Seattle’s RealNetworks said Tuesday it had released the completed version of its Internet music and video player, RealOne, and added a function that plays music and videos back more quickly. The free, downloadable RealOne player has been generally available since December and replaces the company’s previous version, called RealPlayer. The “gold” version released Tuesday includes TurboPlay, which the company said plays back music and video clips nearly instantly, but that function will only be available for people who subscribe to the company’s paid content offerings. Currently, it can take anywhere from several seconds to several minutes for clips to load from the Internet.

United Airlines mechanics and aircraft cleaners voted Tuesday on a contract settlement that would give them their first raise since 1994 and end a bitter two-year dispute. The contract was expected to be approved, removing a key obstacle for the struggling carrier as it pursues a recovery plan aimed at stemming its financial hemorrhaging. The 12,800 mechanics and cleaners resoundingly rejected a previous contract offer three weeks ago and authorized a strike. But United sweetened the terms of the five-year pact and negotiators reached a tentative agreement Feb. 18, barely 36 hours before a walkout that would have grounded the airline.

The economy may not have fallen into recession after all, according to Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill. He noted the economy, as measured by the gross domestic product, shrank at an annual rate of 1.3 percent in the July-September quarter last year, reflecting the jolt of the Sept. 11 terror attacks on economic weaknesses already in place. In the fourth quarter, however, a resurgent but still-weak economy grew at a rate of 1.4 percent, the government reported last week. One rule of thumb for classifying a recession is two consecutive quarters of declining GDP, which did not happen in this downturn. The National Bureau of Economic Research, the unofficial arbiter of recessions, declared in November that the country had fallen into recession in March 2001.

Having achieved his goal of making Amazon.com profitable – for a quarter, at least – the chief financial officer of the Internet retailer announced his resignation Tuesday. Warren Jenson said that he had privately told Amazon founder Jeff Bezos as much as a year ago that he intended to make Amazon profitable and then “evaluate my next step for my own development.” The company still has a lot of work to do, however – although it was able to make money on strong holiday gift-buying, it has not said when it expects to make money again.

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