable keyboard can slow your typing speed, cause fatigue, perhaps even spur wrist pain. A comfortable keyboard can make your computing experience more productive, more enjoyable.

The Castle (Applelinks.com)
<http://www.applelinks.com/reviews/castle.shtml>
Right down to the last moments when the villian's evil plot is revealed, the game builds to a wonderfully overwritten gothic horror finale. In today's gaming market that takes itself way too seriously, I found The Castle to be quite refreshing.

Deer Avenger 2 (MacCentral)
<http://www.maccentral.com/news/0005/24.deeravenger2.shtml>
Deer Avenger 2 can provide a few fawned hours of not-terribly-subtle comic relief.

Nightmare And AppleCare (The PowerBook Source)
<http://www.pbsource.com/MacinThoughts/features/AppleCare.shtml>
Moral of the story: Buy AppleCare. Give Apple a chance. Maybe after a nightmare scenario --and I’ve heard far worse than mine-- Apple will do right by you.

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

Curtains For Corel? (MacEdition)
<http://www.macedition.com/op/op_corel_20000525.shtml>
The computer graphics pioneer could have owned the Macintosh productivity market.

German Ad Agency Says 'Sorry' To Apple (MacNN)
<http://www.macnn.com/feature.php?id=20>
A German ad agency that found itself earlier this month under the legal wrath of Apple for using the company's logo and trademark without consent, will soon apologize by printing a full page ad in a national industry journal and publicly stating it is "very sorry" for the error.

PageMill Dies With Little Word From Adobe (MacNN)
<http://www.macnn.com/feature.php?id=19>
The death of PageMill and the lack of information on its availability and future has left many of its users scratching their heads and wondering about Adobe's reasoning behind not openly discussing its plans.

Voodoo 4 And 5 In Depth (Inside Mac Games)
<http://www.insidemacgames.com/features/00/voodoo_4_5/>
Early January 2000, 3dfx announced that they would be releasing fully supported Mac versions of the Voodoo 4 and Voodoo 5 cards, priced similarly to the PC versions and released within a couple of months of them. This was a very exciting development for Mac gamers and could eventually have implications for the entire Macintosh product line. To fully appreciate why we’ll consider some history as well as the features of the new video cards themselves.

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

Intel CEO Says Chip Shortages Likely To Last Another Year (Reuters)
<http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200-1946110.html?tag=st.ne.1430735..ni>
Intel expects a tight supply position in the semiconductor industry for another 12 months as components run short, president and CEO Craig Barrett said today. 

AMD Chips The Secret Ingredient In New Supercomputer (CNET News.com)
<http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200-1948480.html?tag=st.ne.1430735..ni>
AMD's 3DNow technology was designed to improve the 3D graphics of games. But the feature can also be used to speed up mathematical calculations, said Hank Dietz, a professor at the University of Kentucky and the architect of a new 64-processor Linux supercomputer built out of 700-MHz AMD Athlon microprocessors.

Gates: Web's 'Rational' Phase On The Way (USA Today)
<http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/cth970.htm>
The "keyboard-centric" days of the Internet are coming to a close, Gates told an annual summit.

Microsoft Ruling Rattles The Street (TechWeb Finance)
<http://www.techweb.com/wire/finance/story/INV20000525S0004>
A breakup would cut the value of the $330.9 billion company by 15 percent, Sherlund said in a research report. If the market agrees with Sherlund, it would mean a $49.64 billion cut in the company's market capitalization.

Microsoft Delays Outlook Security Update (Computer Reseller News)
<http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB20000525S0008>
Microsoft said new security features for its Outlook e-mail program will be delayed until next week.

Report: U.S. Sticks With 2-way MS Split (USA Today)
<http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/cth973.htm>
Antitrust enforcers will stick with a proposal to split Microsoft Corp. into a company that makes Windows operating systems and another that makes applications such as Microsoft Office in their final breakup plan, people familiar with the case said.

Intel Fights Chip Shortage With New Capacity (Electronic Buyers' News)
<http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB20000525S0015>
Intel took two big steps to addressing a shortfall in chips on Wednesday, announcing plans to build a 300-mm wafer plant in New Mexico and increase production of flash memory ICs at plants in Oregon, New Mexico, and Colorado to more than 2 billion over the next two years.

Customers Wary Of Windows 2000 (VNU Net)
<http://linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2000-05-24-008-06-PS-MR-MS>
The majority of Windows NT users are delaying migration to Windows 2000 by up to 18 months because they fear the platform will be too unreliable or have no immediate effect on their business.

