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Thursday April 30, 1998
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News Index 1)Allegro a4 Report |
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Thursday April 30, 1998
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News Index 1)Allegro a4 Report |
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| BeOS PR3 For PPC |
The guys at Be have finally released Preview Release 3 of BeOS for the PPC, arrive several weeks after the Intel version. The Intel arrived with a 42 page installation manual. The PPC version arrived with 3 lines of installation instructions written on the back of the CD sleeve. Bellow are some immediate changes that were noticed.
NetPositive has had some major advancements. NetPositive will now load pages at macnn.com, which makes us suspect that HTTP 1.1 support has now been implemented. Pages also load smoother and faster.
A demos menu has been added to main pull-down menu. Several QuickTime movies ship with the the PR3 CD. We had 3 running simultaneously on a 120 604.
The workspaces feature now supports up to 9 workspaces.
BeFonts seem to be extremely smooth with this release, we notice no display glitches.
Expander, DiskProbe and Connect have been added to the Applications menu.
The speed is as fast as ever. Moving from the MacOS to the BeOS is like going from benching weights to playing with balloons and feathers.
Below are some screenshots from the new release.
BeOS PR3 PPC Screenshots
BeOS PR3 3-D Models BeOS PR3 Workspaces BeOS PR3 Demos Menu BeOS PR3 About BeOS BeOS PR3 QT Movies BeOS PR3 Netpositive BeOS PR3 Apps Menu If you have any further information on this subject, please inform us.
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| Escape Velocity Override - Sneak Peek |
Ambrosia is applying the final tweaks to their long awaited sequel to Escape Velocity, Escape Velocity Override. The game should be available some time this week from Ambrosia's web site, and various other ftp locations. For the mean time, we have an exclusive sneak peak of the game, with several screen shots posted below.
Welcome to a brand new universe!
EV: Override is Ambrosia's huge follow up to the classic Escape Velocity. With an immersive story and universe created by Peter Cartwright, a new conflict begins to unfold. Much like the original game by Matt Burch, you are cast as a pioneering space captain with only a small shuttlecraft, a bit of money, and a strong sense of destiny. But the similarity ends there.
Override features a universe five times the size of the original game, and a slew of populated worlds within. Gone are the neverending wars which raged in the original game; instead, winning critical battles can change the face of the universe. Or, if you're happy with the existing balance of power, you can make a living as a humble trader. Just watch out for those pesky renegades, who want nothing more than to swipe the precious cargo from your holds.
Override also takes advantage of an improved Escape Velocity engine for improved game play, and enhanced flexibility for scenario developers. Additionally, the game contains stunning new graphics and sound, over 250 new missions, and all the excitement of the original EV game.
It's time to rediscover addiction. The unexplored universe awaits!Below are a few snap shots of early stages during the game. If you liked the first version, you'll love this one. And if you haven't tried the first one, try this one anyway. The cost of the game will be $25.00 shareware for new gamers, and $15.00 for registered players of the original Escape Velocity.
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| MacOS Lite & The eMac Part 2 |
Last week's report on the eMac and MacOS Lite (still posted below), attracted not the slightest bit of objective criticism; something we couldn't say often when laying out the basic details of a project whose existence has still yet to be confirmed. On the other hand, we received some mumblings here and there regarding the MacOS Lite project, from sources both within Apple and those residing amongst its outer boundaries.
MacOS Lite
One source, who frowns upon the thought of being unmasked, has coughed up some bits and pieces of information that suggest something rather speculative. According to this internal source, versions of MacOS Lite will have the ability to run on both the Message Pad 2000 and the Message Pad 2100. Now, we are by no means stating that Apple will re-market the Newton with a new suit of software, we're just stating that, according to this source, owners of the latter Message Pads will be able to run MacOS Lite. This alone puts MacOS Lite's hard ware demands at a minimum; all the more reason to place this bit of information in the 'rumor isle' of your local Stop & Shop. Though, we should not forget it was mostly the lack of promotion and support of the software end of the Newton products which brought on its demise, and with previous orders for message pads still actively being filled, the hard ware its self may not be deemed as useless as one may have previously thought.
A second source who, like Batman (above), must disguise himself when dealing with the general public, began to tout some of MacOS Lite's advantages in the market. Unlike Windows CE, one source states that MacOS Lite will feature a strong form of compatibility with the current MacOS. MacOS Lite is said to share a percentage of the same code base as the MacOS, which may pave the way for a number of possibilities. Our source states that certain application files could be shared between MacOS and MacOS Lite. Another reader, later chimed in to suggest this possibility. In other words, a single Simple Text file could be interchanged between MacOS and MacOS Lite.
