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Amiga Update (2006-12-31)
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A M I G A | 061231 | U P D A T E
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"SO THE WORLD MAY KNOW" (Eject +1)
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AMIGA and the Amiga logo are trademarks of Amiga, Inc.
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N O M O R E " W H E N I T ' S D O N E " ! !
U P D A T E D I B R O W S E T O U S E W I T H 4 . 0
A N D D I R O P U S S A M E D A Y A S O S 4 . 0
I R O N Y ? - A M I G A B I R T H I S N E W S A G A I N
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S P E C I A L E D I T I O N !
Editor's Thoughts and Introduction:
Well, Merry Christmas indeed! For those Amiga users who celebrate the
holiday, this has to be one to remember! Hyperion has released the
last update to 4.0 to Amiga Community, and did so on Christmas Eve.
Interestingly, they did not use the words "production release", so
some confusion resulted. However, as it's available for purchase,
apparently to anyone who wishes to buy it and who owns an Amiga One, a
production release is what it amounts to. Finally, it's done and
generally available. Per the promise made in the last regular issue of
"Amiga Update", we've put together a short special issue to celebrate
this very important milestone.
As if that weren't enough, also on Christmas Eve the I-Browse team
announced the release of the long awaited update to what is certainly
one of the most, if not the most, important pieces of software for the
Amiga currently. All in all, a very nice set of Christmas gifts for
the community.
Lest you think we've gone all Pollyanna on you, we are well aware
there are issues still to be resolved. Chief among them is the lack of
hardware on which to run the latest OS. According to Hyperion, there
should be new hardware available early in '07. No details, and we will
have to wait and see what it all means, but at least it sounds good.
There there's the matter of Java. You can't have a truly modern
computer that doesn't have Java available for it. Given the costs
associated with adding Java to any computer's environment, it's not
surprising there's none available for the Amiga. I don't see any
immediate resolution of this one. We hope there's something down the
road that will help with this functional gap.
Finally, can anyone else buy OS 4.0? The release states only that
it's available for registered Amiga One owners. That's not exactly a
release to the world. However, I sense that's just the way it is
today. After all, why reassure people there will be new hardware
coming if the intent is to limit 4.0 to current Amiga One owners?
Doesn't make sense and I doubt that's the plan.
OK, I have to add one other thought. I wonder if Amiga will ever
realize that software companies sell software to the market that
exists. That means "X86" machines. Maybe they don't know those
computers aren't even all Intel any longer? It remains my opinion that
if the Amiga is to have any long term future, even as a niche
computer, it needs to get in on the now developing market of
alternatives to MicroSoft. The only way to do that is to run on the
commodity hardware that's out there. Will Amiga miss yet another
opportunity to actually grow the OS side of the business and even make
some money from it? Well, we all know Amiga's track record but we can
hope.
Hint to Amiga: check out the processors powering the latest Sun
workstations.
While putting together this special issue we spotted a couple of
other stories that just had to be included. The one back in November
about the re-discovery of work by Andy Warhol is fascinating in its
timing. Just as the rebirth of the OS is completed, we are reminded of
the significance of the Amiga's original release. The lunacy of the
those working with the newly re-discovered work using a Mac to put it
back together must have our readers shaking their heads in amazement,
but that doesn't detract from the rest of the story.
And we had to include the story on the OS 4.0-only version of the
most popular file manager ever for the Amiga. Interestingly, it also
was released on Christmas Eve. Could there have been a Christmas
Conspiracy at work?
In case there are any doubts, this will definitely be the last
edition of "Amiga Update" but what a way to end. At the beginning, we
hope, of a new era for Amiga. It's up to someone else to chronicle it
but we'll be here enjoying it with you. Thanks to all the readers,
contributors and critics we've had over the years. Here's hoping you
have an enjoyable Amiga New Year, and many more to come.
Brad Webb,
Editor
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N O M O R E " W H E N I T ' S D O N E " ! !
Leuven, Belgium, 24 December 2006.
