MailBITS/20-Nov-95

A few months ago, I completed a white paper for Apple, called "Apple and the Internet: The Macintosh Advantage." If you are interested, you can now read the paper on the Web, where it appears to be identical to the paper version other than including my bio at the end. [ACE]

http://product.info.apple.com/productinfo/tech/wp/internetwp.html

PowerPC Platform Specification Announced -- At COMDEX in Las Vegas last week, Apple, IBM, and Motorola jointly announced the "PowerPC Platform" specification, formerly referred to as the Common Hardware Reference Platform (CHRP). A long time in development, this specification directly challenges Intel-based computing architectures, and is designed to spell out the details of a unified computer architecture based on the PowerPC chip. In theory, a machine designed to this specification can run any operating system designed for the architecture. At the moment, Apple, IBM, Microsoft, Novell, and Sun say they plan to support the PowerPC Platform with future operating systems, and many chip and component manufacturers have announced their intention to develop and support the PowerPC Platform as well. It's expected the first machines built to the PowerPC Platform spec will be available in the middle of 1996, with Apple's first Macintoshes supporting the platform sometime in 1997. [GD]

http://chrp.apple.com/
http://www.austin.ibm.com/tech/chrp/chrp_book.html

Billions of Happy Astronomers -- Famed astronomer and Cornell University professor Carl Sagan has reached an amicable settlement with Apple Computer in their argument over Apple's internal use of Sagan's name as a codename for a new computer model. When Sagan objected to the use of his name, the codename was changed to "BHA," which reportedly stood for "Butt Head Astronomer." Sagan's lawyers filed suit for defamation of character, but a judge threw out the case and Sagan appealed. The new settlement appeases both sides. [MHA]

Now Utilities 5.0.2 for PCI Macs -- Earlier this month, Now Software finally released Now Utilities 5.0.2 for System 7.5.2 and Apple's new set of PCI Macs. Though the updates have been available on commercial online services since last week, they're now available on Now's FTP site as well. The updates address problems with Now Menus, Super Boomerang, Now Startup Manager, and Now QuickFiler, and contain an updated version of Now Toolbox. The updater only works on Now Utilities 5.0.1, but there's also an updater available that will take version 5.0 of Now Utilities to version 5.0.1. You must re-enter your serial number when you update, so have that handy before installing. [GD]

ftp://ftp.nowsoft.com/nowsoft/updates/

Energy Saver and 1710AV Monitors -- An article in Apple's Tech Info library confirms reports of problems using Energy Saver with Apple's new 1710AV monitor. According to Apple, 1710AV monitors with serial numbers between SG522xxxxxx and SG536xxxxxx (inclusive) may randomly cycle while in Energy Saver mode, causing the power LED to randomly flash along with popping and clicking from the monitor itself. Units with serial numbers greater than SG537xxxxxx are not affected. This repeated cycling is hard on the monitor and may cause it to fail; Apple recommends disabling System Sleep in the Energy Saver control panel until the monitor can be serviced. If you have such a monitor, contact your Apple dealer or call 800/SOS-APPL. Be warned: there are reports of Apple refusing to exchange or accept returns of affected 1710AV monitors even if they have been hammered (and possibly damaged) by this problem. [GD]

Apple Announces Three Language Kits -- Apple has announced Claris will be marketing Arabic, Cyrillic, and Hebrew Language Kits for System 7.1 or higher. The kits should be available by the end of November with an estimated price around $100, and each kit includes a selection of fonts and keyboard layouts as well as the language software itself. Apple claims the Cyrillic kit can be used with almost any MacOS application, but the Arabic and Hebrew kits require localized and/or WorldScript-savvy applications that support right-to-left text entry. The kits require 4 MB of RAM and a 68020 processor or better and come with Power Mac native versions (which require at least 8 MB of RAM). [GD]

Java Support Planned for CodeWarrior -- Metrowerks has announced plans to ship a suite of Java development tools for the Macintosh. The Java tools will be developed in conjunction with Sun Microsystems (creators of Java), and Metrowerks expects to have an initial release by mid-1996. Though Java applets (in theory) will run on any platform with Java support, being able to develop Java applets on the Macintosh is a plus since so much multimedia and Internet development currently takes place on the Mac. [GD]

http://www.metrowerks.com/products/announce/java.html