Does Microsoft Need A Makeover? (Salon)
<http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2000/05/25/microsoft/index.html>
As Judge Jackson ponders a three-way breakup, experts offer the company some PR advice.

Gateway, iXL Venture Eyes Employee PC Programs (CNET News.com)
<http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200-1945946.html?dtn.head>
In a push to expand its sales channels, Gateway today said it has taken a $150 million equity stake in Consumer Financial Network, a maker of corporate portals for financial services and employee benefits.

Experts: Microsoft May Have Basis For Appeal (TechWeb)
<http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/msftdoj/TWB20000525S0001>
[S]ome antitrust attorneys say [Judge Thomas Jackson's] denial of more deliberation could serve as the basis for an appeal by [Microsoft].

Are Cheap Notebooks Finally Here? (PC World)
<http://www.pcworld.com/pcwtoday/article/0,1510,16865,00.html>
Why Compaq is the only major vendor with laptops starting at $999.

Flaws In Handhelds Crop Up For Palm, HP (San Jose Mercury News)
<http://www.mercurycenter.com/svtech/news/indepth/docs/palm052500.htm>
Consumers could become wary of buying handheld computers in the wake of quality problems announced by industry leaders Palm Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co.

Intel To Spend $2 Bln To Boost Chip Capacity (Reuters)
<http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000524/tc/tech_intel_17.html>
Intel Corp., the world's largest semiconductor manufacturer, said on Wednesday it will spend $2 billion to boost microprocessor production at its New Mexico plant to meet booming demand.

Microsoft Execs, Customer CEOs Mum On DOJ Hearing (InfoWorld)
<http://www.pcworld.com/pcwtoday/article/0,1510,16894,00.html>
Microsoft executives refused to comment Wednesday on a federal judge's interest in breaking the software giant into two or perhaps three separate companies as punishment for its antitrust crimes.

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

Gates: Web's 'Rational' Phase On The Way (USA Today)
<http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/cth970.htm>
The "keyboard-centric" days of the Internet are coming to a close, Gates told an annual summit.

Content Delivery Deals Are On Upswing (tele.com)
<http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB20000525S0005>
Content delivery providers keep on delivering, finessing their services and partnering with other companies to encourage more ISPs and content providers to embrace their business model.

Yahoo Tests Media Player Amid Heavy Competition (CNET News.com)
<http://yahoo.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-1946053.html?pt.yfin.cat_fin.txt.ne>
Watch out Microsoft, RealNetworks and Apple--here comes Yahoo.

Novell Bolsters Its Internet Messaging Software (InfoWorld)
<http://www.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/00/05/25/000525hnnims.xml>
Novell officials have stressed that service providers will be a vital market for the company's Net services products, and Leif Pedersen, director of product management for NDS and directory-enabled applications, said the company soon will name a number of service providers who are using NIMS and other products in their environments, including some ISPs with "well over 1 million users now."

Quantum Leap In Searching (Wired News)
<http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,36574,00.html>
Of course, the technique depends on having a quantum computer, a machine that is still largely theoretical but is slowly starting to become a reality in research labs around the world.

Music Industry: Free Flow Of Net Music Is Affecting Sales (Associated Press)
<http://www.techserver.com/noframes/story/0,2294,500208160-500291057-501580996-0,00.html>
The music industry has some fresh ammunition in its effort to prove that Internet swapping of free music files has cut into music sales.

Nokia Intros "Future-Proof" 3G Products (Reuters)
<http://www.allnetdevices.com/news/0005/000525nokia.htm>
Nokia hasÊ unveiled three new third-generation (3G) network products, part of the latest round of the battle for 3G market share with Swedish arch-rival Ericsson .

Boo.com Goes Bust (TNL.net)
<http://www.tnl.net/newsletter/2000/boobust.asp>
Boo.com did not fail as an ecommerce company, it failed as a company, period.

Oregon Town Not Wholly Satisfied With Its Dot-com Name (Associated Press)
<http://www.techserver.com/noframes/story/0,2294,500208156-500291052-501580943-0,00.html>
"It's gotten the town a lot of publicity. Has it made the town a lot of money? No. ... Don't expect the Web to be your savior."

Boys Will Be Boys, And Sometimes Girls, In Online Communities (New York Times)
<http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/05/circuits/articles/25gend.html>
"What we found was that gender switching wasn't nearly as common a phenomenon as people had thought. Most of the people we studied hadn't tried it, and those who did didn't do it for very long."

Finding Out How Much Free Shipping Is Worth (New York Times)
<http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/05/circuits/articles/25shop.html>
Last week, Forrester Research reported that 94 percent of online shoppers were concerned about shipping costs and that 44 percent had abandoned an online shopping cart after they found out how much the shipping costs would add to the total. These are, mind you, the same shoppers who for years accepted mail-order catalogs' shipping charges, which often add up to 15 percent to the cost of a purchase.

