newsbytes@clarinet.com (01/14/90)
PETERBOROUGH, NEW HAMPSHIRE, U.S.A., 1990 JAN 11 (NB) -- The Atari Portfolio won't run many standard MS-DOS programs, including communication programs, because its screen is not written to use the same codes as on the IBM PC. Terry Kepner, editor of the Laptop and Portable Computer Express newsletter, reported this problem first, and told Newsbytes there's another problem as well. "If you work the RS232 you're working the auxiliary port, not the serial port. Their RS232 module includes no telecommunications software. None of the public domain programs will work with the Atari. So right off you're in trouble. This doesn't mean you can't communicate with another computer, but if you want to use an Atari in the field to phone back to the office, you need custom-written telecom software, and people are not going to put up with that. You can't just load software and go." Problems with the Atari, and the high cost of the one-pound Poqet computer, are bringing new life to the old Tandy Model 100, Kepner adds. (Dana Blankenhorn/19900112/Press Contact: Terry Kepner, Portable Computing International, 603-924-9455; FAX: 603-924- 9441)