Today's News On One Page

October 13th, 1999

[6:00 PM] Apple 4th Quarter Results Beat The Street, Sales Up From 1998 Apple announced their fiscal 4th quarter results and it was mostly filled with good news. Apple beat Wall Street estimates of US$.45 per share that had been based on an earnings warning issued by Apple in September. Apple instead turned in profits of US$111 million or US$.63 per share. This included one time gains of sales of some 3 million shares of ARM stock which contributed US$37 million in profits. On a sour note, sales for the quarter were down to US$1.34 billion, a figure that was down some 14% from the year ago quarter. Not counting this amount, Apple turned in a profit of US$.51 per share, still squashing the US$.45 estimates. Apple also announced that 250,000 new iMacs have been pre-ordered in only one week of sales. 300,000 iBook pre-orders have been accepted. All products combines, Apple has some US$700 million in backorders. Overall, Apple saw higher sales in 1999 than they did in 1998. Apple's full press release: Apple today announced financial results for its fiscal 1999 fourth quarter that ended September 25, 1999. For the quarter, the Company posted a net profit of $111 million, or $.63 per diluted share. These results compare to a net profit of $106 million, or $.68 per diluted share, achieved in the year-ago quarter. Revenues for the quarter were $1.34 billion, down 14 percent from the year-ago quarter, and gross margins were 28.7 percent, up from 26.8 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 35 percent of the quarter's revenues. The current quarter's results included a $21 million net favorable impact from non-recurring items, including an after-tax gain of $37 million resulting from the sale of approximately 3 million shares of ARM Holdings plc., and a net restructuring charge of $16 million for contract cancellation charges related to previously outsourced services and a previously discontinued business. Without these non-recurring items, the Company's net profit for the quarter would have been $90 million, or $.51 per diluted share. "We are delighted by the response to our new products -- we have received orders for over 250,000 new iMacs in the first week since its announcement, and over 300,000 iBooks since its announcement in late July," said Steve Jobs, Apple's interim CEO. "We are geared up to ship all of our products in high volume this quarter." "With our product transitions during the September quarter behind us, and an order backlog of over $700 million, we're poised for a very strong December quarter," said Fred Anderson, Apple's CFO. For the year, the Company generated revenues of $6.1 billion and net earnings of $601 million, or $3.61 per diluted share. These results compare to fiscal 1998 revenues of $5.9 billion and net earnings of $309 million, or $2.10 per diluted share. Apple also announced today that it has reconfigured the processor speeds in its Power Mac(TM) G4 line to better match demand with chip availability from Motorola. The new Power Mac G4 configurations will now include Power PC G4 processors running at 350 MHz, 400 MHz and 450 MHz, and will be priced at $1,599, $2,499 and $3,499, respectively. The 500 MHz G4 processor will not be available until the first calendar quarter of next year. Apple also announced today that IBM will begin manufacturing G4 processor chips in the first half of calendar 2000 for use in Apple products. Except for the historical information contained herein, the statements in this press release are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Potential risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, continued competitive pressures in the marketplace; the effect competitive and economic factors and the Company's reaction to them may have on consumer and business buying decisions with respect to the Company's products; the ability of the Company to make timely delivery of new products and successful technological innovations to the marketplace; the continued availability of certain components and services essential to the Company's business currently obtained by the Company from sole or limited sources; the ability of the Company to successfully evolve its operating system, and impact on the Company's business due to internal systems or systems of suppliers, infrastructure providers and other third parties adversely affected by year 2000 problems. More information on potential factors that could affect the Company's financial results is included from time to time in the Company's public reports filed with the SEC, including the Company's Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 26, 1999, and the Company's Form 10-K for the 1999 fiscal year to be filed with the SEC. We will have a full analysis of the quarter's results from The Mac Observer's Business Editor, Wes George, on Thursday morning. For other reports on Apple's financial performance, check out our Apple Stock Watch Special Report. The Mac Observer Spin: This was a very good quarter for Apple considering the tragedy in Taiwan and the problems with G4 production, both events that are well outside Apple's control. The only gloom on the horizon is Apple's rejiggering of the G4 product line. On the other hand, Apple's fiscal 1st quarter should be stellar indeed. Apple

