______________________________________
***TGS Announces 3D Programs
(November 12)
TGS today 3Space Publisher version 2.0, an art and animation application which makes it easy for users to create graphics for Web pages. This release of 3Space Publisher has ActiveStyles, a way to turn 3D clip art and 2D text into art.
Users can create text and graphics, and publish the results in a wide range of standard output types-no plug-ins required. These include photo-realistic 2D image formats (GIF, BMP, JPG), dynamic 3D Java applets, animated GIF, video, and VRML.
Other integrated applications:
· 3Space Publisher, a drag & drop 3D art and animation authoring application that provides tools for creating graphics including 3D buttons, banners and icons to dynamic 3D Java effects;
· 3Space Gallery, a library of over 1,000 royalty-free 3D clip art objects, textures and animations. Also imports VRML, DXF, and 3DS;
· 3Space GIF Animator, a drag & drop animated GIF editor and optimizer;
· 3Space Java Effects, a royalty-free collection of dynamic Java applet effects;
· 3Space HTML Helper, an HTML tag generator for 3Space-created graphics;
· 3Space Screen Saver allows 3Space projects to be used as 3D screen savers.
· 3Space Image Mapper creates 2D client-side image maps from 3D scenes.The 3Space Publisher Interactive 3D Suite v2.0 is available now for Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows NT, at a cost of $89 (U.S.).
***Be
Announces BeOS Release 4
(November 9)
Be announced BeOS Release 4, an operating system designed for digital content creators with high bandwidth digital media demands, such as graphics, audio, and video. BeOS Release 4, designed to co-exist with other operating systems on the same PC.
BeOS is positioned as an Intel-based operating system alternative to high-cost graphic workstations. The company has no intention of competing with Microsoft Windows. Rather, this release makes it easier for BeOS to live on the same machine as Windows 95, 98, and NT (Windows 2000). BeOS Release 4 incorporates several features that further simplify the production and manipulation of high bandwidth digital media, including:
The Media Kit
The Media Kit enables users to easily specify complex series of operations to be performed on streaming media. For example, in a single step a user could capture video from an external device (such as a camcorder), decompress the video if necessary, perform filtering operations (such as changing the brightness or contrast of each frame), recompress the video stream and save it to his hard disk or to a separate external device. The Media Kit also benefits developers, making it easier to develop high-performance, low-latency media applications such as video and audio editors that interoperate seamlessly with drivers, translators, filters and other software components developed by third parties.Expanded Hardware Support
BeOS Release 4 offers significantly expanded support for hardware devices such as display adapters, sound cards, network interface cards, video capture boards, SCSI devices, and color printer drivers.-Audio: SoundBlaster AWE64; Yamaha 715; Crystal 423x; Opti931; SonicVibes; Lucid-Video Capture: Intel; Hauppauge; Miro; Avermedia; IXMicro; US Robotics-Network: DEC (21040); Intel EtherExpress; NE2000 (ISA, PCI); 3Com (3C90x, 3C503)-- SCSI: BusLogic; Adaptec; Symbios.Improved Windows Compatibility
The BeOS is designed to co-exist with Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows NT. Several new elements make it easy for customers to use the BeOS in tandem with Windows. These include: keyboard shortcuts that mimic their Windows counterparts, allowing users to be productive; full support within the BeOS for the disk formats used by Windows 95 (FAT16) and Windows 98 (FAT32), allowing users to read to and write from Windows disks and partitions; and a client for Microsoft Networks (available free by download from Be's online store, BeDepot.com), enabling users to connect to, read from and write to Microsoft NT servers and individual Windows 95 and Windows 98 workstations.Increased System Performance
The overall performance of BeOS Release 4 has improved by 25-30 percent.
