NetNews Usenet Archive 1993 #3/NN_1993_3.iso/spool/comp/sys/mac/digest/473

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From: [e-mail] (Murph Sewall)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.digest
Subject: Murph's VAPORWARE Column for February 1993
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Date: 28 Jan 93 07:16:52 GMT
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                              VAPORWARE
                            Murphy Sewall
                  From the February 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

Macs and More Macs.
Apple appears poised to grab a large share of this year's headlines by
introducing new products practically every month.  MacWorld Tokyo
(February 10) will see the introduction of three new 68040 models (the
Centris 610 and 650 and the Quadra 800--see last December's column), the
true 32-bit, 25 MHz LC III (see last October's column), the Color
Classic II (see last May's column), the first color PowerBook (the 165C
a model 160 with a passive matrix color display), and two new personal
LaserWriters priced to sell.  The QuickDraw LW Select 300 will list for
$819 and the 300 dpi level 1 PostScript LW Select 310 will list for
$1,079.  Around April, look for a large (14 inch display) 25 MHz compact
Mac based on the LC III design (see last October's column).  A list
price of $2,200 is anticipated.  The 14 inch Color Classic will have a
bay for an optional CD ROM and will come with built-in support for
16-bit color.  A 33 MHz upgrade is planned for midsummer with a 68040
option to be added sometime in the future.  Apple's first two multimedia
workstations (codenamed Cyclone--see last July's column) will debut in
June.  These Macs will have two sets of digital signal processor (DSP)
chips and Fast and Wide SCSI.  Prices of $2,500 and $5,500 are expected.
At least 25 developers are already writing software to take advantage of
the DSP chips jointly developed by Storm Technology and SuperMac
Technology.  An even more powerful "media server" is expected in the
fall.  A release date for the PowerBook 185C (a 180 with an active
matrix color display) will depend upon availability of sufficient
quantities of the difficult to manufacture display.  Apple is hoping to
announce the 185C in midsummer and anticipates a price for a 4/80 model
of $4,100.  - MacWeek 4 and 11 January, PC Week 21 and 28 December, and
InfoWorld 11 January

IBM Multimedia.
Rumors that former IBM employee Ross Perot will return as CEO probably
originated at an office party that consumed a little too much bubbly,
but sometime soon you can expect to see a PS/1 with a built-in CD ROM
and a sound card for just under $1,800.  - InfoWorld 21 December

Pentium Predictions.
You may want to wait until early next year for Intel's 3.3-volt 100 MHz
version before dropping $4,000 to $6,000 on a Pentium workstation.  This
year's models based on a 5-volt 60 MHz design will be slowed by problems
with heat dissipation and slower surrounding chips.  Compaq is planning
to put Pentiums in a four processor symmetric multiprocessing System Pro
server after mid year.  The price is expected be under $22,000.  - PC
Week 21 December and 11 January

PowerPC or Pentium?
As reported in December's column, NeXT has decided to abandon the
Motorola 88110 CPU for its planned RISC workstation (see the April,
June, and November columns).  The company has yet to decide whether to
develop for the PowerPC or the Pentium.  On the one hand, NeXTStep 486,
already well along in development, already runs on the Pentium (NeXT ran
a demonstration at last November's Comdex). On the other hand, IBM may
use the Mach kernel, already the basis for NeXTStep, as the microkernel
for the PowerPC.  - InfoWorld 28 December

Alpha PC and Workstation.
DEC has an Alpha PC and an Alpha Workstation ready to go when Microsoft
finally releases Windows NT (see last March, October, and November
columns; optimists believe that will be late this year).  The
Workstation will list for less than $10,000.  The major difference
between the two machines is the bus architecture--EISA for the PC and
Turbochannel for the Workstation.  Pricing for the PC hasn't been set,
but DEC intends to offer it at approximately the price for a
Pentium-based model (twice the performance at a comparable price).  - PC
Week 21 December

Moderately Parallel.
IBM will market a new line of mainframes for complex database queries
and transaction processing.  The "moderately parallel" systems will
house between 10 and 100 CMOS CPUs of the type in the company's current
conventional mainframes.  - PC Week 4 January

