Investing in Office -- Microsoft today announced a new promotion designed to win over more Mac users to Microsoft Office 98 for the Macintosh. Starting 01-Apr-98, Microsoft will place a single share of Microsoft stock, currently valued at about $90, in 100,000 boxes of Office 98 destined for individual purchase in the retail and academic channels

Robin Williams Writes Another One -- When Macintosh users hear about Robin Williams, chances are good that they think of the author, not the comedian. Over the years, Robin has written many successful books about the Macintosh and design

Much speculation has emerged about Apple's forthcoming foray into the nascent network computer (NC) market. Although NCs from Sun, Network Computer, Inc., and even IBM haven't exactly sold like hotcakes, Apple's entry promises to be the result of different thinking

These days, every program must have a "Save As HTML" feature to be competitive: the last major product missing this capability is Adobe's venerable image editing program, Photoshop

In the last few years, Internet security challenges have been a growing phenomenon. The basic idea is that a solution provider sets up an Internet service or site that it feels is secure, then offers a substantial reward - cash prizes, computer equipment, or other inducements - to the first person who follows the contest's rules and breaches the security of the site or service. Often, Internet security challenges amount to little more than publicity stunts - since the knowledge of how to break into a particular system can be more valuable than the cash or prizes offered - but they can also go a long way toward legitimizing a new or fledgling system

Apple yesterday released version 3.0 of its QuickTime media software for the Mac OS plus Windows 95 and Windows NT, adding support for many new media formats (including PNG and the DV digital video format), plus QuickTime VR and QuickDraw 3D. QuickTime 3.0 can be downloaded for free from Apple (6.4 MB in MacBinary format)

One of the highlights of our recent trip to Australia was the time we spent with Peter N Lewis, one of the best-known Macintosh Internet developers, who has branched out recently into the game market with Greebles, an addictive block-pushing game

In tandem with yesterday's announcement of the Power Mac G3 All-in-one, Apple today announced a new line of affordable desktop computers, designed to demonstrate Apple's commitment to everyday users of everyday Macintoshes. An Apple executive commented, "We realized that in our rush to reassure important niche markets like desktop publishing and education we'd neglected our base of home users and small business, people who keep Macs on their desks and keep buying more of them." A recent Apple marketing group survey learned of an "incredible ground swell" of people who have used desktop computers from Apple throughout Apple's history, typically purchasing a new model every few years while passing older models to relatives and non-profit organizations. The study revealed that the typical person who purchase

VST Technologies today announced a long-rumored PowerBook add-on, the VST Easy-Bake Expansion Bay Drive. The company expects to start shipping in early May, but notes that supplies will be initially "constrained." Officially designated as the EB-451 Easy-Bake Expansion Bay, the device fits existing PowerBook models 190, 5300, 3400, and G3

New PowerBooks -- Just after the release of the PowerBook 3400, dubbed "the world's fastest portable" by Apple, comes the PowerBook 1000, codenamed Falcon

Double the Trouble -- Connectix recently announced the latest in its Doubler suite, a new browser plug-in called JAVADoubler (formerly known by its code name, DoubleShot)

Cyberdog Abused? Rumors are circulating on the net that the real reason for the demise of Apple's OpenDoc technology was due to allegations made by an organization calling itself the Animal Internet Rights Foundation (AIRF) about Apple's mishandling of Cyberdog

Mac Attack -- In a swift and decisive move, Symantec Corporation announced that it would purchase game developer Id Software for an undisclosed sum. Id, creator of popular "blast-and-run" games such as Doom and Quake, immediately issued a press release disclosing that negotiations had been "relatively bloodless (ha ha)." Symantec's first offering from its new Chainsaw/Cutting Edge department will be a revised version of Norton Utilities for Macintosh entitled NUM-Cruncher, in which users will be able to run through virtual 3D "corridors" of their hard disks in real-time, blasting bad sectors and setting fire to corrupted B-tree branches

TidBITS Announces Reorganization -- Following in the footsteps of such industry leaders as Apple Computer, TidBITS today announced plans to lay off thousands of employees

Smoking Newtons, Batman! After a flurry of industry speculation about the fate of its underappreciated handheld technology, Apple has sold its Newton line to the highest bidder, the RJR Nabisco Holdings Corp