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Date:         Thu, 5 Nov 1992 13:39:00 EST
From:         Jim Loomis <LOOMIS@ITHACA.BITNET>
Subject:      102392 GEnie Weekend News

As long as individual stories are kept intact and credit is given, this
material may be reproduced in ALL or PART on a privately owned BBS or in
a user group newsletter.  See wording for proper credit at the end of this
Newscast.

Thanks to Denny Atkin, Editor, COMPUTE's Amiga Resource, for his generous input.



                        DateLine:  October 23, 1992
         This 5-MINUTE Newscast presents the following stories:
         ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  1.  Rumor of Great Interest: A1200 Described by Commodore Dealer

  2.  Video Music Box V1.4

  3.  Morphus Released by Impulse, Inc.

  4.  [DELETED]

  5.  [DELETED]

  6.  Major OEMs Choose Seagate's ST9144 Family for Leading-Edge Computers

  7.  SoftWood Ships Final Copy II

  8.  AMOS Professional Available in U.S.



Rumor of Great Interest...

                    A1200 Described by Commodore Dealer
 ______             ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(__  __)                 by Mark Stuart on Usenet
  / /
 / /
(_/he following is a copy of information I received from Commodore NZ
regarding the Amiga 1200. I am a Commodore dealer, I have never signed an NDA
and they don't seem to mind me talking about it. I have a few customers who
use the net and they can verify that this ain't bull. Read on...

Introduction

The A1200 is the most significant product Commodore has released since we
introduced the Amiga 500. The A1200 is seen as the A500 of the 90's. We should
view the A600 as the entry home computer and the A1200 as a power machine for
all home hobbyists.

Positioning

The A1200 is much more powerful than the A500 or A600. It is the first
keyboard integrated machine with the AA chip set and a 32 bit processor.

This will permit 256 colours from a palette of 16.8 million compared to the
A500 and A600's 32 colours from a palette of 4096. This new chip set also
supports an enhanced HAM mode allowing near photo realistic image in all
resolutions with up to 256,000 colours. The new A1200 chip set will support
VGA productivity screen (640 x 480 256 colours) at refresh rates up to
72khz interlaced. Sprite sizes have been increased from 16bit to 32 and 64
bits wide. Also sprites can be displayed in screen borders and have
resolutions independent of play fields. The A1200 will come with 2
megabytes of chip RAM, thus chip RAM expansion is not needed.

The A1200 is a true 32 bit system, with 32 bit RAM, and ROM using the 14Mhz
(2 x A500/A600) clock speed 32 bit 68E020 processor. This processor not
only runs at twice the speed of the A500/A600 but also has a 256 byte
instruction cache. These capabilities enable the A1200 to achieve
performance that is up to 5 times that of the A500/A600.

The A1200 is packaged in the new style case, but will support the addition
of a numeric keypad, as in the A500+. This package also supports the
addition of an internal 2.5" IDE hard drive, as in the A600.

The A1200 retains the PCMCIA card port for memory and I/O expansion, but
also adds a 32 bit processor bus expansion port accessible via a door on
the bottom of the unit. This port is similar to the A500 expansion port,
but is not compatible. This port is enhanced to 32 bits and 14Mhz
operation. Cards/Adapters can have access to the port allowing:

  - Accelerator processors
  - DSP Processors
  - SCSI Adapters
  - Fast RAM expansion
  - Bridge Cards

Boards added to the expansion bus can have external cable connector access
via a rear panel knock out.

With the new package, AA chip set, better expansion and high speed 32 bit
processor, the A1200 is a very exciting and competitive product.

The new A1200's are shipped with Amiga DOS 3.0 a backward compatible
extension to the industry standard 2.0 which provides full support for the
new chip set enhanced graphics, and is "localised" for over 14 countries
and languages.

All this means is that we have without doubt the most powerful home computer
in the world even after our competitors recent launches. With the increase
in colour depth and screen resolution combined with Amiga's graphics
performance, the A1200 will provide better video performance than PC386
systems.


  *StarShip* News Network Note
  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  It is further rumored by people "in the know," that Commodore will be
  introducing the Amiga 1200 at COMDEX/Fall'92, a humongous trade show
  at which they are now registered to exhibit, scheduled for November 16
  through 20, 1992 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The *StarShip* 5-MINUTE News
  will have reports from COMDEX the moment they are available. Stay tuned!

