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Amiga Update (2004-04-30)
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// Amiga Update - News and Rumors //
\X/ (A Very Occasional Newsletter) \X/
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AMIGA and the Amiga logo are trademarks of Amiga, Inc.
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040430
O S 4 . 0 D E V E L O P E R P R E - R E L G O E S G O L D !
O S 4 . 0 P R E - R E L S U P P O R T I N F O R M A T I O N
O S 4 . 0 E V E N T I N E S S E N - K A T E R N B E R G
A M I W E S T S H O W L I S T S G O A L S
A M I G A F O R E V E R 6 . 0 F R O M C L O A N T O
T W O N E W F R O M A I R S O F T
N E W A M I G A S O N G P L A Y E R V E R S I O N
T U R B O T E X T 2 . 0 I S F R E E W A R E
Editor's Thoughts and Introduction:
What's this? Has "Amiga Update" suddenly gone minimalist crazy and
adopted a new, much simpler masthead? No, nothing of the sort. It's
just that this month marks a very significant milestone in our
history. With this issue, we complete 10 years of publishing at least
one "Amiga Update" a month! The masthead above is the first one we
used back in 1994, though the first few issues didn't even have that
much. They were just mass mailings for a small group of Amiga users
with whom we shared information after Commodore declared bankruptcy.
Some 10 years later, AU is still at it. The date of that first issue
was May 2, 1994 - the Monday that followed the Friday of the
bankruptcy decleration.
That issue and all subsequent issues are still available on our
archive website.
I'm certain there's no one on the subscribers' list from the days of
those very first e-mailings, but there are some folks who have been
with us from quite near the beginning. Our special thanks for keeping
us company on this trip! It's been a long one, and it's not over yet.
Our much more professional and artistic current masthead will return
next issue, as we start year 11.
And, just in time to celebrate our anniversary, we have some great
news, and a milestone is involved in this, too. Our lead story this
month announces Amiga OS 4.0 Developer Pre-Release going gold! This is
probably the most important milestone so far in the creation of the
new OS since the start of work. Looks like my fears that another
change in ownership would end the efforts once and for all will be
unfounded. I couldn't be more pleased to be wrong.
There are some related stories in this issue as well. I think you'll
find them all of interest.
I suppose some will ask the question - will "Amiga Update" be around
another ten years? I'm afraid that's not very likely. But we will be
here for a while longer. And we hope to have most of you with us for
the remainder of the trip, however long that might be.
Brad Webb,
Editor
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O S 4 . 0 D E V E L O P E R P R E - R E L G O E S G O L D !
Leuven, Belgium - April 16, 2004. Hyperion Entertainment and the
Amiga OS 4.0 development team are extremely pleased and relieved to
announce that after nearly 30 months of painstaking development the
Amiga OS 4.0 Developer Pre-release has gone gold and will be sent to
the duplication plant on Monday, April 19, 2004.
The Amiga OS 4.0 Developer Pre-release consists of a current snapshot
of AmigaOS 4.0 for the AmigaOne platform with a straightforward HTML
installation guide in English, German, French and Italian as well as
the Amiga OS 4.0 SDK.
The Amiga OS 4.0 SDK will allow near effortless migration of existing
Amiga OS 3.x source-code to OS 4.0 as well as the creation of
altogether new content.
The SDK comprises the following material:
* Complete Installer for easy and painless installation;
* GNU C Compiler 2.95.3;
* GNU C Compiler 3.4.0 RC 1;
* vbcc 0.8f;
* GNU GDB Source-Level Debugger;
* System Includes V 50;
* System Autodocs V 50;
* PDF Documentation on GNU C compilers and GNU Debugger;
* PDF Guide "Project Migration to AmigaOS 4.0";
* Example programs with source (among others: Reaction, expansion
library, Roadshow, FFS2);
* Newlib.library (experimential, shared C library);
* CLIB2 source code.
Users will be able to register their copy at a soon-to-be-launched
portal site which will offer Amiga OS 4.0 related content for
download.
Hyperion Entertainment and the AmigaOS 4.0 development and
beta-testing teams wish to thank all of you for your patience.
Amiga OS 4.0 (c) 2004 Hyperion Entertainment, developed under license
from KMOS, Inc. All rights reserved. "Amiga" and associated trademarks
are registered trademarks of Amiga, Inc.
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O S 4 . 0 P R E - R E L S U P P O R T I N F O R M A T I O N
{This story was spotted on the excellent Amiga-news.de site. Check
them out if you haven't. Brad}
23 April, 2004
Soon AmigaOne with AmigaOS-Prerelease available
As the management of Hyperion reports the AmigaOne computers will be
sold with a prerelease CD of AmigaOS 4 after its publishing.
Customers who buy an AmigaOne before the final version of AmigaOS 4
has published will get the same support and the same access to the
updates (which will be online available) as "Earlybird"-owners. They
will be delivered the full version of AmigaOS by their dealers after
it is available.
