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Thursday, January 15, 1997
Reality News Is Updated Every Monday And Thursday

MacWorld And Steve Jobs Though we cannot speak for the show floor itself, we can say that the events at MacWorld were rather dull or at least nothing like they used to be. Even Steve's keynote wasn't as electrified as in the past, that is, until he announced the 45 million dollar profit. However, there may have been more excitement planned. According to a blurb recently posted by our friends at Apple Recon, Steve may have planned to drop his interim title near the closing of MacWorld. That is, if it weren't for the CNBC mishap, which you may view in it's entirety using this Microsoft Netshow by option-clicking this bookmark. (The bookmark is on our server, though you will need to download Microsoft Netshow from their servers.) The CNBC Interview Though what Steve did may have been wrong in one perspective, I have a different opinion when it comes to this incident. Prior to the CNBC interview with Bruce Francis, Jobs and Francis apparently set some guidelines for the interview, which Francis obviously violated. One of these guidelines being not to press for any information on the CEO search, especially the question of Steve taking the job. Jobs may have been able to counter the questions in a more professional manner, but you must understand he should never have been in the position in the first place. Bruce Francis broke the verbal contract. The interview started off with a few general questions, and then Francis went on to verbally attack the integrity of Apple Computer, pressing for information that should not be made available and implying that Apple's CEO search was a total failure. Throughout the very brief interview, Francis would continually press for information that Jobs already stated he could not comment on. In short, it was a sneak attack planned by CNBC to be a cheap shot on Jobs. If the interview would have continued, God only knows how bad it may have hurt Apple with all the negative implications that Francis continued to spit out. The fact that Jobs got up from his chair, took off his microphone and then patted Francis on the leg saying "We agreed we weren't going to talk about this" may have stunned Wallstreet, but there is something called respect. And everyone deserves it. Especially Apple. The Oracle/Apple Partnership One of the most overlooked announcements at MacWorld would have to be Apple's partnership with the Oracle Corporation, in which Oracle will bring all 40 of its database applications over to the Macintosh platform. This is great, but mostly ignored for reasons beyond my understanding.

News Index MacWorld And Steve Jobs 400MHz G3's On The Way? HFS Plus In Action MacOS 8.1 Final Statement Allegro User Experience Revealed! Apple Toying With The Wall/Main Street Line? Claris Em@iler Development To Cease? eMate 3000/bMate Rumors Apple's Market Share Up? This Week's Apple News Return To Reality

Oracle has already given Apple permission to use some of its core technology which is vital to the Apple NC development. It's also fair to realize that none of this would have been possible if it weren't for Jobs. Larry (Ellison) and Steve Jobs are best of friends who are trying to re-revolutionize the computer world with technologies such as the Network Computer, as Jobs and Wozniak did with the Macintosh back in the early 80's.

MacWorld Archived Keynotes
Below are a few archived conferences and keynote sessions from last week's MacWorld which we felt you may be interested in.

400MHz G3's On The Way?

A source who shall remain anonymous recently whispered some juicy information into our ear regarding the future of the G3 processors. According to this source, who is close to the Motorola chip fabrication sector in Austin, a 400mhz version of the Power Mac G3 is already completed and set for production at the Motorola plants.

Could these chips possibly be the missing link in the cancellation of the Power Express series of Power Macs due out this summer? Quite a few explanations for the cancellation contain a mention of machines which may have possibly made the Power Express line of Power Macs obsolete. Here lies a definite candidate.

G3's running at 300MHz and 333MHz are already in production now at Motorola's plant with several vendors already vying for their availability. Expect to see them surface in the near future.

Either way, we are going to have to wait and see. But one thing is for sure, a 400mhz G3 will whip the living daylights out of anything Intel can put into the hands of its customers.

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HFS Plus In Action

With MacOS 8.1 just around the corner, we felt we should give you a look at the amount of space the new HFS Plus volume format will save you. Below is a table comparing the same file on two different volumes. One HFS and one HFS Plus. We tested this first with a 50 Byte file then with an almost 8 MB folder of files. Click on the links in the tables to see the results displayed by the finder.

The Hierarchical File System (HFS) Plus volume format increases the maximum limit of allocation blocks from 65,535 to 4.29 billion. This new file format also supports 255 character Unicode file names, however, this feature won't be available till Apple revises system services, most likely in Allegro. Right now we'll have to continue to deal with 31 characters names. HFS Plus will also expand the number of files that can be contained on a single volume to 2 billion while lifting the maximum file size. But yet again, this feature won't be available to users until Apple updates its File Manager APIs. We hope to see this update in Allegro as well.

