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MailBITS/16-Dec-91

This is our last weekly issue for 1991, although I hope to release a special issue about ResEdit tricks that you can play with your System 7 Finder later this week. We’ll be taking a couple of weeks off for Christmas and will return in 1992 with TidBITS-100, our first issue distributed in the human-readable setext format. We hope to have a LISTSERV or mailing list set up soon, so you’ll be able to subscribe and have each issues delivered to your electronic door. Keep an eye out for announcements around that time. I also hope to attend this year’s Macworld Expo in San Francisco, dependent only on travel and lodging now that I’ve received a press pass from Mitch Hall Associates. Perhaps I’ll see some of you there at the netters’ dinner or on the floor.

Andrew Johnston, the outgoing president of Seattle’s Macintosh downtown User Group (dBUG), recently said that he’d seen an AppleLink announcement indicating that a 50[cts] charge will applied to all mail going out to the Internet from AppleLink. If that’s true, and I haven’t been able to confirm it, all I have to say to Apple is "Boo!" As this world gradually grows smaller and electronic networks play an important role in fostering communication, the last thing anyone needs is such a surcharge, which will create a financial barrier to open communication.

I’ve heard some rumors about various projects in progress at Apple (and forgive me if this is old news in MacWEEK – my subscription just started up again after running afoul of the Postal Service’s forwarding limitation). A docking station is in the works, along with a lighter PowerBook 100-type machine and some other portables, all of which will be able to act as SCSI devices like the 100 can. Some more 68030 Classics are coming, for some reason, and more interestingly, a color Classic. Wonder who Apple got a 9" color screen from? Apple is also working on a bug-fix extension for System 7, which is separate from System 7.0.1. From what I’ve heard, 7.0.1 isn’t a major improvement, but mainly provides compatibility for the new machines.

Mark H. Anbinder writes, "Your readers may be interested in the fact (gleaned from the 15-Dec-91 issue of TypeWorld) that Adobe has signed a distribution agreement with DEC under which Digital will serve as worldwide distributor for Adobe Illustrator 3.0 for Motif, for VMS and ULTRIX workstations running the Motif graphical user interface. It will ship with Adobe Separator software, and the expected suggested retail price is $995." [The platforms grow ever closer…]

We’ve heard that Microsoft has announced an update to Excel, version 3.0a, which works on the new Macintosh Quadras with the 68040 caches turned on. The update is free to registered owners of Excel, who should call 800/426-9400 to request it. The part number is 065/096-S12. In the meantime, you’ll have to turn the caches off, either with the Control Panel or with Alysis’s useful Quadra Compatibility INIT.

Information from:
Pythaeus
Mark H. Anbinder — [email protected]

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