Prices for the combination of AmigaOne and the pre-release are still
not known.
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O S 4 . 0 E V E N T I N E S S E N - K A T E R N B E R G
26 April, 2004
WHERE?: At the "Zukunft Zentrum Zollverein" (TripleZ) in
Essen-Katernberg (Germany)
WHEN?: Saturday, 15 May 2004 from 10:00 am to 5:30 pm
WHAT?: Presentation of the current AmigaOS4 version, AmigaMicroA1
with AmigaOS4
WHO?: Representatives of Hyperion Entertainment
The following employees of Hyperion Entertainment are going to be
present at AmigaOS4 Event. Hans Jörg and Thomas Frieden (Chief
programmers of AOS4), Steffen Haeuser (AmigaInput and several OS4
portings) and Timothy De Groote (Sales Manager). Besides that, Amiga
MicroA1 with AmigaOS4 can be seen for the first time in Germany. For
further information please refer to the official AmigaOS4 Event
website.
Admission to the AmigaOS4 Event is free. For your convenience,there
is a local cafeteria to take care of your bodily needs.Additionally,
there are about 50 free parking bays available onthe internal parking
lot.
http://home.arcor.de/andreas.weyrauch/amigaevent/indexen.html
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A M I W E S T S H O W L I S T S G O A L S
12 April, 2004
Here is the second information release for AmiWest 2004. Our webpage
at www.sacc.org/amiwest is being updated with all the current show
information. We encourage you to visit our site to see the rest of the
current information.
Amiga Forever,
Sacramento Amiga Computer Club
AmiWest 2004 Committee
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AMIWEST 2004 - GOALS
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From the beginning of the AmiWest shows, certain goals and objectives
have been in evidence. While those who have been connected with the
show are aware of most of those goals and objectives, many of you who
attend may not be aware or may be new to the show. So for you (and to
remind others), here are the things we are trying to accomplish with
each and every AmiWest show.
1. First of all, we are providing a place for the Amiga community to
gather. This gathering takes place from among a worldwide community of
developers, users, retailers, and others interested in our great Amiga
computers. Old friendships are renewed and new friends are made among
the many attendees at AmiWest. User groups are especially encouraged
to come and exhibit through a user group special rate policy detailed
on our website. (see www.sacc.org/amiwest/exhibform.html#pricing)
2. Second, we provide a place for breaking news announcements of
interest to the Amiga community. Companies who are part of the Amiga
marketplace have always sent their representatives to announce
significant developments.
3. Third, we provide an encouraging, peaceful atmosphere where even
those in conflict can come, bury the hatchet, and meet in a
high-energy environment for exchange of ideas. We tell those that are
in conflict, legally or otherwise, to please leave their conflicts for
other arenas.
4. Fourth, we provide a place where vendors can come to sell the
latest and greatest Amiga technologies as well as some of the best
tried and true Amiga hardware and software. Each has its advocates and
we support the efforts of our vendors who support our show and make it
possible.
5. And fifth, we try to be as educational as possible along the way.
We're working on a few surprises this year as we try to do every year.
We're also continuing our practice of giving qualified presenters a
platform to demonstrate what the Amiga can do.
So remember,
AmiWest 2004 is rolling! The facility is reserved and the vendors are
notified! Keep watching for these releases and tell everyone that you
know - the Amiga and the Amiga community is alive and well!
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A M I G A F O R E V E R 6 . 0 F R O M C L O A N T O
April 15, 2004 - Cloanto released today version 6.0 of Amiga
Forever, the Classic Amiga emulation, OS, connectivity and
support suite officially licensed by the Amiga companies.
Amiga Forever is available in a downloadable Online Edition and
in a CD Edition which includes premium content of historical
interest (all Amiga OS versions, gallery, videos, games) and KX
Light. All versions of Amiga Forever include Amiga OS 1.3 and
3.X files and make it possible to run Classic Amiga software
(including hundreds of legally downloadable games) on any PC,
with special support for the Windows platform, but also
compatible with Mac OS X and GNU/Linux systems.
Amiga Forever 6.0 is a completely restructured package which
took more than two years to complete. New features include:
- Preinstalled Amiga applications more than doubled (both in the
3.X and in the 1.3 environments)
- Support for hard disks larger than 4 GB, mouse wheel, AHI,
MUI, etc.
- Built-in web browser, great for both "safe surfing" and for
cross-browser web design testing (e.g. to see how your sites
look without Java, Flash or ActiveX)
- CDs are now automounted in real time (includes CacheCDFS file
system)
- Built-in CD audio player and media player
- New Amiga ROM and OS files (as in Amiga OS "3.5" and "3.9",
but also historical items such as the Amiga 1000 boot ROM)
- New reference configurations (for A500, A1200, CDTV, CD32,
etc.)
