OS/2 Warp 4 to get netted

IBM has included network and Internet features in the launch OS/2 Warp version 4, as predicted by PC Dealer in April.

The release introduces OS features designed for network computing, including Sun's Java technology, Internet additions and IBM's Voicetype speech recognition software.

Full speech recognition facilities are only available on systems based on an Intel Pentium 100 or faster processors with 24Mb or 32Mb of memory.

IBM claims Warp 4 is the first PC operating system to include Java and allow users to run Java applets independent of a Web browser package.

John M Thompson, senior VP and group executive at IBM's software group, said the firm is ensuring that its software range fits the way the industry is going. 'IBM envisions a future in which people have easy access to the information they need to work more productively.'

He said IBM software will help customers introduce network computing solutions based on open standards.