                                  -*-


                          *StarShip* NEWS *Flash*
                             2nd of 8 Stories


                           Video Music Box V1.4
                           ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
                       Now Workbench 2.0 Compatible

    ____        The easiest way for creative non-musicians
   (_  _)        to compose original background music for
    / /            Amiga multimedia and video projects.
   / /
 _/ /
(____)f you are using one of the popular multimedia programs that require SMUS
music sequences, Video Music Box(tm) is the only program that brings both
algorithmic composition and sequencer-like editing to SMUS. So why use
"canned" background music in your next multimedia project when Video Music Box
V1.4 makes it easy to compose your own original background music?

Start with an uncluttered easy-to-read main screen containing all the most
commonly used controls, and a wide selection of pre-saved chord progressions
and music pattern templates. You can generate and save basic MIDI or IFF SMUS
sequences in many common musical styles without ever leaving the main screen
by simply selecting a progression plus a pattern.

Video Music Box even has default instruments built in so you can preview your
new sequence over the Amiga's internal audio without having to find and load
any instruments.

[New DEMO Version, *StarShip* Library File #17248, works with AmigaDOS 2.0x]

After generating a basic sequence, add an original melody or perform other
custom edits to get just the right sound.

Add and erase notes at the click of a mouse button. Cut, paste or perform a
wide variety of basic editing functions such as transpose, quantize, adjust
duration, etc. Version 1.4 also adds several new editing functions for
generating classical-type variations.

Each musical part is separately color coded so you can view or perform edits
on any combination of all eight parts at the same time.

Special tools are provided that allow you to "draw" in new notes that fit the
chord progression. You can use these tools to quickly and easily to add
melody, chord arpeggios, fills, or even create original counterpoint, without
worrying about wrong notes.

Though easy to use, Video Music Box is also powerful and flexible. You will
not quickly outgrow its capabilities.

An almost infinite amount of musical variety can be generated from the same
patterns and chord progressions by changing instrument ranges and the
percentage of randomly generated notes. These values are easily adjusted from
the Generation Preferences window and can be saved so that they are loaded
each time the program is started.

You can also control the pitches that will be generated for each individual
drum. This allows you to get the perfect drum sound when using your IFF 8SVX
samples. Or set the pitches to match your MIDI drum machine and save the setup
so you only have to do it once.

Another benefit with Video Music Box is that you are not limited to the
patterns and chord progressions provided. Create and save new patterns and
chord progressions using editors provided.

Build up a repertoire of new patterns by converting your SMUS and MIDI
sequences to new patterns. Edit the existing chord progressions or create and
save new progressions from your favorite tunes. And with Video Music Box, you
can use any type of chord in a progression.

Video Music Box v1.4 requires an Amiga with at least 1 Meg memory, and is now
Workbench 2 compatible. A hard-drive is recommended but not required.

Suggested Retail Price $109 + $6 S&H

Send $5 for the Video Music Box v1.4 DEMO. (Or download this DEMO for less
from the *StarShip* Library.)

Video Music Box v1.4 is shipping now! Ask for it at your local Amiga dealer,
or contact:                           __________________________________
                                     /                                  \
    Digital Expressions Research    | A DEMOnstration version with only  |
    W6400 Firelane 8                | the save features disabled may be  |
    Menasha, WI 54952               | downloaded in *StarShip* Library   |
    414/733-6863  8AM to 5PM CST    | File #17248 VideoMusicBox14.LHA    |
                                     \__________________________________/

                                   -*-


                           *StarShip* NEWS *Flash*
                              3rd of 8 Stories


    ____              Morphus Released by Impulse, Inc.
   (_  _)             ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    / /               Brooklyn Park, MN -- October 1992
   / /
 _/ /
(____)mpulse is proud to bring the Amiga user another power program! Morphus
is a program that is directly tied to Impulse's Imagine. Morphus is NOT a 2D
image transformation program like many others that are presently on the
market. Image Master from Black Belt, MorphPlus from ASDG are programs which
take two IFF or other images and morph between them to create an animation.
That is NOT what Morphus does.

Morphus from Impulse performs various algorhithmic operations of Imagine-based
objects which can then be imbedded in an existing Imagine animation script. A
simple example might be the ability to morph a flat plane into a tube and then
morph that tube into a torus.

Morphus amends the staging file of any Imagine animation and then
automatically places the new objects in the animation script.

Morphus also carries a host of other effects that can be applied to objects
created in Imagine, including:

                   BEND     TWIST      SHEAR      WATER

Imagine, although a powerful program, does not have a mathematical scheme for
morphing objects from one shape to another in a very precise manner. Morphus
will be a welcome addition for all Amiga users who have Imagine. Combined with
its power and low cost, it is a "must have" Impulse item.

