Apple Unveils Internet Strategy

MACWORLD EXPO, SAN FRANCISCO—January 5, 2000—Apple® today took the wraps off its highly anticipated Internet strategy, introducing a new category of Internet services called iTools; a completely redesigned Apple.com web site featuring iReview and iCards; and a multi-year partnership and investment with Earthlink for Internet access (see related release).


iTools is a revolutionary new category of Internet services that takes advantage of Apple’s unique technology on both ends of the Internet—the operating system on the client side (Mac® OS 9) and the services software running on Apple’s Internet servers (iTools). Providing the software on both ends of the Internet offers Apple the unprecedented ability to offer services impossible to implement solely on Internet servers.


“Our new iReviews, iCards and the revolutionary iTools offer amazing new ways for Mac users to take full advantage of the Internet,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s iCEO. “Mac users can now do things on the Internet that Wintel users can only dream of.”


iTools is free to Macintosh® users running the Mac OS 9 operating system, and can be accessed at Apple.com using any Internet connection. Apple’s first four iTools premiere today:

• KidSafe, a breakthrough way to protect our kids on the Internet. KidSafe specifies what kids can see, rather than trying to filter out what they shouldn’t see. KidSafe downloads a software module into the computer’s operating system, which then verifies that each requested web destination is KidSafe by checking with Apple’s KidSafe server. Apple’s server contains over 50,000 KidSafe sites, with over 10,000 new sites being added per month. All KidSafe sites are approved by certified teachers and librarians. KidSafe can also disable Internet email, chat sites and games;
  
  
  
• Mac.com, an email service run by Apple. Mac.com gives users an exclusive address on the Internet and works with standard POP email clients, such as Outlook Express, Eudora and Netscape Communicator. Mac.com users can easily set up automatic replies and forwarding of their email to other email addresses, and configure Outlook Express for their Mac.com mailbox from a simple web page;
  
  
  
• iDisk, 20 megabytes of personal Internet-based storage on Apple’s Internet Servers. iDisk is an entirely new way to store, transfer and share files over the Internet, and it’s as easy as using a folder on your Mac® desktop; and
  
  
  
• HomePage, the easiest way to build your own personal web site in less than 10 minutes and host it on Apple’s Internet servers. Your personal web site can include electronic photo albums, iMovies™, resumes, announcements, etc., and you can update it as often as you like. HomePage sites are created and managed from an easy-to-use web page, and can easily incorporate materials such as photos and iMovies which have been copied onto the author’s iDisk.
  
  
  

  “In addition to being an educator, I’m also a parent, and KidSafe is a very simple and straightforward way to protect both students and my kids from inappropriate web sites,” said Jeff Anderson, director of Information Services and Technology for Deer Valley Unified School District in Glendale, AZ. “KidSafe allows you to put the computer back in your child’s room without having to worry about what web sites they have access to.”


“A very compelling aspect of KidSafe in education is that it provides teacher-level control of the Internet sites that their students have access to,” said Roger Hoyer, associate superintendent of Technology, New Haven Unified School District in Union City, CA. “There is a tremendous amount of administration schools have to do in order to provide Internet access to their students. KidSafe is a great way to alleviate that by providing an easy way to customize what students see.”


The newly redesigned Apple.com web site features iReview and iCards. iReview is the Internet’s finest web site review guide, with web sites reviewed and rated by Apple. iReview currently contains over 250 reviewed and rated sites, with over 1,000 expected by summer 2000. iCards is Apple’s electronic greeting card site, offering premium greetings cards that can be sent and viewed via standard email.


On the new Apple.com, iTools, iReview and iCards join the existing online Store, QuickTime™ and Support areas in a tab bar which is always at the top of every page on the site, dramatically increasing the visibility of these highly-trafficked areas.


Pricing and Availability
Membership to iTools is free to Macintosh users running Mac OS 9. iReview and iCards are free to all computer users. iTools, iReview and iCards are available at Apple’s web site at www.apple.com via any Internet connection.