Research house International Data Corp. reported that
sales of Windows NT Server 4.0 exceeded 150,000 units in the first
30 days of release.
Earlier this year, Microsoft announced that Windows
Help will no longer be developed; in October, it unveiled HtmlHelp,
a new method for delivering applications help online.
Motorola said it will spearhead an industry effort
to standardize new high-speed modem technologies. The company
also announced plans for standards-based modems allowing data
connections up to 56Kbps.
The rosy predictions for digital video disk (DVD) technology
keep piling up. A Japanese electronics association projected that
DVD shipments in 1996 alone will surpass 700,000 units, while
research firm Dataquest forecast that DVD optical drive
revenue will grow from $35 million this year to $4.1 billion in
the year 2000. However, a host of legal and technical issues remain
unresolved, and the huge (and growing) installed base of CD-ROMs
isn't about to disappear.
On January 7, 1997, Intel will join several top-ranked
PC makers announcing that they will use MMX-enhanced Pentium processors
as the basis for all their new products. Notebook vendors are
said to have MMX-enabled products ready.
Why do the foreign versions of Windows cause such problems?
Earlier this fall, the Spanish version of Word was found to suggest
"savage" and "man-eater" as alternatives to
"Indian." Then, the Chinese version of Windows 95 offered
involuntary dialog boxes calling China's leaders "Communist
bandits" and exhorting users to "take back the mainland."
Microsoft said the code had originated with some Taiwanese development
firms, and posted a fix.