Xref: utzoo comp.sys.atari.st:30851 comp.sys.amiga:65996 Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cbmvax!daveh From: daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie) Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st,comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: Toothless Byte (Re: TT desktop & prices) Message-ID: <14445@cbmvax.commodore.com> Date: 14 Sep 90 14:31:02 GMT References: <49561@brunix.UUCP> <2288@atari.UUCP> <1990Sep12.032908.8486@ecn.purdue.edu> <2218@trlluna.trl.oz> Reply-To: daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie) Organization: Commodore, West Chester, PA Lines: 59 In article <2218@trlluna.trl.oz> soh@shiva.trl.oz (kam hung soh) writes: >yegerleh@handel.ecn.purdue.edu (James D Yegerlehner) writes: >>So my question is, will Byte review it [the TT] and put it on the front cover, >>as they did with the Amiga 68030 whatever-it-is? Maybe you guys at >>Atari should send them one. >The Byte review for the A3000 was a pathetic three page write-up that >talked about little more than the hardware specifications. Hardly >anything about the Amiga software features, etc. In BYTE parlance, at least, that A3000 article was a preview. They claim that they won't do a full review on anything until it's actually shipping and available in its finished form. That's probably not a bad policy; we could have changed all kinds of things between the December/January dates they probably looked at the 3000 and their April publication date (must have been the May or June issue, if it came out in May). Of course, that's not at all to say they couldn't have done a more complete job. The 15+ page AmigaWorld article was finished at the same time (early copies of both mags were available at the A3000 launch). The other thing is that, while the BYTE staff does the previews, they often count on contributors to do the actual review (at least, that was the case for the A2000). So you often don't see much in the way of a review. Any BYTE has roughly a five month lead time. Given that A3000s first shipped in mid June, I wouldn't expect to see an actual review until the November or December issues, at the earliest. If at all. >Hopefully, the TT will get a more thorough review. Maybe it will. If the TT is as out in force as the Atari folk claim, it's really too late for BYTE to do their typical preview on it, unless they just haven't found the space for it yet (hey, wouldn't want to have to displace Yet Another PClone review just to write up a few pages on something with a hope of being a little different). >I can't see why anyone should worry about what Byte says anyway >(except from a marketing viewpoint). BYTE is good exposure, since lots of computer folks read it, and it still hangs, albeit a bit tenuously, to its claim of multiple platform coverage. >The so-called `Journal for Small Systems' has gone done the tubes with >regards to any useful technical or intellectual articles. That's true, but unfortunate. Back in the 70s and 80s, BYTE was kind of a Scientific American of small computer systems. Lotsa good stuff, technical stuff written so that you didn't have to be an expert to understand it. Now a days it's about as technical on computers as "Car and Driver" is on cars; lots of reviews and editorials, nothing hardcore. There's nothing wrong with that, but in the case of BYTE, there's no adequate replacement available for what BYTE once was. It's a shame when progress means going retrograde. >Soh, Kam Hung email: h.soh@trl.oz.au tel: +61 03 541 6403 -- Dave Haynie Commodore-Amiga (Amiga 3000) "The Crew That Never Rests" {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!daveh PLINK: hazy BIX: hazy Get that coffee outta my face, put a Margarita in its place!