Users working with digital content will find their processing power further extended, allowing them to create more in less time. Playing two, 30 frames per second video streams while applying effects in real time without any hardware assistance is an easy task under the BeOS. The BeOS is a fully symmetric multiprocessing operating system, so users gain nearly 100 percent in increased performance as they move from a single to a dual processor system.Internet Capabilities
The core networking functions of the BeOS are built using TCP/IP, the standard at the heart of the Internet and the World Wide Web. The BeOS was built from the ground up to be a robust Internet citizen and includes: bundled services such as an FTP server allowing users to share files from within the BeOS across the Internet; a Telnet server for remote login; an easy to configure web server allowing users to publish web pages from the moment of install; a POP-email client; a DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) client; and a web browser that includes SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) for secure Internet transactions.Japanese Input Method
BeOS Release 4J is a separate Japanese version of the operating system available concurrently with Release 4. A Japanese input method, provided by ERGOSOFT Corp., allows a user to input Japanese characters into the BeOS, utilizing the bundled Japanese fonts. Users may do many common tasks in Japanese, such as email, browsing the web, word processing and printing.System Requirements, Pricing and Availability
BeOS Release 4 runs on PCs (Intel Architecture or PowerPC) with a minimum of 16 MB of RAM; 150 MB hard disk or hard disk partition; CD-ROM drive; keyboard and mouse; built-in or bundled compatible video adapter; multisync monitor strongly recommended; and network connection via Ethernet or PPP.BeOS Release 4 will ship to customers in December. The retail price for the product is $99.95. A special introductory price of $69.95 applies if purchased over the Internet via Be's online e-commerce store at www.BeDepot.com.
***n-Vision Announces Third Quarter Earnings and Reverse Stock Split (November 11)
n-Vision, reported revenues of $437,820 for the three month period ended September 30, 1998. This is a 31% decrease compared to the same period one year ago when the Company reported revenues of $631,796. Net Loss for the third quarter of 1998 totaled ($253,191), or (.05) per share, compared to a loss of ($236,332), or (.04) per share, for the third quarter in 1997.
In addition, the Company is announcing that, on November 9, 1998, its shareholders approved a proposal to amend and restate the Company's Certificate of Incorporation to effect a one-for-two reverse stock split of the issued and outstanding shares of common stock of the company. The amendment will become effective at the close of business on November 12, 1998. The trading of the shares on the Nasdaq SmallCap Market should reflect the effect of the reverse split when trading opens on November 27, 1998.
As a result of the reverse split, the 5,293,674 shares of common stock outstanding will become approximately 2,646,837 shares. The number of shares held by each shareholder will be reduced to an amount equal to 50% of the number owned prior to the effectiveness of the reverse split and fractional shares will be cashed out. The number of shares subject to outstanding options and warrants will be reduced accordingly.
n-Vision, Inc. of McLean, Virginia, is a leader in the fast emerging field of designing and manufacturing high performance, commercially available 3D immersive displays for visual simulation and virtual reality applications.
Immersive displays is a tough market.
***Smart Valley Closes its Doors
(November 2)
As of 2 November when it held the final meeting of its corporate members, Smart Valley officially closed its doors This comes after five years of successfully demonstrating how technology can have a positive impact.
In 1993, when Smart Valley was founded, the Valley experienced a recession which was deeper than the national economic down-turn, and predicted to last longer. Silicon Valley business leaders, community members, government officials, and educators banded together to help jump-start the region.
Smart Valley's role in the economic turn-around was to develop and implement applications for the regional information infrastructure in business, education, local government, community and healthcare. The organizations mission was to serve as a catalyst for applications of network technology, getting the projects started, then finding an appropriate home for them. With the mission completed, Smart Valley and their members can look back on projects that made a significant impact on the Valley. Eighty-five percent of the Valley's schools are wired and connected to local area networks and the Internet. Every public school district in the Valley has a technical plan. Nine thousand state-of-the art computers will have been placed in the hands of leading California teachers by year end. Bay Area voters can use the Smart Voter website to find election information. Silicon Valley leads the nation in the deployment of telecommuting. Public access to the Internet is available through all Silicon Valley public libraries. CommerceNet, one of Smart Valley's first initiatives, is still thriving today as an international advocate of online commerce.
