SEWALL@UCONNVM.BITNET (07/29/87)
VAPORWARE
Murphy Sewall
From the August APPLE PULP
H.U.G.E. Apple Club (E. Hartford) News Letter
$15/year
P.O. Box 18027
East Hartford, CT 06118
Call the "Bit Bucket" (203) 569-8739
Permission granted to copy with the above citation
Apple II Online.
Quantamlink (Q-link), which runs an online service tailored
to Commodore 64 and C-218 computers, is said to be planning
a new service for Apple II owners. Sources say the service
will emphasize educational applications.
- Random Access 11 July
Program Revisions for the Mac II.
Latest revisions of Macware (free upgrades from your dealer
until September 31). MacWrite 4.6 compatible with full page
monitors and supports arrow keys. MacTerminal 2.2
compatible with the Apple Keyboard and Extended Apple
Keyboard. MacProject 1.2 is multi-user and includes support
for color on the Mac II. MacDraw 1.9.5 is multi-user and
features multilaunch capabilities with support for
additional fonts and a 75% improvement in loading speed (may
not be available until later in August). Also, Living Video
Text is readying More 1.1C and Borland will be introducing a
new version of Reflex. - InfoWorld 13 and 20 July
Lisa Born Again.
The Macintosh's official multitasking operating system,
Juggler (which will require Finder 6.0) will permit Mac and
MS-DOS operations to run simultaneously on Mac's with an AST
coprocessor card. Providing the applications are written to
support Juggler (a task developers say is relatively easy),
software running in one partition will be able to update a
program running in another partition. As distributed to
developers, Finder 6.0 and Juggler contain more than 170
Kbytes of code. - PC Week 14 July
IIgs Only.
A new magazine specifically for IIgs owners called the Apple
IIgs Buyer's Guide is about to be published as a quarterly
by Redgate Communications of Florida.
- Random Access 11 July
But Will it Play Pac Man?
Atari says it's coming out with a "souped-up" version of its
1040ST configured especially for desktop publishing. Called
the "Mega-ST," the computer and laser printer will list for
under $3,000 - Random Access 18 July
Wala-ing in Success?
Apple's decision to spin-off a separate company to market
software means that products containing the word "Apple"
will have to be renamed in order to establish a distinct
identity. Sources close to the company say plans are
underway to add a Sanskrit suffix to the program titles.
For example, AppleWorks and AppleWriter will become
WorksWala and WriterWala. Apple's trademark lawyers
reportedly were recently seen in Bombay negotiating Asian
rights to the suffix from the Bata Rickshaw Company.
- Open Apple (tongue-in-cheek) July
Making it Perfectly Clear.
Apple's new software spin-off company will be named
"Claris," based on the Latin word for "clarity." It's less
clear why Mac Terminal and the new Hypercard "information
utility and course authoring system" will continue to be
labeled and marketed by Apple - on the notion that these
programs are "system software" (?). Apple will bundle
Hypercard with new Macs and make it available at a nominal
price to current Mac owners. Some third party developers
are said to regard that decision as unfair competition.
- InfoWorld 13 and 20 July
Apple Unix (Yup, Still Continued).
Apple's Unix operating system for the Macintosh (A/UX) won't
ship in August as planned (see June's column), or even
September. It now looks like it will appear in November,
about the time when universities start receiving Mac II's in
quantity. - InfoWorld 20 July
Online Graphics.
Graphics-Net, a graphics system slated to be inaugurated
this Fall, will deliver camera ready artwork directly to
Macintosh computers owned by Associated Press subscribers.
Black and white pictures can be received in one minute and
color in three minutes. This online graphic service will
permit size editing and enhancing not possible with simple
facsimile transmission. - Random Access 27 June
MS-DOS External Drives for Mac.
DaynaFile from Dayna Communications gives any Mac with an
SCSI port access to files created by MS-DOS applications.
The external DaynaFile is available in dual 5.25 or 3.5
inch; it also is possible to configure the drives with one
5.25 and one 3.5 inch MS-DOS drive. Pricing has not been
finalized, but a DaynaFile with a single 360K 5.25 inch
floppy and software to import and export files as a
conventional Macintosh file folder is expected to retail for
$595 (a 1.2 Mbyte 5.25 drive also will be offered).
- PC Week 23 June
Mac in Color.
This Fall will see a growing choice of color monitors
specifically designed to support the Mac II. Apple's 13
inch ($999), Supermac's 19 inch ($2,995), Taxan's 14 inch
($895), Quadram's 12 inch ($795), NEC's 20 inch ($3,199) and
15 inch ($1,399), Princeton's 12 inch ($795), and
Mitsubishi's 19 inch ($2,872). Take your pick.
- InfoWorld 20 July
Multiple Choice Writing.
Textgen of San Mateo, California is about to introduce
computer aided writing. The program, also called Textgen,
creates a letter from the answers to a series of multiple
choice questions. If the first draft isn't satisfactory,
Testgen will try again, and the resulting letter can be
edited manually (as a last resort). - Random Access 20 June
Longhand Computing.
Communications Intelligence of Menlo Park, New Jersey has
announced a new product called Handwriting. A PC board and
writing tablet that permits handwritten text to be entered
into standard word processing, data base, and spreadsheet
programs. - Random Access 18 July
A Clean Desk (Real, not Virtual).
A Southern California company called Heartbeat plans to
launch an 80386 computer built into the leg of a desk.
Nothing shows on the desktop but the keyboard and monitor.
The company is promising to sell it for 30% less than the
IBM PS/2 Model 80 (including the furniture). It'll be lots
of fun when it needs to be taken in for a repair.
- InfoWorld 22 June
Tandy Laptop.
Now that the Reagan Administration has relented a little on
the tariff penalties slapped on Japanese electronics, Tandy
is once again planning to introduce an MS-DOS laptop priced
under $2,000 (see the June column). The computer is said to
be faster than the Toshiba 1100 Plus laptop which it
resembles. - Random Access 20 June and InfoWorld 22 June
PS/2 Clones (Continuing Saga).
Olivetti appears likely to be first on the market with a
clone of IBM's new PS/2 series. Olivetti has shown dealers
a Model 30 (8086 based) compatible that has both 5.25 and
3.5 inch floppy drives and a 20 Mbyte hard disk. Olivetti
says their clone will support VGA graphics, supposedly the
most difficult part of the PS/2 technology to duplicate.
The company also is showing an 80386 model that uses an
"interim OS/2" operating system called "Topjob" which claims
to do multi-tasking. Unisys also has announced a PS/2 Model
80 (80386) compatible to be released later this year. -
Random Access 11 and 18 July
Is it Still A Typewriter?
IBM has introduced its latest top-of-the-line Personal
Typing System. It's a PS/2 Model 30 CPU with a separate
monitor and printer.
- Random Access 18 July
Super Desktop Computer.
Cray Research expects to deliver the Cray III by mid-1990.
The Cray III will be 500 times faster than the Cray I and
will be small enough to sit on a desktop.
The Computer Chronicles 20 June
Medicinal Vaporware.
Researchers at Purdue say that a 3-dimensional model of the
atomic structure of the common cold virus constructed on the
University's computer has pinpointed locations where
anti-viral drugs can be attached (which may finally cure the
common cold). - Random Access 18 July