[comp.sys.mac.hardware] Information Needed on Outbound Portable

eberard@bse.com (Edward V. Berard) (12/30/90)

Folks,

I am coming dangerously close to purchasing an Outbound ("portable Macintosh").
I have checked the prices, and the capabilities. You could say that I am planning
on getting one "fully loaded," i.e.:

	- 8 megs of RAM
	- 16 megs of static disk RAM
	- 40 meg internal hard drive
	- external 1.4 meg floppy drive
	- SCSI adapter
	- European transformer (I go to Europe a lot)
	- mouse
	- carrying case

However, I am having some last minute doubts. I would like to hear from some
other people -- like yourselves:

	-- Is this company a good bet?
	-- Will Apple be coming out with anything close within the next year?
	-- What changes, if any, will Apple be introducing for its portable
	   Mac within the first half of 1991?
	-- Are there any "gotcha's"? (For example, applications which don't
	   work, or upward compatibility problems?)

Any information will be appreciated. Thanks.

				-- Ed


----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Edward V. Berard                                | Phone: (301) 353-9652
Berard Software Engineering, Inc.               | FAX:   (301) 353-9272
18620 Mateney Road                              | E-Mail: eberard@bse.com
Germantown, Maryland 20874                      | 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Edward.V..Berard@f20.n226.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Edward V. Berard) (12/30/90)

Reply-To: eberard@bse.com

Folks,

I am coming dangerously close to purchasing an Outbound ("portable Macintosh").
I have checked the prices, and the capabilities. You could say that I am planning
on getting one "fully loaded," i.e.:

        - 8 megs of RAM
        - 16 megs of static disk RAM
        - 40 meg internal hard drive
        - external 1.4 meg floppy drive
        - SCSI adapter
        - European transformer (I go to Europe a lot)
        - mouse
        - carrying case

However, I am having some last minute doubts. I would like to hear from some
other people -- like yourselves:

        -- Is this company a good bet?
        -- Will Apple be coming out with anything close within the next year?
        -- What changes, if any, will Apple be introducing for its portable
           Mac within the first half of 1991?
        -- Are there any "gotcha's"? (For example, applications which don't
           work, or upward compatibility problems?)

Any information will be appreciated. Thanks.

                                -- Ed


----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Edward V. Berard                                I Phone: (301) 353-9652
Berard Software Engineering, Inc.               I FAX:   (301) 353-9272
18620 Mateney Road                              I E-Mail: eberard@bse.com
Germantown, Maryland 20874                      I 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

 + Organization: Berard Software Engineering, Inc.

--  
Edward V. Berard - via FidoNet node 1:105/14
    UUCP: ...!{uunet!glacier, ..reed.bitnet}!busker!226!20!Edward.V..Berard
INTERNET: Edward.V..Berard@f20.n226.z1.FIDONET.ORG

mto@GTE.COM (Tamer Ozsu) (01/03/91)

In article <0B010001.ep79oz@bse.com> eberard@bse.com writes:
>Folks,
>
>I am coming dangerously close to purchasing an Outbound ("portable Macintosh").
>I have checked the prices, and the capabilities. You could say that I am planning
>on getting one "fully loaded," i.e.:
> 	[stuff deleted]
>However, I am having some last minute doubts. I would like to hear from some
>other people -- like yourselves:
>
>	-- Is this company a good bet?

I had also looked at the machine, but decided that it was too much
money for an 68000 machine. As far as the company goes, I don't know
their financial strength, but I was quite happy with the people whom I
dealt with. Furthermore, Outbound's technology has been bought by
Apple and has been relicensed to them (or something like this). I am
told that this saves Outbound from the hassle of potentially going
through a copyright violation law suit. Since Apple owns part of the
company, I suspect they should be in good shape.
>	-- Will Apple be coming out with anything close within the next year?
>	-- What changes, if any, will Apple be introducing for its portable
>	   Mac within the first half of 1991?

I have heard that they will be announcing new laptops this year. As
far as I know, it will be a much smaller laptop than what they
currently have. Rumor has it that they have been talking to some
Japanese PC-compatible laptop manufacturers. I have no information
when the announcement will come, though. 

>	-- Are there any "gotcha's"? (For example, applications which don't
>	   work, or upward compatibility problems?)
>

I believe I have seen Microsoft Word, Powerpoint, MacDraw, Hypercard and
MacroMind Director running on it. These were the ones I was interested
in. I don't know of others.

=+Tamer




-- 
M. Tamer Ozsu					mto@gte.com
GTE Laboratories				
40 Sylvan Road					
Waltham, MA 02254