International News »

• UPDATE: Hackers Settle in Cyber Patrol Case

  The Swedish and Canadian hackers who reverse-engineered Cyber Patrol's filtering software and posted a program to their Web sites allowing Cyber Patrol customers to see the list of sites it blocks have agreed to stop their actions.

  Written by Elinor Abreu • 28 March 00 12:01

• Searching for Olympic gold online

  Local search giant LookSmart will be going for gold this September after it signed a deal to become the official search engine and directory provider to olympics.com.

  Written by David Smedley • 28 March 00 12:01

• Seven Wins Telstra Cable

  A Federal Court ruling means Telstra must provide channels on its pay TV cable to the Seven Network, eliminating Foxtel's exclusive rights to use the service.

  Written by Staff Writers • 28 March 00 12:01

• IDC: E-bill Presentment, Payment Catching On

  International Data Corp. (IDC) predicts that people will be paying their bills online in increasing numbers, which will bring market revenues to $1 billion in 2004.

  Written by Linda Rosencrance • 28 March 00 12:01

• Starry Night

  Did you ever wonder what the view would be like from Pluto? Want to fly into the Sun without getting flambéed? Now you can take a virtual trip to the heavens using Sienna Software Inc.'s Starry Night Backyard and Starry Night Pro, a pair of programs that provide navigable star maps incorporating a wealth of astronomical information. The $64 Starry Night Backyard is aimed at beginning-to-intermediate stargazers; the $149 Starry Night Pro adds features for astronomers and serious hobbyists.

  Written by Brett Larson • 28 March 00 12:01

• Matsushita Opens Development Laboratory in Europe

  Japan's Matsushita Electronic Components Co. Ltd., a unit of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd., plans to open this weekend a new European development laboratory that will focus on components for next generation mobile communications, the company, which is better known by its Panasonic brand name, said today.

  Written by Martyn Williams • 28 March 00 12:01

• Microsoft's Weekend Olive Branch Wilts

  Watchers on both sides of the antitrust action doubt Microsoft's reported concession offer will close the case.

  Written by Tom Spring • 28 March 00 12:01

• L&H Buys Dragon Systems in US$592M Deal

  Speech technology company Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products Inc. (L&H) has agreed to acquire U.S.-based rival Dragon Systems Inc. in a deal valued at US$592.7 million, based on the company's closing price last night.

  Written by Douglas F. Gray • 28 March 00 12:01

• Speed of Light Challenges New Economy

  The speed of light, processor power and the future demise of television collided here today during an esoteric talk by writer and research George Gilder, who tossed in a brief history of computing and predictions about the "new economy" for good measure.

  Written by Nancy Weil • 28 March 00 12:01

• Unreal Tournament

  The final release of MacSoft's stellar Unreal Tournament lays to rest any concerns that Macworld acted precipitously in giving the then-unreleased shooter a place in the "1999 Macworld Game Hall of Fame." Unreal Tournament is quite simply the best networkable 3-D shooter on the market today.

  Written by Christopher Breen • 28 March 00 12:01

• Planet Web: Oil and Politics Don't Mix

  It's one of the richest ironies of the 2000 presidential race. Despite running a Teflon primary campaign, probable Democratic nominee Al Gore, a published environmental crusader, has found himself repeatedly attacked for his links to Occidental Petroleum.

  Written by Matthew Yeomans • 28 March 00 12:01

• New Intel Celerons to Battle AMD's Spitfire

  Intel Corp. will launch faster versions of its desktop Celeron processor tomorrow that feature a performance-boosting technology previously only available with its higher-end Pentium III processors, company officials said today.

  Written by James Niccolai • 28 March 00 12:01

• Simply Postage

  Nothing measures one's commitment to the maxim "time is money" like paying for a service that's free but potentially time-consuming. For example, if you routinely make trips to the post office to purchase postage, you may find it more expedient to pay a surcharge for the convenience of printing postage from your Mac. You now have the opportunity to do just that with Neopost's Simply Postage 1.0.

  Written by Christopher Breen • 28 March 00 12:01

• WebMethods Adds CommerceOne to Partner Portfolio

  WebMethods Inc. yesterday added a Commerce One Inc. partnership to its B2B Exchange portfolio that already includes Ariba, MySAP.com, chemconnect, and VerticalNet.

  Written by Geneva Sapp • 28 March 00 12:01

• Mail.com Buys Chinese Portal, Plans World.com

  Mail.com Inc., a messaging vendor that owns a portfolio of domain names including usa.com, europe.com and asia.com, today announced it will form an incubator company called World.com to build e-commerce businesses.

  Written by Stephen Lawson • 28 March 00 12:01

• InDesign Update in Store

  Designers who balked at buying Adobe Systems Inc.'s InDesign 1.0 may have a new incentive to give the program a shot. The upcoming InDesign 1.5 boasts new features and improvements requested by customers. Adobe says the upgrade streamlines prepress and printing workflow.

  Written by Frith Breitzer • 28 March 00 12:01

• NBCi Hires a New CEO

  NBCi appointed former Federated executive William Lansing to the top post this morning in a none-too-subtle hint about the spinoff's commerce plans. The three-year deal can be seen as a coming home of sorts for the 41-year-old executive, who served as VP of corporate development at General Electric and was one of the few members of GE chief executive Jack Welch's inner circle.

  Written by Kenneth Li • 28 March 00 12:01

• Lightweight Projectors

  Lugging around a heavy pro-jector for a mobile presentation is nobody's idea of fun. Is a lightweight projector a better option? Macworld Lab looked at seven projectors, each weighing under 10 pounds, and we were pleasantly surprised. All of the projectors offer either outstanding or acceptable image contrast, color, and brightness. Unfortunately, although the projectors are small in size, they're not small in price: they start at $4,999 and climb from there. And it's important to remember that you're paying for weight (or lack of it); these projectors' features can't match those of heavier models.

  Written by Brett Larson • 28 March 00 12:01

• Watch & Smile: Notable Features, Lousy Interface

  Given the current glut of digital cameras, software developers are rushing to market with inexpensive photo-editing programs for consumers. Binuscan Inc., a company best known for high-end scanning software, has joined the fray with Watch & Smile 1.0, an inexpensive package that combines image-editing, digital video, and multimedia functions. The program packs some impressive features, including photo-retouching tools derived from the company's professional software. Unfortunately, Watch & Smile suffers from a poorly conceived interface that violates Macintosh software conventions in every way imaginable.

  Written by Stephen Beale • 28 March 00 12:01

• Careful What You Wish For

  A real man-like me, for instance-knows when to admit he's wrong. I was mistaken, for example, when a few years ago I suggested to a friend-who had just joined a small Internet startup called eBay Inc.-that online auctions had no future. Likewise, I may have been hasty when a couple of months later I turned down my friend's offer of a job at this same little auction company. "No," say I in my all-knowing way, "I'd prefer to stick with something secure like freelance writing!"

  Written by Christopher Breen • 28 March 00 12:01