Microsoft has promised a free computer to US customers who sign up for three years of its Internet service, driving down the price of hardware across the Atlantic even further. Two weeks ago Microsoft, AOL and others ISPs began offering $400 rebates on PC purchases as a way to entice users to make a three-year commitment to their Internet services.
The America Online deal included a fairly basic PC available for $399, which essentially meant the computer was free for the price of the Internet service. At the same time computer makers ranging from tiny Microworkz.com to Micron Electronics are attacking the market from the other end, offering free or cheap computers to users who sign up for their Internet service or agree to other promotional terms.
Six Into One: National Semiconductor has unveiled a new chip that includes most of the functions of a PC. The new Geode SC1400 will do work that would normally require six different chips, a spokeswoman said, bringing more functionality to small information devices.
Elsewhere, progress has been reported towards molecular computing, which would replace silicon chips with much smaller and more powerful processors. A joint Hewlett-Packard UCLA team reported the construction of a working molecular logic gate in a crystalline compound called rotaxane.
Digital Bill: In a historic move, the US Congress emailed the President a bill to sign into law, but because President Clinton can not enact a law in cyberspace yet, a traditional paper copy of the Y2K legal reform bill was also sent. The Y2K bill is expected to save American businesses billions of dollars in legal costs from Y2K-related lawsuits.
Doubling Doubleclick: DoubleClick, the major Internet advertising company which has plans for a headquarters in Dublin, got a little larger last week after agreeing to acquire NetGravity in a $530 million stock-swap. This comes a month after DoubleClick said it would spend $1 billion in stock for Abacus Direct, a company that analyses data on shoppers.
Iona Calling: Iona Technologies is inviting submissions for Iona World Europe, which takes place in Dublin in October. Applications to give papers must be received by July 30th and the speaker submission form is available from www.ionaworld.com.
Design Of The Times: Autodesk has announced the sale of the millionth copy of its AutoCAD LT computer-aided-design software - to a train-building company in Italy. The 2D drafting program was released almost six years ago. - Info: www.cadco.ie
Canada Can't: Communication systems across Canada- including mobile phones, bank machines and Internet links - were disrupted by a file at a Bell Canada office in Toronto on Friday. Disruption spread to Ottawa and Montreal and as far away as Halifax and Vancouver.
Bleak Russians: Russia is in deep trouble with its Y2K preparations and could face further economic chaos as a result. The country has neither the time nor money to make the appropriate fixes in either the public or private sector, according to Vivek Wadwha, a Russian Y2K expert.
Fresh Apples: Apple is expected to unveil its new consumer laptop, combining fashionable style with advanced engineering techniques this week. The new machines, targeted at students and home users, could go on sale in the US in September, and be available here before Christmas. Last week it announced a net quarterly profit of $203 million, although $89 million of this arose from selling its stake in ARM Holdings.
Presidential Audience: The President, Mrs McAleese, will take questions live from the public in a half-hour online broadcast hour at 7 p.m. tomorrow. It can be accessed at www.tinet.ie.
Sequent Goes Blue: IBM is buying Sequent Computer Systems in an $810 million deal intended to affirm its hold on the large server market. Sequent specialises in powerful servers with up to 64 Intel processors, with plans to raise this to 256.
Dell As Well: Also chasing the big server market, Dell has announced an initiative for "scalable enterprise computing". This involves load-balancing and hardware redundancy tools to combine its servers and storage products into super-servers.
China's Connection: The number of people accessing the Internet in China has doubled over the last nine months to four million, according to a survey by the China Internet Network Information Centre.
Broad Strokes: Intel has announced plans for broadband Internet access devices. It said it had signed a deal with Cisco to develop and manufacture DSL modems for PCS and plans to ship DSL products later this year.
ICL'S Synergy: ICL has won a major award for community work in north and west Belfast. Its Synergy Centres project won the community category of the British Awards for Excellence, organised by Business in the Community and the Financial Times.
Snail Email: The Irish "virtual post office" company Letterpost.Com has added Hong Kong to its international destinations. Launched three months ago, Letterpost.Com combines the Internet and conventional post to send letters between those who have email and those who don't. Customers compose messages at its website and purchase a stamp online. Messages are transmitted to the Letterpost mail centre nearest the destination, where they are printed out and posted.
Portable Jobs: In an effort to beat the skills shortage currently affecting the Irish software industry, Dublin based software company, FMS is to open satellite development centres in Galway and Northern Ireland in order to help meet the demand for 60 new people it plans to employ over the next 18 months.
In Brief...Lotus Development has announced a new version of SmartSuite Millennium Edition, Release 9.5 . . . Nearly half of the United States' 21 largest cities won't complete work on fixing the Y2K computer bug until the final quarter of the year, according to a congressional report . . . Sharkhunt.com is promising to pay people up to 25p an hour for surfing the Web, and living with a banner ad which covers 10 per cent of their screen . . . Nearly 30,000 Internet users have entered Ontrack, the Eircell online Fantasy Formula 1 competition since its launch five months ago - each spending £40 million on their chosen F1 racing team . . .