Tuesday, January 12

Warren Massey found what many people believe is the Holy Grail: a PCI-based modem that is not software-based! The model he found is the Multi-Tech MultiModemZPX. It sells for about $150. If you're not sure why software-based modems are a bad thing, see our special report.

Last week we covered the demise of the U.S.-based Hayes Corporation. Dana Baggett forwarded us a story from TheStandard reminding us that Hayes Europe is still alive, well, and profitable.

Diamond Multimedia's new HomeFree products are the latest in the growing category of home networking tools for sharing printers, Internet access, and modems. HomeFree Wireless uses radio waves in the 2.4 GHz band (see last week's discussion of Bluetooth) and has a range of 150 feet. HomeFree Phoneline uses your existing home phone wiring for transfer speeds of up to 1 megabit per second, while still allowing calls to come through.

Information Week has part III of Jason Levitt's Cable Modem Conundrums, which recounts his experiences with cable modems.

A federal judge declined to issue a preliminary injunction and restraining order AOL had asked for against AT&T WorldNet for using the terms "you have mail," "IM," and "buddy list." The judge determined that the terms were probably generic. The case is expected to go to trial.

Joanna Glasner of Wired reports on rumors that Lucent may buy Ascend. Last year Lucent bought Livingston, another company that makes dial-in modem equipment for ISPs and large offices.

Apple's iMac marches on, with sales of 800,000 since its introduction in August. Nobeige.com has pictures of the new fruit-flavored iMacs: Strawberry, Lime, Blueberry, Tangerine, and Grape. MacInTouch looks at the Blue Power Mac G3, which is sort of a faster iMac with slots but no monitor. Technology Business Research predicts that iMacs sales will lead to continual growth for Apple.

Compaq has agreed to buy Shopping.com for $19 per share, or about $220 million.

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Wednesday update

Lucent Technologies is buying Ascend Communications, as indicated in Tuesday's news. A press conference announcing the deal is scheduled for 11:30 AM EST today, and Lucent has an announcement and a Merger Fact Sheet.

The deal is worth $20 billion in stock. The merged entity is believed to be a strong competitor to Cisco, whose stock fell on rumors of the deal.

In related news, Ascend is selling the Stratus division it purchased in October. Also this week, Lucent purchased Kenan, a company that makes customer service and billing software, for about $1.5 billion.

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Friday, January 15

Lucent Technologies is buying Ascend Communications. See Wednesday's update for details.

A group of Ascend shareholders have filed a lawsuit that claims the company didn't maximize the shareholder's positions when it agreed to be bought by Lucent Technologies.

Motorola is reporting improved performance following layoffs and a restructuring that dissolved the company's consumer modem division.

Big bandwidth

AOL is teaming up with Bell Atlantic to offer AOL users high-speed DSL access for an extra $20 per month over their AOL bill. A Philadelphia Inquirer piece notes that the service will be at 640K.

Scott Rosenberg of Salon examines the state of broadband Internet service in "Bandwidth in our time." His imminently reasonable conclusion: this is faster Internet, not video on demand or the information superhighway of legend.

ZDNet's Jesse Berst looks at the progress of cable modems vs. DSL.

Even Newsweek is getting in on the broadband act with this week's report on cable and DSL.

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