VAPORWARE by Murphy Sewall These are rumors folks; we reserve the right to be dead wrong! Apple's Consumer Products. Apple CEO John Sculley has announced Apple's intention to enter the consumer market with CD-ROM Macintosh products in time for the Christmas selling season (wasnÕt Apple in the consumer market once upon a time? For example, ChopLifter on an Apple ][+). Apparently, the CPUÕs will be based on redesigns of the Macintosh IIsi and Quadra 700. They may ship with digital signal processors but without AppleTalk, NuBus slots, or even SCSI ports. Next year, Apple and third party partners (read Sony and General Magic) will begin introducing hand-held devices such as executive organizers and wireless communicators. - InfoWorld and MacWeek 13 January New Macs. Last month's rumor was that the Macintosh LC/30 wouldn't ship until the second half of the year. This month's rumor is that Apple will introduce the new LC at the CeBIT show in Hanover, Germany in March. Apple also plans to announce DOS Exchange (MS DOS mounting software) as a System extension at the same time. The faster IIsi (with built-in Ethernet), Color Classic II (under $2,000), and Apple's first color printer will be introduced later in the year. Motorola won't ramp up volume production of the 33 MHz 68040 for the Quadra 950 until April. The new chip will not only be faster than the 25 MHz version, but will have a 128K write-through write through cache. The design is the same as the 68030 cache making it easier for software developers to maintain compatibility. - InfoWorld 23 December and MacWeek 6 and 13 January More Than Just Windows. Windows 3.1 is scheduled for introduction at April's Comdex/Windows World in Chicago. Within a year, Microsoft plans to deliver a version, currently known as "Sparta", with built-in peer to peer networking. Also in the works is Windows NT, of course, and WIN32s, a 32-bit application interface, to let applications run under both Windows 3.1 and NT. Developers also have had a peek at a version codenamed "Cairo" which implements "information at your fingertips", an object-oriented user interface and query language. Based on past performance, most observers expect it to be at least two years before a retail version of Cairo's technology ships. - PC Week 23 December An Early Review. According to PC Week columnist Frederic Davis, Windows NT will require 8 MBytes of RAM, consume more room on a hard disk than any other PC operating system (with the possible exception of A/UX, see below), and make your 80386 machine run like an XT). - PC Week 6 January 8 MBytes of RAM is Too Few. Apple's A/UX 3.0, which contains a Finder 7.0 shell, and is Macintosh Quadra compatible, currently requires a 160 Mbyte hard disk, up from 80 Mbyte in the previous version. Although an absolute minimal installation will fit within 8 MBytes of RAM, such useful components as the man pages, compilers and libraries, or the network device drivers aren't included. In other words, the minimal installation is too minimal to be of much use. - found in my electronic mailbox PS/Notes. IBM will soon announce as many as six new notebook computers. The first will appear later this month and will be modeled after the PS/55Note introduced in Japan last April. The new notebooks will be able to connect to a MCA bus docking station. Later in the year IBM will introduce a notebook with a color display. One interesting rumor is an optional 160 MByte hard drive. Not only that, the same form factor is alleged to be potentially expandable to 960 MBytes! - InfoWorld 23 December and 13 January QuickTime PC. PC owners will soon have an opportunity to find out what all the fuss is about Apple's Quicktime system level multimedia standard. Apple has announced a Windows version of the movie player and a $79 QuickTime Movie exchange kit to be released this quarter. Apple may develop players for other environments (DOS, UNIX) as well. - InfoWorld 13 January It's VITAL. Apple's guidelines for connecting larger systems to Macintoshes (and IBM PowerPCs?) running the next generation operating system, Pink, are referred to as the Virtually Integrated Technical Architecture Lifecycle, that is, VITAL. How many analysts do you suppose it took to come up with that one? VITAL is described as a bridge (intermediate step) between current environments and a fully developed, object-oriented architecture. - PC Week 23 December Reach Out and See Someone. AT&T plans to market a full motion, color video phone in May that works over regular telephone lines. At ten frames per second, its appearance is similar to QuickTime on a Macintosh. The price for each AT&T VideoPhone 2500 is about $1,500. You'll have to have affluent friends because the only calls which will display video are those between similar video phones (or a Mac, see below). AT&T does plan to license the technology to other vendors and the price should decline as production volume expands. - Associated Press and CNN 6 January MacPhone. The AT&T VideoPhone technology was codeveloped with Compression Labs Inc. (CLI) which will be releasing the Cameo Personal Video System Model 2001 for the Macintosh ($2,095) this spring. The Cameo equipped Mac will be capable of delivering video at 15 frames per second (QuickTime) and have the capability of simultaneously transmitting display screens and data. The hardware will consist of a video processor which connects through a IIci, IIfx, or Quadra serial port and a camera module. The Mac also must have a digitizing video card compatible with the RasterOps 364 or 24STV and Apple's ISDN Card ($1,099). The MacPhone will require an ISDN circuit, but in addition to being able to communicate with the AT&T VideoPhone, the CLI unit will be compatible with the (much more