News Snippets Just in case you've missed the Mac news you should jump over to www.apple.com and check out the new information on what has been a busy January for Apple Computer Inc. Here are some of the highlights. $152 Million Profit A net profit of $152 million [£95 million] for its first quarter of '99, Happy New Year! Revenues were up at $1.7 billion [£1.06 billion], World sales were 47% of the total revenue. QuickTime ads All new TV ads are available on Apple's site, these are: •Apple and the Year 2000. •Five new flavours of iMac blueberry, grape and lime, strawberry and tangerine. •The new Power packed Power Mac's. Not a bad first month in 1999, go on Apple keep it up for another 11 months and with that I'll leave you with Apple's own New PR spin on the latest iMac release. "The world's best-selling personal computer now comes in blueberry, strawberry, tangerine, grape and lime-and at an even more affordable price. Besides being the easiest way to whisk you to the Internet, iMac far outperforms other low cost computers; its processor humbles the Pentium's in office PCs four times its price. iMac is easy to buy (it comes complete with everything you need). Easy to set up (just plug and play). Easy to use (one click and "hello, Internet"). And designed to make you want to reach out and touch it. It's even ready for the latest ultra fast data lines. Because iMac not only looks like it's from the future. It can actually take you there" - Apple Most Innovative Product C|Net get a mention and its highest award in the '98 honours list. "it's safe to say that the iMac is a milestone in the evolution of the personal computer." - well said! http://cnet.com/Content/Reports/Special/Awards98/ss01.html BT get Excited British Telecom has made a welcome handshake worth roughly six and a quarter million [$10,000,000] for Excite Incorporate. The two companies will work more closely on the expanding UK Internet market. To add with the above BT has also announced a recent partnership with JCP services. JCP specialises in retail online banking. BT hopes to build on JCP concepts by delivering the service of secured online ebanking to its customers for a variety of purposes. More info: www.bt.com and www.jcp.co.uk Nearly there Intel's troubled Merced chip still has its ups and downs but computer analysts and Intel's own PR team can't shout load enough about the product. For now Compaq will take all it can before the chip giant steps in. Compaq's Alpha chip carries some of the benefits of 64bit technology to high-end servers. Although Intel's Merced chip has taken setback after setback and now has a release date scheduled for the year 2000. The company hopes to keep customers moral with high with its ever price reducing Celeron chips until Merced is ready for action. Compaq's 64bit technology has a head start on Intel's but fear their lead will be reduced by Merced once on general release at a much cheaper price with a wider appeal. Sonnet Announces New G3 Upgrades for "Upgrade-challenged" PCI Macintoshes Sonnet Upgrades More Power Mac Models Through the L2 Cache Slot IRVINE, CALIFORNIA. January 4, 1999. Sonnet Technologies, the leading manufacturer of performance upgrade products for Apple MacintoshTM computers, announces new G3 processor upgrade cards for a wide range of PCI Bus Power Macintosh and Performa computers that were not built with a processor slot and upgradable daughter card. These particular models, often referred to as upgrade-challenged, were built with the CPU soldered directly onto the motherboard. Through innovative engineering, Sonnet has created a processor upgrade card that occupies the L2 cache slot and delivers up to a 575% performance increase. The Crescendo G3 L2/PCI upgrade cards are available in three speeds and have all been designed to be compatible with all of the following Macintosh models: * Power Macintosh 5400, 5500, 6400, 6500 * Performa 5400, 5410, 5420, 5430, 5440, 6360, 6400, 6410, 6420 * 20th Anniversary Macintosh * Power Computing PowerBase Pricing and Availability The new Crescendo cards will be shown at MacWorld SF and will be shipped by the end of January. The estimated street price will be: * Crescendo G3 L2/PCI 240MHz-512K cache $399 * Crescendo G3 L2/PCI 300MHz-512K cache $499 * Crescendo G3 L2/PCI 300MHz-1MB cache $599 All Sonnet processor upgrade products are easy to install, are backed by a three-year warranty, include free technical support, and require no switches, jumpers, or control panel settings. To locate an authorized reseller or purchase product, visit the Sonnet Technologies web site at www.sonnettech.com