[5:00 PM] VersionMaster: Conflict Catcher, iVisit chat, and Web Devil updated today! All these software updates and more are listed, detailed, and constantly updated at The Mac Observer's Version Master! Go see for yourself at http://www.macobserver.com/versionmaster/. The Mac Observer's Version Master

[4:45 PM] Apple Announces Speed Reductions In G4 Lines, Prices Stay The Same Apple has announced a speed reduction on the entire G4 product line due to problems with G4 production from Motorola. Citing RAM prices, Fred Anderson also said that pricing would remain the same for the slower PowerMacs. The new line will consist of a 350 MHz unit which is based on the revamped Yosemite motherboard, and a 400 MHz and 450 MHz model based on the not yet shipping Sawtooth motherboard. The new product line is as follows: 350 MHz Yosemite based Power Mac: US$1599 400 MHz Sawtooth based PowerMac: US$2499 450 MHz Sawtooth based PowerMac: US$3499 At the same time, Apple has announced that IBM will be manufacturing G4s in addition to Motorola which should help ease the production constraints. The Mac Observer Spin: This is an unbelievably bad move for Apple, and seems very much to be a "bean counter" type of decision. It is very understandable that Apple has to rejigger the product line due to Motorola's problems, but shipping a 350 MHz pro computer is a public perception nightmare. The Wintel market now has units that are rated TWICE as fast with AMD's Athlon processor shipping in volume at 700 MHz. Intel is also about to release 700 MHz processors. This makes Apple look very far behind the Wintel competition. In our opinion, it would have been better to offer a 400 MHz Yosemite model, and a 450 MHz Sawtooth model and simply lop off the high end 500 MHz unit. That would not have cause an overly negative public opinion. Apple is going to find it very hard to sell the 350 MHz yosemite models. Then there is the price issue. While from a financial standpoint keeping the price the same may indeed be the only thing Apple could do, it is simply not going to make the slower units any more popular. Resentment is likely to be present at the high end too as potential customers are faced with the prospect of paying some US$1000 more for the exact same machine that used to be the middle configuration. Yesterday's 450 MHz model was priced at US$2499. Today that same machine will cost US$3499. Not very appetizing. We sympathize with the position that Apple is in with the Motorola situation, a situation outside of its control, but this is simply a bad move. Lopping off the high-end model and keeping the low-end models would have been far preferable. Apple

[4:45 PM] Apple Announces Speed Reductions In G4 Lines, Prices Stay The Same Apple has announced a speed reduction on the entire G4 product line due to problems with G4 production from Motorola. Citing RAM prices, Fred Anderson also said that pricing would remain the same for the slower PowerMacs. The new line will consist of a 350 MHz unit which is based on the revamped Yosemite motherboard, and a 400 MHz and 450 MHz model based on the not yet shipping Sawtooth motherboard. At the same time, Apple has announced that IBM will be manufacturing G4s in addition to Motorola which should help ease the production constraints. The Mac Observer Spin: This is an unbelievably bad move for Apple. It is very understandable that Apple has to rejigger the product line due to Motorola's problems, but shipping a 350 MHz pro computer is a public perception nightmare. The Wintel market now has units that are rated TWICE as fast with AMD's Athlon processor shipping in volume at 700 MHz. Intel is also about to release 700 MHz processors. This makes Apple look very far behind the Wintel competition. In our opinion, it would have been better to offer a 400 MHz Yosemite model, and a 450 MHz Sawtooth model and simply lop off the high end 500 MHz unit. That would not have cause an overly negative public opinion. Apple is going to find it very hard to sell the 350 MHz yosemite models. Then there is the price issue. While from a financial standpoint keeping the price the same may indeed be the only thing Apple could do, it is simply not going to make the slower units any more popular. We sympathize with the position that Apple is in with the Motorola situation, a situation outside of its control, but this is simply a bad move. Lopping off the high-end model and keeping the low-end models would have been far preferable. Apple

