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FOR MORE THAN a year, we have been following in our Digital Media newsletter the converging forces in consumer electronics, entertainment, education, telecommunications and computers. Meanwhile, in this Desktop Publishing […]

COLOR PRINTING is slowly but surely moving out of the exclusive domain of the craft professional and into the hands of ordinary mortals using desktop tools. At every step in […]

Microsoft's Confirms System Strategy: Windows Forever! A New Start for OS/2! AT ITS ANNUAL Strategy Seminar for industry analysts, Microsoft unveiled a new system strategy for the '90s. Although there […]

North Atlantic Publishing Systems: Linking XyWrite and xpress ONE OF THE ASSUMPTIONS that has gone into the adoption of off-the-shelf products in professional publishing operations is that compromises will have […]

Output: High-Speed PostScript, 600-dpi Devices As at Drupa, high-speed PostScript dominated the output issues at ANPA. Most of the Adobe Emerald and other fast PostScript machines we had seen at […]

ANPA Review, Part II: Quark Xtensions, Company Deals, Systems, Output, Wire Services, etc. BACK-END PAGINATION. Not too long ago, it was considered adequate for European newspapers, small to medium-size U.S. […]

Novell Inc plans to sign over trademark rights for the Unix operating system to the X/Open Co, a non-profit consortium comprising 14 firms that sets technical standards for Unix. Under terms of the agreement, any company will be able to use the Unix name as long as its software conforms to a new set of compatibility specifications. Novell will retain ownership of the underlying Unix code. Competitors had argued that Novell's retention of the Unix trademark and key specifications hurt their efforts to present a unified front in the battle against Microsoft Corp's new Windows NT operating system. Novell acquired Unix and the trademark in Jul 1993 when it paid AT and T $320 million in stock for Unix System Laboratories. Novell plans to take a $15 million charge against earnings over three years to cover lost revenue from giving up the Unix trademark.

Internet is a largely formless, unregulated computer network, founded by the Pentagon in 1969. Its greatest appeal at the moment is for technically adept users at universities, government agencies and some companies. For others, access may be difficult, costly and strewn with a confusing welter of acronyms and abbreviations. The National Science Foundation runs a big part of Internet, but thousands of computers worldwide also provide data bases. Because there is no complete directory of Internet users or databases, finding one's way around the network can be difficult. Popular uses of Internet include sending electronic mail messages, posting messages on computer bulletin boards and downloading data from databases. Much of the user-unfriendly software for maneuvering around Internet dates back years. Companies offering Internet access for microcomputer users include Performance Systems International, for IBM PC users, and InterCon Systems, for Apple Macintosh users.

A federal judge has ruled that Accolade Inc may have violated the copyright of Sega Enterprises Ltd when Accolade used reverse engineering to take apart a Sega console to see how it worked. Accolade may also have violated the Sega copyright when it copied a piece of code. Accolade was designing a video game to be compatible with Sega's Genesis consoles. Sega has won a preliminary injunction against Accolade to stop it from disassembling any more of the Sega consoles. The ruling surprised and upset the software industry, since reverse engineering is a widely popular way to develop compatible products. The judge ruled that Accolade could have used the more expensive and time-consuming procedure called 'peeling a chip', but that copyright law prohibited taking the consoles apart. The judgement is viewed as a further restriction on access to hardware, a trend that alarms most software makers.

It is nowadays an exaggeration to describe IBM-compatible and Macintosh microcomputers as not compatible or to say that an expensive networking solution is needed to make them compatible. Disk drives are becoming similar, and inexpensive software is now available that allows users to share data by swapping floppy diskettes. Three programs that cost less than $100 each will trick IBM and Macintosh microcomputers into recognizing each other's operating systems: Access PC, by Insignia Solutions; DOS Mounter, by Dayna Communications; and Software Bridge/Mac, by Argosy Software. Another program, Mac-to-DOS, from PLI, allows an IBM PC to recognize Macintosh disks. Most word processing documents, and files of many other varieties as well, can save data in 'text' or 'ASCII,' which is a universal format. If programs on different machines are themselves compatible, files can even be interexchanged with special formatting preserved in the transfer.

The $6.5 billion business of supplying software applications for microcomputers is changing as Microsoft Corp's Windows program takes hold. Windows 3.0 is expanding the domain of Microsoft while limiting the growth of Lotus Development Corp and WordPerfect Corp, which are the two largest applications suppliers. Lotus and WordPerfect were caught off guard when Microsoft introduced Windows 3.0 in May 1990: neither Lotus nor WordPerfect had tailored their products to work with Microsoft's new graphical user interface (GUI). Now both companies are losing market share as Windows and Microsoft's applications for it are taking off. According to one industry observer, neither Lotus nor WordPerfect realized how important Windows would be. Now, both companies say they intend to ship Windows versions of their applications in the first half of 1991.

****Microsoft To Support Apple's PowerPC Computer 07/16/92 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1992 JUL 16 (NB) -- Microsoft has announced that it will produce programs that will run on Apple's next-generation PowerPC […]

****Insider's Look At Microsoft's New OS: NT 01/02/92 WASHINGTON, DC, U.S.A., 1992 JAN 2 (NB) -- Rick Vizachero, an editor for Government Computer News, reports in his latest column that […]

****IBM'S NEW DATABASE DRAWS 9 COMPANIES 09/13/91 WHITE PLAINS, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1991 SEP 13 (NB) -- Nine software vendors have announced support of IBM's Distributed Relational Database Architecture (DRDA), […]

IBM TESTS OS/2 FOR COMPATIBILITY WITH AST COMPUTERS 07/31/91 IRVINE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1991 JUL 31 (NB) -- AST has signed an agreement with IBM for IBM's Operating System 2 (OS/2) […]

MICROSOFT PERSUADES ISVS TO SUPPORT WORD FOR WINDOWS 06/17/91 READING, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1991 JUN 17 (NB) -- Microsoft says several independent software vendors (ISVs) are shipping macros with their packages […]

GENERAL PURPOSE COMPUTER PROGRAM TO SHARE PC DATA 05/29/91 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1991 MAY 29 (NB) -- Fujitsu has developed what it claims is a versatile program for its large-scale general […]

NEW FOR IBM: HPI Releases New Versions Of Instalit 05/28/91 HUNTSVILLE, ALABAMA, U.S.A., 1991 MAY 28 (NB) -- HPI has released new versions of its Instalit software installer for MS-DOS, […]

NEW FOR UNIX: Pro/Engineer Data Exchange With IBM CATIA 05/27/91 WALTHAM, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1991 MAY 27 (NB) -- Parametric Technology has developed tools to let its Pro/Engineer mechanical design software […]

NEW FOR PCS: Windows-Compatible Fax Card 05/20/91 SUNNYVALE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1991 MAY 20 (NB) -- Calculus Inc., has introduced EZ-Faxit for Windows 3.0, a PC-compatible fax card and fax software […]