After Dark Online, Internet News Delivery For The Masses; Berkeley Systems Creates Free Collection of Stand-Alone Internet Screen Savers For Consumers.BERKELEY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--September 16, 1996--Berkeley Systems, Inc., a leader in the consumer software market, today announced the new After Dark Online, a stand-alone collection of free screen saver A utility that was originally created to prevent a CRT from being etched by an unchanging image. After a specified duration of time without keyboard or mouse input, it blanks the screen or displays moving objects. Pressing a key or moving the mouse restores the screen. displays, or "channels" engineered specifically for consumers. After Dark Online delivers news and information from top national news, sports, financial, and computer industry sources along with stock quotes, and sports scores from the Internet, and displays it in screen saver form. After Dark Online will be available for free download on September 30th, at www.afterdark.com and is also available in the new After Dark 4.0 Screen Saver. "It was a natural progression for us to integrate the Internet into After Dark," stated Julie Wainwright Wainwright, town (1991 pop. 4,732), E Alta., Canada, SE of Edmonton and near the Sask. border. It is a trade center and railroad division point for an oil and natural gas area. It has oil refineries, grain elevators, and flour mills. Nearby is a military base. , President and COO of Berkeley Systems Berkeley Systems was a San Francisco Bay Area software company cofounded in 1987 by Wes Boyd and Joan Blades. It made money early on by doing contract work for the National Institutes of Health, specifically in making modifications to the Macintosh so that it could be usable by . "Nearly half of Berkeley's After Dark owners are online and they were clamoring clam·or n. 1. A loud outcry; a hubbub. 2. A vehement expression of discontent or protest: a clamor in the press for pollution control. 3. A loud sustained noise. for an Internet news delivery system designed with consumers' needs in mind." After Dark Online uses the standard After Dark interface that millions are already familiar with. Designed specifically with the mass market consumer in mind, After Dark Online is easy, fast, and fun to use. This collection of consumer oriented screen saver channels does not require T1 lines to operate efficiently, allowing users with 28.8 or even 14.4 Baud modems to access the news they need. T1 lines, typically used by businesses and not general consumers, can accommodate greater amounts of data than the analog lines A wire (cable) that carries an analog signal. See analog. employed by 14.4 and 28.8 Baud modems. Users can also schedule downloads of After Dark Online updates for greater control. And, because After Dark Online is backwards compatible See backward compatible. backwards compatible - backward compatibility with all members of the After Dark product family, users can enjoy an entertaining mix of their After Dark animated displays and Internet news channels by selecting the popular "Randomizer In telecommunication, the term randomizer has the following meanings: 1. A device used to invert the sense of pseudorandomly selected bits of a bit stream to avoid long sequences of bits of the same sense (also referred to as scrambler). " feature. In After Dark Online, Berkeley Systems has partnered with top branded sources to provide timely, in-depth news that's updated around the clock, delivering users coverage of the news that's affecting them. After Dark Online retrieves information from the various content providers' sites and dynamically illustrates the news right on the desktop in screen saver form. Saving consumers the time and trouble of searching the Internet to find the news they want, After Dark Online is the easy-to-get-at and comprehensive news delivery system. After Dark Online allows users to tailor the information they receive, delivering only the news that is of interest to them. For example, a user can customize the various channels by indicating from which sections he or she would like to receive news. Each Internet "channel" offers a wealth of material, and users can easily choose only those topics that are of interest to them. Moreover, to receive the complete story, users simply click on the article of interest and are immediately connected to the channel's corresponding Web site. Even updating information in the screen saver channel takes no more than a few minutes. And, the user determines how frequently the news is to be refreshed; either with a simple mouse-click or by a custom schedule. Users are online only for news updates; then the news acts as a screen saver. After Dark Online utilizes both the Internet Service Provider Internet service provider (ISP) Company that provides Internet connections and services to individuals and organizations. For a monthly fee, ISPs provide computer users with a connection to their site (see data transmission), as well as a log-in name and password. (ISP (1) See in-system programmable. (2) (Internet Service Provider) An organization that provides access to the Internet. Connection to the user is provided via dial-up, ISDN, cable, DSL and T1/T3 lines. ) and browser that is already installed on the user's machine. After Dark Online is also compatible with most of today's popular browsers. Additionally, Berkeley Systems will be announcing its partnerships with After Dark Online's top branded news sources over the next two weeks. Founded in 1987, Berkeley Systems, Inc. develops and markets multimedia entertainment software for grown-ups. To date, the privately held Company privately held company A firm whose shares are held within a relatively small circle of owners and are not traded publicly. has sold over five million units and is a leading innovator in the marketplace. Leveraging the success of its widely known After Dark screen saver franchise, Berkeley Systems recently established a second franchise with the irreverent ir·rev·er·ent adj. 1. Lacking or exhibiting a lack of reverence; disrespectful. 2. Critical of what is generally accepted or respected; satirical: irreverent humor. pop-culture trivia game You Don't Know Jack You Don't Know Jack is a series of computer games developed by Jellyvision and Berkeley Systems. YDKJ, promoted as the games "where high culture and pop culture collide," combine trivia with comedy. . With an eye on the future, Berkeley Systems continues to produce cutting-edge titles that offer unique experiences and take advantage of the latest technology and online advancements. Note to Editors: A demo of After Dark Online will be available after September 30th. For more information, please contact DeEtte Christie or Monica Granados at (510) 540-5535 or pr@berksys.com. Additional information on Berkeley Systems and its portfolio of products is available at www.berksys.com. CONTACT: Berkeley Systems, Inc. DeEtte Christie/Monica Granados, (510) 540-5535 http://www.berksys.com pr@berksys.com |
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