TIME EUROPE
MAY 8, 2000 VOL. 155 NO. 18
Techwatch
FAST FOOD MEETS THE WEB
Do You Want Fries with That E-Mail?
Following the success of the first Internet-enabled Burger King fast food restaurant in New York's Wall Street, patrons of the Burger King outlet in Times Square will this week be able to send electronic postcards or video clips over the Internet while munching on their hamburgers and fries. With the purchase of any value meal, New Yorkers and tourists alike will be given a ticket with a pin number that provides them with 20 minutes of free Internet access — enough time to write an e-mail or send a video postcard to friends and family back home. Burger King is launching the service in conjunction with consumer networking firm 3Com, which is installing its HomeConnect PC Digital WebCam in the restaurant's computer terminals. In addition to being able to send video e-mail clips, diners can also use the terminals to chat online or hold live video conferences with other Burger King customers — located either in the Times Square restaurant or the Wall Street branch. Both restaurants are the brainchild of franchisee Peter Allen Abramson, who installed 20 Pentium PCs in his Wall Street restaurant back in 1998. Abramson hopes to make Web access part of the fast food experience.
SURVEILLANCE
Watching the Web
Employers may know more than you would like them to, thanks to the surveillance software Investigator from WinWhatWhere. Investigator records all computer activity, storing every keystroke, document and e-mail, even those that are deleted without being sent or saved. The software also captures text from websites and e-mails — if it's on your screen, Investigator knows. And the software can run undetected on your hard drive.
WEB PHONES
Mexican Mobiles
Swedish telecoms giant Ericsson and leading Mexican wireless operator Telcel have teamed up to provide mobile data services in Mexico. Subscribers to the service, which is due to be launched this summer, will be able to use their cell phones to browse the Web, exchange e-mails, make purchases and locate restaurants whether they're in downtown Vera Cruz or atop an Inca pyramid.
CALL WAITING
Silence is Golden
we could soon be saved from the misery of listening to bland music while waiting in call queues. Queue Buster from NetCall registers a customer's call and phone number when a queue develops. When a company representative is free, Queue Buster calls the customer back.
SITE SEEING
Want to help illiterate children in the rural Madhya Pradesh region of central India learn to read? Go to www.fundaschool.org, a website launched last month by the Madhya Pradesh government to raise money for local primary schools. As little as $400 could fund a school for an entire year.
Political opponents of Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad plan to launch the country's first Web television service (at www.Harakahdaily.com) on May 3. The government recently forced the opposition newspaper Harakah to publish less frequently, so the editors are taking their coverage onto the Web.
WHAT'S NEXT
Tourist guide publisher Lonely Planet and mobile computing software maker Concept Kitchen have produced Lonely Planet CitySync, the first standalone digital travel guide for Palm platforms. The guides, currently available for 12 cities, allow searching by criteria for hotels and restaurants, and include scrollable interactive maps. They also allow you to add your own notes and comments to entries. CitySync can be downloaded at www.citysync.com and costs around $24 per city.
Digital photographers can say goodbye to complicated file transfers and fuzzy printouts. Thanks to American company Digi-Frame, it is now possible to display digital images without the need for a personal computer or printer. Just slot the digital camera's memory card into Digi-Frame's portable DF 390 device — or the desk-top DF 560 model — and pictures appear, individually or as a rolling slide show, on a backlit lcd screen set in a stylish plastic frame. The frames are available in silver, clear blue or wood. The Digi-Frame device can also be linked to a computer to download website or e-mail images from the Internet.
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May 8, 2000
COVER
Europe's Jobs Challenge
Lots of people need work. Lots of companies need workers. So why aren't they hooking up?
Staying Put
For many Europeans, there's no place like home
European Innovations
Europe's on-the-job education revolution
EUROPE
Crime Busters
With the arrival of a new task force in Hungary, the FBI steps up its fight against organized crime
Viewpoint
The euro's current woes reflect Europe's structural economic problems
Viewpoint
The U.N. hopes to ease the woes of the world, but it cannot keep the peace
MIDDLE EAST
No News Is Bad News
Jittery after recent reformist wins, Iran's hard-liners shut down the country's liberal press
AFRICA
Back to the Future
Johannesburg's criminal reputation is only half the story as this city starts to rediscover its buried gold
BUSINESS
Wired for Competition
Europe's sports websites compete just as hard as the teams they cover in order to win in cyberspace
Forcing Open the Market
Brussels plays the heavy to try to break telecom monopolies and allow high-speed Internet access
SCIENCE
Brave New Cells
Despite a U.S. government ban, research on "cure-all" embryo tissue widens
FASHION
Battle Deluxe
Titans LVMH and Gucci vie for dominance in the fashion world
Tommy Hilfiger
From new wave to wavering
DEPARTMENTS
Techwatch
World Watch
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