MacWorld highlights

Spring MacWorld was held last week in San Francisco and while the showdidn't have any of the drama of last summer's event, Apple's interim CEOSteve Jobs managed to pull a few surprises out of his hat. Chief among these is Apple's expected $45 million profit for the current quarter.

"We are thrilled that our new plans are beginning to work," said Jobs. "While there is still lots of work to do, Apple is clearly coming back as amajor player."

Jobs noted that strong sales of the new "G3" Power Macintosh computerscontributed to Apple's bottom line. The new Apple online store has quicklybecome one of the Internet's most profitable commerce sites as well.

Microsoft announced that Office 98, Macintosh Edition, would ship laterthis month at MacWorld as well, noting that this version of Office offers Macintosh users advanced functionality, such as self-repairing applications, that won't become available to Windows users until Office 99for Windows ships in late 1998 or early 1999.

Additionally, Apple Computer announced Mac OS 8.1, an update to Mac OS 8, that includes enhanced Java support, an improved file system, and supportfor DVD. Mac OS 8.1 is free to Mac OS 8.0 users.

Also leaked the week of MacWorld: Larry Ellison confirmed that Apple Computer will release a Network Computer (NC) this year.

"Initially they will be Mac OS-based NCs for education and home. I could get myself in trouble for saying this...if I say any more, I’ll get more email from [Steve Jobs]," Ellison said