http://www.zdnet.com/pcmag/issues/1507/pcmg0015.htm (PC Press Internet CD, 03/1996)

PC Magazine -- April 9, 1996

All the News, All the Time

PointCast serves up online information as a ticker.

The latest Internet enhancement product to generate a buzz is PointCast, a screen saver that's linked to the Internet and designed to cull a personalized grab bag of information--news headlines, security quotes, sports scores, and weather forecasts--then display the information on-screen in lieu of standard screen-saver fare.

According to PointCast CEO Chris Hassett--formerly the head of research at Adobe--the product "combines the power of the Internet with the convenience of broadcast news to personalize information without wasting valuable time searching the Internet." Like the constantly rolling ticker tape on CNBC, PointCast's information is continuously changing, along with advertisements, which are also customized to your interests.

PointCast's software is sponsored by Electronic Data Systems, Fidelity Investments, and General Motors. The content providers that are stocking PointCast's "channels" include AccuWeather, Reuters, S&P Comstock's stock ticker, and Variety.

PointCast now distributes the software and information updates for free from its Web site (http://www.pointcast.com), but eventually the business model will change from advertisers subsidizing the software's distribution to advertisers paying to place ads based on the software's circulation. The PointCast Network Plug-in will be written to the Netscape Navigator plug-in API, so that Navigator 2.0 users can view PointCast.

Although its business model and enabling technology are very different, Ex Machina's recently announced AirMedia Live! is also a one-stop front end for quickly digested online information. The Ex Machina software used an ISA board, which receives information wirelessly from all kinds of online content providers. The one key difference, though, is price. Ex Machina costs users $200 to start--with customized news feeds sending the monthly costs to $20 or more--but PointCast is free to users.

--Sebastian Rupley