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MacOS 8.1 Final Statement

Well what can we say? The MacOS 8.1 release date has been juggled around more than those flaming torches you see with the clowns at Disney World. The best explanation we can come up with for 8.1 missing its original download date is the set of minor bugs reported in the last beta release. According to a number of sources, beta 7, the supposed Golden Master, contained a few glitches. Mac OS 8.1b8 was then seeded to a few developers and then pulled back because of bugs. These bugs will definitely be non-existant in the release.

Another major factor, though it may not have played a roll in the release date, is the fact that there are no extensive disk repair tools for HFS Plus at the moment. This will soon change as Symantec is expected to conduct a public beta of its Mac OS 8.1 compatible Norton Utilities 4.0 (paid upgrade) in February. The final versions are not expected until March at the earliest. MicroMat's TechTool Pro 2 may be ready before Symantec's Norton Utils and will provide HFS compatibility. DiskEssentials had also announced a compatibility update, but that is not likely to be distributed until a few weeks (3) after 8.1 is actually released.

The current word is that Mac OS 8.1 has just gone GM and will be released on CD in early February and a downloadable version will be available, minus QT 2.5 and IE, two weeks before that.(Which is actually quite soon). You can order the Mac OS 8.1 CD right now from 1-800-293-6617. The CD is $13.00; the shipping is $ 6.95; and the sales tax is $1.00, which is a grand total of $20.95. Shipping will begin the first
week of February via Airborne. (Taken from the main MacNN site).

We'd also like to clear up the QuickTime situation once again. The 8.1 CD will contain QuickTime 2.5 not 3.0. There is also some speculation as to whether the CD will contain I.E. 4.0 or 3.0., this we cannot comment on, though it is unlikely to contain IE 4.0 due to many things including bugs.

In any event, it will be a great release, and you should all go out and grab a copy. If you haven't purchased 8.0 previously, you may purchase the full 8.1 CD for $99 ($30 rebate for System 7.6 owners).

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Allegro User Experience Revealed!

Thanks to a source from within the Allegro internal development seeding spectrum, we have obtained a brief sampling of Allegro's user experience offerings. The images provided below have been taken from the first development version of Allegro which was recently seeded within Apple's Cupertino headquarters

MacOS 9.0 It Is
Along with these images came confirmation that Allegro is being referred to as MacOS 9.0. This has always been the most likely, though, with Apple, you never know.

The Theme Manager portion of Allegro's Appearance control panel contains a pop-up list containing a list of themes and a second containing a list of settings options. Below is an image and description of each of these options.

Pop-Up Menus
The Pop-Up Menu option allows the user to edit pop-up menus. The user may add a new item and set a new action, add a new divider, or remove an option. This feature is displayed in the Pop-Up Menu's image. This feature enables the user to customize their Pop-Up Menus to whatever they please, containing whatever actions they feel fit and will save them time.

Highlight Color
The Highlight Color option very simply brings up highlight color choices within the window instead of in a pop-up menu like MacOS 8. This image can create a better understanding of this option.

Icons
The Icon option is by far the coolest of them all. This settings option enables animated icons in the finder, icons larger than 32x32 pixels and transparent icon names. Users also have the option to never show custom icons when switching themes and vice versa. As you can see in this image, the current theme icons are displayed in a scroll-through fashion at the bottom of the settings window. Users may Add, Remove, and Edit icons in the current set. This brings us to the....

The Everything Else Option
Lastly, there is an "Everything Else" setting where the user may select alternative cursors or even import their own. It's quite simple to create your own cursor in ResEdit and then import using this option.

Also in this settings option you'll find desktop picture and pattern settings. Like in the Desktop Pictures control panel, the user selects the picture, and in this case, pattern, from the hard drive and by using a series of options, which are displayed in this image, configures it to the screen.

The Children's Theme
Wow, and if that weren't enough, let's take a quick look at Allegro's Children's Theme. In the background you'll see Netscape was running, and an error message is displayed. We aren't sure as to the "security" option. However, we are guessing it has to do with protecting the child from screwing up anything to do with the Mac OS. - i.e. changing icon names, settings, deleting the system folder (which you can't do, but I thought it was funny).

Windows in the background still contain that crappy grayed-out appearance. Somebody fix that :)

From what we have seen so far, Allegro looks really top notch. It's very early in the development stage so we hate to dwindle further. Stay tuned, as we will have continuing updates, as promised. If you have any further infomation on Allegro please let us know.

Update: We have had numerous reports as to the validity of the images shown above as well as those recently posted on MacOSRumors and other rumor sites. We cannot vouch for these images, and neither can anyone else at this time. So please take them with a grain of salt. We are aware of the situation, there is no need to notify us. Allegro is an internal work in progress not meant to be seen by the outside, so that leaves room for error. In any event, Steve has done a top notch job of pluging leaks to the media on Allegro.We must make tough decisions every day as to what we do and do not publish. If someone has been toying with the rumor sites we'll find out sooner or later when the first developer builds of Allegro are released. Till then we'll take a very low profile on the Allegro coverage. And thanks to all who let their voice be heard on this matter.