[Last Updated 4:19 PM] Live Coverage Of Apple's 4th Quarter Press Conference [4:00 PM] Apple's conference call covering their 4th quarter results is about to begin, We will be offering live updates throughout the event directly on the home page. [4:05 PM] The conference has begun. [4:07 PM] US$111 million, or US$.63 per share counting one time gains. [4:09 PM] Total order backlog was US$700 million dollars. This includes iBook back orders from problems in Taiwan, and the Motorola G4 production. [4:10 PM] G4 product line has been reconfigured at 350 MHz, 400 Mhz, and 450 Mhz! A major step backwards due to production problems at Motorola! [4:13 PM] Apple scored US$33 million in the sale of shares of ARM. [4:11 PM] Margins on PowerMacs and iMacs improved. [4:13 PM] Cash on hand ended the quarter on US$3 billion. Inventory on hand ended the quarter at 2 days, way up from 6 hours! [4:14 PM] Apple has repurchased 1.25 million shares of stock as a part of their repurchasing plan. [4:14 PM] Apple lost 1 week of production on iBooks and PowerBooks due to power outages in Taiwan. [4:15 PM] Apple expects to catch up with all backorders in the next quarter and expects the quarter to offer substantial gains on the year ago and preceding quarters. [4:16 PM] IBM will be manufacturing G4s! This is a fantastic announcement! [4:18 PM] Inventory on hand levels due to problems in Taiwan. [4:19 PM] IBM's production of G4s is an agreement between Motorola and IBM, Apple was not involved. We will be offering a wrap up of the conference as soon as possible. Apple

[3:45 PM] Sneak Peak: CNBC Reports Apple Crushes Street Estimates CNBC is reporting Apple's numbers early and they are fantastic. After Apple's earnings warning last month, the Street had put estimates of Apple's earnings at US$.45 per share. Apple is apparently turning in a profit of US$.51 per share, crushing the estimates by US$.06. Apple's shares are trading up more than 4 points as of this writing in after hours trading, erasing losses suffered during today's session. We will be offering live updates from the conference call as soon as they start. We will also be offering a detailed analysis of the entire 4th quarter later today or early tomorrow morning. Apple

[3:30 PM] Apple Stock Watch: Profit taking clobbers Wall Street again. Mid-October has historically been a tough time for the stock market. This October is proving to be no exception as spooked investors are nervously taking profits off the table based on a combination of worries that range from higher bond yields and an ugly advance-decline line to Y2K volatility fears. The Dow closed down 184.9 points to 10232, with 307 stocks setting new 52-week lows, an unusually large number. Apple gave the last three days of gains back just hours before Fred Anderson announces Apple's 4th quarter earnings at 2 pm PDT today. Apple closed down $3.65 to $64.03. Analysts' consensus estimate is for Apple to report 45 cents per share for the quarter. Stay online for The Mac Observer's live coverage of Apple's conference call with the press and analysts. The Nasdaq closed down 70.97 points to 2801.46, lead downward by the computer, telecom and Internet sectors. 30-year bond yield rose to a new two year high at 6.28%, Wall Street worries that it may be setting a new higher trading range. The CRB Bridge Index rose to close at a new 52 week high due to higher oil, coffee, soy bean, gold and silver prices. Although this has little to do with the tech sector directly, its a further sign the Fed may raise interest rates. Mac related companies Symantec, Adobe and Macromedia all closed sharply down. Apple's PowerPC partners also both closed lower. IBM broke through it's 200-day moving average to the down side to it's lowest point in 19 weeks. Motorola, (MOT) which reported operating earnings of 53 cents per share meeting consensus estimates and easily beat last year's results traded down over $4 to $90.75. Intel Corp. (INTC), reported third-quarter earnings that missed estimates by a few pennies yesterday helped drag the tech sector down today. Volume was huge as Intel sold off $3.25 points to $91.12. Joining Intel on the down side in the PC market were Microsoft, Dell, Gateway 2000, Compaq, and Hewlett-Packard. For full quotes on all the companies mentioned in this article, we have assembled this set of quotes at Yahoo! for your reference. We also have these same quotes reported live (20 minute delay) on our home page For other stories regarding Apple's stock activity, visit our Apple Stock Watch Special Report. Our live coverage of Apple's 4th Quarter results starts at 2:00 PM PDT (4:00 PM CDT) with live updates directly to the home page. Apple

