Microsoft chairman and CEO Bill Gates said the company is
working on new versions of Windows that will be used not only
on next-generation PCs but on such products as personal digital
assistants, intelligent telephones and navigation systems for
automobiles. He also predicted that PCs set for release as early
as next year will be more powerful than most of today's workstations.
Sales of 32-bit apps took a huge jump in the first half of
1996, according to the Software Publishers Association. The greatest
growth spurt came in areas such as desktop publishing, databases
and development languages. Win 3.x app sales receded by 5 percent,
but it remains by far the single largest platform.
Intel and its new partner MCI jointly offered MCI Webmaker,
an integrated package of Internet hardware, software, access services
and technical support aimed at small and medium-sized businesses.
In a very different deal, the chip giant teamed with MTV for a
new video channel that uses Intercast, Intel-developed technology
that allows PC users to simultaneously watch TV and receive broadcast
Web pages.
While the Windows of yore was never a serious contender as
a games platform, Win95 is shaping up to be different. Microsoft,
which fully intends to be a player in the market itself, acquired
Electric Gravity, creator of the Internet Gaming Zone.
ISDN looks to keep gaining popularity as costs keep coming
down. Cardinal Technologies shipped its ISA-bus ISDN basic-rate
adapter for just $199, barely more than the cost of a 28.8Kbps
modem.
Microsoft launched a PR disaster when the thesaurus in the
Spanish version of Word 6.0 was found to have racist terms and
other insults among the suggested alternatives for words such
as "Indian." The company apologized and scrambled to
offer a free fix.