218 lines
9.9 KiB
Groff
218 lines
9.9 KiB
Groff
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>From: SEWALL@UCONNVM.BITNET (Murph Sewall)
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Newsgroups: comp.sys.misc
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Subject: Murph's VAPORWARE column for March 1990
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Date: 25 Feb 90 02:32:33 GMT
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------------------------------------------------------------------------
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VAPORWARE
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Murphy Sewall
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From the March 1990 APPLE PULP
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H.U.G.E. Apple Club (E. Hartford) News Letter
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$15/year
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P.O. Box 18027
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East Hartford, CT 06118
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Call the "Bit Bucket" (203) 569-8739
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Permission granted to copy with the above citation
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Quicker, Redesigned Apple IIgs.
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The new Apple II CPU Promised by John Sculley for September
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1989 (if Microsoft is frequently a year late delivering
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promised new products, should Apple be any different?) has
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finally shipped to beta test sites. Currently known only as
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the ROM 04 machine, it's not a radical departure from the
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current ROM 03 IIgs. Some features are subject to change.
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The video resolution will be improved to 600 by 400 and the
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one MHz video problem has been fixed by adding a new
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graphics processor. Writes to the video screen are at full
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CPU speed and the improvement is dramatic. The beta test
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model is shipping with a 5.8 MHz chip (being pushed to 7
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MHz), but an even faster version may be installed by the
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time the product is announced. Apple is experimenting with
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the slot architecture. There may be some sort of 16-bit
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extension to the current 8-bit Apple II standard, or the
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slot speed may simply be a separate control panel option.
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Although the beta version doesn't have the SWIM chip to make
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it possible to read IBM and Macintosh high density 3.5 inch
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formats, it's not too late to add that feature. Most
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existing IIgs programs which are copy protected fail to run
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on the ROM 04 machines. Deprotected versions work. A
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decision to market a new IIgs hasn't been finalized, but the
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planning date is September 1990.
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- found in my electronic mailbox (note: there are more
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details here than I gave Cringely for the 29 January
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InfoWorld column; I did want one of his coffee cups, but
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I also saved some of the good stuff for my friends)
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Even More New Apple II Products From Apple.
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Operating System 6.0 for the IIgs featuring some new sound
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tools and other toolsets should be released in the near
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future. HyperCard IIgs (see columns from last month, last
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December and last August) is likely to be delayed. The beta
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test version is too slow and requires too much memory (would
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you believe 2 Mbytes of RAM and 4 Mbytes of disk space?).
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On the plus side, the new DMA SCSI card should be announced
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this Spring (possibly along with OS 6.0). It will transfer
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1 meg per second on a IIgs and 1/2 meg per second on a IIe
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for an apparent speed increase 3 times greater than the
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existing Apple SCSI card (the ROM 04 IIgs described above
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may come with this SCSI capability built in). Along with
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the new SCSI card, look for drivers for the Apple scanner,
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the LaserWriter 2SC, the new Apple laser printer described
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below, and a streaming tape backup system. The new card
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will retail for $129.
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- more goodies found in my electronic mailbox
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<Sewall@UConnVM.BITNET>
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Mac IIxi.
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The enhancement to the Macintosh IIx expected this month
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will be more than simply a CPU speed increase to 25 MHz.
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Upgrading a IIx will require a motherboard swap, and don't
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be surprised to find LaserWriter SIMMs ($700 per Mbyte;
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available only from Apple) inside. - InfoWorld 12 February
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An Order of Magnitude Faster.
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Motorola's new 25 MHz 68040 CPU processes 20 million
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instructions per second (MIPS) which is about one-third
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faster than the originally anticipated 15 MIP performance.
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A 25 MHz 68030 delivers about 6 MIPS. Even more impressive
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is the floating point performance of 3.5 megaflops (compared
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to 0.25 megaflops for the 25 MHz 68030 with 68882 math
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coprocessor). The 68040 is a 32-bit microprocessor with 8K
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bytes of internal cache memory and built in math coprocessor
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- features shared with the Intel i486. Samples should be
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available this month at a price of $795 - almost four times
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the combined price of a 68030 and 68882 math coprocessor
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combination. Motorola expects to offer a 50 MHz version of
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the 68040 in about a year. The first computer using the new
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Motorola CPU could appear in the form of the NeXT color
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computer announcement as early as next month.
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- PC Week and InfoWorld 22 January
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What to do (with) NeXT.
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Steve Jobs' NeXT computer desperately needs applications
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software and peripherals if it is to be taken seriously by
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the mass market it needs for economic survival. As many as
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six (oh wow!) major new applications are expected by
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summer. Third party developer Dyna Communications plans to
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supply one truly needed peripheral - a 3.5 inch floppy drive
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(due to be announced this month).
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- Wall Street Journal 18 January
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Look Ma, No Modem!