[3:15 PM] MacLaunch, Well... Launches MacLaunch, the Mac centric internet portal, has officially launched today. MacLaunch offers Mac headline links and a full search engine, as well as other features. According to MacLaunch: Just wanted to let you know that MacLaunch - the first comprehensive Mac centric Internet portal site - is now unofficially open. You might have seen us on CNBC Television. We are still putting the finishing touches on a few features, but feel free to use all the services we currently have available. If you register we will notify you when any new feature goes live. You may go immediately to MacLaunch to start using our FREE service. If you have not already created your FREE MacLaunch account, please go ahead and register on the site to start accessing all MacLaunch has to offer. We'd appreciate it if you would spread the word about MacLaunch.com - please E-Mail your Mac friends about us! If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail [email protected]. You may also post any feedback to our Discussion Boards located at http://www.macboards.com. So head over to MacLaunch and check it out. MacLaunch

[2:45 PM] REAL Gets More Real With REALbasic Update REAL Software has released a new version of REALbasic, though the company is releasing it for testing purposes. The new version squashes several bugs and adds one new feature. According to REAL Software: REAL Software is pleased to announce the latest development release of REALbasic 2.1a20. These alpha releases are for testing purposes only and are not considered the current release of REALbasic. Projects saved in alpha releases of 2.1 cannot be opened in REALbasic 2.0.2. You should not use alpha releases for mission-critical development. [Bug] Win32 Format now handles exponents [Bug] Win32 CDbl, CStr and Format now use correct separators on foreign language systems [Bug] Floating windows implemented for Win32 [Bug] Line controls update correctly on Win32 [Bug] Date class properties update correctly on Win32 Dragging pictures implemented for Win32 The update is free to registered users. You can find more information on REALbasic and pricing information at the company's web site. REAL Software

