Interesting Information

Anyone have a good connection to this team?  It would be good to make sure 
PRISM is tuned to create pages that are easy for people who are blind to 
use and navigate.

Gregg





 #: 874483179 S0/Newsbytes  [NEWSBYTE]
     17-Sep-97  00:59:46
 Sb: Spyglass' Prism Displays Web Content On Non-PC Devices

Spyglass' Prism Displays Web Content On Non-PC Devices NAPERVILLE,
ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1997 SEP 16 (NB) -- By Bob Woods. Spyglass [NASDAQ:SPYG]
is rolling out its Prism 1.0 product, described as a content converter that
resides on the World Wide Web proxy server that translates Web-based
content for Internet-enabled devices that may not necessarily be able to
display most of the Web's content. Geoworks [NASDAQ:GWRX] and GTE
[NYSE:GTE] have already licensed Prism 1.0 for various products.

Because Prism lies on the proxy server, it does not require any special
software to be installed on the client, and will work with any browser such
as Spyglass Device Mosaic or those provided by Microsoft, Netscape, Diba,
Geoworks, Navio, and others.

Devices like personal digital assistants (PDAs), smart cellular phones,
handheld computers, and other non-PC units aren't capable of displaying Web
content in a standard form, Spyglass said, or their relatively slow
connections make accessing it impractical. Spyglass Prism takes standard
Web content originally formatted for PCs and adapts it to the devices'
various displays, alleviating the need for changes to existing content or
proprietary software on the device, making Prism an open solution that
works with all Web content, browsers and ISPs.

Spyglass Product Marketing Manager Paul Chapple told Newsbytes that Prism
maintains a database that examines what kind of device is trying to access
a particular Web page. "The database then says, `For optimum display, this
device can handle X,'" Chapple said. "If you're being dialed into by a
screen phone that doesn't have certain capabilities, we're going to strip
some content out." For example, most Java applets will not be translated
for such devices when Prism is used, he said.

"We also see a lot of performance gains when we take a full color graphic
and make it a gray scale on the server for devices that can see black and
white graphics," he said.

Before the introduction of Spyglass Prism, the only alternative content
providers had to support devices was to create a customized version of
their content for each specific device, Spyglass added.

Spyglass is already in two pacts involving Prism, Chapple said. First,
Geoworks, a provider of smart cellular phone software solutions, is
creating a product that will enable users to easily access Web pages from
smart cellular phones. GTE is using Spyglass technology, along with
technology from M-Power Corp., to develop enhanced-display telephones for
traditional voice services plus add-on Web-based applications such as
visual voice mail, on- line directories searching and Internet telephony.

Chapple said these two agreements, which were reached before Prism hit the
market, speak to the product's potential. "Geoworks took the first copy for
cellular service providers, and GTE is the second licensee. Clearly, if
we're making these announcements the same day that Prism 1.0 ships, we were
pretty far down the road before the product was even announced."

Spyglass soon expects to announce agreements with a unnamed cellular
manufacturer and a consumer electronics manufacturer that makes Windows CE
devices regarding Prism, Chapple said.

Future releases of Prism are expected to include text-to-voice capabilities
for cellular phones, and language translations of Web pages, he also said.

Prism 1.0 is now shipping, Chapple said, with a cost starting at $50,000
for binaries and $200,000 for sources.

Spyglass' Web site is at http://www.spyglass.com .

(19970916/Press Contacts: Chandler Bigelow, Spyglass, 630-245-6656/
Reported By Newsbytes News Network: http://www.newsbytes.com
/SPYGLASSLOGO/PHOTO)

Received on Sunday, 21 September 1997 22:56:41 UTC