Software Vault: The Gold Collection/Software Vault - The Gold Collection (American Databankers) (1993).ISO/cdr12/v93n04z.zip/V93N049.IBM

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Date: Fri,  9 Apr 93 00:17:49 GMT+0
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Subject: Info-IBMPC Digest V93 #49
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Info-IBMPC Digest           Fri,  9 Apr 93       Volume 93 : Issue  49

Today's Editor:
         Gregory Hicks - Rota Spain <[e-mail]>

Today's Topics:
               Murph's VAPORWARE Column for April 1993

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the distribution list, et al) to: <[e-mail]>

Archives of past issues of the Info-IBMPC Digest are available by FTP
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Date: Sun, 28 Mar 1993 22:36:12 EST
From: Murph Sewall <[e-mail]>
Subject: Murph's VAPORWARE Column for April 1993

                              VAPORWARE
                            Murphy Sewall
                    From the April 1993 APPLE PULP
           H.U.G.E. Apple Club (E. Hartford) News Letter
                              $24/year
                           P.O. Box 380027
                        East Hartford, CT 06138-0027
                 Call the "Bit Bucket" [phone]
      Permission granted to redistribute with the above citation

** SPECIAL NOTICE **
As announced last month, this column which ends nine years, will be my
final one.  I'd like to acknowledge the many kind messages I've
received in the past month.  Even though I haven't had time to answer
each one individually, I really appreciate the support.  I'd
particularly like to thank the relatives of beta testers, former
employees of developers, and occasional honest-to-goodness insiders
who've been kind enough to pass me a scoop or two.  Being able to
accurately describe the LC III a month before MacWeek was particularly
satisfying.  Several people have asked whether it would be possible to
find someone to continue the column.  The possibility is open to anyone
with the desire to do the reading and writing.  I have no copyright on
the title (a term I obtained from an Atari executive quoted in the Wall
Street Journal late in 1983).  Most of the information appearing in the
column comes from reading InfoWorld, PC Week, MacWeek and any other
industry publication that catches my attention.  Keeping current
probably requires access to at least two of those three weeklies.  Many
libraries carry all three, but it might prove difficult to meet
publication deadlines unless you receive personal copies.  As many as
would like to are welcome to take up the challenge.  Send your efforts
to all the major lists (info-ibmpc, info-mac, info-apple2, info-micro,
and so forth).  If you send a copy to me, I'll send you my select list
of list addresses, newsletter editors, subnet redistributors, and
assorted privileged characters who have been receiving a direct copy of
the column.  A typical column (9 to 14K) is small enough to fit through
everyone's gateway.  An account on America On Line, Compuserve, or
MCImail will serve as well as one on BITNET or the Internet.  I'll look
forward to seeing whatever follows.

Some Long Range Thoughts.
The personal computer industry has moved from high growth to the onset
of maturity over the course of the past nine years.  Bill Gates appears
to have gotten it right before everyone else--the future is in the
software.  It is beginning to appear that for the next generation of
personal computer, the hardware won't matter as much as what
"personality" (or personalities, for the wealthy) you decide to
purchase.  A "personality" will be a system add-on for running
Macintosh, Windows, OS/2, MS-DOS, or UNIX operating environments and
unmodified shrink wrapped applications.  The PowerPC in 1994 probably
will be the first system to offer the full range of personalities, but
you may want to simply admire the initial PowerPC 601 (never buy
version 1.0 of anything) and wait a year for the PowerPC 604 (or a
notebook containing the "oxymoron CPU," that is, the low-power PowerPC
603).  The specs for the PowerPC 604 suggest that its performance will
be to a 33 MHz i486 as the i486 is to a 1981 Apple II.  Are you ready
for the idea of 32 MBytes of RAM as limited memory and one gigabyte
random access storage with a seek time of 2 milliseconds at prices
affordable by the masses?  That situation appears likely to be less
than five years away.

