Tuesday, January 5

The Gadgeteer has a hands-on review of the Palm VII mentioned here last month.

P.J. Huffstetter of The Los Angeles Times looks at Conexant's debut on the stock market, and how the one-time Rockwell division is forging its own identity.

This month PC Magazine reviews a selection of V.90 modems: ActionTec DeskLink Pro PCI Windows Modem, Apache NetExpress A56SP-RA, Boca TidalWave 56K External Speakerphone Modem, Compaq Microcom 415 56K External Modem with Speakerphone, Diamond SupraExpress 56i, Hayes Accura 56K/V.90 Internal Data/FAX Modem, MultiTech MultiModem ZDX, 3Com U.S. Robotics Courier V.Everything Modem, 56K Internal Faxmodem, Zoom 56Kx Dualmode FaxModem.

High speed access

Jeff Ubois of Computer Currents has an excellent piece on DSL. Ubois focuses on business use, which is the most likely market for DSL due to price.

Despite current high DSL prices, a new study by The Strategis Group predicts that DSL will challenge cable modems in the home market by 2002.

Craig Bicknell of Wired News reports on Comcast's new OnBroadband web site. The site is intended to give cable modem owners a springboard for the kind of rich media content that becomes practical with a high speed cable modems.

And now, a moment for us

My college alma mater, the University of Tennessee, won the Fiesta Bowl last night to become the national college football champions! Tennessee was undefeated for the year and was the unanimous #1 pick in the ESPN/USA Today poll. My high school alma mater also finished the year with a perfect season and went on to win the Tennessee state 4A championship. Do I know how to attend football schools or what?

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Friday, January 8

Hayes going out of business

After filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in October, Hayes Corporation is going out of business. Some 250 employees were laid off on Monday.

Hayes had trouble making the transition to 56K modems. Many 56K.COM readers had complained about the delays in delivering 56K upgrades and, more recently, V.90 upgrades. The transition to 56K modems hurt a number of companies this year. Other casualties of 1998 included Logicode and Motorola's consumer modem division.

Coverage

• 56K.COM's timeline for Hayes Corporation (Oct. '98)
• Computer Reseller News
• Detroit News
• International Herald Tribune

Other news

Bill Machrone of PC Magazine looks at short range wireless communications, particularly IrDA and Bluetooth. Bluetooth uses radio waves in the 2.4 GHz range and has extensive wireless applications, particularly for cordless modems and local or personal area networks. 2.4 GHz is the frequency of choice for a number of wireless devices. 2.4 GHz cordless phones are already appearing in the marketplace as the next step after 900 MHz.

Microsoft released Internet Explorer 4.5 and Outlook Express 4.0 for the Macintosh at Macworld Expo in San Francisco. This is the first time the Mac version of IE has been ahead of the Windows version.

Cambridge Computers has V.90 upgrades for their PCI and ISA modems.

Freewwweb is another free ISP, though their coverage is somewhat limited.

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