"When Smart Valley was founded, we were just beginning to visualize what networking and the Internet might mean to our community," stated John Young, Smart Valley Chairman and former CEO of Hewlett Packard. "In the last five years, the projects that Smart Valley and its members have created have shown the rest of the world the incredible impact that technology can have on the way we work, learn and live."
With the basic information infrastructure in place, many of Smart Valley's projects will continue under other organizations. The SmartSchools umbrella program will be taken over by Foothill College's Center for Innovation in Education. The Center will take SmartSchools to the next level creating professional development programs aimed at helping teachers and administrators effectively utilize information technology. Projects that will continue there include the Resource Coop, a website for technology-using teachers, the Leaders Online project, which focuses on helping school administrators effectively use technology, and Network Solutions, a user group for School District Network Administrators. The Center for Innovation in Education will also administer the new Smart Valley Award for Innovation in Education. The award will recognize educators who use creative thinking and technology together to improve education in Silicon Valley.
One project has officially spun off from Smart Valley as a new organization. GreatSchools is headed by former Smart Valley Project Director Bill Jackson. Instead of placing physical infrastructure in schools, GreatSchools focuses on providing the community with relevant information about K-12 public schools via the Internet. GreatSchools also provides an online forum for school administrators to communicate their school's needs to the community.
Smart Valley's Smart Voter project was assumed by the League of Women Voters in 1997. Originally focused only on San Mateo and Santa Clara counties in 1996 when it was launched, the League has since expanded the online resource to include 15 counties in California.
Connect 96, a conference of electronic communities that was co-sponsored by Smart Valley and Stanford University, will be ongoing, hosted by different countries annually. Next year's conference will be held in Norway and the following conference will be hosted by Smart Valley Japan.
In the end, Smart Valley's projects have involved more than 15,000 volunteers, over 100 companies and have leveraged $4 million of membership funding into over $100 million in projects for the Silicon Valley community and beyond. Many of the projects have resulted in guidebooks or technology guidelines which have been published on the Smart Valley website.The Smart Valley website will continue to be maintained by Foothill College so that the results and findings from the projects can continue as a legacy to others interested in pursuing the Smart Valley mission.
http://www.svi.org
http://www.greatschools.net/
http://www.smartvoter.org/
***Hitachi and Equator Technologies To Develop and Commercialize Multimedia Processor (November 5)
Hitachi and Equator Technologies announced a cooperative relationship in the joint development and commercialization of the Media Processor Series, a high-end multimedia processor platform that utilizes very long instruction word (VLIW) architecture.
The Media Processor Series will target multimedia product applications such as set-top boxes, video editing systems, game machines, multimedia PCs, image processing systems for industrial and medical applications, and network equipment.
The Media Processor Series is based on a joint-development agreement the two companies signed in January 1997. Under the agreement, the two companies have been jointly developing very large-scale integrated circuits (VLSIs) and related software, including a compiler and media library. In launching the products, Hitachi will produce the VLSIs, and both companies will have worldwide marketing rights.
The architecture of the Media Processor Series is based on VLIW technology, which enables significant improvement in multimedia functionality through the inclusion of additional instructions for multimedia processing and multimedia peripherals interface capabilities. The result is compatibility over a broad range of multimedia sectors that include digital video processing, graphics processing, network processing and image processing. The processor architecture design, based on a basic architecture developed by Hitachi, has been improved by both companies.
An advanced compiler for simultaneous execution of the VLIW-level instructions will also be provided to make the Media Processor Series a fully programmable platform. The compiler has an extremely powerful scheduling function for parallel instruction implementation and eliminates the need for software developers to use assembler code. This translates into shorter development times and lower development costs.
With a 16-bit summing performance well above 3000 million multiply and accumulations (MMAC) per second, the first product that the two companies plan to introduce is expected to deliver a level of performance far ahead of rival products. The first product aims for high-end digital signal processing (DSP) applications in such areas as video editing and image processing, and is scheduled for market release in the last quarter of 1998, mainly by Equator Technologies at first.