- More than 10 "First Demos" (Boing, Robo-City, Juggler, etc.)
added to 1.3 environment
- More realistic emulation (e.g. floppy disk drive sound, which
makes an unexpected big difference in perception, but also
required the addition of a good old "noclick" utility ;-)
- New documentation (HTML shared by both Amiga and host OS)
- Amiga Explorer 6.0 software
- New launcher panel with one-click controls
- New Software Manager for easy emulation news and updates
The CD Edition of Amiga Forever additionally includes the
following new features:
- Boot from CD option (featuring the KX Light GNU/Linux
distribution)
- New Gallery section (includes 1985 Byte Magazine reprint)
- New high quality videos (includes Launch of Amiga New York
event)
- New preinstalled games (Mindwalker, Ports of Call, Deluxe
Galaga, etc.)
(Please refer to the Amiga Forever web site for important
additional information and screenshots.)
Classic Amiga software compatibility is achieved by means of an
Amiga hardware emulation layer (configurable to emulate
different Amiga models and custom chip sets) and different
versions of the original Amiga OS (not an emulation). The Amiga
environment in turn relies on host operating system
functionality to transparently enable modern features such as
up-to-date hardware drivers, virtual memory, WiFi networking,
DirectX technology, advanced power management, Serial ATA
storage, etc.
Amiga Forever 6.0 was scheduled to be featured on 3sat TV's
"neues" show, on April 17, at 18:30 (via Astra satellite), and
at the Amiga Party in Maarssen, the Netherlands, also on April
17.
As always, the Amiga Forever Team at Cloanto would like to thank
the Amiga Community for its support over these almost 20 years,
which made this new version possible.
LINKS
Amiga Forever Home Page
http://www.amigaforever.com
Amiga Forever RSS Feed
http://www.amigaforever.com/rss.xml
Amiga Forever Banners
http://www.amigaforever.com/banners/
Cloanto Logo Graphics
http://www.cloanto.com/profile/#logo
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T W O N E W F R O M A I R S O F T
14 April, 2004: Hollywood Designer 1.0 released
Hollywood Designer 1.0 was finally released today and can be ordered
on this website. The program is a high-end presentation software that
creates together with Hollywood 1.9 the ultimate Multimedia suite for
your Amiga or Pegasos. Please check out the product page of Hollywood
Designer for an extensive description and feature list of the program
as well as a lot of screenshots. Order now!
06 April, 2004: Hollywood 1.9 now available
Hollywood 1.9 is now available and can be ordered through this
website. Hollywood 1.9 is a major update that has a lot of new
features. Please see the news item below for a list of new features.
Hollywood Designer will be released in a few days and can also be
ordered now. Please click on Order to order your copy of Hollywood 1.9
and Hollywood Designer now! Also check out the product page of
Hollywood to learn more about this amazing product.
http://www.airsoftsoftwair.com
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N E W A M I G A S O N G P L A Y E R V E R S I O N
23 April, 2004
After a long wait, the updated Songplayer has finally been given an
AmigaOS release.
The CDDA management will be improved in the future, but you will find
a new tag editor for that. The CPU consumption is back to a low level
the program features far improved mp3 support (still no ogg-vorbis at
the moment, that is MOS only atm).
Another version allows you to use SongPlayer without any hardware hit
(full AHI and no filter access). It is better suited for use with
Amithlon and OS4 under emulation.
General features
SongPlayer tries to use the best of the hardware and the system
components (MUI, AHI, asyncio, datatypes, ...). For example the
AmigaOS version uses assembly and the audio chipset called Paula. On
the other side, the MorphOS version adds graphical improvements
(24-bit icons and images) and uses the SystemV ABI for the
vorbisfile.library.
o Usable in command lines or with its complete GUI under MUI
o Support of many formats : MP2/MP3, Ogg Vorbis, IFF, AIFF, WAVE, AU,
CDDA
o Specific version for AmigaOS, MorphOS, Amithlon
o Karaoke !
o CDDA playing through audio extraction
o ARexx port for an external control
o Bass and treble
o Graphical gadgets : CPU used, vumeters, spectrum analyser
o Effect that plays mono files in a pseudo-stereo mode
http://amigadev.free.fr/songplayer/index_en.html
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T U R B O T E X T 2 . 0 I S F R E E W A R E
3 April, 2004
It is with great pleasure that, in honour of AmiGBG 2004, Tim Ocock
announces that Martin Taillefer has kindly permitted his original
TurboText 2.0 text editor to be released as freeware.
TurboText is one of the Amiga's best text editors, but has not been
available for sale for around 10 years. It's features include:
-Very fast loading and scrolling
-Style Guide compliant
-Highly customisable
-Full ARexx command set with integration with major applications
http://www.monkeyhouse.eclipse.co.uk/amiga/turbotext/
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Amiga Update on the net:
All back issues available at:
http://www.globaldialog.com/~amigaupdate/index.html
Stop by and check out our archive!
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Copyright 2004 by Brad Webb. Freely distributable, if not modified.
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