Hyperion Entertainment is very pleased to announce the immediate
availability (for registered AmigaOne customers) of Amiga OS 4.0,
The Final Update.
Originally released in May of 2004, Amiga OS 4.0 (www.amigaos4.com) is
the most stable, modern and feature-rich incarnation to date of the
multi-media centric operating system launched by Commodore Business
Machines (CBM) in 1985 with which it still retains a high degree of
compatibility.
Amiga OS 4.0, The Final Update is the culmination of 5 years of
development and takes the form of a stand-alone ISO image which
contains a full installation of all Amiga OS 4.0 components.
A list of new features can be found below.
Availability of PowerPC hardware suitable for operation with Amiga OS
4.0 will be announced by third parties early 2007.
The Hyperion Entertainment management would like to take this
opportunity to wish all our customers and supporters a pleasant
holiday season!
Amiga OS 4.0 (C) 2001-2006 Hyperion Entertainment VOF, developed under
license from Amiga, Inc. ?Amiga? is a registered trademark of Amiga,
Inc.
Hyperion comment from Amiga World (www.amigaworld.net):
"Final Update" means that the next update released for OS 4 will be OS
4.01.
FWIW, OS 4 was released in May 2004, and has been updated ever since.
This is the final update. Everything from now on will go into 4.01
(the first patch).
This is a non-exhaustive list of the new features of AmigaOS 4.0 The
Final Update since Update #4:
* Exec
o New memory system
+ Low Fragmentation, even with long uptimes
+ Lots of speedups (for example, memory pools are 10
to 20 times faster than before)
+ Named memory
o Now uses the MMU to write-protect the .rodata sections of
ELF binaries
* 680x0 emulators
o Improved compatibility
o JIT emulator is between 10 to 50% faster
* DOS
o 64 bit support for file sizes.
o New directory scanning and object examination API
* Intuition
o Support for legacy programs requiring a planar screen:
normal, HAM6 and HAM8 planar screens are promoted to RTG
o Customizable truecolor mouse pointer (in hardware sprite
mode on Radeon boards, and in software sprite mode on all
boards)
o Navigation of oversized screens via [Left Amiga] + numeric
pad
* Workbench
o Support for native 32 bit icons with normal and selected
image
o Support for loader/saver modules for third-party icon
formats
o Customizable highlight effect for selected single-image
icons
o Customizable "left out", "no drop" and "disabled" icon
symbols
o Removed the remaining 30 character filename length limits
* Storage controllers support
o New driver for ITE IT8212 IDE controller
o New driver for SCSI 53C8xx-based controllers
o Support for IDE ct-flasher hardware added as contribution
* General
o Support for alpha channel in IFF ILBM for easy loading,
saving, and clipboard copy/paste of truecolor data
o No more black background in MultiView when displaying
truecolor pictures with an alpha channel
o MultiView allows the Workbench screen to be closed and
reopened
o Smoother appearance for colorwheel.gadget
o Customizable images for requester.class requesters
o Many parts of OS4 now support the mouse wheel
* ramdrive.device
o The classic RAD: doesnt survive a soft reboot anymore
o The new RESRAD: survives a soft reboot again
o The new BOOTRAD: offers booting from a disk image which
survives a soft reboot.
* console.device
o Changing the system default keymap now immediately affects
all console windows which dont use a private keymap.
* printer drivers
o All printer drivers except Printers:File are PPC native
o The PostScript printer driver now supports printing
pictures in greyscale, B&W and landscape modes. It now
uses the current system default charset for text printing
to ISO-8859-1 before.
* Printer preferences editor
o Now PPC native, some new features
* a1floppy.device
o New driver for the AmigaOne which has a floppy disk port.
o Supports booting from floppy disk.
o Allows limited exchange with Classic Amigas.
* ft2.library
o Now supports algorithmic font emboldening.
* Fonts
o The default fonts are now the DejaVu fonts which support
more different character sets than the Bitstream Vera
fonts.
