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Technology Stocks : C-Cube -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: VINTHO who wrote (37941)	12/24/1998 4:56:00 PM
From: DiViT	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 50808

COMPUTER LINK Mac Track Apple's plan to regain consumer market coming to fruition DAVID HORRIGAN 12/22/98 The San Diego Union-Tribune 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Page 13 (Copyright 1998) Thinking even more different: It seems every time Apple introduces a new model of a computer it has a timing problem. The company is either stuck with warehouses full of older machines or it has a glut of new machines that may or may not be super-successful. The most common scenario, though, has been extremely conservative estimates of demand and long waits by consumers for a new machine. This year Steve Jobs decided not to worry about it and just have everyone take a holiday. Well, more specifically, what he did was sell out the company's stock of G3 desktop computers and then restock with the new as-yet unannounced "Yosemite" Pro machines, while forbidding retailers to show them until a time specified by Apple. This prevents delays in delivery after the release date and narrows the window in which no machines are being sold. Then he closed Apple for a two-week holiday. While everyone at Apple is enjoying this much-deserved rest, Jobs is rebuilding the custom-computer ordering system to make it state of the art. This system will be for retailers, as well as consumers who like their new Macs to be unique. For hard-core Mac aficionados there are two events that mark the year: the Mac-exclusive trade shows called MacWorld EXPO. They are held in Boston in July and San Francisco in January. These are the shows where new products and software are announced for the Mac platform. On Jan. 5 the San Francisco show opens with Steve Jobs as the keynote speaker. He is expected to announce the second wave of Apple's attack on market share. For months the Apple news-and-rumors Web sites have been bursting with leaks and predictions as to what will be announced, and there have been some interesting clues to fuel the fire. Apple was recently granted some patents and some trademarks that implied cool new technologies. Apple has also promised to bring out a consumer-oriented portable notebook soon which, along with a rumored deal with 3Com's Palm Computing division, may be something completely different. These products will likely be announced at this trade show. The introduction of the new Pro computer -- code named Yosemite -- is closer to a sure thing. It is expected to look as radical as the iMac and perform like no other PC. Here are a few of the anticipated specifications: {} 300-400 megahertz G3 processors initially, 450 and 500 megahertz versions following soon after. {} 100 megahertz main bus. {} Supports up to 4 gigabytes of SDRAM. {} Three 64-bit, 33 megahertz PCI slots. {} Two standard 400 megabits-per-second Firewire (1394) ports. {} Four USB ports. {} One ADB port. {} UltraDMA/33 bus, for drives of 6 gigabyte and up. {} Separate ATA-3 bus for devices like CD/ DVD (4x DVD -ROM will be standard on some models) and removable drives. {} No floppy drive. {} High-speed IrDA infrared port. {} Should sell for $1,600 to $3,000. It is also reported that Apple will introduce a version that will run the UNIX operating system. This will give Apple an advantage in the higher education market, where students and professors must interface with mainframe computers for advanced science projects. It has also been reported that the new computer will be "clusterable," which means that it can be connected to other Pro machines. One machine becomes the master and the others are issued computing tasks from that one. This already demonstrated technology would put supercomputing capability in the hands of the masses and rewrite the potential of the personal computer. {} David Horrigan is a North County resident who writes frequently about Apple computers. Contact him by e-mail at horrigan@electriciti.com. Please include name and address.

To: VINTHO who wrote (37941)	12/28/1998 5:01:00 PM
From: DiViT	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 50808

CREATIVE LABS IRISH SUCCESS 12/21/98 Inside Multimedia (c) 1998 Phillips Business Information, Inc. One of the main sponsors of our DVD Summit in Ireland next March will be Creative Labs. It is a happy coincidence because DVD is proving to be a major money-spinner for Creative Labs in Ireland. Its Encore DVD upgrade kit was the first and it has captured the market, much as the Sound Blaster board captured the market at the beginning of the decade. The problem now is producing enough DVD kits to meet the demand. This presently exceeds 100,000 a month and the Dublin factory can only get the components for 50,000 a month. Mike Weatherley, sales supremo of the European operation admits that they didn't expect demand to ramp up so quickly. The shortage of critical components has been caused by a worldwide stampede to put DVD-ROM drives in new machines. Manufacturers would normally go direct to the component manufacturers for their OEM needs. This time they are banging on Creative's door with requests for as many as 50,000 units a month. Amazing. Creative offers three versions of their upgrade kit of which only one contains the MPEG -2 decoder card. Interestingly the latter (the most expensive) is selling three times the quantity of the others. In theory if you have a fast Pentium and Windows 98 you don't need the decoder card, Windows can do it in software. In practise it aint so simple. For a start you need a graphics card with motion assist which takes some of the strain off the CPU. Even then there are problems. We are hearing reports that unencrypted video streams can be decoded but CSS encryption causes problems for software decode. The Creative Labs factory outside Dublin is now working flat out, three shifts, 24 hours a day. It employs 350 people and serves the whole of Europe. Dublin is becoming the boom town of Europe and recruitment is becoming a nightmare. Poaching is rife, some of Creative's people get calls every day from headhunters. IM analysis This unexpected boom in demand for DVD-ROM upgrade kits is not that easy to explain. The number of DVD-ROM titles as yet can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Few games manufacturers are offering DVD versions of their games. DVD-Video titles are not easily viewed on a PC, although the kit includes extension cables for TV connection. Perhaps some people are using them for porn. Certainly most people are choosing the version with an MPEG -decoder card. Whatever the reason the consumer is aware that DVD-ROM is the future and they have little to lose in replacing their CD-ROM drive now rather than later. Finally let us not forget that better audio is a powerful excuse for upgrade to DVD. The PC stores are filling with 4 and 5-speaker surround sound kits at remarkably cheap prices. The only explanation for this is the arrival of DVD with its Dolby Digital and Pro-Logic tracks.