[2:00 PM] Apple Gains 4 Spots In September Web Rankings (With No PC Manufacturers To Be Seen) Apple gained 4 spots in the September web rankings released by PC Data today. Apple went from being the #88 ranked web site to being the #84 ranked site based on visits. No other computer manufacturer made the Top 100 list, though software manufacturer Microsoft made the #5 spot and its online service portal, msn.com, made the #2 spot. Apple's traffic rose some 8.1% as with 3,331,000 visitors. That's compared to 3,082,000 visitors in August. According to PC Data (including the full Top 100 list): Top Internet web sites held their ground on September's list of Top 100 Web Sites, while weather and sports sites responded to the season to substantially gain user traffic. "Although yahoo.com retained its No. 1 position in September, competitor msn.com rose two notches to reclaim the No. 2 spot with a 38 percent increase in its user base," said PC Data Internet analyst Sean Wargo. "Otherwise, seasonal curves like hurricanes and football brought new activity lower on the list to an otherwise stable month." Wargo said the hype around the hurricanes last month sparked Internet users to the top weather site, weather.com, boosting its climb to the No. 38 slot from its previous No. 62 slot. The site noted a 53.1 percent increase in unique users during September. Likewise, on the advent of the new football season, espn.com rose 23 spots with a 43 percent increase in traffic. Two other sport sites — CBS's sportsline.com and nfl.com -- broke into the Top 100 for the first time in the 80 and 88 spots. Sportline.com registered a 51.5 increase in unique users, and nfl.com a 92.7 percent increase. The list of Top 100 Web Sites is released monthly by PC Data, a leading Internet research firm specializing in web commerce measurement. It bases the list on a proprietary sample that tracks visitors and buyers on each web site. Information for the Top 100 is gathered through PC Data's Online proprietary software tool that tracks "unique visitors" and "unique buyers" on each web site. Every visitor is counted once, regardless of how many times the individual visits a site or buys from a site. This sample includes 67,000 home Internet users. Home Internet users are estimated at approximately 63 million, including AOL users, which PC Data Online began tracking in August. September Top 100 Web Sites Sept Rank Aug Rank Web Site Sept Unique Users (000) Aug Unique Users (000) % Growth 1 1 yahoo.com 36,254 31,497 15.1% 2 4 msn.com 32,574 23,610 38.0% 3 2 aol.com 28,794 25,789 11.7% 4 3 geocities.com 25,400 24,903 2.0% 5 9 microsoft.com 22,417 17,063 31.4% 6 5 passport.com 19,987 18,883 5.8% 7 6 netscape.com 19,031 18,641 2.1% 8 11 angelfire.com 17,039 16,369 4.1% 9 10 lycos.com 16,565 16,555 0.1% 10 12 tripod.com 16,034 15,748 1.8% 11 13 excite.com 15,538 15,065 3.1% 12 18 ebay.com 13,527 10,695 26.5% 13 16 amazon.com 12,256 11,162 9.8% 14 8 AOLWelcome.aol 12,066 17,078 -29.3% 15 19 altavista.com 11,811 10,663 10.8% 16 14 xoom.com 11,753 11,972 -1.8% 17 15 about.com 11,724 11,186 4.8% 18 20 real.com 11,228 10,610 5.8% 19 * AOLWriteMail.aol 10,767 * * 20 21 icq.com 10,452 9,667 8.1% 21 30 alladvantage.com 9,836 7,354 33.7% 22 28 hotmail.com 9,748 7,624 27.9% 23 23 zdnet.com 9,560 9,160 4.4% 24 22 snap.com 9,494 9,642 -1.5% 25 25 looksmart.com 9,087 8,590 5.8% 26 24 infoseek.com 8,723 8,766 -0.5% 27 26 hotbot.com 8,556 8,011 6.8% 28 27 mypoints.com 8,370 7,667 9.2% 29 37 bluemountain.com 7,836 6,428 21.9% 30 33 msnbc.com 7,411 6,622 11.9% 31 31 goto.com 7,272 6,678 8.9% 32 35 download.com 