One promising digital TV related application of the Media Processor Series will be as an All Format Decoder (AFD) software. AFD technology, which was developed by Hitachi America, Ltd., enables all 18 of the United States Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) formats, which include high-definition formats, to be converted to the standard definition format. Therefore, a standard definition TV set thus equipped would be able to receive high-definition broadcasts.
In the second half of 1999 Hitachi and Equator plan to ship a version specifically for digital TV applications that will offer an improved cost-performance ratio. Another version that offers enhanced graphics support is planned for 2000. In this way, Hitachi and Equator intend to continue to meet the diversifying needs of the digital convergence market.
***WaveWare announces Beta Version of WaveSync Sync Server/Accelerator (November 9)
WaveWare Communications announced that it has a beta version of WaveSync. WaveSync is WaveWare's enterprise synchronization server product for the 3Com Palm Computing platform of connected organizers. WaveSync enables the management of many Palm handhelds. It offers such features as a management tool for Palm platform monitoring and control, support for shared databases, and user authentication.
WaveSync is scaleable server, supporting an unlimited number of users synchronizing simultaneously with any number of existing or new third party applications. WaveSync may be used as a functional replacement of Palm's HotSync/Network HotSync, as it supports Palm API-compliant applications.
WaveSync technology results in synchronization speeds up to five times faster than Palm's HotSync/Network HotSync and is an effective sync solution available over high-latency mobile links.
***PalmPilot Creators Secure Funding and Sign Licensing Agreement with 3Com (November 5)
Donna Dubinsky and Jeff Hawkins, the principals behind the development of the PalmPilot handheld computer, have secured funding from leading venture capital firms Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) and Benchmark Capital. John Doerr will represent KPCB on the board of directors and Bruce Dunlevie, an early investor in Dubinsky and Hawkins' former company, Palm Computing, Inc., a 3Com company, will serve on the board representing Benchmark. The new company will be called Handspring, Inc.
Handspring will develop products focused on the consumer side of the handheld computing market. The company has secured a license for the Palm Computing platform from 3Com Corporation, enabling the company to develop handheld products which will be compatible with the world's market-leading handheld platform, and which run the thousands of applications already developed for the Palm environment. Handspring expects to introduce products to the market at the end of next year.
Jeff Hawkins will assume the role of chairman of the board and chief product officer and Donna Dubinsky will serve as president and chief executive officer of the new venture. Joining Dubinsky and Hawkins at the company is Ed Colligan, former vice president of marketing for the Palm Computing division of 3Com. Colligan becomes vice president of development and marketing at Handspring.
"We're thrilled to be backing the Handspring team," said John Doerr, partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. "We missed the opportunity last time when this team sparked the handheld computing revolution. This is a rare second chance to lead the next generation of computing."
***Scanner picks out criminals
(November 1)
The Sunday Times London reports that there has been a device installed that can spot wanted men even if they are disguised. Trials of a computer system that can recognize criminals and terrorists, have begun.
The equipment is to be hidden in an unnamed British airport to see if it can pick out criminals even if they have grown a beard or are wearing glasses to hide their identity.
The system is the first that can produce three-dimensional scans of a face instantly and then search a database of suspects for a match. It has been devised by Cambridge Neurodynamics, which already produces software that analyses fingerprints and then searches a database for a match. Police in South Yorkshire use its software. Cambridge Neurodynamics says its facial-recognition project will enable security officers at Britain's ports and airports to concentrate on people the computer indicates bear a good likeness to known criminals and terrorists. The alternative is to rely on trained officers to remember faces of people on the wanted list.
George Harpur, a Cambridge Neurodynamics systems consultant working on the project, says a computer will be able to store thousands of pictures of wanted people.
The system works by taking pictures of a person as he approaches a video camera. The resulting handful of frames give several two- dimensional pictures. To add depth to the face, two low-power lasers scan its contours from either side.A computer combines the contour information with the images it has of the front of the face. It can then build a virtual model of each traveller's face, which is checked against the database of wanted people.
The system can also be used to store 3D Photofits of terrorists. Again, it is most likely to be used to take a 3D scan of suspects when they pass through its lasers for the first time. The scan would be stored and the computer would log the suspect's movements.
