Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!sci.ccny.cuny.edu!phri!cmcl2!adm!smoke!gwyn From: gwyn@smoke.BRL.MIL (Doug Gwyn) Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple Subject: Re: //gs screen resolutions... Message-ID: <12133@smoke.BRL.MIL> Date: 14 Feb 90 14:32:58 GMT References: <10583.infoapple.net@pro-generic> <38601@apple.Apple.COM> <1990Feb13.234603.3388@spectre.ccsf.caltech.edu> Reply-To: gwyn@brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn) Organization: Ballistic Research Lab (BRL), APG, MD. Lines: 74 In article <1990Feb13.234603.3388@spectre.ccsf.caltech.edu> toddpw@tybalt.caltech.edu (Todd P. Whitesel) writes: >farrier@Apple.COM (Cary Farrier) writes: >> you can't sit in a locked room and ignore the competition. If >> someone out there comes out with something better, then you'd >> better be prepared to either update your product or come out >> with a new one. You can't operate in this world with your >> head buried in the sand, as some people would like to do. If >> you ignore the competition, they are not going to go away or >> become any less the competition. >THIS PARAGRAPH BELONGS OVER EVERY DOORWAY AT APPLE. That's not a bad idea. Maybe something like it already is. >In the past few years, Apple has neglected to: >develop a blitter to nuke the Amiga and make the desktop reasonable on slower >machines This reflects a hardware slave mentality. Blitting hardware is NOT necessary for reasonable graphics performance, and it adds expense and complexity which is probably a poor trade-off for low-end systems. Apple has sped up the IIGS desktop considerably through improvements to the toolkits and Finder. I doubt that many TWGS GS/OS 3.0 users are finding the desktop too slow. I work with high-end computer graphics for a living, and while I have complaints about the IIGS desktop, speed is not one of them. >make its monitors worth buying, by adding NTSC in and stereo speakers to the >already excellent picture tube What a concept. Why don't use use your TV set if you want such garbage bundled with the display. Apple's monitors are expensive enough as it is. >put Apple's clout behind Bill Mensch since he desperately needs it to produce >fast 65816's and maybe even develop the 65832 Apple doesn't seem to have the uncritical faith in Bill Mensch that you do. If the fate of the 658xx family remains entirely in WDC's hands, then it doesn't bode well for future Apple II family products! In fact, the 65* architecture is already creaking at the seams, and it is hard to imagine pushing it very much farther. >redesign the //gs from scratch and make the ultimate low end market contender The IIGS WAS designed essentially from scratch, with Apple II compatibility in mind. What are you proposing? >refine the //c+ into the ideal education workstation The //c+ was targeted at the competition from the Laser. I have no idea how one could possibly produce an "ideal education workstation" using the //c+ as its base! Surely you don't think it could support DynaBook? >price the Video Overlay Card so its main market can buy it What IS its "main market"? So far as I can tell the main thing the card is useful for is adding titling to videotapes in low-budget video operations. The video overlay card is the most complex Apple II card Apple offers; it would be hard to sell it much more cheaply and still obtain an adequate return on Apple's investment. >push the Apple // in every market that won't take the Mac And what markets are those? The supercomputer market? The IBM PC compatible market? >make the 1 year warranty a standard product feature That would be okay. 90-day warranties don't do much to foster customer confidence in the product. >Just a simple "trust us" would be enough. This newsgroup hasn't shown much inclination in the past to trust that Apple has their interests in mind.