6,842 6,469 5.8% 33 36 infospace.com 6,611 6,429 2.8% 34 41 cdnow.com 6,545 5,389 21.5% 35 32 fortunecity.com 6,518 6,660 -2.1% 36 40 go.com 6,490 5,521 17.6% 37 45 cnet.com 6,228 5,025 23.9% 38 62 weather.com 6,103 3,986 53.1% 39 42 freeshop.com 5,977 5,211 14.7% 40 38 simplenet.com 5,918 6,213 -4.8% 41 46 askjeeves.com 5,692 4,986 14.2% 42 47 come.to 5,580 4,940 13.0% 43 76 drkoop.com 5,539 3,474 59.4% 44 50 preferences.com 5,478 4,815 13.8% 45 34 uproar.com 5,476 6,533 -16.2% 46 48 hypermart.net 5,156 4,925 4.7% 47 49 go2net.com 5,144 4,889 5.2% 48 43 porncity.net 5,134 5,203 -1.3% 49 61 pathfinder.com 5,067 3,990 27.0% 50 51 earthlink.net 5,039 4,807 4.8% 51 44 disney.com 5,027 5,041 -0.3% 52 75 espn.com 4,992 3,491 43.0% 53 56 harrispollonline.com 4,795 4,373 9.6% 54 * AOLToday.aol 4,613 * * 55 39 treeloot.com 4,401 5,525 -20.3% 56 57 mtv.com 4,301 4,309 -0.2% 57 65 barnesandnoble.com 4,298 3,871 11.0% 58 52 cybererotica.com 4,297 4,576 -6.1% 59 68 homestead.com 4,156 3,783 9.9% 60 79 mapquest.com 4,081 3,364 21.3% 61 77 broadcast.com 4,031 3,450 16.9% 62 101 doubleclick.com 4,002 2,701 48.2% 63 53 gotoworld.com 3,984 4,549 -12.4% 64 69 intergal.com 3,972 3,698 7.4% 65 59 karasxxx.com 3,914 4,107 -4.7% 66 203 npdor.com 3,907 1,640 138.3% 67 85 cnn.com 3,883 3,251 19.4% 68 82 cotac.com 3,869 3,321 16.5% 69 60 sony.com 3,860 4,063 -5.0% 70 58 theglobe.com 3,842 4,163 -7.7% 71 54 bonzi.com 3,739 4,441 -15.8% 72 70 talkcity.com 3,657 3,684 -0.7% 73 66 ubid.com 3,648 3,838 -4.9% 74 94 webstakes.com 3,625 2,923 24.0% 75 67 mp3.com 3,593 3,821 -6.0% 76 80 cybergold.com 3,584 3,344 7.2% 77 63 freeyellow.com 3,579 3,967 -9.8% 78 78 greenfieldonline.com 3,517 3,367 4.5% 79 64 att.net 3,516 3,956 -11.1% 80 130 sportsline.com 3,488 2,302 51.5% 81 115 gamesville.com 3,432 2,480 38.4% 82 87 coolsavings.com 3,371 3,232 4.3% 83 111 shockwave.com 3,354 2,519 33.2% 84 88 apple.com 3,331 3,082 8.1% 85 81 webcrawler.com 3,301 3,330 -0.9% 86 128 abcnews.com 3,288 2,331 41.1% 87 104 digitalcity.com 3,281 2,593 26.6% 88 191 nfl.com 3,275 1,699 92.7% 89 83 mcafee.com 3,264 3,301 -1.1% 90 90 webring.org 3,239 3,051 6.2% 91 72 macromedia.com 3,203 3,609 -11.3% 92 95 valupage.com 3,126 2,891 8.1% 93 235 smartbotpro.net 3,042 1,498 103.1% 94 86 webjump.com 3,037 3,238 -6.2% 95 157 prizecentral.com 3,008 2,020 48.9% 96 166 gator.com 2,957 1,952 51.5% 97 105 dogpile.com 2,949 2,592 13.8% 98 360 enews.com 2,947 1,130 160.8% 99 125 switchboard.com 2,915 2,383 22.4% 100 71 zone.com 2,840 3,669 -22.6% Average Growth 15.1% *PC Data Online began to track AOL channels within AOL beginning September1, 1999. Thus rankings on these channels prior to this report were not included. The Mac Observer Spin: WooooHoooooo!!! Go Apple! 8.1% growth may not be as high as the overall growth of the Top 100 which came in at 15.1%, but consider that the average was skewed by the hurricane and sports nuts streaming onto the web like salmon on their way to spawning grounds. Apple's web raking is even more impressive when one considers the fact that online superstars like Dell which is among the top web sites in terms of dollars, does not even show up in the Top 100 in terms of visitors. Our spin on this is that Dell customers couldn't give two hoots or a holler about how Dell is doing or what is going on at the company. Apple customers belie that concept and visit Apple regularly to see what is going on. Add to that the release of several new products during the last few weeks (iBook, PowerMac G4, and the new iMac), and you have the makings of a visitation Super Star. PC Data - Apple