Cambridge Neurodynamics says it can build 3D Photofits from ordinary photographs or video stills but says the system is far more accurate if the suspects are photographed by the system.
The team believes 3D scans are necessary because 2D tech nology can be fooled. It generally measures the distance between facial features but these can change with the angle of the head to the camera. The new computer system can be fooled only if a suspect has surgery to change the shape of his face. Criminals who realise they are about to be scanned and look away or pull a funny face will not trick the computer. It is geared towards seeking similarities around the eyes, which humans use to pick out one another and that do not change with expression and age as much as the rest of the face.
The airport trial will last six weeks. If the equipment works, the company will load the software on a powerful workstation computer, rather than a PC, so searches can be speeded up.
Cambridge Neurodynamics also plans to approach banks to set up a trial in which the computer would allow only designated staff into security-sensitive areas. Eventually, the technology could be used to verify a customer's identity before he is given money.
***MetaCreations Announces Version of Kai's Power Tools (November 6)
MetaCreations announced a new version of Kai's Power Tools for Photoshop. The new version, to be called KPT 5, will provide professional designers and illustrators, Web authors, photographers, and digital artists with powerful effects to enhance their digital creative content.
KPT 5 will work with MetaCreations' Painter 5.5.
KPT 5 includes real-time 3D tools, particle growth effects and professional blurs. To give digital artists more control over these effects, the KPT 5 interface has been refined to offer access to numerical values, real-time interactive previews of all operations and user-customizable options. Among the new plug-in applications featured in KPT 5:
· KPT ShapeShifter creates shapes and objects with refracting glass edges, 3D light sources on beveled metallic surfaces, soft, curved and lit Web buttons, and text. Resulting elements carry their masks with them, which makes compositing easy.
· KPT Orb-It explodes a source image into thousands of spheres with variations in size, density, and realistic 3D lighting. Produce fields of bubbles, raindrops, and giant lenses, incredible text effects, and distortions.
· KPT FiberOptix creates anything from furry text, to green shag carpet, pink plastic silly string, and lush creeping vines. Every strand and fiber is a true 3D object. Masks are generated from the 3D data, enabling easy compositing.
· KPT Blurrrr is a professional suite of filters including the classic zoom, spin, and other indispensable blurs updated with real-time previews, pro-precision 64-bit color, and 128-bit math with new algorithms and variations.
· KPT FraxPlorer is the new, definitive Fractal Explorer featuring real-time fly-throughs, 1000% larger previews, and never-before-seen fractal styles.
KPT5 will be available through national retail outlets, in catalogs, and direct from MetaCreations this fall at an SRP of US $199. Upgrades to registered users of KPT will be available for US $99.
***Liquid Audio Ships 4.0 Product
Line
(November 2)
Liquid Audio announced the shipment of its 4.0 version of the Liquid Music System. The 4.0 product line offers higher-quality AAC audio compression, territory management, custom faceplates and support for the RealNetworks RealPlayer G2.
"Liquid Audio is the kind of solution the music industry embraces," said Hilary Rosen, president and CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). "It makes the effort to provide for legally responsible music distribution, which can only help propel the sale of legitimate music on the Internet. Liquid Audio's approach not only benefits artists and labels who create the music, but consumers as well."
Liquid Music System 4.0 solves many of the real-world problems that content owners in the music industry face in trying to distribute audio over the Internet. Music industry content owners and consumers want the highest possible audio quality in the smallest possible file download size. To provide that, Liquid Music System now supports the new state-of-the-art MPEG-based AAC audio compression, in addition to the existing support for Dolby Digital AC-3 audio compression. AAC sets a new standard for professional audio compression, providing CD-quality audio with even smaller sizes than before, allowing music to be downloaded more quickly.
Record labels want to reach the broadest possible audience when distributing their audio over the Internet. Liquid Music System 4.0 provides that broad reach through the added support of the RealNetworks' RealSystem G2. Any music in Liquid Audio format, known as "Liquid Tracks," can now be previewed using RealPlayer G2, in addition to the Liquid Music Player. This provides music industry content owners with access to the wide range of consumers who use RealPlayers to stream content over the Internet.
