We publish our last issue of 1996 with announcements of new versions of Home Page, Globetrotter, and Open Transport, plus some good news about Apple and a reminder about the Netter’s Dinner at Macworld Expo. Rounding out the issue, we take a detailed look at two heavyweights in today’s desktop software arena: Quicken 7 and WordPerfect 3.5.2. TidBITS will resume publishing on 06-Jan-97 – see you then!
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Good News in the Face of Apple's "Death?" Reading this year's reports of Apple's imminent demise seems to have devolved from serious reporting to tabloid headlining ("Gil Amelio Taps Martians for System 8 Secrets!")
Open Transport 1.1.2 -- Apple has released Open Transport 1.1.2, which should provide better reliability over modem connections and some performance improvements that will be especially welcome to Mac webmasters
Netter's Dinner -- Those of you who plan to attend the upcoming Macworld Expo in San Francisco may wish to register online for the 11th Annual Netter's Dinner, a traditional geek-fest involving a stroll through the streets of San Francisco and a buffet-style Hunan Chinese feast
Upping the ever-rising ante in the HTML editor game, Claris has shipped Home Page 2.0, and Akimbo recently released Globetrotter 1.1. Home Page 2.0 fills several glaring holes in a PageMill 2.0 to Home Page 1.0 comparison - Home Page now offers variable width table columns, the ability to display background graphics, client-side image maps, a spelling checker, and plug-in support
Over the last several years, Intuit has provided a major update to Quicken, their personal finance package, on a yearly basis. This year's upgrade includes many refinements, along with some major new features
Few Mac users have missed the confusion and holy wars caused by the many choices of word processors. Offerings span a field from old Claris stalwarts MacWrite Pro and ClarisWorks all the way to the behemoth, Microsoft Word, and the quirky, yet powerful Nisus Writer