Superportable.
Hewlett-Packard hopes to inaugurate the next generation of small
computers with the HP XN, a three pound unit that will have Windows
along with Word and Excel for Windows in ROM.  Sources say the VGA
display uses new technology that will not require a backlight.  The CPU
of the under $2,500 HP XN will be a 3.3-volt 386SXL; 2 MBytes or RAM and
a 40 MByte hard drive will be standard.  - PC Week 11 January

Notebook Workstation.
Tadpole Technology is expected to ship a 40 MHz Cypress Sparc 2-based
notebook this month that runs at 24 MIPS and 4 MFLOPS (or 24 SPECMarks).
The 640 by 480 active matrix color display supports 256 colors from a
palette of 4,096 colors.  The external RGB can support monitors of 1,024
by 768 and 1,152 by 900 as well as 640 by 480.  An entry level 16 MByte
system with a 250 MByte hard disk will list for $10,950.  The initial
operating system will be Solaris 1.0.1.  Solaris 2.1 is expected at no
additional charge within 90 days.  - InfoWorld 28 December

Apple-Novell Partnership.
More details are emerging about products forthcoming from the cross
licensing deal between Apple and Novell (see last month's column).  A
Mac version of IPX is in alpha test with an SDK expected in April.  Look
for peer to peer connections between Mac, DOS, and Windows environments.
Novell also will support Apple's Open Collaboration Environment (OCE),
QuickTime, and Apple Events.  - PC Week 28 December

Not So Solid Bedrock.
Apple's strategy of relying on Symantec's Bedrock for cross-platform
development (see last August's column) appears to be crumbling as
Symantec's project manager and head of development have left the company
and several Bedrock developers have been laid off.  - InfoWorld 11
January

Diskless Macintosh.
Apple demonstrated a Network Startup utility for the Macintosh in San
Francisco last month.  The utility, which has not yet been incorporated
in a product, will allow networked Macintoshes to startup from a common
System Folder and give managers greater control over the configuration
of stations in a laboratory setting.  The Mac Classic and subsequent
models already have the ROM code necessary to startup without a hard
drive or floppy disk.  Older Macs will need a special System extension
in order to start from a Network Startup server.  - MacWeek 11 January

Competition for Apple's (and Sharp's) Newton.
Apple's Newton demonstration at Winter Comdex last month came the day
after Casio Computer Co. and Tandy Corp. demonstrated a similar
hand-held computer code-named Zoomer that will compete directly with
Newton.  Zoomer, dubbed a personal information processor, will be
shipped this summer, and Tandy chairman John V. Roach said it would cost
"a lot closer to $500 than $1,000." -- Patrick M. Reilly on Prodigy 11
January

More Printers for Windows.
Apple plans to release a Windows 3.1 "Printer Enhancement Kit" that
provides drivers for Apple's LaserWriters and, possibly, the
StyleWriters as well.  - PC Week 28 December

In the Pink.
The IBM-Apple joint venture, Taligent Inc., expects to deliver its first
operating system next year. When it was formed nine months ago as the
cornerstone of a wide-ranging alliance between Apple and IBM, Taligent
predicted delivery in 1995.  Several leading applications suppliers,
including WordPerfect Corp., have agreed to write programs for
Taligent's operating system.  - Wall Street Journal 12 January

Betaware.
Computer Associates' Cricket Draw III 2.0 ($249) which takes advantage
of Apple's System 7 is expected to ship in March.  DeltaPoint's
Freezeframe ($249) for the Mac which provides a set of integrated
graphic utilities including translation, screen capture, viewing and
printing should ship before July. BrushStrokes and Retrieve in Claris's
Clear Choice line (see last December's column) are expected this month.
OS/2 2.1 with support for Windows 3.1 was expected by the end of 1992.
IBM officials now indicate final release is slated for March.  The
latest beta of Microsoft's DOS 6.0 is said to offer to remove any copies
of OS/2 it finds in order to "save disk space."  General Magic's
Personal Intelligent Communicator (see the October 1991 and January 1992
columns) should finally be announced this month ($700).  Apple's OCE
(Open Collaboration Environment) will begin beta this month with a May
shipping date in mind, but don't look for QuickDraw GX until the second
half of the year.  A Claris executive was overheard saying he'd bet the
company's reputation on MacWrite Pro finally shipping in March--only he
didn't say of what year.  - PC Week 28 December, and PC Week,
InfoWorld. and MacWeek 11 January