Monday, November 20, 2000		Latest in IT world

Netscape 6 launched

All time favourite browser, Netscape Communications has launched its latest version with the hope to regain the ground it lost to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. A massive campaign is planned titled "Netscape 6stakes" which is aimed at encouraging consumers to download Netscape 6 or order a CD with the browser. Travelocity.com has cosponsored the campaign for Netscape along with and Time Inc. Online in which over 1,000 prizes will be given away to users. Aiming to get back its overseas clients, Netscape has launched Netscape simultaneously in English, Japanese, French and German-language versions. In partnership with Sun Microsystems, Netscape will deliver Netscape 6 in Italian, Swedish, Spanish, Chinese and Korean in coming weeks. Netscape includes region-specific features and services with the international versions, including a built-in list of regional links for each country. Netscape is also reprising its affiliate distribution program, which enables partners to distribute customized, co-branded versions of the browser for free. Netscape counts about 95 thousand companies in the program. Despite an uphill battle, Netscape officials are confident of gaining its lost ground.

Since January, more than a hundred Web sites have put down their shutters. Sites like pets.com, mothernature.com and mortgage.com, have closed down. A study reveals that the primary reason for such shut down is that some companies do not have a sustainable business model. E-commerce sector saw the highest shutdown. Ninety-eight of the sites that were closed were geared toward consumers, 26 toward business/professional and six towards general audience. Another reason that has been cited for such high closure rate is that the Net explosion caused a large employee base to choose from and acquirers found it less necessary to buy companies just to obtain scarce Internet expertise.

Samsung Electronics and Interactive Media have co-developed the MPEG4 streaming video cell phone based on GEO’s patented Emblaze A2 video ASIC chip. Scheduled delivery would soon begin to Asia and Europe, while the US market would be tapped later. The new cell phone allows users to view rich media content directly on their mobile phones by pressing the video function key and browsing through the list of available content, in a similar fashion to view television channels. This new MPED4 Video Cell Phone will enable the viewer to see clear picture of the caller on the cell phone with integrated end-to-end solution that can stream video over today’s 2G wireless networks and tomorrow’s 2.5G and 3G wireless networks.