Morphus comes packaged in a unique four-color package with attractive graphics
and is available now!  Suggested retail price is only $119.00.

For more information, contact your local Amiga Dealer or Impulse, Inc., at
8416 Xerxes Ave.N., Brooklyn Park, MN 55444, telephone 612/425-0557.

                                   -*-


                           *StarShip* NEWS *Flash*
                              4th of 8 Stories

                                 [DELETED]

                                    -*-


                          *StarShip* NEWS *Flash*
                             5th of 8 Stories

                                 [DELETED]

                                    -*-


                          *StarShip* NEWS *Flash*
                             6th of 8 Stories


                  Major OEMs Choose Seagate's ST9144 Family
                     for Leading-Edge Notebook Computers
    _  _             ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
   / \/ \        Scotts Valley, CA (Oct. 20) BUSINESS WIRE
  /      \
 / /\  /\ \
(_/  \/  \_)ajor OEMs leading the development in a new wave of notebook
computers have selected Seagate Technology's ST9144 family of hard disc
drives for use in their systems. Representing a range of the industry's
most successful computer manufacturers, the OEMs include NEC, Texas
Instrument and Commodore.

The 2.5-inch low-profile ST9144 line, available with an embedded AT
interface, has become a popular solution for notebook computers because of
its leading-edge power management capabilities, high shock resistance,
maximum capacity of 127 megabytes (MB) and advanced performance.

NEC has selected the ST9052A, a 42MB member of the ST9144 family, as the
hard drive for use in its PC-9801 ns/L40 notebook computer. The new PC-9801
ns/L40 is specially designed for the lucrative Japanese market where NEC is
the leading supplier of personal computer products.

NEC chose the Seagate drive because its 12.5-millimeter profile is ideal
for the slim-line design of the company's 386SX-based 20MHz notebook. The
PC-9801 ns/l40, part of NEC'S 98Note line of notebooks, includes a Kanji
operating system and Japanese-style keyboard.

Texas Instruments adopted the ST9144A for members of its TravelMate 4000
line of notebooks. TI is using the drive in its 25MHz 496-based WinSx/25
and WinDx/25 systems. A key factor in TI'S decision was the time-to-market
benefit of Seagate's approach to designing and manufacturing key components
used in its hard disc drives -- including integrated circuits, read/write
heads, and motors.

"In a competitive market such as notebook computers, time-to-market
critical," said Nassir Ahmed, TI's director of Worldwide Marketing,
Portable PC Products. "We have been impressed with Seagate's in-house
design and manufacture of hard drive components and the edge that it gives
us in getting products quickly to the customer."

The ST9144 family's advanced power management is the result of a four-phase
power management system that provides overall average power consumption of
less than 1 watt in most applications. According to PC Labs Z-digit test
for portable system battery life, the ST9144A is one of the industry's most
power-efficient hard disc  drives.

Commodore is using the ST9052A in its Amiga 600 home entertainment
computer. The 68020-based system incorporates its hardware and software
into a central keyboard system that connects to a television or monitor for
home entertainment and computing applications.

"This widespread adoption of our ST9144 family is an affirmation that
Seagate has listened to its customers, identified their needs and designed
products ideally suited for their next-generation notebook computer," said
Alan F. Shugart, Seagate's president and chief executive officer.

The ST9144 family features a non-operating shock specification of 150Gs, an
average seek time of 16 milliseconds, 150,000-hour MTBF and the ability to
reliably operate in environmental extremes. With a low weight of 4.8 ounces
and an unmatched acoustic performance of 33dBA maximum, the St9144 family
offers the weight and acoustics specifications required for today's
battery-operated computers.

Seagate Technology is a leading supplier of disc storage products to
original equipment manufacturers and remarketers worldwide.

                                   -*-


                         *StarShip* Amiga *Flash*
                             7th of 8 Stories


  ____                 SoftWood Ships Final Copy II
 / ___)                ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
( (__                   Phoenix, AZ - October 1992
 \__ \
 ___) )
(____/oftWood, Inc. is now shipping Final Copy II for the Commodore Amiga.

