Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!amdcad!ames!ucbcad!ucbvax!UCONNVM.BITNET!SEWALL From: SEWALL@UCONNVM.BITNET Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple Subject: Vaporware (October column) Message-ID: <8710240507.aa25753@SMOKE.BRL.ARPA> Date: Sat, 24-Oct-87 01:45:00 EST Article-I.D.: SMOKE.8710240507.aa25753 Posted: Sat Oct 24 01:45:00 1987 Date-Received: Wed, 4-Nov-87 07:08:58 EST Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Organization: The ARPA Internet Lines: 130 OK, I've had one complaint of the "What does this have to do with Apple II" variety, and one "what happened to this month's Vaporware" request. In truth, rumors about new Apple II products are substantially outnumbered by those about Macs and PS/2's. However, here is the (belated) October column. What say the rest of you; do you want to see November's (and subsequent) or not????? VAPORWARE Murphy Sewall From the October 1987 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 Year After Next? Steve Job's plan to deliver a low-cost, high-power academic work station in time for this school year (see December 1986 Vaporware column) has proven overly ambitious (are you surprised?). Recently, his company, Next, and Adobe Systems announced joint development of "Display Postscript" as the operating interface for the workstation. The screen image will closely resemble Postscript printer output. Adobe President John Warnock says that Display Postscript will be demonstrated on the Next machine next Summer, although it is possible that other companies (Commodore and Atari?) could implement it before then. A related, far-out, rumor is that the Next machine will use a proprietary RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer) CPU that emulates the 68030. - InfoWorld 14 September Mac Family Offspring. According to whispers from Apple's orchards in Cupertino, a low-end version of the Mac II with two slots and a price only slightly above the Mac SE is on the way. Apple also has shown select industry journalists a color-SE (an SE with a built in nine inch color screen) with a proposed list price of about $4,000 -- look for it in about six months or so. - InfoWorld 24 August and PC Week 1 September Apple II Emulation. While Apple works at penetrating the corporate market by making their computers MS-DOS compatible, IBM is said to be working on Apple II compatibility for the education market. An Apple II emulation board for the PS/2 models 25 and 30 is rumored to be at beta test sites. - InfoWorld 24 August Macintosh OS Upgrades. Charles Oppenheimer, Macintosh's group product manager, has announced a policy of updating System and Finder software under a single version number at a rate of twice a year. Currently, the System Update package contains system software on two disks, two disks of utilities, documentation and installation instructions for $49. Users will be able to continue downloading revisions from on-line services or obtain them from user groups. - InfoWorld 7 September Beyond Desktop Publishing. Two years after pioneering desktop publishing, Apple computer is promoting the benefits of the Macintosh in creating business presentations. Supermac of Mountain View, California, among others is offering large Macintosh compatible color screens and projectors for use with "desktop presentation" software. - InfoWorld 7 September Mac-2-3? Although it was shown at Mac Expo, don't expect to see the Lotus spreadsheet, called Galaxy, for the Mac any time soon. Lotus apparently believes the program does not compare favorably to Excel. - PC Week 25 August 1-2-3 Clones. Borland International has confirmed plans to offer a 1-2-3 spreadsheet clone in the last quarter of this year. In addition to 1-2-3 compatibility, the program will offer superior presentation quality graphics, a complete macro development environment and a customizable user interface. Meanwhile, a start-up company named Surpass Software Systems has announced a program designed not as a substitute for 1-2-3 but as the "next step beyond it." The Surpass spreadsheet will carry the same $495 list price as the Lotus product but offer better graphics, faster recalculation, and the ability to link multiple worksheets. - PC Week 25 August Year of the Laptop. Industry forecasters expect several vendors to release 80286 based laptop PC's this Fall, and a number of 80386 based laptops, including one from General Technologies of Bloomfield, New Jersey, may be announced. Within a year, look for Toshiba laptops sporting a 40 Mbyte hard disk and 2 to 4 Mbytes of RAM as well as an 80386 processor. - InfoWorld 7 September Apple's New LaserWriter. Apple is expected to announce its LaserWriter built around the new Canon SX "engine" (current models are based on the CX printer technology which is being phased out). In addition to being smaller and lighter, the SX offers improved paper handling (such as collated output), memory expansion capabilities, and increased yield of the toner cartridge (4,000 pages per cartridge compared to 3,000). - PC Week 25 August Color Upgrade. Apple expects to have an adequate supply of color monitors for the Mac II after Halloween. If you buy a monochrome monitor for your Mac II before October 31, a new Apple program will let you upgrade to an Apple high-resolution RGB monitor between January and March of 1988. - InfoWorld 24 August Computerized Marching Band. The Japanese electronics company Akai hopes to do for wind instruments what Seiko and Yamaha have done for keyboards. The firm plans to release an electronic "valve" instrument and an electronic "woodwind" - basically digital trumpet and saxophone respectively. Tone is controlled by blowing into the instruments; each features 64 preset sounds. - Random Access 22 August International Calls. The British claim to have invented the first translating telephone. Speaking into the handset in English results in a synthesized voice in French, German, or one of three other languages on the other end. The system is designed for a Merlin 5200 personal computer. At present, the vocabulary is only about 1,000 words. - Random Access 22 August