peter@aucs.uucp (Peter Steele) (08/15/89)
There seems to be very little talk about MacWorld. I didn't make it
down this year so I'd like to see a summary of the event, the good,
the impressive, the what-have-you. Something new and exciting must have
turned up....
--
Peter Steele, Microcomputer Applications Analyst
Acadia University, Wolfville, NS, Canada B0P1X0 (902)542-2201x121
UUCP: {uunet|watmath|utai|garfield}!dalcs!aucs!Peter
BITNET: Peter@Acadia Internet: Peter%Acadia.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDUkent@lloyd.camex.uucp (Kent Borg) (08/16/89)
Peter Steele asks: "So what happened at MacWorld?" Answer: Nothing. 1) Apple had nothing to say or announce, except that MultiMedia is real cool. 2) Boston wasn't sweltering this year. Nice early in the show, rained towards the end. 3) Symantec was there upgrading Lightspeed C to Think C. Faster than waiting for UPS/whomever. (No one's posting show reports because they are too busy reading the new Think C manual.) The Objects are coming! The Objects are coming! 4) The Friday night Apple party was very hard to get invitations to, and many of those who did manage one, were turned away at the door (as early as 11pm) by a bouncer who said it was over, that the times on the invitations were a misprint. The one third-hand report I have had from the inside of the party is that the food was skimpy, nothing special all around. 5) The Microtech booth was busy selling SIMMs for $109. A booth at the World Trade Center site (sorry, I forgot the name) was selling high-profile, slow SIMMs for $99; $109 for the low-profile, 100 ns flavor. I bought 4 Microtech megs for my Plus at home. Makes it a respectable machine again. 6) LaCie was selling Fujitsu-based 180 Meg drives for $1100 !?!? Didn't see it with my own eyes, but my source in this one is usually accurate about such things. 7) I got to see Adobe's new font manager spit out nice fonts to a CRT. Looked about the same speed as Apple's coming outline fonts. If you need outline fonts before Apple makes it, buy Adobe's (assuming it really works, really ships, and doesn't need to own your machine), if you can wait for Apple to give it to you for free, wait. 8) DOW Chemical had a really nice color printer--if you have an extra $75000 sitting around, you like special paper, and you like buying QMS-ish ribbons. "Thermal sublimation" they call the process. Only color photography and the best art reproduction printing can stand up to it--to my eye. 9) QMS has a cheaper version of their hot wax color printer. Looks about as good as their earlier printer, but won't take as large paper. 10) One company had voice recognition hardware for the Macintosh. Looked to me like it would work very much like a voice driven QuicKeys. Needed to be trained for the speaker. Not cheap. 11) Kingsley ATF Type Corp is going to be producing some kick-ass fonts. Of all the type types (sorry) I talked to at the show, they were the only ones who knew anything about the 7.0 outline fonts. In the mean time, their about-to-ship PostScript fonts are going to have optical scaling (so big point sizes don't look too bold/small sizes too light), hinting, no copy protection, and cost about the same as Adobe faces. ATF owns zillions of traditional fonts, so they have a lot to draw upon. Adobe might sink fast folks. Following Apple's lead: now might be the time to sell all your Adobe stock. OK, I can only think of 11 things worth a comment. Total. A challenge to all who went to MacWorld: Can you come up with a top-ten list? kent@lloyd.uucp or ...!husc6!lloyd!kent
kent@sunfs3.camex.uucp (Kent Borg) (08/16/89)
In article <479@lloyd.camex.uucp> I write: >8) DOW Chemical had a really nice color printer--if you have an extra... Correction. I knew it was one of those chemical companies beginning with a `D', but the correct name is Du Pont. Sorry for any confusion. Kent Borg kent@lloyd.uucp or ...!husc6!lloyd!kent
ericsc@microsoft.UUCP (Eric Schlegel) (08/16/89)
In article <1989Aug15.112144.23099@aucs.uucp> peter@aucs.uucp (Peter Steele) writes: >There seems to be very little talk about MacWorld. I didn't make it >down this year so I'd like to see a summary of the event, the good, >the impressive, the what-have-you. Speaking of Macworld, did anyone go to the MPW conference (I think held on Friday)? Any interesting rumors about MPW 3.1, etc? eric
vita@daredevil.crd.ge.com (Mark F. Vita) (08/17/89)
