🚀 go-pugleaf

                              VAPORWARE
                            Murphy Sewall
                  From the November 1992 APPLE PULP
           H.U.G.E. Apple Club (E. Hartford) News Letter
                              $24/year
                           P.O. Box 380027
                        East Hartford, CT 06138-0027
                  *** NOTE New P.O. Box and Zip Code ***
                 Call the "Bit Bucket" (203) 257-9588
      Permission granted to redistribute with the above citation

Someone sent me a message saying that Intel has decided to name the P5
CPU (aka the i586) the "Pentium."  Does it follow that Apple will
consider naming the next generation 68060-based Macintosh the
"Sexiewun?"

Desktop CD Authoring.
Kodak will have a three component CD ROM authoring system available for
Windows and the Macintosh by the end of January.  The DOS version of the
$7,990 system is available already.  The components are a 300 KByte per
second multisession recorder from Philips Consumer Electronics, software
for the ISO 9660 cross-platform and Macintosh HFS formats, with the
Photo-CD format to be added by the end of the year, and 550 to 650 MByte
disks for about $25 each.
- MacWeek 28 September and InfoWorld 5 October

NT = Not on Time.
Microsoft chairman Bill Gates has admitted that Windows NT will miss its
promised 1992 shipping date.  What else is new?  After all Microsoft
practically invented vaporware as a strategic concept.  A number of
industry analysts and developers expect NT's shipment date to keep on
slipping until at least the third or fourth quarter of 1993.
- InfoWorld and PC Week 28 September

Big Blue at Home.
IBM has committed $100 million to a home information and entertainment
service that will transmit videos, software, and interactive data.
- InfoWorld 21 September

OS/2-Pen.
IBM plans to release OS/2-Pen and DOS-Pen at this month's Comdex.  The
company also will release pen extensions for OS/2 and DOS.  Next year
IBM plans to offer a combination notebook and pen-based PC as well as a
pen only palmtop.  - PC Week 28 September

Windows 3.1 Applications in OS/2.
General availability of Windows 3.1 support and the 32-bit graphics
engine for OS/2 is expected by year's end.  In spite of rumors to the
contrary, Microsoft denies that 32-bit versions of Word and Excel for
OS/2 are under development.  Some observers continue to believe that
Microsoft will deliver OS/2 compatible applications next year.
Microsoft also is considering adding a layer of code to Windows NT to
accommodate OS/2 applications.  - InfoWorld and PC Week 28 September

MultiPlatform Groupware.
Word Perfect Office 4.0 will arrive in the first quarter of next year.
A one server five client pack will retail for $695.  The server will
require Microsoft DOS, but Mac server software is planned for the second
quarter.  Either server will support Mac, MS-DOS, Windows, OS/2, UNIX,
and VAX/VMS clients.  The price for additional client software is
expected to be between $60 and $80.  Meanwhile, Microsoft has
demonstrated nineteen separate applications for its forthcoming Windows
for Workgroups and Access database.  Microsoft expects to deliver most
of the nineteen during 1993.  - MacWeek 12 October and PC Week 5 October

NeXT Year.
Motorola's new 40 MHz 68040 CPU will appear in a new NeXT model,
codenamed "Nitro" in January.  A NeXT portable will ship as soon as
Canon is able to deliver enough active matrix color flat panels.
NeXTStep 4.0 will substitute a database approach using Object Design
technology for the traditional file system.  A RISC workstation based on
twin Motorola 88110 CPU chips remains under development.  NeXT hopes to
keep the price tag for the RISC machine under $10,000.
- InfoWorld 5 October

Claris Color HyperCard Reaches Dead End.
A new, color HyperCard has not arrived in 1992 as expected (see the
January and April columns).  Even rumors about a release date have dried
up.  Apparently, the problem is that the thing is just too slow, and the
problem appears to be a critical design decision made early on.  In
other words, there is no way to tweak the current color version into an
acceptable product.  One scenario under serious consideration would be
to return programming responsibility to Apple while leaving marketing
and technical support with Claris.  Apple's engineers plan to undertake
an all new HyperCard which would replace HyperTalk with AppleScript.  In
the meantime, look for an interim HyperCard version with some bug fixes
and perhaps a few enhancements.  - found in my electronic mailbox

"Wet" Disk Drives.
Conner Peripherals will demonstrate a prototype of its new "wet" drive
technology at this month's Comdex.  The drives use a liquid instead of
air to cushion the read/write head.  The technology offers twice the
storage capacity of older drives.  The prototypes are 2.5 and 1.8 inch
models suitable for notebook computers and personal digital assistants.
- PC Week 12 October

