COLE'S NEWSWIRE, Nov. 6, 1996

Nov. 6, 1996
Vol. 2, No. 47

The NEWSWIRE is a weekly distribution of information about the sales and installations of publishing technology and the latest news on new products developed by suppliers to the industry.

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ACCUWEATHER INC.
AccuWeather, a content provider based in State College, Pa., has announced an alliance with Journal Square Interactive to provide custom weather data for subscribers to Journal Square's Rain or Shine weather service.

With Rain or Shine, each client gets a customized weather site, including local weather conditions, five-day local forecasts, data for 800 cities around the world, and information from the Old Farmer's Almanac. Rain or Shine Weather is supported by national advertisers, including Nabisco.

Journal Square is an affiliate of Advance Publications Internet, whose owner also owns the Newhouse Newspaper Group and Conde Nast publications.

Rain or Shine may be visited on the World-Wide Web at http://www.rainorshine.com. AccuWeather is at http://www.accuweather.com.

AUTOLOGIC INFORMATION INTERNATIONAL INC.
AII, an imaging systems manufacturer based in Thousand Oaks, Calif., has announced these orders:

-- MOBILE (Ala.) PRESS REGISTER (65k, morning): Ad Manager System with bar code server.

-- SAN BERNARDINO (Calif.) SUN (83k, morning): APS GRAFIX RIP and APS 755CM Color Laser Printer.

-- San Francisco Newspaper Agency: Two APS Sierra Turbo Color Imagers and External Image Controllers.

-- ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS, Denver (343k, morning): APS GRAFIX RIP and APS External Imager Controller.

-- SAGINAW (Mich.) NEWS (57k, evening): APS GRAFIX RIP and APS 3850 Color Imager.

-- MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE (411k, morning): APS Output Manager System, two APS 3850 Turbo color imagers, three APSCOM send and receive systems.

-- NEW YORK TIMES (1.1m, morning): APS Ad Manager.

CASCADE SYSTEMS INC.
Cascade Systems, an archive systems supplier based in Andover, Mass., has announced a reorganization of its Latin America office. The technical staff of its Miami office will be merged with the R&D and support staffs in the Massachusetts headquarters. The goal is to consolidate resources and enhance support for Latin American customers; Cascade has sites in Brazil, Colombia and Mexico.

CYBERGRAPHIC SYSTEMS INC.
Cybergraphic, an Australian production systems supplier with U.S. offices in Burlington, Mass., has announced it has completed an upgrade of systems at Quest Newspapers in Brisbane, Australia.

Quest upgraded to DEC Alpha Server 2100As, 64-bit symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) PCI/EISA-based servers which support OpenVMS, Digital UNIX and Windows NT. The AlphaServer 2100 4/275 (Alpha 21064A microprocessor) features a 275 megahertz CPU with 4 megabyte cache.

All of Quest Newspapers' formats, classifications, publications and user profiles will simply be "converted" to the Alpha's 64-bit environment. Users will not need any retraining, as the client software remains the same.

Cybergraphic Systems also announced it has changed addresses. Its third move in three years involved 117 staff members, 10 VAX/VMS servers, 3 AlphaAXP/VMS servers, 4 Alpha AXP/NT servers, 6 Intel/NT servers, 3 Sun servers, 1 firewall, the Cybergraphic WWW server and 150 workstations.

The new international headquarters address is:

Management House Level 5, 181 Fitzroy Street St. Kilda, VIC 3182 Tel +61 3 9261-6200 , Fax + 61 3 9261-6211

ECRM
ECRM, an imagesetter and scanner manufacturer based in Tewksbury, Mass., has introduced the KnockOut/PRF, the second generation of its KnockOut 4550 ScriptSetter. New features include "cut to size" technology, which allows an operator to specify the length of film or plate material to be used. Both the PRF and 4550 are 18-inch-wide systems with head and tail punch modules and can image at resolutions from 1000 to 2540 dpi. "PRF" stands for "plate-ready film," referring to the cut-to-length, punch and preset registration capabilities.

GANNETT MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES INTERNATIONAL
Cincinnati-based GMTI has announced the release of PhotoDesk, an image archive system. Based on the same architecture as GMTI's DiGiCol multimedia system, PhotoDesk offers a photo-only system with the same speed, storage and search engine found in DiGiCol.

PhotoDesk accepts newswire photos via a LeafServer interface into a Macintosh, where images are captured and converted to JPEG format by PhotoWeb software and header information is parsed and stored. Images are indexed for retrieval on a DiGiCol server.

Tools include such photo manipulation functions as crop, rotate and resize. Photos may be displayed as thumbnails or in a gallery; full-text searches of headers and associated data may be conducted. An optional module offers photo assignment tracking.

GMTI may be visited on the World-Wide Web at http://www.gmti.com.

LEXIS-NEXIS
Dayton, Ohio-based LEXIS-NEXIS has announced its on-line services units have stored their one billionth document, and expects to have on-line nearly double the number of documents at the end of 1996 as were available one year previously. LEXIS-NEXIS reports that it adds documents at the rate of 12 million a week.

Information about LEXIS-NEXIS, which offers its customers more than a terabyte of searchable data, may be visited on the World-Wide Web at http://www.lexis-nexis.com/.

SOFTARC INC.
SoftArc, an Internet software supplier based in Markham, Ontario, Canada, has released FirstClass 3.5. The new version of SoftArc's flagship product offers a number of significant enhancements to both existing Windows and Mac OS clients and servers.

Off-line users may now take advantage of many features of a FirstClass client/server session. The client reproduces users' e-mail, directories and conferences on a local workstation or mobile computer. Data may be replicated over modem, Internet or LAN connections. Once the information is stored locally, users can work while disconnected from the FirstClass Server.

SoftArc is shipping several client extensions with FirstClass 3.5, including modules for cross-platform previewing of BMP, PICT, Windows and Mac sound, CompuServe GIF and JPEG files. Other enhancements include a spell checker, user-customized toolbars, drag-and-drop support between FirstClass and other applications, an improved 32-bit version of the client optimized for Windows NT and Windows 95, and three-dimensional forms.

The new version is available free to registered owners. Users of the FirstClass Client software may obtain the new versions from their FirstClass administrator, SoftArc's public FirstClass Server (fc.softarc.com), or SoftArc's World Wide Web site http://www.softarc.com. FirstClass Servers for Windows NT or Mac OS are available for U.S. $495, including five user licenses. Additional user licenses range from $35 to $79 U.S., based on volume.

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COLE'S NEWSWIRE is compiled by Pete Wetmore and distributed by The Cole Group, publishers of THE COLE PAPERS, COLE'S GUIDE TO PUBLISHING SYSTEMS and consultants to newspapers and magazines worldwide. To receive more information about The Cole Group, send e-mail to: info@colegroup.com.

Copyright (c) 1996, The Cole Group. All Rights Reserved. This transmission may not be copied, archived or retransmitted without the express written permission of The Cole Group. If you are not a subscriber to COLE'S NEWSWIRE, you have received this transmission illegally.

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