E-mails And Instant Messages Go Multilingual (InfoWorld)
<http://www.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/00/05/24/000524hntranslate.xml>
A partnership between Lotus Development and Transparent Language will give corporate users of Lotus Notes and Lotus' SameTime instant messaging technology the ability to translate e-mails and instant messages into five European languages on the fly.

Number Of Online Travel/Leisure Shoppers Doubles (InternetNews.com)
<http://internetnews.com/ec-news/article/0,2171,4_378991,00.html>
eCRM company Cyber Dialogue said that travel shoppers now make up more than one-third of the total online population, and nearly half of all men online (44 percent) turn to the Web for travel and leisure purchases.

== Misc (The other stuff) ====================

Apple Computer CEO Excused From Jury Duty (Yahoo!)
<http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/kpix/20000523/lo/20000523115.html>
Running a Fortune 500 company will not get you out of jury duty in Santa Clara County but attending your daughter's graduation ceremony will, as Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs discovered today.

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

Is Catchca.com's IPO Delay A Guarantee Of Success? (Business Times Singapore)
<http://business-times.asia1.com.sg/5/views/views03.html>
But with two out of three critical IPO factors -- price and product -- not fully sorted out yet, delaying the launch may not be entirely to the company's benefit. In other words, it may not guarantee success.

New Internet Portal Big On Entertainment (Straits Times)
<http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/cybernews/cyber1_0526.html>
Launched here yesterday , the website offers more than 20 lifestyle and Net radio entertainment programmes, such as music, interviews with celebrities and astrology guides, currently.

Dot.com Reality Sinking In (Straits Times)
<http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/money/sinb2_0526.html>
Despite stunning debuts, i-One.Net MediaRing.com and Horizon.com are trading close to or below offer prices.

Asia's Internet Directories Industry Seen Consolidating By 2004 (Bloomberg)
<http://singapore.cnet.com/news/2000/05/25/20000525ai.html>
The predicted growth in advertising revenue and e-commerce opportunities will remain sufficient to support only a few portals," said Sunil Gupta, executive director and head of Asian Internet research at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter in Singapore.

HDB Wires Up New Flats To Make Them 'Smart Homes' (Channel NewsAsia)
<http://www.channelnewsasia.com/articles/2000/05/25/singaporenews28153.htm>
Flats tendered out to contractors after July 1997 will have five cable points and five telephone lines in each unit.

AsiaOne IPO Price Signals Low Demand (South China Morning Post)
<http://www.technologypost.com/internet/DAILY/20000524085443506.asp?Section=Main>
Pricing of AsiaOne's shares shows that even Asian Internet companies with strong parents - Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) is the second-largest company by weighting on the benchmark Straits Times Index - have not been immune to declining investor appetite for technology stocks.

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

Bollywood Comes To Suntec City (Straits Times)
<http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/life/life11_0526.html>
Indian movie stars here in the flesh for awards event.

Exhibition Celebrates Golden Era Of Singapore Music (Asia E!Online)
<http://asia.eonline.com/News/Stories/Content/1,1028,2045,00.html>
Looking at the current latent state of Singapore music, one would find it hard to imagine that local acts were once as popular as international artists.

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

Things Won't Be So Good After LKY: Huntington (Business Times)
<http://business-times.asia1.com.sg/5/news/nfrnt05.html>
Samuel Huntington, whose thesis of a coming civilisational clash has been disputed by Asian leaders, said yesterday that Singapore's prosperity cannot be sustained forever. Corruption and decay would set in in the post-Lee Kuan Yew years as inevitably as civilisations would rise and fall, he said in an exclusive interview with The Business Times.

Time Is Right To Set Strict Energy Targets (Straits Times)
<http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/singapore/sin13_0526.html>
Singapore consumes more energy than many developed nations but efficiency goals could save billions.

Energy Saving Efforts: Govt Is On The Right Track (Straits Times)
<http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/forum/for3_0526.html>
Lee Eng Lock: It is time for the Government to take decisive and swift action by emulating strategies such as the Federal Energy Management Programme in the US, which requires 35-per-cent water and electricity saving in federal buildings.

Panel On Energy Efficiency Recommends Better Ways To Use Energy (Channel NewsAsia)
<http://www.channelnewsasia.com/articles/2000/05/25/singaporenews28155.htm>
Solar energy can be used to light the common areas of HDB flats and motorists may get a tax incentive if they drive an electric car.