SEWALL@UCONNVM.BITNET (06/28/87)
VAPORWARE
Murphy Sewall
From the July 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
All Works and No Play.
Megahaus has cancelled plans for a desktop publishing
program titled "PageWorks" and has no immediate plans for
IIgs (only) software. Perhaps Megahaus found themselves
upstaged by Beagle Brother's "Variety Page" (tentative list
price of $49.95) which will allow two column printing,
imbedded Print Shop graphics, and fonts downloaded from
Beagle's Power Print with AppleWorks 2.0. If a LaserWriter
is handy, Appleworks 2.0 on a IIgs can print to the
LaserWriter without modification! - InCider June
Deja Vu.
Last July's column contained a rumor that Ashton-Tate's long
promised dBase Mac (going back to the April 1986 column)
would finally be shipped in August. This July, the rumor is
that it will be shipped this August. Last August
Ashton-Tate announced the release would be delayed until
December (when it was postponed again; see last January's
column). However, this time a shipment really may be
imminent. The product was demonstrated at the Businessland
connectivity conference in June. dBase Mac can read dBase
III and dBase III Plus files but does not run programs
written in the dBase III language. Meanwhile, Glass -
Ashton-Tate's "super" spreadsheet product for the Mac (April
1986 column -- you DO save your back issues of the PULP
don't you?) - is said to have finally been completed and may
be shipped "soon" (perhaps a further rumor will appear in
this space next July?). - InfoWorld 8 and 15 June
Why the LaserWriter is SO Expensive.
No fewer than six developers are vigorously at work
attempting to clone Adobe's Postscript language which has
become the industry standard for high performance printers.
Because Adobe currently is the only source, implementing
Postscript on a laser printer boosts its price about $2,000
to cover license fees (that may also explain why Postscript
will not be incorporated in Apple's Personal LaserWriter).
The proprietary part of Postscript involves how well
characters in different fonts are printed when stretched,
shrunk, and rotated. Whether less expensive printers based
on Postscript compatible code are worthwhile will depend on
how well they bit-map fonts. - InfoWorld 15 June
Macware.
A Color Paint program for the Macintosh (not from Apple) is
said to be ready for demonstration at the next Mac Expo.
Can a color output device be far behind (see last month's
column)? Meanwhile, Microsoft is busy working on Word 4.0.
It won't be a dramatic change from Word 3.0 but it will
include some desktop publishing features. September now
appears to be the earliest possible release date for the
Macintosh version of Word Perfect (originally announced for
last January). - InfoWorld 1 and 15 June
Malibu.
"You Can Take It to the Beach with You" is the slogan on the
T-shirts being worn by Apple insiders working on the
"Malibu" project which is developing the official Apple
flat-Mac. There are two prototypes both based on the Mac
Plus motherboard (68000 processor, 1-Mbyte of memory). At
the low end is 3.5 inch disk drive model with a high
resolution LCD screen. The high end model has a 20-Mbyte
internal disk drive and a optional electroluminescent
display. Anticipated price: $2,500. - PC Week 2 June
Mac III?
A Macintosh built around Motorla's newest processor, the
68030, is said to producing rather awesome graphics at Apple
headquarters in Cupertino. This future Mac uses the latest
68882 math coprocessor and hums along at 22 MHz. An easy
upgrade path from the Mac II is said to be inherent in the
design (see last January's Vaporware). - InfoWorld 1 June
EZ PC.
Zenith will introduce a single unit PC-clone with a
monochrome screen, a mouse, and a new Microsoft interface
for less than $1,000. The interface is designed to look
somewhat like a Macintosh screen with pull-down menus but no
icons. This model is due in stores in time for the
Christmas selling season. - Random Access 13 June
PC Ditto.
Avant Garde Systems of Jacksonville, Florida has
demonstrated an MS-DOS emulation program for the Atari 520
and 1040 computers. The software, titled "PC Ditto" will
allow IBM PC software to execute on the Atari "Jackintosh"
models for less than $90. - Random Access 13 June
Erasable Optical Storage.
Last April IBM announced that this Summer it would begin
shipping a Write Once Read Many times (WORM) optical mass
storage device. What hasn't been said is the drive, made by
Japan's Matsushita Electric, can be converted to operate
with erasable optical disks. The technology has already
been demonstrated in Japan, and the product will be
announced in the near future. Conventional optical disks
capable of storing a gigabyte or more are written by using a
strong laser to encode a series of tiny pits that deflect
laser light. Once those minute dents are made they cannot
be removed. However, the soon to be introduced technology
uses a focused laser to melt tiny spots which absorb laser
light on a crystalline surface. A diffuse beam can raise
the surface temperature enough to allow the spots to
recrystallize, producing a uniform reflective surface on
which new data can be recorded. A competing technology,
magneto-optics which uses a laser to alter and read magnetic
fields in tiny areas of more or less conventional disk
media, is expected from Kodak's Verbatim subsidiary and Sony
Corporation this Fall. - Business Week 15 June
Personal Mainframe Within a Decade.
No kidding folks, this is from an Intel press release.
Final specifications for the next generation processor (the
80486) have been completed. The processor, scheduled for
developer prototypes in 1990, will have four to five times
as many transistors as the 80386 and will combine CPU, math
coprocessor, memory management, I/O controller (including
communications), and high speed graphics support in a single
chip. The chip will operate at approximately 20 MIPS (yes
that IS twenty) which will make it comparable to the
performance of today's top-of-the-line IBM Sierra (309x
Series) mainframes. Intel Vice President David House
indicated that this processor along with falling memory
prices will make a high-speed, user-intuitive interface
built mainly in hardware feasible. - InfoWorld 15 June
Adapting to Juggler.
According to Switcher and Servant developer Andy Hertzfeld,
Macintosh users will have to obtain modified versions of
their software to run with Apple's forthcoming multi-tasking
operating system Juggler (see last May's Vaporware).
Hertzfeld says Juggler is not very different from Servant
but with an "Apple smell to it." He added that Apple could
have coded the program so that it would work with existing
applications but chose not to. - InfoWorld 1 June
LCD Display Breakthrough.
Image Displays, Ltd. of Harlow England will soon offer a new
LCD screen technology originally developed at ITT's British
research labs. The new display has much higher contrast
than current displays and remains legible from oblique
viewing angles. It also has much higher resolution than
existing laptop displays. - Business Week 8 June
Trade-Ins.
If the price of upgrading to an IBM PS/2 or a new Macintosh
has been holding you back, help is on the way. The NYNEX
chain has announced trade-in allowances for used Apple, IBM,
and Compaq computers of up to 50% of the list price of a new
system. Micro Age, Vacom, and other retailers are
considering similar programs. - Random Access 13 June