The eMac
While no new information has surfaced regarding the eMac, several supposed images of the product have. We'll immediately denounce any and all of these images as genuine. Our inboxes are literally overflowing with these hideous attempts to pass one over on the rumor sites. The most notable image of the supposed 'eMac' running MacOS Lite and displaying QuickTime for MacOS Lite, appeared on MTK, just a couple of days after our report made note of the special edition of QuickTime 3 for MacOS Lite. We'll not publish the image here, for it is a terrible waste of valuable bandwidth, as are the rest.
The moral of the story, unless someone in Apple's Industrial Design Studio or its Hard Ware Labs leaks the early casing design for this product, we aren't going to see a genuine image of this product for some time.If you have any further information on this subject, please inform us.
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| NewerTechnology 7200 Upgrades And More? |
A well connected reader recently dropped us a line concerning NewerTechnology, and their future products. According to this reader, who is in contact with sources close to highly placed NewerTech executives, NewerTechnology is on the verge of assembling a beta testing team for a new G3 upgrade card for the PowerMacintosh 7200 line. A line of PowerMacintoshes often left behind in terms of upgrading and expansion.
Update
MacOSRumors has, for some reason, attempted not only to debunk these rumors, but to prove them worthy of a laugh. For now, we'll stick by our report and update you when and IF these rumors are officially deemed false. (Their response from a Newer 'source' doesn't convince us, and the headline is followed by a huge questionmark.)We're not laughing. Working...
Update
MOSR were apparently not referring to us with their comments...
This same source also informs us that Newer is in negotiating with Apple to obtain permission to produce a line of G3 upgrade cards and motherboard replacements (when necessary) for all 68040 Macintoshes and up! This is, of course, a proposition from Newer, and not Apple. If Apple did allow such a line of products to be produced, it would surely cut into future sales. However, Newer could make a pretty penny from such a set of upgrades, and Apple could possibly 'hold-on' to customers thinking of dwindling over to the 'dark side'. There are a lot of older Macs out there...
We are awaiting confirmation and pricing information.If you have any further information on this subject, please inform us.
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| The $500 Macintosh? |
Steve Jobs was forced to let a few things slip and slide during Apple's Annual Shareholders Meeting last week. We heard it straight from the horse's mouth: Apple will produce a Macintosh with a price range around the $500 dollar figure by the summer of 1999. The information came as follows; a shareholder who had no particular interest in computers stated so and then added that he may become interested if price dropped to $500. Jobs pondered the thought for a moment or two, and then let out "We're working on it.". Following this statement, a second stockholder, a woman in her late 70's stood up and asked if that product would become available within her lifetime. Jobs then responded, "If you eat right over the next year.". Previously in the meeting, Jobs officially stated that Apple has planned an aggressive return to the low-end consumer market, beginning this fall. Jobs has repeatedly made note of the 'fall' in his previous addresses including his keynote at Seybold.
Between the conference call (which took place after Apple released its Q2 results) with Apple CFO, Fred Anderson, and the shareholders meeting, our previous report on Steve Jobs as CEO is proving its self more viable by the minute. During the conference call, Anderson stated that Steve is their leader, regardless of the 'interim' preceding his title. This was in response to a question regarding Apple's CEO. At the shareholders meeting, in response to the same type of question, Jobs stated that he had no news to report. Why doesn't that surprise us? He then proceeded to take a jab at Amelio; "I've got to tell you, some people are worried about the word 'interim' in my title; they weren't worried about the last CEO, and he wasn't 'interim'."
Jobs is a player, Apple is his contract, and the media is his ballpark.If you have any further information on this subject, please inform us.
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| Our Rhapsody Page - Revamped! |
As many of you have already discovered for yourselves, our Rhapsody Page, once a main source of Rhapsody information, has turned to shreds over the past several months. Almost every link had become broken after several moves to different servers and so on. After receiving numerous e-mails on the subject, we decided to finally bring the page back up to par.
We have totally redesigned the Rhapsody Page, taking a page out of Apple's HTML design book, and completely fixed everyone of the once broken links. We have greatly improved navigation of the page as well. The Rhapsody Page will house all of the information and images from DR2 when it makes its release at the WWDC in a couple of weeks, so stay tuned.
The page is still somewhat under construction, but we hope to complete layout by this time next week. So please check the page out now, comments and feedback are welcomed. We encourage readers to make submissions of Rhapsody information, images, or editorial/factual articles. We aim to make the Rhapsody Page one of the main sources for Rhapsody information on the web.Go To the
New Rhapsody Page
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| The eMac and MacOS Lite 04/20 |
So many rumors, yet so little proof. Various other media outlets including MacOSRumors and MTK have often talked of 'Allegro Lite' otherwise know as 'MacOS Lite', and even called 'MOSL' at times (for clerical reasons, hereafter we'll refer to this product as 'MacOS Lite'). Often intertwined with this line of discussion has been the existence of an eMac and now 'mini-Macs'. A well trusted source has shed some 'lite' on these subjects, so here we go.