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IBM and Motorola have announced a joint venture firm, ARDIS
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(Advanced nationwide Radio Data Service), to develop a
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wireless hand-held computer that can communicate with a
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network host using radio waves. The new online service
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would utilize IBM's existing network which already covers
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90% of the U.S. The proposed hand-held computer would have
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instant access to the network at 4800 baud (speeds up to
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19.2K bits per second have been documented in metropolitan
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areas). IBM wants to use the technology in buildings and
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will offer wireless networking in future products.
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- InfoWorld 5 February and Computer Chronicles 10 February
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Laptop Workstation.
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Toshiba is developing a SPARC-based Unix laptop for later
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this year. A unit with 4 Mbytes of RAM will retail for
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about $7,000. - PC Week 12 February
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"Phonebook" Laptops.
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NEC, Toshiba, and Zenith all are working on a new
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"phonebook" class of portable computers for release later
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this year. These eight to ten pound laptops will be built
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around the 80386SX CPU and use 2.5 inch instead of 3.5 inch
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floppy drives. - InfoWorld 12 February
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Vest Pocket Lotus.
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Texas Instruments and Lotus have joined to produce a hand
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held 1-2-3 pocket computer. Small enough to fit in an
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inside jacket pocket, the 512K RAM with 1-2-3 version 2.2 in
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ROM and two optional 1 Mbyte RAM/ROM card slots unit
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features a (very small) QWERTY keyboard and a 55 column by
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16 line LCD display. Optional PC-Link software permits file
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transfers with the desk PC back at the office.
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- InfoWorld 22 January
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The Osborne Lives.
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Adam Osborne, president of Paperback software, for whom the
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famous (or infamous) Osborne portable computer was named,
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has joined a partnership with Silicon Valley Technology to
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market Indian-made i486 motherboards in the U.S. Osborne
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says an i486 system with 4 Mbytes of RAM, a floppy drive and
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a small hard drive will retail for $4,200.
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- InfoWorld 5 February
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New Apple Printers.
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Even though Apple sold it's Adobe stock, the two companies
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continue to cooperate. Apple will soon announce a new
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low-end ($2,500) four page per minute LaserWriter
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(Postscript printer) that actually produces pages at nearly
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that speed. At the high end, a color LaserWriter is planned
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for the end of the summer. Also, there is likely to be an
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Apple version of the Adobe fax board that turns any Adobe
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Postscript printer into a plain paper fax machine.
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- InfoWorld 29 January
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Atari's STacey is for Real.
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After a couple of false starts, Atari's portable ST (known
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as the STacey) is finally on the market (see last June and
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October's columns).
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- Seen on the Computer Chronicles 10 February
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New Apple II Accelerator.
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Applied Engineering will be replacing the current Transwarp
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II accelerator with a new model (that will cost $20 more)
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during the second quarter. Company spokespeople deny that
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Zip Technologies' successful suit against the Rocket Chip
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had any bearing on the redesign (uh huh).
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- found in my electronic mailbox <Sewall@UConnVM.BITNET>
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What will "Ivan" Think of Sticky Bear Bop?
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A Canadian group will be marketing Apple II compatible
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computers in the Soviet Union.
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- An advanced peek into the May 1990 InCider from
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Joe Abernathy <jabernathy@pro-houston.cts.com>
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Latest on the "Golden Gate."
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InfoWorld's Cringely still believes in the simultaneous Mac
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and Apple IIgs computer code-named Golden Gate (see the
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November 1988 column), but Apple insiders tell me that what
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Cringely hears comes from engineering while the marketing
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types have "concept tested" the product with K-12 educators
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and found the whole idea seriously wanting. The problem is
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the Golden Gate will cost nearly as much as a Mac SE and a
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IIgs. At those prices, educators say they'd rather buy two
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computers rather than only one.
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- found in my electronic mailbox <Sewall@UConnVM.BITNET>
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When Ingenuity Fails.
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Third party developer Applied Ingenuity has had a falling
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out among partners. The departure of the firm's technical
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wizard has shelved the Apple II video tape backup card
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(advertised last Fall), the 100 Mbyte Innerdrive, and
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several other products.
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- found in my electronic mailbox <Sewall@UConnVM.BITNET>
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Pagemaker 4.0 for Windows 3.0.
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Aldus has made it clear that it will follow up its
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announcement of Pagemaker 4.0 for the Macintosh with an
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MS-DOS product as soon as Microsoft releases Windows 3.0
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(currently projected for April, but the date has slipped so
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often already that any month after this one is credible).
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Once Windows 3.0 is released, look for a Windows version of
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Adobe Type Manager (bringing something resembling Display
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Postscript to the MS-DOS world).
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- PC Week 22 January and InfoWorld 12 February
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dBase IV 1.1 Update.
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Beta testers say to expect delivery of dBase IV version 1.1
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(see last month's column) in the second quarter. Apparently
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there are problems with the program's installation procedure
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as well as some remaining unresolved bugs. Meanwhile,
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Ashton-Tate has shipped the dBase compiler to beta testers.
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Insiders expect a long test period.
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- PC Week and InfoWorld 5 February
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