Finally, Liquid Music System 4.0 allows a branded graphic identity to be built around an artist, label or retailer Web site. By supporting downloadable faceplates, the Liquid Music Player's look and feel can be customized and branded in a very seamless way for the consumer. Whenever a consumer or user visits a site and downloads or streams content, the look of the Liquid Music Player automatically shifts to match the custom look and feel designed by the content owner.
Liquid Music System 4.0 is composed of the Liquifier Pro mastering tool, professional encoding software that allows artists and record labels to prepare and publish professional-quality copy-protected music for purchase and delivery via the Internet; the Liquid Music Server, which manages the encoded music content and guarantees secure delivery and tracking of professional-quality music over the Internet; and the Liquid Music Player, free software that lets consumers preview and purchase CD-quality music from the Internet, as well as burn their own custom CDs using industry-standard CD-R and CD-RW drives.
Liquifier Pro Internet mastering software is available for Windows 95, Windows 98 and Macintosh, and now features new proprietary Liquid Watermark technology. The Liquid Music Server is available for Windows NT, Sun Solaris and Silicon Graphics IRIX. The Liquid Music Player is available for Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT and Macintosh.
The Liquid Music Player is available at no charge from Liquid Audio's Web site.
http://www.liquidaudio.com
http://www.twangthis.com
http://www.peeps.com
http://www.bugjuice.com
***Corning to Expand Operations in
Taiwan
(November 5)
Corning will expand its operations in Taiwan to meet increasing demand for flat panel liquid crystal displays (LCDs) used in laptop computers, video cameras, and other consumer products. The company said that it expects worldwide demand to more than double by 2002 and that it believes Taiwan display manufacturers will capture a significant share of the projected growth.
In response, Corning has increased its sales and engineering staff in Taipei, will begin warehousing its products in Taiwan in 1999, and plans to add a finishing operation in Taiwan in 2000. Though the company will also consider plans for adding glass substrate melting capacity in Taiwan, Corning said that it currently has capacity in place to satisfy the predicted market growth through the year 2002.
Taiwan produces half of the world's PC monitors and over 30 percent of the world's notebook computers, but imports nearly all of its flat panel displays from Japanese and Korean suppliers. Numerous Taiwanese display manufacturers have, however, recently announced plans to add domestic LCD capacity. Corning's current forecasts suggest that Taiwan will capture 10 percent share of the worldwide LCD display market by 2002.
Corning is the leading manufacturer of glass substrates used in active matrix LCD's. It was Corning's fusion-formed 7059 borosilicate glass that enabled the development of amorphous silicon AMLCD technology in Japan in the 1980s. Today, that technology is in full-scale production around the world and Corning's patented 1737 aluminosilicate glass is enabling the newest AMLCD manufacturing and technology developments. Corning's total revenues in 1997 were $3.5 billion.
***Microsoft To Link With Qualcomm On Wireless Technology (November 4)
Newsbytes reports that Microsoft and Qualcomm will create a company focused on the convergence of wireless computing.
Like the Symbian operation-a joint venture between Psion, Ericsson, Motorola and Nokia-the Microsoft-Qualcomm linkup is a joint venture.
It is reported that Microsoft is anxious to develop an embedded firmware version of Internet Explorer for so-called smart cellular handsets, allowing them to be used to surf the Web with minimal graphics to maximize the relatively low data bandwidths (9,600 to 19,200 bits per second) available on cellular networks.
***WavePhore Launches Beta Release of WaveTop Version 2.0
WavePhore will release a Beta version of WaveTop version 2.0 on November 16, 1998. This new version resides completely within Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser, providing users with a interface and integration with their existing browser settings and configuration.
WaveTop's Beta version 2.0 comes with a, customizable Front Page that allows users to choose their favorite content and select WaveTop as their home page. WaveTop Beta 2.0's navigation and visual design makes it possible for users to find information more quickly and easily. Additional upgrades in WaveTop Beta 2.0 will enhance its compatibility with existing TV tuner cards. The new software will also be available on WaveTop's web site starting November 16, 1998.