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Apple Toying With The Wall/Main Street Line?

The recent cancellation of the Power Express line brought a series of notions concerning the Wall/Main Street Power Book line. It has been rumored that Apple may be rethinking it's PowerBook strategy which will invoke possible delays on the new PowerBook line.

However, sources are proving these rumors to be far from the truth or distorted. It seems that whatever rethinking Apple may be doing will only act to benefit the new line of PowerBooks, while helping Apple improve it's business strategy.

This issue is still up in the air, though expect some delays on the new line of PowerBooks. This is definitely not a resource of technical problem with production, but rather a checking of the blue prints per say.

We'll keep you updated when and if information becomes available.

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Claris Em@iler Development To Cease?

The End Of Innovative E-mail
With the initiation of MacWorld came Microsoft, and with Microsoft came their complimentary E-mail client, Outlook Express. This instantly triggered numerous rumors of Claris ceasing production of their outstanding Claris Emailer client. And for the most part, these rumors appear to be true. The Mac Resource Page recently posted an E-mail from the lead Claris E-mailer engineer, which leans towards our thesis.

It's obvious that Claris sees competing with a free product un-profitable. However, I beg to differ. This is Microsoft we are talking about here. Masters of flimsy duplication and imitation

My Advice To Claris
Claris, you get what you pay for. And that is one of the morals I live by. I hate to think about using another e-mail client, not to mention a Microsoft client. In fact, I will never use a Microsoft mail client. Cyberdog included a great free mail client, yet your production went on. Why stop now? Your client is without a doubt far superior to anything in the market on any platform. That should be something to take pride in. Now, many individuals may download a copy of Outlook Express, but the majority will trash it only moments later. As I did with IE 4.0. Netscape is just better built. True code runs circles around imitation code any day.

I would continue to purchase Em@iler no matter what Microsoft decides to dish out, and I'm sure many others share my same perspective. I was really looking forward to 3.0. Don't make a stupid mistake, fight it out, you have the edge and the talent. I'd bet my pay check that MS could never match the power of Emailer.

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eMate 3000/bMate Rumors

Rumors are floating in from various anonymous sources which suggest a new version of the eMate to be announced quite soon. Supposedly, the new model will either be called the eMate 3000 or the bMate, standing for business mate. Unlike the educational model, the bMate is rumored to be a cross between the old eMate and the Newton 2100. The casing to this amazing product is said to resemble that of the Newton book, or possibly a cross between the old case and the case of Newton book. An image of this casing is shown below.

Currently, only speculative features are known. Among other things, the bMate or eMate 3000 is said to feature an inlaid keyboard, as displayed in this image of the Newton book.

If rumors are accurate, the new model should contain 4 MB of DRAM. This should prove to be an awesome product for the businessman. When and if we see this product is still undetermined. I guess we'll have to wait and see, though, if announced, it will be a sure bet that anyone can pick this product up from the Apple Store. Apple plans to make the Apple Store a main means of product distribution, and well they should.

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Apple's Market Share Up?

According to a recent PCData report, Apple's market share jumped a full point at the end of last year from 4.9 to 5.9% of the market. If true, this is great news. With the shipment of over 133,000 G3 machines, future percentages could possibly be all the better.

The Apple Online Store may be doing wonders for Apple, with a current revenue of well over $150,000,000 since its launch back on November 10th.

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Reality's Contact Page Posted

Yes, we have finally posted a formal Contact Page which lists the appropriate e-mail addresses for users to send news, rumors, confidential info, suggestions, and so on.

Here at Reality, we encourage viewers to interact with us. We read each and every e-mail and respond when appropriate and if time permits. We welcome all viewer mail, but from now on, please direct e-mails to the appropriate addresses listed on the contact page.

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Power Express Out Of Gas

-This summer's Power Mac Product line has apparently been canceled, leaving a huge gap...What will fill it?

QuickTime 3.0 b11c2

-QuickTime 3.0b11c2 has been uploaded to an unsupported Apple directory.

COS = Microsoft = Conspiracy?

-An article posted at the German news website MacGadget describes possible influence on Omega by Microsoft.

Mac OS 8.1 In February

-Mac OS 8.1 has been delayed till February for reasons we will discuss in a later update.

Bill Gates Goes Shopping

-Bill Gates was seen shopping in Seattle 2 hours prior to this update. He apparently purchased Hotmail, Texas, South Carolina, and is currently working on the Republic of China....

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