IBM announces 56K PC Card Modem with cellular capabilities

Stay in touch with your customers. full story

Quarterdeck's Partition-It Extra Strength

Manages today's large hard drives. full story

Adobe offers XML support for FrameMaker

Helps ease the transition into the future. full story

IBM announces 56K PC Card Modem with cellular capabilities

IBM has announced its 56K PC Card Modem/Cellular Capable with data/fax/voice functions. This new modem provides ThinkPad and other notebook computer users with a powerful communications tool that includes the cellular-capable modem and an advanced suite of software. The modem is compatible with most popular brands of cellular phones including AT&T, Motorola, Nokia, RadioShack and Technophone. The new modem replaces IBM's PCMCIA 33.6 Kbps XJACK Data/Fax/Voice Modem as a modem of choice for notebook computer users.

The new modem is bundled with a CD-ROM containing advanced software application tools including 60-days of free Internet access from IBM Internet Connection, IBM AntiVirus with Internet Protection, IBM Home Page Creator, IBM Web Browser Intelligence, Intel's Speakerphone (half-duplex), NetNanny Lite, Adobe Acrobat Reader and data/fax/voice software.

This new cellular-capable modem is an ideal communications solution for small business and home office professionals who need to stay connected to their customers, or for users who want to surf the World Wide Web. A fully-functional V.34 PCMCIA modem featuring the XJACK connector, it employs x2 technology, allowing users to download data fast. And, when using IBM's Internet Connection through IBM's Global Network as the service provider, users in select cities with x2 service can have immediate, out-of-the-box, high-speed dial connections with x2 technology support and compatibility. Its versatile functionality includes speakerphone capability which allows the user's notebook to be used as a handy conference calling tool. Also included are caller- ID capability, direct-attach cellular support for wireless fax and data access, and support for V.80 video conferencing.

This new 56K PC Card Modem is compatible with the PCMCIA 2.1 standard, and plugs conveniently into a notebook PC's Type II PC Card slot. It also features ITU standard fax compatibility, a digital line guard, the Smart Battery Saver and support for popular operating systems including DOS 5.X or later, Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Windows NT and OS/2 3.0 or 4.0.

The new cellular-capable modem is shipping now. The estimated reseller price is $259. The product is protected by a five-year limited warranty with IBM's service and support available 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. For users who do not require a cellular-capable modem, IBM continues to offer the 56K PC Card Modem Kit.

Quarterdeck's Partition-It Extra Strength

Quarterdeck Corporation has announced the introduction of Partition-It Extra Strength, a new hard drive management utility specifically designed for today's large hard drives. Partition-It Extra Strength reclaims wasted hard drive space, easily creates new partitions to organize data, and safely runs multiple operating systems on a single PC. Partition-It Extra Strength, with exclusive Select-It boot manager technology, combines the functionality of a comprehensive partitioning utility and a full-featured boot manager into one safe, easy-to-use product for Windows 95 and Windows 3.1.

Select-It runs automatically when a system is booted and allows users to choose which installed operating system to launch. Users can easily switch between multiple operating systems and maintain their own unique environment/configuration on a single PC that is shared with others. Select-It also helps users upgrade to newer operating systems by allowing them to retain the previous version and saves differing configurations of the same operating system as boot choices, permitting the user to select an environment specific to their immediate needs.

Select-It is a native Windows 95 configuration utility. It automatically detects bootable partitions, supports compressed drives, and performs a master boot record virus check. Select-It also completely restores original boot configurations after uninstall, incorporates multilevel password access and supports OnTrack's Disk Manager hard drive management software.

Partition-It allows users to easily create, resize, move and delete partitions without destroying data and reclaims up to 40% of the valuable hard drive space that is wasted by inefficient cluster sizes. It creates smaller hard drive partitions, which result in smaller cluster sizes and more usable disk space. Partition-It also provides fast and easy hard drive access by allowing users to create partitions that organize applications, data and additional operating systems.

Partition-It Extra Strength is currently available for an estimated street price of $59.95. Owners of System Commander, Partition Magic and Partition-It 1.0 can receive $25.00 cash back through a mail-in rebate for upgrading to Partition-It Extra Strength until March 31, 1998.

Adobe offers XML support for FrameMaker

Continuing to help businesses solve the problem of simultaneously creating and publishing content to both print and the World Wide Web, Adobe Systems Incorporated has announced it is extending Adobe FrameMaker 5.5 and FrameMaker+SGML 5.5 software to export documents to the Extensible Markup Language (XML), the emerging, next-generation standard for Web content. As a result, customers will be able to use a single tool to create content that can be automatically published to all major standards for print and electronic formats, including HTML, SGML, PDF, Adobe PostScript and XML.

XML provides a standard language that is designed to make electronic content easier to search, reuse and exchange with other applications. For example, a manufacturer could use the XML export feature of FrameMaker 5.5 software to create electronic catalogs or product manuals that could be searched by specific part numbers or sorted on demand by price or product name.

By providing XML support in both FrameMaker and FrameMaker +SGML, Adobe enables a broad base of end users to create XML content from both mainstream, unstructured documents and complex, structured information based on SGML.

Customers can automatically export to XML directly from FrameMaker's easy-to-use, WYSIWYG user interface; no knowledge of XML is required. Applications created for FrameMaker+SGML can be reused to create XML; no need to build new applications. Existing FrameMaker or FrameMaker+SGML documents can be exported to XML with the updated versions of FrameMaker and FrameMaker+SGML 5.5.

Adobe FrameMaker 5.5 software is designed to help companies improve efficiency and productivity while creating critical business and technical documents that are typically 30 to 200 or more pages long.

Adobe FrameMaker+SGML 5.5 provides all the features and benefits of FrameMaker 5.5 plus a complete authoring and publishing solution for customers with SGML requirements. Because FrameMaker+SGML provides an easy-to-use, WYSIWYG environment, users can create SGML content without having to be SGML experts.