[11:15 AM] The Mac Observer To Offer Live Coverage Of Apple's Q4 Results The Mac Observer will be offering live coverage of Apple's press conference for their fiscal 4th quarter results. The event starts at 2:00 PM PDT, or 4:00 PM CDT. The Mac Observer will be posting updates directly to our home page every few mintues, barring technical difficulties. Update: We have moved the live coverage report to its own page. We have also posted a separate story on Apple's 4th quarter results. We will be offering analysis on the press conference Thursday. For other reports on Apple's financial performance, check out our Apple Stock Watch Special Report. Apple

[11:00 AM] Keyspan Ships USB Remote Control Device Keyspan has released a new remote control device for the Mac OS and Windows called Digital Media Remote. Digital Media Remote allows users to control various multimedia aspects of their computer, such as MP3 players, QuickTime, and even PowerPoint. The new product attaches via an available USB port, and includes a separate wireless remote control. According to Keyspan: Keyspan announced it is now shipping its new Digital Media Remote (DMR), a "first-of-its-kind" accessory for the new generation of digital-media-ready Windows and Macintosh desktop and portable computers. Keyspan's DMR gives users remote control of their DVD, CD, MP3 and QuickTime Players, as well presentation programs such as PowerPoint. The Digital Media Remote consists of two components: a 15-key infrared remote and an infrared receiver unit that connects to the USB port on a Windows or Macintosh computer. The receiver unit features a versatile design that enables it to sit on a tabletop or hang conveniently on the edge of an open portable. On the Macintosh, the DMR ships with key maps for QuickTime, Apple DVD, CD and audio players, SoundJam*, RealPlayer, PowerPoint, and the Finder*. A default key map is available for both platforms for use with applications that do not have a specific map as yet defined. The Digital Media Remote has a suggested retail price of US$79. You can find more information at the Keyspan web site. The Mac Observer Spin: With the increase in high quality sound systems for home computer systems, more and more we find computers replacing stereo systems as the major tool for entertainment. The introduction of hardware such as this simply reinforces the notion that the computer is playing more of a widespread role in our daily lives, for work and entertainment. Keyspan

[11:00 AM] InjectionPro Update Adds Platform Equalizer Glucose Software has updated the META tag automation program, Injection Pro, to version 2.2. META tags are HTML: tags that are used to everything from announcing keywords to search engines, to controlling refresh rates and other hidden aspects of a web page. InjectionPro targets search engine oriented META tags. Injection 2.2 Pro includes several new features and a number of bug fixes. The most significant new feature allows web pages to be "altered" to conform to the platform that they are being viewed from. According to Glucose: Let Injection automatically build content-specific META tags for your entire web site in seconds, and get better rankings in search engines. Higher rankings means more hits and more interested customers. Erasing Platform Boundaries At Glucose, we believe building slick web pages should be easy. There are lots of tools out there that designers can use to build really beautiful web pages -- when you view them on the Mac OS. Unfortunately, the moment your page gets loaded into a browser on a Windows PC, the text reflows, the graphics move and suddenly that page, and the image of your entire site is marred. So we built the 'Equalizer' into the new release of Injection 2.2 Pro. The Equalizer automatically adds a few simple JavaScripts to any page in order to allow it to dynamically sense the platform that is viewing the page and alter it accordingly. Injection can equalize pages locally or on remote FTP servers with a single click. We believe Injection Pro's Equalizer will allow designers to create more complex pages without having to worry about text reflow problems on other platforms. Further, Injection can equalize your existing site in seconds over FTP. Injection 2.2 Pro is available for US$55. According to the Glucose web site, once you register Injection Pro, all future updates are free. You can find more information about Injection 2.2 Pro at the Glucose Software web site. Glucose Software

