Little Bits
By Sean Craig
Copyright (c) 1993 Apple Users' Group, Sydney
Republished from Applecations, a publication of the Apple Users' Group, Sydney, Australia.
o Allison 2.0 preannouncement: Scott Gentry has revealed that he is close to signing a contract to begin work on Allison 2.0, the digitizer software for the Enhanced AST Vision Plus now offered by Alltech. It used to be called the Visionary board, nee AST Vision Plus.
There's a new firmware release that enables "Allison Movies" in the upcoming software. You'll be able to capture in grayscale, 80x50 frames from video at 30 frames per second. Frame editing and splicing, as well as transitions, are among the planned features in Allison 2.0. A 16-palette color mode was also mentioned at the AGS conference.
Upgrades will be handled by Alltech Electronics. The projected price of the new digitizer/Allison combo is around $200. Look for it sometime in the Autumn or Winter 1993.
o Most of us may know that Apple Computer, Inc. (in the US) as of 15th December, 1992, the IIgs was removed from the price list. What you may not know is that Apple (in Australia), as of early January, 1993, still has the IIgs on the price list! Apple says they will still show support for the existing base of IIgs users is with a brand new issue of the Apple II Software newsletter that has been edited by Cynthia Field for the past two years. Previously, it was available only through user groups, but this year it will be advertised in InCider magazine at Apple's expense and made free for the asking. The newsletter is a compilation of Apple II software packages currently available with sources to purchase them.
o Econ's AutoArk, a data compression utility for your hard drive, is now shipping. When compressing a file, instead of using a thermometer, it uses a file icon, which fills up with blue ink. When expanding, the opposite occurs. Compressed files appear with their usual icons. A 'Get Info' on a compressed file will give you the original size, the compressed size and the percentage of reduction. WestCode Softwares' contender, HardPressed, is close to beta stage (as of January).
o Good rumours - 1) Apple wanted to do a IIgs card for the Mac LC but found that they coudn't make one for less then the cost of the Mac itself. 2) No new Apple II hardware is expected to be developed by Apple Computer, Inc. after the Apple II Ethernet card is released. System software tweaks, such as printer drivers for new Apple printers, are expected to continue. 3) HyperCard GS and Apple IIgs System Software 6.0 were done partially to give Apple II users 'a taste of the Mac' in the hope that they would eventually migrate to that platform. 4) The much-rumoured 'ROM 4' Apple IIgs was to have the following features : build-in 40MB hard drive, built-in SuperDrive, 2 Meg RAM, System 6.0 Tools in ROM, DMA SCSI port, HyperCard GS bundled with the machine. Processor speed would still be 2.8 Mhz.
o Verbatim Corp. has introduced new 5.25-inch double-sided rewritable optical disks that store 1.1 to 1.3 gigabytes of data. A statement from the company quotes John Stevens, manager of its optical storage products marketing, as saying the disks, which meet proposed ECMA/ISO standards, now are being evaluated by a number of leading drive manufacturers. He said the disks are compatible with existing optical disk drives, adding, "Perhaps even more important is the increased data transfer rate of 750 to 1,600K/sec. This allows even faster retrieval of files, which becomes more important as the amount of archived data increases."
o Pointless version 2.01 is now shipping. 2.01 corrects several cosmetic and other glitches present in version 2.0.
o Sequential Systems has announced "Switch-It!", an application program switcher software for use with GS/OS and Apple IIGS computers. "Switch-It!" software makes it possible to instantly switch between multiple, concurrent applications without closing any of the applications; a feature normally available only on Macintosh computers. "Switch-It!" is compatible with most Apple II & IIGS software and will be available Jan 1, 1993 at a suggested retail price of US$79.95. "Switch-It!" is the first product to be released by Sequential Systems in collaboration with Procyon Enterprises, Inc., a developer of software for the Apple IIGS. Sequential Systems, Inc. of Lafayette develops, manufactures, and markets hardware and software enhancements for Macintosh, Apple, & MS-DOS computers.
o SHH Systeme (in Germany) is proud to announce that their Turbo IDE Card is now fully compatible with ALL Vulcan drives (even the real old ones). The card is more compatible with IDE drives than the original Vulcan controller. This means that Vulcan users can now get support for true interleave 1:1 speed. RAMfast speed without throwing away his system and buying SCSI! The Turbo IDE Card now comes with a low-level formatter to setup your hard drive for interleave 1:1 or whatever you want. This is especially useful when working with the older Vulcan drives which usually needed an interleave of 7:1 to 5:1 in their original configuration. Even the Turbo IDE Card formatter runs MUCH faster than the orignal interleaver of the Vulcan utilities. SHH SYSTEME, Dipl. Ing. Joachim Lange, Schoenstrasse 80a, 8000 Muenchen 90, Germany.

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