MacOS Lite
MacOS Lite will indeed be Apple's stab at Windows CE, the ever popular (or is it?), grayscale look alike version of the natural disaster we've come to know as Windows95. Sources state that MacOS Lite will be part Allegro, part Sonata, and part NewtonOS. Indeed, MacOS Lite will consist of scaled down versions of these components, making for a quick, memory efficient, a 'Lite' palmtop/portable operating system.
Sources further state that like the NewtonOS, MacOS Lite will support handwriting recognition (presumably with the precision of the late Newton's) and will work with touch screen technology. We've also been told that MacOS Lite will subsume a special build of QuickTime 3.0/Quick Draw 3D. This is extremely exciting, to say the least. It's said that MacOS Lite will become the NC/embedded applications OS. This may explain the absence of the Apple NC till this date.
The eMac & Mini-Mac
The way we are seeing things, it looks as if Mini-Macs in general and the eMac are two totally different products within themselves, but share a common bond, in that both will use versions of MacOS Lite to function. We are told that Apple has indeed conversed with licensees for MacOS Lite, including Panasonic and Casio (MTK also mentioned Sharp). We expect that these large electronic corporations will produce their own 'mini-mac' palmtops to run versions of MacOS Lite licensed from Apple.
The eMac on the other hand, will be an all Apple operation. Sources best describe this device as a 'beefed up, color eMate'.
The eMac will run its own version of MacOS Lite and will come complete with a larger color touch screen with handwriting recognition. One source even went on to tout a suit of networking options, but this is highly unconfirmed. The eMac is expected to be powered by a 740 processor (a cache-less 750 (G3)), and will use a motherboard with an architecture very similar to the mother board in the AppleNC and AMP. Trusted sources put the eMac within a $500 - $1000 price rangeprice range, possibly towards the lighter end if recent G3 chip price rumors prove themselves accurate. As for a release date on the eMac, we are hearing from late this fall to early 1999. We'd bet on the latter.
We should also point out that the 'eMac' is a reference name right now. We have not the slightest idea what the final model will officially be tagged. Come to think of it, Apple probably doesn't know yet either. Our details may seem sketchy at this point in time, and we apologize for that, however, things should take shape over the coming months and we'll surely publish updates when information becomes available.If you have any further information on this subject, please inform us.
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| Star Trek, Our Version (MacOS On Intel) 04/20 |
It was many months ago that we posted our original 'WaCkY' MacOS on Intel rumor, which included a strange twist, an NT kernel. We talked of the existence of a new team of former Open Step developers who are now supposedly working on a project to get some form of the MacOS back onto the Intel platform. Immediately after we broke the story, other media outlets posted their 'versions' of the rumor. In the end, we came to the conclusion that the NT kernel made little to no sense, however the project its self still has some viability left in it.
We withheld further reports on the rumor for a number of reasons. One reason, of course, was the backlash of e-mail from readers who blew their top. We received hundreds of mails with subjects ranging from "MacOS on Intel is STUPID!" to "Lay Off the Chronic Next You Publish". It was far from a pretty site, to say the least. Yet we did receive several reports that were worthy of a second look. Now, with the return of this trend to the spotlight, we'll tell 'our version' of what we've learned. And for the record, the Star Trek (code name for MacOS on Intel) team did indeed succeed in bringing System 7.0 to the Intel platform, and it wasn't just a demo. Ask Fred Huxham who still retains a copy of the original Star Trek source code which he's kept on his 486 for years. Of course the build had bugs, but unfortunately they were never able to complete the project.
Since our previous reports, we've learned several interesting things about the Star Trek project. For starters, the reunion of the the original Star Trek team in Cupertino late last fall was not just for laughs, there was a line of technical reasoning behind the event. Whether or not Apple actually rehired these engineers is unknown by us.
One of Reality's most trusted source gave us a key bit of information not too long ago, which also leads us to believe that current MacOS on Intel work is being done within Apple headquarters, and not externally. Within the section of Apple's Advanced Technology Group in its 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino headquarters lies two sets of private offices. One labeled 'Project X' and the other 'Star Trek'. This was late 97, early 98. The original Star Trek project ended in 1993. Our source told us that the offices were in a state of transition, but were alive with employees and people running everywhere. The Star Trek offices appeared to contain a lab of Dell desktops among other things. We took this bit of information and swallowed it for the time being.
