A2 News and Notes
June 2003

INDEX

* KansasFest '03 Coming Soon
* CFFA Now Shipping
* New Apple II Educational Software Released
* Another platform For Apple II emulation
* Patent Expiration Means New Development
* New Way To Use An Old Keyboard


- The KansasFest Committee has announced that this year's Roastee will be
Geoff Weiss, and the list of tormenters-cum-roasters has also been
announced.  Currently, the schedule for the presentations and
demonstrations are in the process of being finalized. Kfest will be held
at Avila University in Kansas City, KS from July 22nd thru the 27th.  
This not-to-be-missed event is a must for every Apple II user.  Late
registrations are still being taken.  More information including the PDF
registration form can be found at http://www.kfest.org

- Rich Dreher has begun shipping the 2nd run of his CompactFlash for Apple
II interface card.  This card allows the user to use either an IDE hard
drive or a CompactFlash card for mass storage on either a //e or IIGS.  
Kfest attendees will receive a 10% discount on card orders.  More
information on the CFFA can be found at:
http://spudboy.dreher.net/CFforAppleII

- A new Apple II typing tutor has been released as freeware by Mark
Percival. Called Type Away, this video typewriter for kids will help teach
children how to type and master keyboard usage.  It can be downloaded from
the Syndicomm ftp site at: ftp.a2central.com/pub/education/type.away.bxy

- Palm OS users can use Hilary Cheng's new version of the AppPalm ][
emulator for Palm OS.  Formerly called PalmApple, this version requires a
Sony Clie handheld, and does not function properly on Palm-branded
devices. This new version has better performance, supports writing to disk
images, and works on Palm OS 5.  It can be found at:  
http://palmapple.sourceforge.net/

- The Apple II world's de-facto standard for file compression, ShrinkIt,
uses the LZW algorithm. (This is the algorithm that is also the basis of
.gif files).  Unisys, the patent holder for for the alogrhythm allowed the
patent to expire on June 20th, meaning that free development of new tools
is now available.  Andy McFadden has updated his program CiderPress to
include the full version of the NufxLib DLL for Windows computers.  More
information on CiderPress can be found at:
http://www.faddensoft.com/ciderpress/index.htm

- Reports on the Internet point to the possibility of using PS/2 IBM-style
keyboards and mice with Apple IIGS or Mac computer's ADB bus.  Using a
Belkin OmniView Mac adapter, (part #F1D080, $34.99) which is designed to
put ADB-based Macs on PS/2-based KVMs was reported to work with little
problems on a GS.  More information on this item can be found at the
Belkin website: http://www.belkin.com


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A2 News and Notes is produced with real or emulated Apple II computers
using AppleWorks 5.1.  Apple II Forever!

A2 News and Notes is (c) copyright 2003 by Ryan M. Suenaga, M.S.W. and
edited by Howard Katz.  All rights reserved.

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