Macintosh PowerPC Clones.
Several third parties, including Radius and DayStar Digital, are
negotiating with Apple to develop PowerPC hardware compatible with
Apple's Macintosh Compatibility Module (the Macintosh "personality").
Although Apple hasn't finally decided whether to license the
Compatibility Module itself, the Mac ToolBox will be built into the
PowerOpen architecture which anyone may license.  Hence, it will be
much easier for a PowerPC licensee to produce a Macintosh clone than is
the case for the 680x0 machines.  - InfoWorld 22 February

PC "Plug and Play" At Long Last.
Intel and Microsoft have collaborated with twelve other hardware and
software developers on a set of "plug and play" standards for expansion
cards that will work in existing ISA and EISA PC's (under Windows).  A
plug and play card can be added to any open slot and used immediately
without reconfiguring the system, a feature that has always been
available with the Macintosh architecture.  One problem that remains to
be addressed is how users can mix older boards with the new plug and
play variety.  - InfoWorld and PC Week 8 March

Migrating to Taligent.
IBM has announced that the microkernel version of OS/2, WorkPlace OS,
will support the look and feel of the forthcoming object-oriented
Taligent OS.  Beta versions of Workplace OS are expected in May with a
final product scheduled for the end of this year.  Meanwhile, OS/2
2.1's shipping date has been delayed until Spring Comdex in May;
another beta was released at the end of the first quarter.  Version 2.1
will add full support for Windows 3.1 and full implementation of the
32-bit graphics engine.  - InfoWorld and PC Week 8 March

New Macs to Take Dictation.
Adding an optional high fidelity microphone to one of Apple's Digital
Signal Processor (DSP) Macintoshes (see last July's column) will be
sufficient to make full use of MacPlainTalk (formerly codenamed Casper
see last April's column), the speech software that ships with them.
MacPlainTalk reportedly will recognize speech from any adult speaking
North American English, with no prior training.  Due for release this
summer, the Macintosh Tempest will be share the case and CPU of the
Centris 610 model while the more powerful 40 MHz Cyclone will be housed
in the same case as the Quadra 800.  - MacWeek 22 February

Removable Media for Notebooks.
SyQuest Technology is developing a removable media drive capable of
storing 100 MBytes on a 1.8 inch disk.  - MacWeek 22 February

QuickDraw GX Printers.
Next year, Apple will release hardware and software to turn the
forthcoming upgrade to the Macintosh screen imaging model, QuickDraw
GX, into a full-fledged page description language.  In addition,
QuickDraw Interchange Format software will convert PostScript output
from applications into resolution independent QuickDraw GX code.
QuickDraw GX is expected to become the basis for a new line of low-cost
Apple printers.  - MacWeek 8 March

Apple Online Services.
CEO John Sculley told a communications conference audience that Apple
will expand AppleLink into an on-line services business with features
such as news, weather, entertainment information, and transaction
services such as banking and software sales.  Mr. Sculley indicated
that Apple Online Services could be come Apple's largest business by
the end of the decade.  - MacWeek 22 February

Handheld CD-ROM.
Later this year, Apple will introduce two lightweight, portable CD ROM
units that will play Macintosh, multisession Photo CD, and audio disks.
The basic model, due in May, will offer NTSC and (European) PAL video
output and list for $500.  A more elaborate model, codenamed Popeye,
will be released in the fall with  a 640 by 480 LCD touch screen and a
PCMCIA slot.  The anticipated list price for the two to three pound
Popeye is $1,000.  - PC Week 22 February

Windows For Workgroups 3.11.
An upgrade for Windows For Workgroups (WFW) that adds a 32-bit
protected mode file system, auditing features, and loading of network
drivers into upper memory is already in beta testing.  A Microsoft
official indicated that a final decision about the full list of new
features has not yet been made.  - InfoWorld 8 March

Macintosh Client for Netware 4.0.
There will be a Macintosh client for Netware 4.0, but it isn't expected
to ship until June.  - MacWeek 8 March

High Performance at Lower Prices.
NEC has announced plans to slash the price of its Alpha CPU chip by
nearly 40 percent as soon as Intel's Pentium begins to ship in volume.
The price reduction should make high performance systems available at
lower prices, but the personal Alpha PC awaits release of Microsoft's
Windows NT (currently scheduled for the second quarter of this year,
but believe it when you see it).  - PC Week 8 March

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End of Info-IBMPC Digest V93 #49
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