Sewall@UCONNVM.BITNET (Murph Sewall) (05/28/90)
First (with your indulgence), two administrative matters.
1) I've received a couple of pieces of mail expressing some concern
about the "off-the-wall" nature of occasional items in the Vaporware
column. The gist of these communications is that frivolous items
may mislead readers who take the column seriously. The notion of
taking "vaporware" seriously seems incongruent to me. Anyway -
*** DISCLAIMER ***
You get what you pay for ;-) I do this column for *free* While it
is true that, as a marketing academic, I have a professional
in the development and marketing of innovation, the column is
"extracurricular" (more hobby than profession). The sources are
cited; however, InfoWorld, PC Week, and other publications have
their own 'rumor' columns, and a significant fraction of what appears
in the Vaporware column is gleaned, in whole or in part, from those
columns (generally, if an item says that a company or named
company representative "announced" or "was quoted as saying," then
the source is a news item).
I'm told that small high-tech firms use the column in-lieu of, or
as a supplement to, a "clipping service." I have no problem with
that use, I even find it amusing; so long as everyone remembers that
the column is strictly
*** READER BEWARE ***
2) I have a strong preference for using existing mailing lists and
news services as a distribution mechanism. Considerable attention
has been paid to making list distribution as efficient as possible.
There are some readers who have a special need (newsletter editors,
for example) to receive the column directly. The number of special
cases has reached a point where it makes sense to use the DISTRIBUTE
capability of the BITNET LISTSERV system. This is the first column
using DISTRIBUTE.
I continue to prefer to use existing lists to distribute to most
readers because a) the efficiencies of DISTRIBUTE apply only to
BITNET and b) procedures for dealing with subscribing/unsubscribing
and delivery failures for lists are well developed.
If you want to know how to use DISTRIBUTE to deliver a 'list' for
you, email the command INFO DIST to any handy LISTSERV. There's an
easy to follow sample at the end of the file which LISTSERV will
send you. The LISTSERV doesn't have to be local (I'm using the one
at YALEVM -- the nearest one between UCONNVM and the Internet
gateway at CUNYVM.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
VAPORWARE
Murphy Sewall
From the June 1990 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 IIgs - Mac Merger?
Apple is beta testing a number of products intended to,
eventually, make the distinction between the Macintosh and
the older II line functionally irrelevant. IIgs Operating
System 6 and IIgs HyperCard (yes, they really are in beta
test) will make the IIgs appear more Mac-like than ever. A
"Multi-Finder IIgs" which allows hard disk space to be used
as virtual RAM also is nearing marketable shape. Future
Apple computers are likely to offer compatibility with older
software by using the technology of the //e on a chip which
manages the I/O and video on the Mac IIfx (Did everyone
catch John Sculley's reference to the "Macintosh IIgs"
during Apple Vision 90's for educators on April 24)? Apple
has, but has not committed to market, a Mac Plus board for
the IIgs as well as the 16 MHz 68000 "under $2,000" color
(under $1,500 black and white) Mac SE compatible with Apple
II coprocessor. An Apple II board for the Mac II family
also is in beta test. Apple executives may still be trying
to decide which options to offer and when to announce them.
Sources indicate they can only continue to hum a tune which
sounds vaguely like "September Song."
- found in my electronic mailbox
Not PCjr.
In August, IBM will once again attempt to penetrate the home
market. This time Big Blue will endeavor to avoid a repeat
of the PCjr failure by offering practical power at street
prices as low as $1,000. MS-DOS, Microsoft Works, and
Prodigy software will be bundled with the 10 MHz 80286-based
AT-bus "Bluegrass" desktop (see last July's column) from
their typewriter division. The list price will be between
$1,300 and $2,000 depending on configuration. The display
will support VGA; a 1.44 Mbyte 3.5 inch drive and 640K of
RAM are standard. There are no expansion slots, but options
do include a built-in 2400 baud modem, a 30 Mbyte hard disk,
and a mouse. - PC Week 23 April
Lap Size LapMac.
Apple and Toshiba are working on a four to six pound
Macintosh laptop to replace the current overpriced Mac
Anvil, er Portable. - InfoWorld 23 April
Zip's IIgs Accelerator.