New Word Processing Features

  1.  Style sheets (named paragraph styles)
  2.  Master pages
  3.  Larger thesaurus - 1.4 million responses
  4.  Larger speller - 144,000 words
  5.  Mail-merge
  6.  Left/right pages with binding offset during printing
  7.  Paragraph sorting
  8.  Math support - add a column of numbers
  9.  Auto-suggest option during spelling

New Page Layout Features

 10.  Object oriented, resolution independent, structured drawing tools
       o  Boxes
       o  Rounded cornered boxes
       o  Perfect squares
       o  Ovals
       o  Perfect circles
       o  Lines at any angle
       o  Arrow-tipped lines
 11.  Explicit sizing and positioning of all graphics
 12.  Text flow around and over lines, circles and boxes
 13.  "Text over graphic" option on all graphic types
 14.  Filled boxes and line weights
 15.  Text obliquing (negative to positive)
 16.  Lock and unlock graphics
 17.  Color text option

New User-Interface Features

 18.  Completely new graphical user interface with WB 2.0 look and feel
       o  List and slider gadgets
       o  Real-time scrolling
       o  Movable requesters
       o  Enhanced file requester
 19.  Horizontal scrolling during typing
 20.  Many new ARexx commands
 21.  Standard margin indicators
 22.  Header/Footer and Column page guides
 23.  House zoom/unzoom
 24.  Mouse document panning
 25.  Vertical ruler option
 26.  125%, 150% editable page magnification
 27.  Command ribbon for selecting options and tools
 28.  Page number icon for accessing first, last, next, and previous page
 29.  Default typeface specification
 30.  User-definable custom screen colors
 31.  Specify number of custom screen colors

Additional information on some of Final Copy II's new features:

Drawing Tools
Use Final Copy's drawing tools to draw boxes, ovals, squares, circles, lines,
arrow-tipped lines, and rounded cornered boxes in your document. For example,
you might use the box tool to draw a thin border around a paragraph of text.
By using the drawing tools, you can draw simple shapes to accentuate text,
create logos, separate blocks of text, etc. Each graphic drawn is treated by
Final Copy II as a separate object. What this means is that once you draw
something, you can reposition, resize, and even remove it as desired. Shapes
such as boxes, ovals, squares, and circles can either be drawn filled with a
color or left empty. Lines and borders around objects can be defined to be a
color and have a thickness of 0 to 12 points. All graphic objects drawn have
the same text flow capabilities as imported pictures. For example, you could
draw a diagonal line and have text automatically flow to one side of it.

Style Sheets
Final Copy II lets you define and redefine up to 16 named styles. Within each
style you can define paragraph settings, tab stops, and type attributes. When
a style is applied to text, the text takes on the characteristics of any
paragraph, tab, and type attributes that are defined within the style. Final
Copy II gives you several predefined styles to choose from. You can use these
predefined styles "as is," modify them, and add new ones of your own.

Using styles is a powerful way of formatting your text. As an example, with a
single style you can set the font and its size, type style, text alignment,
margins, and tab stops. Style Sheets free you from the need to apply many
formatting attributes individually to every paragraph. For example, if you
want all section titles to be size 18 in SoftSans_Bold, centered and
underlined, you can apply all of those formats in one style, rather than
having to apply each format to every title. Styles also make changing formats
easy -- you simply change the definition of the style and the changes are
automatically applied throughout the document. Style Sheets ensure that the
style of each type of paragraph remains consistent throughout your document.

Master Pages
A master page is a place in a Final Copy document where you define text and
graphics that are to appear on each of your document's pages. There are many
uses for master pages, including document titles, chapter names, special
graphics, dates, page backgrounds, headers, footers, and page borders. While
other programs limit you to defining repeating headers and footers that only
appear at the top and bottom of pages, Final Copy II's master pages let you
define repeating text and graphics that appear anywhere on your page.

User Interface
Many enhancements have been made to Final Copy II's user interface. All
windows and requesters now have the official WB 2.0 look and feel. All
scrolling is done in real-time as you move the scroll bar or hold down on the
scroll arrows. While you are typing, the program will scroll horizontally to
bring your typing into view whenever necessary. A command ribbon has been
placed at the top of each window to provide access to paragraph settings, tab
stops, drawing tools, master pages and ruler options. Ruler options now
include horizontal ruler only, horizontal and vertical rulers, and no rulers
at all. Margin indicators now appear in the standard imagery used throughout
the industry. Magnification and reduction of a page view can be accomplished
by simply clicking the mouse. Additional keyboard shortcuts have been provided
for menu item selections. You can specify the Final Copy typeface of your
choice to be used as a default rather than SoftSans.

Mail Merge
The mail-merge feature in Final Copy II is one of the most easy-to-use yet
powerful facilities found in any word processor on any computer. You can use
Final Copy II to create your merge data, or import the data from another
program. When you are defining a merge document Final Copy II will give you a
list of the data names in your data file to choose from. There is no need to
type in the name of the data name to be used in a merge field. All you have to
do is click the mouse on the desired name in the list. When you print the
merge, you can either specify the number of rows of data wanted, or all rows.