expensive) Rembrandt II/VP vidioconferencing system. CLI expects to announce MCA and ISA bus implementations this spring. - InfoWorld and MacWeek 13 January Modem Speed Limit. Shannon's Limit is a basic concept of communications technology which indicates the maximum amount of data that can be delivered by a given connection. For an ordinary dial-up telephone line, that limit is about 20,000 bps. Modem developers are working on a standard (working title V.FAST which probably will be V-some-number when finally approved by the CCITT) which will result in modems operating at nearly that limit (19.2K bps) by late 1993. Data compression will yield a nominal speed on the order of 56 or 64 kilobits per second. V.FAST represents the "end of the line" for current modem technology. The next generation will be digital, requiring ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) phone service. - InfoWorld 13 January Mini FAX Modem. If you need a small portable modem right away, Mass Microsystems plans to ship a 2400 baud data, 9600 baud fax send, 4800 baud fax receive mini-modem weighing less than one pound by the end of the month. The modem draws its power (135 milliwatts) directly from the serial port. The initial release will be targeted toward owners of the new Macintosh PowerBooks. - MacWeek 13 January Big Blue Clones. IBM's European sales unit is considering marketing and servicing inexpensive clones made by one or more major Far East manufacturers. The machines won't carry IBM's label, and while there are no plans for IBM U.S. to do likewise, a spokesman is quoted as saying that the company "continues to look at ways to gain greater access to customers". - PC Week 23 December Inexpensive PostScript Level 2 Under. PrintersPlus, a Washington D.C. distributor plans to offer a 22 pound, four page per minute PostScript Level 2 printer for under $1,000 in April (unless this rumor is an early April fooly). - PC Week 23 December SCUM? If the proposed price schedule isn't changed, current SUM owners will have to pay nearly retail price to upgrade to the new Norton Utilities, which combines features of NUM and SUM. The internal name, "Symantec Combined Utilities for the Macintosh," may indeed seem like SCUM, if the upgrade price ends up exceeding what mail order houses charge new users for the package. - found in my electronic mailbox WordPerfect Works. After five years, WordPerfect has a major upgrade to its DOS-based integrated software package in beta test. If all goes well, WordPerfect Works will debut this month. The LetterPerfect word processor is compatible with WordPerfect 5.1, and the Works also include the PlanPerfect spreadsheet, DrawPerfect, a communications module and a clipboard for transferring data between modules. Apparently, the renewed interest in integrated software for Macintoshes motivated this upgrade. - PC Week 23 December Excel 4.0. The next version of Microsoft's spreadsheet is in beta test with a prospective release date of March or April. Excel 4.0 will have an enhanced user interface and new cross-tabulation and consolidation capabilities along with a customizable toolbar, drag and drop editing, and autofill. Beta testers indicate that the features closely resemble those recently added to Lotus and Borland products. - PC Week 23 December and InfoWorld 30 December The Merger is Off. Lotus has thought better of the plan to merge versions 2.3 and 3.1 of the 1-2-3 spreadsheet (see last month's column). Revisions of both versions are now planned for later in the year. - InfoWorld 23 December Omega Testing. IBM plans to ship major components of OS/2 2.0 without beta testing. A limited availability version of OS/2 was transmitted to field representatives on December 31 (meeting the promised "by the end of 1991" deadline). That release (6.177h) supports Object Linking and Embedding between Windows applications and has an XGA display driver. The "seamless" support for Windows and 32-bit graphic engine scheduled for introduction by the end of March will not be beta tested (An "omega tester" is a user who buys the shipped product and files bug reports). - PC Week 6 January NetWare Lite. Novell's new peer to peer LAN has encountered a full range of problems, slow performance, crashes, and incompatibilities with Windows 3.0. Either a new release, or a bug fix should be on the market before the crocus bloom. - InfoWorld 23 December The Real Better Windows Than Windows. GeoWorks 2.0 should appear in early April. Among other improvements, the program will allow DOS and Windows applications to run simultaneously in resizable windows. - InfoWorld 30 December New Mac Chooser for Networks. The A.G. Group, of Walnut Creek, California supported by Apple engineers has written a hierarchical Chooser currently codenamed Silver Cloud. The interface draws both upon the existing Chooser, and System 7.0's Finder. "Shell" zones appear as folders, real zones can be grouped within them. The data is stored in a single Chooser configure file, which a network administrator can prepare and distribute to all the clients on his network. If all goes well, the new Chooser will be distributed this month. - found in my electronic mailbox How's That Again Dave? According to the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, the the H.A.L. 9000 was scheduled to go online January 12, 1992 at the H.A.L. plant in Urbana-Champaign. Long-time readers of this column will not be surprised to find that the schedule has slipped to the novel's 1997 date. - noted by Charles Y. Choi From the February 1992 APPLE PULP H.U.G.E. Apple Club (E. Hartford) News Letter $24/year P.O. Box 18027 East Hartford, CT 06118 Call the Bit Bucket (203) 257-9588 Permission granted to redistribute with the above citation