WaveTop is a free, advertising-supported consumer service of WavePhore, Inc. that delivers news, investment advice and information, children's content, weather information, consumer reports, free software downloads and much more. The service is distributed nationally via the unused portion of television signals broadcast by 264 PBS member stations, and currently reaches the top 100 markets. It will reach more than 99 percent of all U.S. households by the year's end. WaveTop is accessible from any PC that is enabled with a WaveTop-compatible TV tuner board and WaveTop's software.
***Cahners In-Stat Group Expects PC Video Peripheral Market Competitors to Ship More than 6 Million Units This Year (November 9)
Cahners In-Stat Group expects that more than 6.4 million units of PC video input peripherals will be shipped in 1998.
Comprising this market is an array of peripherals with varying and overlapping capabilities and applications, including still capture/video capture, video editing and TV tuners.
According to Cahners In-Stat Group, Digital TV has tremendous potential to boost the TV Tuner market as well as play a significant role in data broadcasting. "PC-based tuners will be the lowest cost option for viewing DTV broadcasts," explained Kirstein. Additionally, while the editing market is currently embracing 1394/DV, MPEG editing solutions will be available in the long term.
PC Video: What, Where, and Why?, No. MM9813CD, identifies PC video peripheral topology, market and architecture trends and underlying technologies. The report provides a 5-year forecast of the peripheral market and technology opportunity. It analyzes still capture/video capture, video editing and TV tuners as well as the sub-segments of specific user types, physical form factors and the applications within each category.
This report is priced at $2,995.
***Forrester Estimates Worldwide Internet Commerce Will Reach as High as $3.2 Trillion in 2003 (November 5)
Internet commerce stands on the threshold of broad global acceptance. According to new projections from Forrester Research, worldwide iCommerce sales will reach as high as $3.2 trillion in 2003, representing nearly 5% of all global sales.
Based on Forrester's commerce threshold model, worldwide Internet commerce sales will be between $1.4 trillion and $3.2 trillion in 2003. In the high potential estimate, public and private synergy will make buying and selling on the Internet simple, secure, and internationally viable, resulting in high growth. In the low potential estimate, slow business adoption and government intransigence will hamper iCommerce development. Both estimates include business-to-business and business-to-consumer sales and EDI orders placed on the Internet, but exclude the value of financial transactions. Forrester defines iCommerce as the trade of goods and services in which the final order is placed over the Internet.
***NeoMagic reports 3rd quarter fiscal 1999 results (November 5)
NeoMagic reported net sales for the third quarter of fiscal 1999 of $67.4 million, an increase of 81% compared to $37.1 million for the third quarter of fiscal 1998, and an increase of 26% compared to $53.4 million for the second quarter of fiscal 1999.
Net income for the third quarter of fiscal 1999 was $8.6 million, or $0.33 per share, and reflects an effective tax rate of 35%. Net income for the third quarter of fiscal 1998, which reflects an effective tax rate of 15%, was $6.5 million, or $0.25 per share. Assuming that a comparable effective tax rate of 35% had applied to the third quarter of fiscal 1998, net income and earnings per share would have been $5.0 million or $0.19 per share. Net income and earnings per share for the second quarter of fiscal 1999 was $7.0 million or $0.27 per share.
Net sales for the first nine months of fiscal 1999 were $168.5 million, an increase of 111%, over the $80.0 million of net sales reported in the first nine months of fiscal 1998. Net income for the first nine months of fiscal 1999 increased to $22.2 million, or $0.85 per share, compared to net income of $12.6 million or $0.50 per share in the first nine months of fiscal 1998.
In June of this year NeoMagic launched the industry's first 256-bit multimedia family, the MagicMedia256 line.
To date 15 different notebook PC models have come to market using NeoMagic's 256-bit solution, including products from Compaq, Dell, Gateway, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Sony, and Toshiba.
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