Apple unleashes CyberDog 2.0

Not to be upstaged by Netscape Communications' (NSCP) recent "preview release" of its Communicator product, Apple Computer (AAPL) has posted an alpha version of its CyberDog 2.0 Internet suite for the Macintosh.

Like Navigator, CyberDog is a collection of integrated Internet applications, including a Web browser, FTP client, and an email and news reader. Because CyberDog isn't nearly as popular with Mac users as Navigator, Apple will incorporate the Netscape browser into the CyberDog suite in a future release, due out sometime in 1997. Apple also plans to incorporate CyberDog into a future release of the Mac OS.

For now, Apple has continued to refine its own Web browser. The alpha version of CyberDog 2.0 includes a number of improvements to the browser, including support for frames, animated GIF images, cookies, background colors for tables, and HTML performance improvements.

Apple has also enhanced its email and news reader, adding features such as automatic image conversion when an image is sent, support for binary files in news articles, a spell check, and interface improvements.

CyberDog 2.0 is available from Apple's Web site.