[9:00 AM] Ragtime Plays A Suite Melody For Your Office ComGrafix, Inc., has release RagTime 5.0. Ragtime is a "suite" of office applications, like word processing, spreadsheets, and draw programs, but each part of the suite exists on the same document. For those fans of Apple's defunct OpenDoc technology, conceptually, RagTime is similar to an OpenDoc container with the relevant parts inside. According to ComGrafix: RagTime is the "Swiss Army Knife" of office software. It is the only business publishing application that allows users to create spreadsheets, annual reports; generate catalogues and price lists; perform calculations, and display them in graphical form using one program. Over 250,000 users worldwide rely on RagTime for professional business publishing. RagTime's key features include seamless integration of spreadsheet data with page layout templates (no importing or cut and pasting). Intelligent templates help simplify repetitive tasks and share information company-wide. Mail merge features allow users to personalize documents for each individual recipient. RagTime is also a fully loaded DTP toolbox allowing for free positioning of all elements on a page including rotation of objects, freeform text flows, color selection with optional CMYK support and compatibility with standard picture formats such as EPSF, TIFF, JPEG and more. RagTime features pinpoint page positioning including paragraph and font style sheets that can read Excel tables. It has more than 200 calculation and evaluation functions. When the user changes numbers or calculations, pages automatically update themselves. Layouts calculate discount schedules or update conditions according to customer categories. 3-D spreadsheets include options for 16,000 rows, columns and planes. A full range of typographic options is also available. A Graphs gallery includes wide selection of style sheets; 2-D and 3-D view point and light point graphs; line, pie and XYZ (scatter) graphs, bubble and polar charts and combinations. Sophisticated text handling includes flow within and around free forms, baseline grids and variable units of measure, non-printing test for comments, small caps, kerning capabilities and more. An optional CD-ROM includes hyphenation and spell checkers for 12 additional languages. RagTime offers direct scanning via Photoshop Plugins or TWAIN. Pictures can be cropped, scaled, rotated or distorted. RagTime is listed for US$695. You can find more information at the ComGrafix web site. The Mac Observer Spin: OpenDoc is perhaps the neatest technology ever to be abandoned by Apple. Part of RagTime's functionality recaptures the connectedness and sprit of OpenDoc, while providing a functional alternative to Office. ComGrafix Inc.

[9:00 AM] Mac In Europe Reaches Out To Your Desktop Mac In Europe has announced a partnership with MacHeadlines for a special Mac In Europe version of the application. MacHeadlines brings Mac headlines to your desktop. The new version MacHeadlines Lite is specialized to bring headlines from Mac in Europe. According to Mac in Europe: MacHeadlines is a specialized Internet browser that gathers and displays headlines from web sites around the world. This version is specifically created for Mac in Europe. It puts a thin ticker-style window on your Mac desktop, where current Mac in Europe headlines scroll by. Double-clicking a headline will open your browser to show the full story. MacHeadlines Lite is available as a free download. You can find more information at the Mac in Europe web site. Mac in Europe

[8:30 AM] Vicomsoft Updates DHCP Server With Remote Administration Vicomsoft has released version 6.5 of their DHCP Server. The most notable feature enhancement in version 6.5 is the ability for remote administration of the server. According to Vicomsoft: This enhanced DHCP server now offers remote administration as an option, allowing administrators to manage the server from anywhere on the LAN or remotely over the Internet. For security, access to remote administration uses encrypted password protection and additionally may be limited to computers on the same LAN as the server, or to specified IP addresses, and can be disabled when not required. Additional features of the Vicomsoft DHCP Server include: Easy to install, use and maintain. No specialized certification or training required. Available in versions for both Windows 95, 98, NT and for MacOS. Can be run as a background service on Windows NT. Supports netboot clients. Serves up to 1,024 unique LAN client configurations. Industrial strength reliability and uptime. Serves TCP/IP configurations to Windows, MacOS, UNIX and other TCP/IP compliant platforms. Serves multiple physical subnets. Low specification hardware requirements. TCP/IP configuration lease time of up to 32,767 minutes (about 22 days). The enhanced Vicomsoft DHCP Server is available for US$95. You can find more information at the Vicomsoft web site. Vicomsoft