Intel, still looking to put Pentiums in as many places as possible, has spied a market among those who believe meeting time is wasted time. The company has introduced TeamStation, a PC destined for conference rooms.
TeamStation is a "turnkey" workstation designed to keep those trapped in meetings from having to run back to their desks to look things up, check email, or grab a sales report.
The $10,000 Pentium II, Windows NT-based PCs are loaded with video-conferencing software (courtesy of Microsoft's NetMeeting), video-camera hardware, presentation software, speakerphone capability, networking and Internet access, and remote manageability for network administrators.
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Smart-card spec: IBM, Netscape, NCI, Sun, Visa, and others have issued a smart-card specification for software developers. The specification, OpenCard Framework 1.0, promises to simplify the use of smart cards, the companies say, across different PCs, network computers, automatic teller machines, point-of-sale terminals, set-top boxes, and handheld devices.
The Java-based spec establishes a common interface for both the smart-card reader and the application on the card. The group says it will introduce the OpenCard Framework technology into the international standards arena this year.
