SEWALL@UCONNVM.BITNET (05/29/87)
VAPORWARE
Murphy Sewall
From the June 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
Reading MS-DOS 3.5 inch Format on a Mac.
In early 1988, Apple will retrofit the Macintosh SE and Mac
II with a new disk controller chip that will allow their 3.5
inch disk drives to read and write MS-DOS-formatted disks.
The chip is pin-compatible with the controller now used in
the SE and II. - PC Week 5 May and InfoWorld 11 May
Forever in a Day.
Apparently the battery (that runs the clock) soldered to the
motherboard of the Mac II that Apple claims will last
forever (that's 12 years to computer engineers) has been
dying after only a month or two of service at university
test sites. Apple evidently is reluctant to confront the
problem because they have enough of the batteries in
inventory to last until the end of the year (or two months,
whichever comes first). - InfoWorld 27 April
Apple Unix (cont).
Details about Unix for the Macintosh II (A/UX) were reported
in April's column. The latest is that the release date
won't be until August - too late to have much impact during
the Fall semester. About 30 universities have been given
beta copies of A/UX, and reaction is said to be very good.
- InfoWorld 11 May
Other Mac Stuff.
The Atasi subsidiary of Tandon of Chatsworth, California is
about to announce a 120 megabyte hard disk for the Mac II.
Apple is planning a whole line of color printers for the
Mac. At the low end is a dot matrix printer with a seven
color ribbon. An inkjet model that uses a radical new
printhead and superfast-drying ink that doesn't smear should
be announced soon, and quiet negotiations are underway with
Toshiba about color photocopying techniques (a color
LaserWriter). For something to print, try Migent's
multiuser (Appleshare or Ethernet) desktop publishing
program tentatively named Impact (code-name Lightning) due
for the Plus, SE, and II for $395 this Summer.
- InfoWorld 27 April and 18 May
Falling Laser Printer Prices
Competition among laser printer producers is beginning to
heat up and force down prices at last. C.Itoh has
introduced the five page per minute Jet-Setter for $1,795.
Scheduled to begin shipping in July, the Jet-Setter comes
standard with Laserjet Plus emulation - Diablo 630 and Epson
FX-86e emulation cartridges also are available. A graphics
module to expand memory to 1.5 megabytes and provide an
upgrade path for desktop publishing and other sophisticated
applications will soon be offered for under $700.
Meanwhile, Okidata has cut the price of its LaserLine 6
printer to $1,795 and its Laserjet Plus Advanced Interface
to $200. At the high end, Apple's 20 page per minute
LaserWriter offering resolution up to 600 dots per inch
(double the current value) should be available by
Christmas.
- PC Week 28 April and 5 May and InfoWorld 27 April
9600 Baud Smartmodem.
If you haven't bought a 2400 baud modem yet, you may want to
simply waif until 9600 baud becomes widespread. Hayes is
expected to introduce its own 9600 baud model at Comdex.
The anticipated price is $1,299 which will be lower than
many 9600 baud brands already on the market.
- PC Week 19 May
Update on Microsoft Word 3.0
Microsoft will deliver an updated version of Word 3.0 in
late June. The update will run on the Mac II and fix
several bugs in the version released a few months ago. The
new version will be free to current registered owners of
Word 3.0. - InfoWorld 27 April
Easy as 1-2-3.
Lotus Development has announced a mainframe version of its
1-2-3 spreadsheet software to be distributed jointly with
IBM early next year. A similar agreement with DEC is said
to be in the works. A major revision of the PC version of
Lotus 1-2-3 (release 3) with improved graphics, ability to
consolidate spreadsheet and an expanded programming facility
also has been announced for early 1988. At about the same
time it was revealed that for the last three years IBM
insiders have been using a Lotus 1-2-3 clone names simply
"S" that was written at the T.J. Watson Research Center to
avoid having to pay for multiple copies of 1-2-3 (IBM's
researcher also are said to have amused themselves by
writing and 3270 emulation for the Macintosh - a program not
likely to ever be marketed).
- Business Week 11 May and PC Week 5 and 12 May and
InfoWorld 18 May
Open the Windows.
One of the best known examples of vaporware (because it took
so long to develop and had several announced release dates),
Microsoft's Windows, appears to be the winning entry as an
MS-DOS interface over Digital Research's GEM and IBM's own
Topview. Developers writing applications for IBM's
"presentation manager" feature of OS/2 should follow Windows
not Topview according to an IBM spokesman who insisted that
Topview remains "strategic," whatever that means.
- InfoWorld 4 May
Tandy 386.
Tandy will introduce an 80386 computer and an under $2,500
HP compatible laser printer (not including a page
description language which will be extra) later this year.
Tandy stopped short of declaring that the new computer would
be fully compatible with IBM's PS/2. Meanwhile, the new
Tandy MS-DOS laptop, made by Kyocera of Japan, has been
clobbered by the new electronic parts tariff and has been
shelved. - InfoWorld 27 April and 4 May
PS/2 Clones (cont).
For the near future news about planned PS/2 clones is likely
to be a regular feature. Advance Logic Research (ALR) of
Irvine, California is said to have a prototype already that
they hope to market for about one-half IBM's price. Rumor
has it that Compaq also has a clone in the lab but doesn't
plan to market it until corporate users have convincingly
demonstrated a commitment to switching to the new system.
Meanwhile, bargain basement marketer PC Limited has
announced its own 386 machine for June that it says will
outperform both the IBM PS/2 Model 80 and the Compaq 386.
- PC Week 28 April and Random Access 2 May
Mix and Match PC Add-on Boards.
A small Flemington, NJ startup is about to offer an
expansion box for about $800 that will allow current
generation MS-DOS expansion cards to work with a Micro
Channel equipped PS/2. Another version may follow which
will permit boards designed for the Micro Channel to run on
older AT models. - PC Week 28 April
Flat Technology Monitor.
By August Zenith will be shipping a new flat screen
technology monitor that has virtually no geometric
distortion, no glare, and an image more than 50% brighter
than current a CRT. Suggested price will be $999.
- PC Week 19 May
The World at Your Fingertips.
A company named Datatext has announced a CD-ROM that will
contain information about 85% of the World's economy. The
disk, called CD International, will contain complete
financial information for the World's top 4,000 companies
spanning 25 industries in 24 countries. The disk plus a
year's worth of monthly updates will be available for only
$20,000 (perhaps you can split the cost with a neighbor).
- Random Access 2 May
Needs Refrigeration.
The latest high tech acronym is SQUID, for Superconductive
QUantam Interference Device, the very latest thing for
making computers run faster than ever. IBM has announced
the first practical SQUID device operating at only 337
degrees below zero (a liquid nitrogen environment).
Scientists believe that such devices capable of operating at
temperatures achieved in home freezers will be possible in
the next decade (in time for the PS/3 or Macintosh III
perhaps). - Random Access 2 May