In article <479@lloyd.camex.uucp> kent@lloyd.UUCP (Kent Borg) writes: >OK, I can only think of 11 things worth a comment. Total. A >challenge to all who went to MacWorld: Can you come up with a top-ten >list? 1) THINK C 4.0. A nicely done, minimalist object-oriented implementation which doesn't compromise the feel of their existing product. The included class library is a nice touch. 2) The Macintosh Programming Primer. OK, so it wasn't introduced at the Expo, but Addison-Wesley was selling it at a 20% discount at their booth, and Symantec was giving it away with upgrades to THINK C 4.0. 3) Ehman Engineering's $895 19-inch monochrome two-page display for the SE and II. Yes, that's Eight Hundred and Ninety Five Dollars, including interface card. It's a Hyundai monitor ("monitors that make sense"?) The display quality isn't quite as good as many of the (much) more expensive competing displays, and they still haven't figured out what software to ship with it. But, the price is just amazing. 4) The Adobe Type Manager. Lets you have outline font capabilities many months before the same will be available from Apple. The fonts look great not only on the screen but also when printed on non-Postscript output devices. I got some sample output from an ImageWriter II that I wouldn't have believed the II was capable of. The best part is the price: $99 list, including Times, Helvetica, Symbol and Courier. The ATM will be carried by anyone who sells the Adobe Type Library, which means that MacConnection should have it for around fifty bucks. Shipping in October. 5) Shortcut and StuffIt Deluxe from Alladin. Shortcut is the spiffed up version of Ray Lau's SFVolInit. It includes all the functionality of that INIT, plus on-the-fly decompression and fast file-finding capabilities. A really swell feature is that you can have the search look into the contents of StuffIt archives. The only downside is the price: $80, which in my opinion is a little high for utility of this type (though they were selling it at the show for $50). Ray himself was demonstrating StuffIt Deluxe (which isn't shipping yet). New features include: new compression options (Fast, Faster, Better, etc.), new encryption options, virus detection, decompression of various PC formats (ARC, ZIP, etc.), ability to open multiple archives simultaneously, ability to navigate freely through folder hierarchies within an archive, ability to move files between archives simply by dragging them from one archive window to another. It also includes new scripting capabilities that allow automated archiving/de-archiving of files. There's a new "Quick Unstuff" command where you just pick an archive; StuffIt then creates a new folder and extracts all files in the selected archive into the new folder. [By the way, I tried unsuccessfully to convince Ray that THIS should be the behavior when selecting multiple archives from the Finder and opening StuffIt while holding down the Shift key (rather than what happens now, which is that all files from all of the archives get thrown together in a huge unintelligible mass in the same folder). However, the president of Alladin agreed with me and said he would try to get this feature in.] Some of these new features will also be present in the shareware release of StuffIt 1.6 (the most notable exception being the scripting). 6) Retrospect from Dantz Development. The ultimate tape backup and archiving software. Makes even FastBack II look like a toy by comparison. Incredible file selection capabilities. Almost worth buying a tape drive to use it with :-). 7) SUM II. They've spiffed up the interface quite a bit. And the Shield INIT (now just called the Guardian INIT, I believe) can be configured to update the Guardian files at various time intervals, rather than just at Shutdown, which makes it useful for things like file servers which aren't shut down very often. Also, they've added file encryption, and backup software which is a subset of my personal favorite floppy backup program, Redux. 8) Aapps MicroTV. No practical application I can think of. But it's Just Plain Nifty. 9) Apple's "Technology Extravaganza" presentation on System Software Version 7.0. The really amazing thing was that they didn't just present a lot of text slides listing the new features (much of which has been reprinted elsewhere), but they actually did live, working demonstrations of prerelease versions of many pieces of the new system, including the outline fonts (including ligatures and contextual forms), IAC (in particular, the Publish/Subscribe mechanism), and the new, rewritten Finder. There was so much good stuff presented here that I'll probably cover it in a separate article. 10) Gassee's presentation on Friday morning. He demonstrated several different third-party products, none of which were terribly exciting. But in about four out of the five demos, he ran into major technical glitches, and watching him cope with the situation using his rather sharp if irreverent French wit was very entertaining. The highlight was when just after an aborted demo involving Timbuktu Remote, some random person happened to call up on the phone attached to the Mac, apparently unaware that it was was located on a stage in front of hundreds of people. Gassee picks it up. "Well, I can't talk to you, I am doing a demonstration live on stage." (Wild laughter and clapping from the audience.) "You heard the applause?" Click. Gassee also made a rather oblique reference to next month's introduction of the portable; in response to some laughter when he somewhat jokingly lamented that there is no Mac "that you can take into the bedroom with you", he stated simply: "Start saving." ---- Mark Vita vita@crd.ge.com General Electric CRD ..!uunet!crd.ge.com!vita Schenectady, NY