R.I.P.
The last of the well-known Apple 2 magazines, A+/InCider will publish
its final issue in December (the January 1993 issue).  There will be a
February issue, but it will be the new A+ magazine oriented toward the
home Macintosh user (more entertainment oriented than MacWorld and
MacUser).  Another venerable Apple 2 organization, Beagle Brothers, went
quietly out of business in October.  WordPerfect, Inc. has signed a
letter of intent to acquire the company's integrated BeagleWorks product
for the Macintosh.  - found in my electronic mailbox

MicroSPARC Workstations.
Last month Texas Instruments announced a new 50 MHz MicroSPARC CPU that
will be used in an under $4,000 Sun workstation that will shipp before
the end of the year (see the July Vaporware column for details).
- PC Week 12 October

Dates for DEC's Alpha-based Line.
Digital Equipment will begin introducing computers based on its powerful
Alpha processor (see last March's column) this month.  The first model
will be a VAX replacement running the VMS operating system.  OSF/1 UNIX
should be available early in 1993.  A release date for the Alpha PC
desktop workstation will depend on when Microsoft is ready to ship its
Windows NT operating system (maybe the second half of 1993, see above).
The Alpha PC will support 16 to 128 MBytes of RAM, six Extended Industry
Standard Architecture (EISA) slots and deliver 80 to 100 SPECmarks in
performance.  - PC Week 12 October

New 486 Chips.
Over the next year and a half, Intel will release a number of new chips
in the i486 family.  The plan is to offer 25 versions of the i486 to
meet every market need for performance, price, and bus.  Some of those
new CPUs will include the power-saving features now offered in the
386SL.  - PC Week 21 September

Power Paging.
Motorola will begin shipping PowerBook client software this month for
its Embarc pager messaging network.  Embarc delivers email, USA Today
reports, and data files.  The initial software will require that
outgoing messages be divided into 1,500 character chunks, but an upgrade
that will automate the process is expected by the end of the year.
- MacWeek 28 September

Apple's Newton Shipping Schedule.
Apple plans to deliver two basic Newton models in 1993 (see the April,
July, August, and September columns).  Each may come in more than one
configuration.  The first model, retailing between $500 and $700,
reportedly will ship in March or April.  A larger, six by eight inch
unit with more collaborative and interconnectivity features should
appear in computer stores in August for between $1,100 and $1,300.
Apple CEO, John Sculley, has indicated that Apple is repositioning
Newton as a business product rather than a consumer product.
- MacWeek 28 September

PageMaker 5.0.
A major upgrade of Aldus's Pagmaker desktop publishing program will ship
for Windows in January and the Macintosh in February.  Both versions
will offer the same features.  Among the new features are multiple open
documents and the ability to group text and graphic items on a page and
move them--a feature available in most graphics packages.
- MacWeek 5 October and InfoWorld 12 October

Netware 4.0.
Novell's Netware 4.0, a distributed operating environment, should be
shipping by early 1993.  The new LAN software package also includes
directory services and more sophisticated security.  Under a new
technical support plan, small bulletin board operators will no longer be
able to distribute technical updates.  Updates will be available, for a
fee, from Compuserve, Genie, Ziff, and perhaps other licensees.
- InfoWorld 12 October

Central Virus Management.
This month, Central Point Software will begin shipping comprehensive
antivirus software for Netware, DOS, Windows, and Macintosh operating
systems.  The key to the new strategy in a network environment is a
messaging and management notification system that is activated whenever
a virus is detected on any station in a network.  - InfoWorld 12 October

Mac Word 5.1.
The good news about the forthcoming upgrade to Microsoft Word for the
Macintosh is that users of version 5.0 will only be asked to pay $14.95
(users of earlier versions can upgrade for $129).  New features include
a customizable toolbar that can be configured for 9, 12, 13 inch, and
larger monitors.  More than 150 buttons and 300 commands will be
available.  Word 5.1 should ship in time for Santa to stuff it in your
Christmas stocking.  - InfoWorld 5 October

Astound! Your Clients.
Gold Disk of Torrance, California will challenge Aldus Persuasion and
Microsoft PowerPoint with a $399 program named Astound! in January.  The
program is based on the Surpass product that Gold Disk announced last
January but decided not to ship.  The 24-bit color program will offer an
outliner, 35 mm slide output, a slide sorter, and speaker notes along
with an array of drawing tools 20 business charts and roughly 1,000 clip
art images.  - MacWeek 5 October

Sleeping FAX.
Taiwan clone maker Acer plans to market an integrated PC, fax, and
answering machine that can be awakened by incoming calls.
- PC Week 28 September