Screensaver pioneer Berkeley Systems Inc, whose After Dark product still dominates the Macintosh screensaver market, has followed PointCast Inc in extending the screensaver concept towards Web publishing and broadcasting. The latest version, After Dark 4.0, includes After Dark Online, which provides stock quotes and financial information from Data Broadcasting Corporation, and feeds to publications such as Sports Illustrated Online, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition and Ziff-Davis’ ZDNet for computer news. There are also 20 new animated displays. After Dark Online is available on the $30 After Dark 4.0 CD, which also includes AT&T WorldNet Service software and Netscape’s Navigator browser for users who want to get on line. But it’s also available free over the Web from http://www.afterdark.com. After Dark 4.0 and Online are available in both Macintosh and Windows 95 versions, but given PointCast’s Inc’s delay in bringing out Mac versions of its own software, that’s where the biggest market opportunity must lie for Berkeley. A Macintosh version of the PointCast Network was due to go into beta testing this fall, but hasn’t done so yet.
