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To: BillyG who wrote (35622)	9/1/1998 3:30:00 PM
From: John Rieman	Respond to of 50808

DirecTV Japan goes interactive. A little Divi here???????????????? biz.yahoo.com Tuesday September 1, 6:06 am Eastern Time DirecTV to launch interactive TV service in Japan TOKYO, Sept 1 (Reuters) - Japanese direct-to-home television broadcaster DirecTV said on Tuesday it would launch on-demand information service for TV viewers, the latest in its efforts against rival SkyPerfecTV. DirecTV, partly owned by Hughes Electronics Corp said its ''Interactive TV'' service would enable viewers to call up on demand a variety of additional information transmitted simultaneously with video. ''Through the new channels in our unique service, I am confident that Japanese consumers will find DirecTV an attractive and value-added TV service,'' DirecTV Japan chairman Larry D. Hunter told a news conference. Hunter, a multi-channel TV service expert, was sent by parent Hughes last month to reinforce the Japanese management and jump-start the struggling service. DirecTV, launched last December, had 152,000 subscribers by the end of July. Rival SkyPerfecTV, partly owned by media tycoon Rupert Murdoch, had 800,000 subscribers at the beginning of August. SkyPerfecTV was formed in May through a merger between Murdoch's Sky Broadcasting and Japan's PerfecTV. DirecTV president Muneaki Masuda said the company would launch its interactive service initially on five channels, and expand it eventually to all of its channels. Users are not required to buy special receivers, he said. DirecTV will launch the first service in its boat racing programme in October. The channel will enable viewers to call up on the TV screen detailed information about the race, such as entry charts, odds, dividends and race predictions, by clicking on screen icons, he said. Interactive channels on horse racing, weather news and other subjects will start later this year, he said. Next spring, DirecTV plans to introduce a system that will allow viewers to place bets on horse racing directly through their receivers, Masuda said.

To: BillyG who wrote (35622)	9/1/1998 3:49:00 PM
From: DiViT	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 50808

DVD For iMac to Fill Mystery Slot... macnn.com Well, what a weekend; iMacs literally flew off the shelves, and it's quite impossible to find one for sale within a 100 mile radius. The key however will be for Apple to keep these puppies on the shelves. Apple also aired its first iMac television spot last night. It was quite humorous, and all together a well rounded commercial. Heck, we're more impressed by the iMac now then we were three months ago. It's an amazing machine. OK, enough with the mushy stuff, lets get on with it. If you can recall our Macworld reports, we published what we knew about DVD for the iMac, which wasn't much. In fact, Apple representatives declined to comment so many times that they successfully altered the english language. What started off on Wednesday as "we have nothing to announce at this time" soon evolved into "nocomment" by Friday. And no, we did not forget a space character. Yesterday, an Apple employee had a change of heart. It took a dozen donuts, some smiley pies and a cup of coffee, but it would all pay off in the end. Apparently the covered compartment on the side of the iMac (labeled "Mezzanine"), which once housed the external monitor port on pre-production models, will have the option of being filled with a new AV card that should ship as part of a DVD for iMac kit. The DVD kit, which of course should include a IDE DVD drive (or possiblt a DVD drive which connects directly to the AV card, read on), will ship with an AV card capable of MPEG decoding for DVD playback. The AV card should also offer ports for DVD Video-out, or possibly both composite and S-video. A software package will also ship with the kit including DVD system software, the Apple DVD Player (awesome new-age software) and other DVD goodies. Sources state that Apple may choose to include the DVD kit as standard, replacing the iMac's CD drive with a DVD, sometime down the road. Well, that takes care of that.