Zip Technology is beta testing a 12 MHz accelerator for the
Apple IIgs which contains only 22 chips (compared to more
than 200 on the older, slower Applied Engineering
accelerator). Alas, the problem is that although the
hardware zips, marketing doesn't. It may be some time
before Zip ships. - found in my electronic mailbox
Oops!
Several readers reacted to the "reprogrammable microcode"
item in last month's column. InfoWorld's Cringely spent two
weeks apologizing for having been sucked in by a prankster
("...and there's this bridge in Brooklyn"). This column
uncritically passed along the same bogus story ("Don't
believe anything you read and only half of what you see" -
Will Rogers). However, future models of the RS/6000 will be
made faster using more conventional approaches. IBM has a
70 MHz model in their lab at Austin. Big Blue also has a 10
pound 80386 laptop being readied for fall Comdex.
- InfoWorld 30 April and 14 May
New NeXT.
Steve Jobs says that NeXT will offer a Motorola 68040 based
workstation with a very high resolution color monitor and at
least six new applications by Christmas. Among the
workstation's features will be built-in modem and fax
capabilities. Mr. Jobs also said that owners of the present
68030 model will be able to upgrade motherboards for
$1,495. Motorola claims the 25 MHz 68040 at 20 MIPS is 10
time faster than the 68030 and outperforms the 25 MHz Intel
i486. - InfoWorld and PC Week 14 May
Faster i486 Workstation.
In an effort to become a serious player in the workstation
and server markets, NCR has announced a pair of 33 MHz i486
MCA bus computers for shipment in July. A 27 MIP desktop
with four MCA slots, 4 Mbytes of RAM, and Super VGA video
will retail for $14,195. - PC Week 14 May
Laser GS.
Video Technologies is telling dealers in Canada that their
10 MHz Apple IIgs clone (see last September's column) which
was shown to developers last July will be for sale by
Christmas. - found in my electronic mailbox
SPARC Laptop.
Toshiba introduced an 18 pound Sparc-Station laptop to the
Japanese market last month. A U.S. version is expected to
ship early next year. The Sparc LT is built around a 13
MIP, 20 MHz SPARC CPU made by Cypress Semiconductor and has
8 Mbytes of RAM expandable to 40 Mbytes. The Japanese
version with a 1.44 Mbyte floppy and a 180 Mbyte hard drive
retails for $13,200. - InfoWorld 14 May
Look Ma, No Boot Disk.
Televideo plans to offer a PC this summer with DOS 4.0 and
Windows 3.0 in ROM. - InfoWorld 7 May
New Floppy Drive "Standard?"
Last September, Phil Hage, a spokesman for 3M Corporation,
said that the company would not enter the 4 Mbyte floppy
disk market "until it is clear from IBM that there is a
viable market." Does April's introduction of a 4 Mbyte 3.5
inch disk drive by 3M indicate PS/2's will soon be shipped
with the new format? - PC Week 30 April
Multiple Emulations.
A reader of last month's column's touting of A/UX's ability
to run UNIX, Macintosh, and MS-DOS software noted that the
the new Amiga 3000 (see last February's column) will be able
to run UNIX, AmigaOS, and MS-DOS. A Macintosh board is
available for the Amiga but requires Mac ROM chips which are
not easy to come by. Apparently, UNIX for the Amiga has
been delayed until fall. - found in my electronic mailbox
Windows Applications Under OS/2.
Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's senior vice president for systems
software, has committed the company to binary compatibility
between future releases of Windows and OS/2. Plans call for
OS/2 to become a superset of Windows. In the meantime,
Microsoft offers "Porthole," a software migration kit which
remaps Windows program calls to comparable Presentation
Manager calls. - InfoWorld 7 May
PostScript for the Masses.
Adobe Systems plans a major rewrite of its page description
language and a family of inexpensive PostScript
controllers. Pat Marriott, the firm's director of
marketing, says "within 18 months, Adobe's goal is to offer
OEMs a range of controllers to bring users PostScript
printers for under $1,000." Meanwhile, Apple plans to hold
increase the performance of its LaserWriter line by offering
a faster version of the IINTX within a few weeks.
