After months of speculation, IBM has finally announced its inten-
tions to license the Mac OS. At the recent PC Expo in New York,
IBM revealed that it would offer Mac OS-configured computers,
based upon the CHRP (Common Hardware Reference Platform)
standard, in the second half of 1996. (CHRP is a new Apple, IBM,
and Motorola standard that will allow PowerPC-based computers to run various ope- rating systems, including the Mac OS, AIX, Novell NetWare, OS/2, Windows NT and Solaris). Many analysts feel that IBM’s licensing of the MacOS confers a certain legitimacy upon Apple’s cloning efforts, constituting a stamp of approval from a major player in the PC industry. Details of the agreement were not specified at press time.
  
HSC Software has announced that it is shipping KPT Vector Effects,
a new set of application extensions for Macromedia FreeHand and
Adobe Illustrator. In a similar fashion to Kai’s Power Tools (a set
of plug-ins) for Adobe’s Photoshop, KPT Vector Effects provide users with numerous special effects and precision tools, and each extension has a similar look and feel. Users have the option of creating effects visually (using the real-time preview windows) or by numeric entry. These extensions are "host application sensitive", allowing users to invoke the standard keyboard commands of the host application without having to set it up in a user preference dialog. Extensions include: KPT 3D Transform; KPT ColorTweak; KPT Emboss; KPT Flare; KPT Inset Path; KPT Neon; KPT Point Editor ; KPT Resize & Reposition; KPT Shadowland; KPT Shatterbox ; KPT Sketch; KPT Vector Distort ; and KPT Warp Frame. Suggested North American retail price is $199 US. For more info contact HSC at (805) 566-6200 or by fax at (805) 566-6385.
  
Flush from the kudos (and customers) it has received from its
new ZIP drive, Iomega has announced that it has already shipped
tests units of a new drive that Mac users will be wild about. While the ZIP drive was targeted at the consumer market, Iomega says its new removable cartridge drive addresses the high-performance needs of markets such as video/audio producers, electronic publishers, CAD/CAM, graphics users, multimedia users, desktop publishing, medical imaging, and Fortune 1000 business users. The new drive is rumoured to use 3.5" removable one-gigabyte Winchester cartridges, is horizontally stackable, and will be priced at under $500 US (with cartridges under $100). The drive is expected to debut later this year.
  
In a move to bolster its electronic publishing product,
Novell, Inc. has announced that a the Envoy Viewer is
now available, free of charge, from its world wide web
site (http://www.novell.com), and on the CompuServe and SpaceWorks services. By the time you read this it should have begun to spread to other online services and BBSs. The Viewer is the same as the one included in the retail package of Envoy. Envoy is Novell’s Acrobat competitor and consists of two parts: a document publisher and a document viewer. While only Envoy owners can publish an Envoy document, the viewer is available to anyone to view Envoy documents and send feedback using the annotation, highlighting and bookmarking features. Recipients using the Envoy Viewer can view Envoy documents with the original layout, fonts, graphics and color intact, regardless of the application used to create the document. The Envoy Viewer does not have to be bound to a file and can open multiple Envoy documents.
  
Adobe Systems has announced a definitive agreement to acquire Frame
Technology Corporation through an exchange of common stock of the two
companies. The combined companies represent $725.6 million in revenue
based on the last four quarters. Under the agreement, 0.52 shares of Adobe
will be exchanged for every share of Frame. The transaction is a pooling of interests that will qualify as a tax-free reorganization. Based on Adobe's June 22 closing price and Frame's outstanding shares, the transaction has a value of approximately $500 million. “Our products are complementary, not competitive. The combination will enable us to create better, more versatile solutions.” said Adobe Chairman and CEO John Warnock. “Adobe PageMaker, for example, is optimized for documents with high graphic content on Macintosh and Windows platforms. In contrast, FrameMaker focuses on text-intensive technical documentation created on UNIX platforms.” (Seventy percent of Frame's technical documentation software sales are to the UNIX market.)
  
Adobe has moved to acquire full ownership rights for PressWise, from
its development partner Emulation Technologies, Inc. (ETI) of Cleveland,
Ohio. And, hot on the tails of this, Adobe has released version 2.5 of its
PrePress imposition product. The new version has increased capabilities
in all areas, including colour separation and preflight checking. North American suggested retail price is $3,995 US. Registered PressWise 1.0 and PressWise 2.0 customers can upgrade for $595 US. Customers who purchased PressWise 2.0 after January 1, 1995 can upgrade for $149 US with proof of purchase. For more information call the Adobe Prepress Group at (800) 685-OPEN.
  
Claris Corp. has announced its “Get Organized” promotion for Claris
Organizer. The promotion reduces the price of Claris Organizer to $49 US.
Claris Organizer has already achieved best seller status among Macintosh PIM purchasers, according to Ingram Micro's Best Sellers List. The promotional deal is good through the end of the year.
  
Manhattan Graphics has produced the first major DTP package to fully
utilize QuickDraw GX. Ready, Set, Go! GX version 7.0 is the successor
to the company’s early Ready, Set, Go! and its incarnations as Letraset’s
Design Studio. In addition to the most complete typographic controls of
any shipping product, the new Ready, Set, Go! boasts powerful graphic
editing controls never before available within a desktop publishing program (such
as Photoshop-like transparency effects). The program comes with a special offer to purchase 34 GX typefaces on a Linotype-Hell CD-ROM. Upgrade prices are $69.95 - $89.95 US. A competitive upgrade is available for $149.95 (SRP is $395 US). For more information call Manhattan Graphics Customer Service at (800) 572-6533.