Custom Screens
With Final Copy I you could only use either the Workbench screen or a preset
Custom screen. Final Copy II lets you define the number of colors you want a
Custom screen to have. The number of colors you may choose depends upon the
type of Amiga and display mode you want. The number of colors option supports
not only current Amigas, but any that may come out in the future. Of course,
what good is indicating how many colors you want in a custom screen if you
can't also define the colors. Final Copy II lets you define the custom screen
colors the way you want them to be.

Outline Fonts
New features in Final Copy II let you define the color of text. Previously
Final Copy could only print text in black. Now you can choose from 16
different colors each of which can be defined as you want.

In addition, you can now specify a percent of slant that can be applied to any
typeface. The slant can be positive or negative. The term used for this
process is called obliquing.

A new font engine has been implemented in Final Copy II which provides faster
sizing and typing, as well as minor improvements to on-screen readability. All
typefaces used in Final Copy I can be used in Final Copy II.

Math
Have you ever entered a column of numbers in a document and had to get out
your calculator to add them together? Final Copy II's math feature will add a
column of numbers quickly and conveniently. All you have to do is drag the
mouse around the numbers you want to add, click the mouse where you want the
total to be entered, and choose Paste from the Edit menu. Once a total is
pasted into your document, you can edit it just as you do any other text.

Sorting
Final Copy II will quickly arrange any number of paragraphs in ascending or
descending order. This feature is handy for alphabetizing lists of names used
in a mail-merge. After Final Copy II sorts the paragraphs, it will redraw the
screen with the paragraphs in their new order.

For more information on Final Copy II, contact your Amiga Dealer or SoftWood,
Inc., P.O. Box 50178, Phoenix, AZ 85076, or call 602/431-9151.

                                   -*-


                          *StarShip* NEWS *Flash*
                              8th of 8 Stories


 ______             AMOS Professional Available in U.S.
(__  __)            ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  / /
 / /
(_/he Official release date for AMOS PRO is Thursday, October 15th.

AMOS PROFESSIONAL Features:

     -750 Commands
     -900 Page Manual
     -6 Disk Package Including:
        -Examples Disk with 80+ Documented Programs
           -2 Productivity Disks
           -Tutorial Disk demonstrating Programming Techniques
           -System Disk
           -Accessory Disk
     -New Accessory Programs
        -Bobs, Sprites & Icon Editors
        -Sample Bank Editor
        -Resource Bank Editor
     -Full Arexx Support
     -Online Help Facility for every Command
     -New Advanced Editor
        -Fully Configurable
        -Multiple Windows (Edit up to 16 Programs Simultaneously)
        -Cut and Paste between Windows
        -Pull Down Menus
        -User Defined Macros
     -Interface Language
        -Customize Alert Boxes, Requesters, Windows, etc...
     -AMOS Monitor (Debugging Facility)
        -Trace Commands as they are Executed
        -Monitor Variable Values, Loop Executions, etc...
     -MED Music Support
     -DPaint & MovieSetter Compressed Animation Support
     -New & Improved Direct Mode
     -Comprehensive Commands for Serial & Parallel Ports
     -Devs & Libs Access for Advanced Users
     -Ability to Incorporate Machine Code as Procedures
     -Support up to 65,000 Memory Banks
     -Plus a whole lot more.........

Dave Lazarek has agreed to do upgrades for AMOS users in America wishing to go
to the new AMOS Professional. You must send the first page of your original
AMOS manual, along with $64.00 ($60.00 for A Pro, $4.00 S&H) to:

       Dave Lazarek
       516 E 11th St.
       Michigan City, IN 46360-3616
       AMOS BBS  (219)-874-0367

In return you will receive the full AMOS Professional Upgrade package, which
includes all 6 disks, 6-page manual, etc. This is less expensive than $80.00
(40 UK pounds) that Europress is charging to upgrade from England. This is a
service to American users that we are trying out. Hopefully you will find it
helpful. Please allow 2 weeks for delivery.

                                  -*-

       Permission is hereby  granted to quote ALL or PART of this
       Newscast on a privately owned BBS or in a user group news-
       letter provided you include the following credit:

          Reprinted by Permission from the 5-MINUTE Weekend
        News Network, a *StarShip*(tm) Production on GEnie(R).


Disclaimer:  My association with GEnie is merely as a subscriber.  This post is
offered without compensation or endorsement of any kind.

              Jim Loomis   LOOMIS@ITHACA.BITNET   GEnie: J.LOOMIS

###