A couple of months ago another source let us know of a strange occurrence. While getting ready to indulge in the new 'Big King' for the first time at a food court in a crowded shopping mall, he overheard a familiar line of conversation between two male suspected Apple employees sitting directly to his left. According to this source, they were conversing over a project entitled 'Star Trek NG' or 'Star Trek the Next Generation'. One employee seemed to be absent minded towards the project, and the other trying to fill him in. The talk was of brining the core of the current MacOS suit over to the Intel platform using some of 'Steve's favorites'.
Two weeks ago the 'Star Trek NG' code name made its way into our inboxes once again. This time with direction. The latest source talked of a possible blue box like technology to allow MacOS applications to run on Intel hardware under Rhapsody.
Our sources for this information are quite trustworthy. There is much confusion as to what the current 'Star Trek NG' team is actually working on; be it MacOS for Intel, a Blue Box for Intel or so forth. However, it has become quite clear that an effort exists that directly parallels that of the original Star Trek project. It will be interesting to see what evolves from these rumors, though, we'll refrain from speculating further for everyone's sake.If you have any further information on this subject, please inform us.
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| WallStreet Retail Configurations and Pricing 04/20 |
Over the weekend, MacNN sources obtained what is suspected to be the official retail configurations and pricing for the WallStreet models. WallStreet will also be a BTO (Built to Order) machine via the Apple online store. Various other media outlets have also been publishing the May 6th announcement date which we posted earlier this month. Most WallStreet models are suspected to ship with an ATI Rage Pro II card and an available DVD drive will be optional for $350. A floppy for the low-end model will cost an additional $90 (actual accessories prices now posted below).
It has yet to be made clear whether the low-end configuration, posted below for $2299, is indeed the cache-less version of WallStreet, or if that model will be added later with a $1999 price tag. Being that 'Configuration 1' is without a floppy, we'd assume this is indeed the cache-less/floppy-less version of WallStreet which we talked about last week. If we receive update pricing and configurations, they will be published immediately.
Update 5:30pm EST
Several well connected sources have confirmed that Configuration 1 (see table below) priced at $2299 is indeed the cache-less version of WallStreet which was originally planned to retail at $1999. Regardless, it's still an awesome deal.
Other sources claim that the Higher Education Early Order worksheets have arrived at educational venues for early ordering of the WallStreet Models for education.
WallStreet Pricing and Configurations
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WallStreet PowerBook Suspected Retail Pricing and Configurations |
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| Configuration 1 | Configuration 2 | Configuration 3 | Configuration 4 | Configuration 5 | Configuration 6 |
| 233MHz G3 (cache?) 32 RAM 2Gb Hard Drive 20xCD ROM Ethernet 12.1 DS Display |
233MHz G3 32 RAM 2Gb Hard Drive Floppy Drive 20xCD ROM Ethernet/56K 12.1 DS Display |
233MHz G3 32 RAM 2Gb Hard Drive Floppy Drive 20xCD ROM Ethernet 13.3 TFT Display |
233MHz G3 32 RAM 2Gb Hard Drive Floppy Drive 20xCD ROM Ethernet 14.1 TFT Display |
250MHz G3 32 RAM 4Gb Hard Drive Floppy Drive 20xCD ROM Ethernet/56K 13.3 TFT Display |
292MHz G3 64 RAM 8Gb Hard Drive Floppy Drive 20xCD ROM Ethernet/56K 14.1 TFT Display |
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| $2299 | $2579 | $2999 | $3499 | $3899 | $5599 |
WallStreet Accessories
Wall Street Accessories
PowerBook G3 DVD Rom $347 PowerBook G3 Floppy Disk Drive $87 PowerBook G3 AC Adapter $60 PowerBook G3 LiIon Battery $173
WallStreet Images
If you have any further information on this subject, please inform us.
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| This Week's Apple News |
Snapz Pro 1.1 Delivers Outstanding Screen Capture Features!
- Ambrosia's shareware Snapz Pro 1.1, the most powerful screen capture utility for the Macintosh, adds important "web-friendly features" including GIF or JPEG direct capture and storage of WIDTH and HEIGHT information in the "Get Info" window.
-This is a Must download for anyone who deals with screenshots, and our sources, of course ;)Cyber Studio 3.0!
-CyberStudio 3.0 Preview 1 is available on GoLive's ftp servers.
-CyberStudio 3.0 is one of the greatest high-end web design applications. We encourage you to download a copy now, and preview it. Our new Rhapsody Page was designed and created in Cyber Studio 3.0.Photoshop 5.0 Release Date
-Sources close to the project state a mid-May release date for Adobe Photoshop 5.0.
Norton AntiVirus 5.0 Beta Test!
-Symantec has posted a public beta of Norton AntiVirus for Macintosh 5.0 (previously known as SAM)
Clintons Favorite Doll Hits The Market.
-Check it out here.
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