bell@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Mike Bell) (08/17/89)
In article <479@lloyd.camex.uucp> kent@lloyd.UUCP (Kent Borg) writes: >Peter Steele asks: "So what happened at MacWorld?" > >Answer: Nothing. > > >8) DOW Chemical had a really nice color printer--if you have an extra >$75000 sitting around, you like special paper, and you like buying >QMS-ish ribbons. "Thermal sublimation" they call the process. Only >color photography and the best art reproduction printing can stand up >to it--to my eye. > Well, it was close, but the company with the printer was DuPont, not DOW Chemical. It was the 4Cast 32 bit printer (It was being shown along with our MacbRISC board). Mike Bell ******************************************************************************** Mike Bell CSnet: BELLMA%ERVX01@dupont.com Senior Engineer Applelink: D2747 DuPont Electronic Imaging Core Technology Group Can YOUR mac play FOOTBALL ???? ********************************************************************************
xdaa374@ut-emx.UUCP (William T. Douglass) (08/17/89)
In article <479@lloyd.camex.uucp> kent@lloyd.UUCP (Kent Borg) writes: >Peter Steele asks: "So what happened at MacWorld?" > >Answer: Nothing. >challenge to all who went to MacWorld: Can you come up with a top-ten >list? Does anyone know the scoop on who tried to take over Jean-Louis Gassee's Macintosh during the Wang Center demo on Friday? Gassee was demonstrating the sue of Timbuktu/Remote when some jerk tried to break in on the phone line he was using on stage (seems like they could have chosen a phone that wasn't hooked to an outside line.) Gassee handled it in stride, but it was obvoius that someone wanted to destroy the presentation. Any comments, anyone? Did I just dream the whole thing? (Is that Jean-Louis getting out of the shower, gasp!) -- Bill Douglass, TCADA "I dreamed I was to take a test, in a Dairy Queen, on another planet." L. Anderson
Gavin_Eadie@um.cc.umich.edu (Gavin Eadie) (08/21/89)
The most interesting thing I saw was a complete package (antenna, preamp, nuBus card) for receiving and displaying weather pictures from geosynchronous and low orbits satellites, from an outfit in Newcastle, England. These are the pictures you see each night on the TV new weather forecasts -- all this for 3,000 UK pounds; while I was talking to them someone came up with an offer to be a USA distributor.
xerox@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (James Osborne) (08/26/89)
Everyone seems convinced that not much happened at MacWorld. Untrue!
I was working for the only authorized DEALER at the show, over in the World
Trade center, and I think some of those out there might like to hear what
the white badge people thought...
Loading was fun {insert sarcasm}. The union decided that it wanted
to use all of the loading docks, including the self-loading bay, so they swung
in about 5 18-wheelers, making it nearly impossible for non-union people
to move equipment, supplies, and stock into the show.
Once the show started, it was pretty apparent that people weren't buying
as much as they were last year in Boston. The biggest sellers were the
HP DeskWriter (by far) at $775, and the Articulate Voice Navigator at $999,
or $1395 for the XA version. Second best was Gravis' Thingi II. If you don't
know what it is, don't worry. Memory (80 ns low-profile Samsung) sold well
at $125 a pop. Books of all kinds did well, but nearly all the software
we stocked (about 100 titles) flopped. SAM was the most-requested piece,
just as Kowasaki's was the most requested book.
In all, though, sales were low.
I think capitolism hit an all-time low when I paid $1.50 for a can
of Coke up in the Food Pavilion.
Jackie from Jasmine still owes me a date.
When it was all over, the hell (or should I say flood?) began. Most
people missed the REAL rain, as it started at about 3:30 on Saturday... just
in time for breakdown and move-out. Most people out there probable have an
idea of how well electronic components, cardboard, and HEAVY rain mix. The
union seemed to make an executive decision that none of them should get wet,
so they made the loading docks the tea house and took a 4 hour coffee break.
But we did make it out eventually, and it's over. I never really got
out of my own booth, but from where I stood MacWorld was something I could
have done better without...
... But then again it was a hell of alot of fun.
[Sorry, your nifty .sig file has been deleted in an anti-establishment fit
of malevolence]
-James.Osborne@Mac.Dartmouth.EDU
P.S. I didn't mention the name of the company I worked for because I didn't
want to make any misguided people out there think I was advertising.