Monday, August 27, 2001		Lens on IT

Sony Corporation employee Mina Naito shows Sony's new compact digital video camcorder Network Handycam IP during a press unveiling in Tokyo last week. Equipped with Bluetooth functionality, the world's smallest and lightest camcorder enables users to exchange recorded data through the Internet by either a Bluetooth compatible modem adaptor, or a Bluetooth compatible mobile phone, instead of a PC. The new gadget will hit the Japanese and European markets this fall at the retail price of 1,70,000 yen ($1,414).

A U.S. appeals court rejected Microsoft's request for a delay in its anti-trust case last week. The court will send the Microsoft case back to a lower court in one week. 

Fujitsu Ltd President Naoyuki Akikusa speaks to reporters at a news conference at the company headquarters in Tokyo. Akikusa announced that the chip and computer conglomerate would cut 16,400 jobs in a dramatic restructuring that will cut sharply into its offshore workforce to fight back at the global info-tech slump. The world's third-largest flash memory chip maker and Japan's second-biggest personal computer maker said it will cut a total 11,400 jobs overseas and 5,000 in Japan by next March. 

A woman wears a laser headset to accurately track eye movement during a simulated drive inside the Ford VIRTTEX simulator in Dearborn, Mich., in this handout photo. The automaker's new simulator called Virtual Test Track Experiment, or VIRTTEX was unveiled last week and will allow researchers to study driver distraction. The idea, according to project leader Jeff Greenberg, is to learn what effect various tasks have on a driver's attention to the road. The tasks include using a cell phone-both hand-held and hands-free-changing a radio station or CD, and using any other so-called telematics device. 

— Reuters photos