Apple's new LaserWriter 12/640 PS is aimed at 
cross-platform small workgroups in areas such as 
business, government and education.

"The LaserWriter 12/640 PS is Apple's laser 
printing solution for demandingsmall workgroup 
environments," said Tom Mager, senior director of product 
engineering for Apple's Imaging Peripherals Systems. "Its flexible paperhandling options, extensive networking support and Adobe PostScript and PCLprinter language capability make it a natural choice for Mac OS, Windows,and UNIX users."

The new printer features 600 dpi resolution enhanced with Apple FinePrint and PhotoGrade, with an engine rated at 12 pages per minute. Media handling capabilities include a 250 sheet universal cassette and a 80-sheet multi-purpose tray, whichsupports media sizes from A4 to postcard and paper weights from 16-50pounds, transparencies and labels. 

A duplex printing unit option allows for professional double-sided printing without the need for a copy machine. 

Autosensing, autoswitching Ethernet, LocalTalk, and bidirectional parallel ports are built-in. Industry standard network protocols EtherTalk, TCP/IP, and Novell Netware IPX are supported via Ethernet connection. Adobe Postscript Level 2 and PCL allow compatibility with cross platform applications. 

The Apple LaserWriter 12/640 PS ships with Adobe Type Manager for Mac OS and Windows.

American ApplePrices for the LaserWriter 12/640 PS and options are as follows:

Item                                                                                               ApplePrice

LaserWriter 12/640 PS                                                                                    $1,689
LaserWriter 12/640 PS Duplex Printing Unit                                     $399
LaserWriter 12/640 PS 500 Sheet Cassette and Feeder                  $399
LaserWriter 12/640 PS Envelope Cassette                                                       $149
LaserWriter 12/640 PS Face-Up Output Tray                                                    $49.95
LaserWriter 12/640 PS Toner Cartridge                                         $120

— Alex Narvey

  
Apple recently announced the latest and highest
performance Performa model to date.

The Performa 6320CD sports a 120Mhz 603e
PowerPC microprocessor, 16MB of RAM, a 1.2 
gigabyte hard drive, and a host of other built-in 
features such as the AppleCD 600i quad-speed 
CD-ROM drive, 28.8 internal modem for speedy 
email and Internet connections, and answering 
machine capabilities.

Like previous 6300's, it also includes an integrated TV/video system, which allows users to connect to external video sources and capture images as well as view television programming with the aid of a TV antenna. Stereo 16-bit sound provides high quality audio playback, while an audio-input port lets users record their own sounds.

"The Performa 6320CD is designed with the sophisticated home user in mind," said Didier Diaz, director of product marketing for Apple's Performa line. "These customers typically have children running multimedia rich education and 
entertainment titles and they may work out of their home, or bring work home, and thus have demanding productivity and communications needs. They want their computer to be powerful, versatile, and provide lasting value. The 6320CD is ideal."

The Performa 6320CD comes bundled with such software titles as ClarisWorks, Quicken Special Edition, At Ease, The American Heritage Dictionary, ClickArt Performa Collection, Grolier's Multimedia Encyclopedia, and more—a total of 16 pre-installed software titles and 15 CD-ROM titles plus five leading entertainment titles, including Descent from MacPlay, Hollywood from Theatrix Interactive, Buried in Time from Sanctuary Woods, Allied General from Strategic Simulations, and F/A-18 from Graphic Simulations.

The Performa 6320CD will have an Apple price of $2,599 US. This includes the computer, 15" color display, keyboard, mouse, internal modem, microphone, and all the necessary cables and software to get up and running. 

The 6320 is also the first Performa system to ship with a trial version (15 free hours) of America Online (AOL), replacing Apple's eWorld service. 

— Alex Narvey

  
Apple's recently released 5XXX/6XXX tester
is designed to perform a diagnostic test on the
logic boards of Power Macintosh/Performa
5XXX/6XXX series computers.

The tester is designed to test for known
component issues which may cause system freezing.

Apple recommends that a full diagnostic test be performed
by an authorized Apple service technician if you are experiencing problems with these computers other than system freezing.

You can get a copy of the 5xxx-6xxx tester from: http://www.support.apple.com/ pub/apple_sw_updates/US/Macintosh/Utilities/5xxx-6xxx_Tester_1.0.hqx  
— Alex Narvey

  
Is Apple moving to consolidate its logic boards or has
it finally figured out that any Mac-head worth his
salt would rush to buy a Mac Plus if it was only
wrapped up in Apple's beautiful tower case?

Whatever the question, the new Power Macintosh
8200 series is the answer.

The Power Macintosh 8200/120 is essentially a
7200/120 wrapped up in the 8500 series chassis. And American buyers need not apply; this baby is only available in select markets, including the U.K. and Ireland.

The Power Macintosh 8200/120 employs a 120MHz PowerPC 601 just like the North American 7200/120.  With its 256K Level 2 cache, the 8200/120 runs about 40% faster than the other 8200 recently introduced "over there"—the 8200/100.

Some U.K. Apple prices:

Power Macintosh 8200/120 16/1.2GB/CD/Level 2 £1875
Power Macintosh 8200/100 8/1.2GB/CD £1500

— Alex Narvey

  
Once upon a time there was an upstart computer company
whose products worked their way into the hearts and minds
 of the faithful.

Just like clockwork, the company turned out products and
programs that kept the consumers amazed and begging for more, and
the competition stunned.

