Internet integration in Comdex spotlight

November 21, 1996
Web posted at: 2:30 a.m. EST

From Correspondent Dennis Michael

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA (CNN) - For the last couple of years, the Internet has been almost inescapable. But many of the products rolled out at this week's Comdex computer show are designed to make the Internet invisible to the user.

Microsoft's Office 97, an office suite previewed at Comdex, is an example. Office 97 users, Microsoft promises, will be able to publish information on corporate networks or on the Internet from within such applications as Word and Excel.

"You don't have to load up a separate browser," said Dave Fester, Microsoft's Internet product manager. "It doesn't take any additional memory, and it's easy for the end user to work with data on the local computer and work on the Internet."

This integration of the Internet is part of Microsoft's overall strategy, Chairman and CEO Bill Gates told a standing-room-only crowd at Comdex Tuesday. "The big business story from Microsoft this last year was how we switched to really take the Internet as a top priority, and got that into all of our products. And I think that's true for the industry," Gates said.

Users who don't have a permanent sophisticated connection to the 'Net can still maintain constant contact through the wireless network used by pagers. AirMedia uses this network with a special pyramid-shaped antenna to receive news updates, stock quotes, and even to notify users that they have e-mail.

"You plug in, and you're immediately connected to the wireless network that you probably don't even know you have installed in your homes and offices," said AirMedia president John Payne. "And it starts listening to this constant wireless broadcast that comes off the Internet."

Comdex, the world's largest computer show, is in Las Vegas through Friday.

Special section:

CNN Interactive's extended coverage

• COMDEX Special Section

Related story:

• Waterproof computers, invisible networks make COMDEX debut - November 19, 1996

Related sites:

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• COMDEX Webcast
• COMDEX Online
  • COMDEX/Fall '96
• Microsoft

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