- PC Week 7 and 14 May
Colorized Scanning.
This August, Asuka Technologies will ship a discount coupon
for Photopress software along with its new hand held scanner
for the Macintosh. Photopress can "colorize" gray-scale
images by substituting colors for specific shades of gray.
The Asuka Model 256G scanner will retail for $499 (Nubus) or
$599 (SCSI). The amount of discount offered for the $195
Photopress software hasn't been decided. - InfoWorld 7 May
Mac System 7.0 Delayed Until Year's End
Roger Heinen, Apple's vice president of software
development, has reversed earlier assertions that the new
Macintosh operating system announced last year is "on
schedule" (see last month's column). Developers were told
last month that "by New Year's, almost all of our users
should have an opportunity to upgrade to System 7.0." Tony
Meadows, former director of a Northern California Mac
developers group translated "by New Year's" as meaning next
January's MacWorld. A key feature of System 7 which Apple
wants all developers to use is a set of application
standards referred to as Interapplication Communication
(IAC). IAC is designed for seamless communication among
applications which should make it easier to build hybrid
applications which collaborate with one another.
- InfoWorld 14 May
New HyperCard.
HyperCard 2.0, a major rewrite, will be announced on June 26
and will ship with all Macs starting in July. Version 2.0
features variable card sizes, multiple windows, and a "style
text" feature compatible with True Type, better printing
capabilities, and enhanced HyperTalk. Version 2.1 will ship
with System 7.0 and will offer Apple Events scripting and
Mac Apps via HyperTalk. - InfoWorld 14 May
1-2-3 For Windows.
Lotus has announced an intention to deliver a 1-2-3 product
for Microsoft Windows 3.0 which will offer the core
spreadsheet functions of 1-2-3 version 3.0 along with the
look and feel of the 1-2-3/G Presentation Manager version.
In the interim, Lotus plans to ship version 3.1 during the
third quarter. The update will incorporate PC Publishing's
Impress program to provide WYSIWYG graphics publishing and
drawing features. - PC Week 7 and 14 May
Norton for UNIX.
Norton's popular utilities which recently became available
for the Macintosh are now migrating to the UNIX
environment. The utilities have been announced for
Interactive Systems Corporation's Unix System V/386 Release
3.2. By fall, Norton for UNIX will be ported to Sun OS and
Hewlett-Packard's HP 9000 Model 300 line. - InfoWorld 7 May
Flash in the Pan.
Don't expect any upgrades of bug fixes for Flash, Beagle's
only Macintosh product. The only Mac programmer on Beagle's
staff has left to work on Photo Shop for Adobe Systems (said
to be an improved version of Pixel Paint Professional).
Flash's future is limited anyway because Macintosh System
7.0 will offer it's major functions.
- found in my electronic mailbox
Upgrades One of These Days.
dBase IV version 1.1, the alleged "bug fix," will appear
this month and will still have bugs in it. Xyquest, which
had announced an upgrade of Xywrite for the first quarter
1990 (did you miss it?), will delay shipping until late
summer or early fall in order to add more features.
Software Publishing plans to unveil two new DOS versions and
an OS/2 Presentation Manager version of its popular Harvard
Graphics by the end of the year. Harvard Graphics 2.3, an
update to version 2.12, is expected in late June. Version
3.0 is slated for release in the fourth quarter along with
the OS/2 PM version. Word Perfect Corporation officials
have confirmed that a version of their popular word
processor is forthcoming for the Windows 3.0 environment.
While there is no definite shipment date, managers said they
expect to deliver the Windows version within six months of
the release of the forthcoming OS/2 Presentation Manager
product. Word Perfect also is working on a scaled-down
version of Word Perfect 5.1 called Letter Perfect for laptop
users and others who don't need all the features of version
5.1 - InfoWorld 23 and 30 April and PC Week 7 May
/s Murph <Sewall%UConnVM.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.Edu> [Internet]
or ...{psuvax1 or mcvax}!uconnvm.bitnet!sewall [UUCP]
+ Standard disclaimer applies ("The opinions expressed are my own" etc.)