Then the company, which for sake of this argument we'll call Apple Computer Inc., began resting on its laurels. Programs, which again for the sake of argument, we'll call AppleScript, were developed, then left to flounder. The company moved on, ignoring its successful product. Still the consumers relied on old faithful and other companies incorporated it into their own work.

We are, of course, talking about AppleScript, which Apple Computer apparently has suddenly rediscovered and, according to recent reports in both MacWEEK and MacWorld, is putting together a staff which will focus solely on AppleScript.

MacWEEK has AppleScript 1.2 included in an update to System 7.5 scheduled for later this summer, with version 2.0 to appear in mid-1997's System 8.0.

MacWorld says that Version 1.2 will be showing off its Power Mac native performance as early as this month, with support for OpenDoc syntax. Bug repairs in 1.2 will include fixes to memory leaks during initialization, system crashes when converting strings to a list of characters, vanishing HyperCard commands, and failure to launch file types other than the APPL types.

AppleScript's competitor, Frontier, never gave up its development cycle, despite going through a commercial reality check. Frontier is now offering version 4.0.1 of its Power Mac native (FAT binary, actually) scripting enviroment. Apple's new focus on AppleScript will apparently not faze Frontier. MacWEEK quotes Dave Winer, co-developer of Frontier, as saying "Frontier will continue to serve as the most powerful multithreaded native run-time environment for AppleScript."

Why the renewed enthusiasm on Apple's part? Like many things, it is now used for purposes that probably weren't contemplated when it was developed. AppleScript is—like it or not—a key component of Apple's Internet Server Solution, allowing the easy integration of CGI web scripts like email and forms processing scripts for use by WebSTAR. With the burgeoning use of websites running on PowerPC's it has become critical to provide a scripting environment that does not bog down in emulation on PowerPC web servers like AppleScript 1.1.

It's interesting that although Apple's hand was off the AppleScript throttle, the name wasn't out of the limelight. Other companies, Symantec among them, continue to brag that its latest products (Cafe, Suitcase 3 and Caffeine) support AppleScript.

Here are some resources for would-be scripters:

Frontier 4.0.1, released May 20, 1996, can be downloaded at:

http://www.scripting.com/frontier  http://www.well.com/user/dwiner/frontier4.0.1.sit.hqx  http://www.well.com/user/dwiner/frontier4.0.1.sit.hqx  http://www.hotwired.com/userland/frontier4.0.1.sit.hqx  ftp://ftp.math.colostate.edu/pub/frontier/frontier4.0.1.sit.hqx  
A Frontier User's Manual is at:
http://www.starnews.com/okyeron/frontier_manual/contents.html  
You can find out more about both Frontier and AppleScript from the excellent script-enabled Scriptweb enthusiast's site: http://www.scriptweb.com  
And keep an eye on http:www.applescript.apple.com. One of these days it will contain the latest and greatest in the newest chapter in Apple's story.

— Elizabeth Martin

  
Since Macworld Expo in January, we have heard many 
different numbers bandied about regarding the true size 
of the Mac universe. This most recent figure: 58 million.

Apple claims that May marks the shipment of Macintosh 
number 24,000,000. Furthermore, the company claims 
there are about 58 million Mac users currently out there.

How can this be?

According to information posted at the Always Apple web site http://always.apple. com/always/goodnews.html, research shows that each Mac is shared by an average of 2.8 people. That would mean 24 million x 2.8 = 67,200,00. However, Apple recognizes that some older Macs havebeen retired so that number has been adjusted to 58,000,000.  
— Alex Narvey

                            
Apple has announced the Apple Network Administrator Toolkit 
(ANAT in latest AppleSpeak), a comprehensive suite of software 
applications for managing networked Macintosh computers.

According to the company, ANAT will help network administrators 
be more productive, offering educators a powerful tool for managing collaborative learning in classroom computer labs.

The ANAT product is due later this month in the U.S. from Claris and will start at prices as low as $599 US for a 10-pack ($349 education price). At Ease owners can upgrade for $499 US ($149 education price).

Apple Network Administrator Toolkit consists of three applications: At Ease for Workgroups 4.0, Apple Network Assistant and Apple User and Group Manager.

With the Toolkit, a school network administrator can now set security access privileges for files and applications, control computing and print resources, distribute applications, and manage groups and user lists, all from a central workstation.

— Alex Narvey

  
At Ease for Workgroups 4.0 has a new central server-based
file storage architecture, allowing students to use different
computers each day, yet always having access to their files,
applications and Internet preferences. New printer page limits
and disk space quotas have been added so administrators can more
effectively manage printing resources and costs. And version 4.0 is PowerPC native, enabling faster processing and increased functionality.

With At Ease for Workgroups, the network administrator can control access to applications and workgroup resources, control which CD-ROMs students have access to, and prevent unauthorized users from deleting files or copying data or software from the network. The software also offers three different interfaces tailored for the experience level of the user.

 
Apple Network Assistant has remote software distribution and deletion capabilities to make it simple to keep all the Macintosh computers on a network up-to-date.

Using the remote system status report function, an administrator can gather details about RAM, available disk space, installed applications, system software and other information about individual workstations or servers, then make necessary changes—including remotely deleting duplicate or obsolete files and applications.

The Apple Network Assistant also supports remote shutdown and restart of computers.

 
Apple User and Group Manager uses drag and drop to import and export users and group lists between AppleShare, At Ease for Workgroups 4.0 and First Class services, maintaining user names, groups and passwords across servers.

— Alex Narvey