* USB
o USB mice and keyboard can now be used to access and
navigate EarlyStartup
o Keybord drivers respects users keyboard key repeat delay
and speed
o Keyboard drivers can now reset into UBoot
* Boot menu
o Early boot menu can be used with the only a keyboard.
o Adjusts its GUI to the screen height which looks better on
A1
* Picasso96 and drivers
o Radeon Overlay (PIP) support
o Extended P96 PIP API (double/triple-buffering possibility
allowing perfectly smooth animation)
* AmiGS
o Localized
o Improved printing preferences (page selection, double
sided printing, collation)
* AmiPDF
o Localized
o Improved printing preferences (page selection, double
sided printing, collation)
o Additional character set support for bookmarks and text
copying
o More search options
* Ghostscript
o Updated to the latest version (8.54)
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U P D A T E D I B R O W S E T O U S E W I T H 4 . 0
LUND, Sweden, 22nd December 2006 - Stefan Burström and the IBrowse
Team are pleased to announce the immediate release of the much
anticipated update to IBrowse 2.3.
IBrowse 2.4 brings web browsing on AmigaOS to a new level - below is a
very brief summary of the changes since version 2.3:
* New integrated Search Bar, allowing you to easily perform
searches of your favourite sites. Search engines can be added
manually or automatically via the Mycroft project site
* The Status Bar has been overhauled to optionally provide the
status of IBrowse graphically. Due to requiring less space than
text, this has allowed us to show additional statuses such as
when Javascript is being processed
* Plugin API system for embedded objects based on the v4 NPAPI
(Netscape Plugin API) to allow for easier porting of NS
compatible plugins, this is used to allow IBrowse to display
embedded objects (such as flash animations) within the browser
when a suitable plugin is available.
* Support for AmiSSLv3 has been added to IBrowse 2.4, allowing the
use of the most up to date SSL implementation available for
AmigaOS.
* Context sensitive mouse pointers have been added, providing
different mouse pointers in different areas of IBrowse.
* Background tab loading has finally been added to the Browser
Tabs. Links can be opened in new browsers which remain inactive,
allowing you to continue browsing the original page
uninterrupted.
* The spoofing engine has been totally re-written for 2.4, and
provides a range of pre-defined spoofing options.
* The JavaScript engine has been improved yet further providing
support for more event handlers, and improved DOM support, along
with some significant speed increases in certain areas. It now
supports the complete JavaScript 1.6 extension, as found in
Firefox 2.0, along with the majority of JavaScript 1.5 and the
revision 3 of the ECMAScript (ECMA-262) specification.
* HTTP compressed content support has been added, which includes
both gzip and deflate algorithms.
* On websites which ask for a username and password in a HTML
based form, IBrowse can now (optionally) save these details for
future visits.
* Web Advert Control Language (WACL) is a feature of IBrowse
based on a proposal by Stefan Stuntz for a user configurable,
flexible scripting language to control the display of adverts on
webpages.
* Improved general stability and memory leaks plugged.
* Hundreds of other minor and major bug fixes + improvements, and
increased tolerance of broken sites for better compatibility.
All these improvements greatly improve the browsing experience, and
allow IBrowse to offer compatibility with many more websites than
before.
IBrowse 2.4 is available from IOSPIRIT - to purchase, please visit
http://amiga.iospirit.de/ (registered users of IBrowse 2.x can upgrade
for free, and there is a special upgrade price available to registered
IBrowse 1.x users).
For further information, news and product support, please visit
http://www.ibrowse-dev.net/.
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A N D D I R O P U S S A M E D A Y A S O S 4 . 0
Uddevalla - 24th December 2006
Version 4.18 of DirectoryOpus, the legendary filemanager for Amiga, is
released. This version is for Amiga OS4 only (but does not need the
final version though ). There has been lots of fixes and improvements
in this version, see directory History/ inside the archive for most of
the changes. Many thanks to the Opus4 ML for bugreports and support in
general.
This release is available on Aminet: DirectoryOpus 4.18
Shortt: The legendary filemanager
Author: Joachim Birging + more
Uploader: jocke birging gmail com
Type: biz/dopus
Version: 4.18
Architecture: ppc-amigaos >= 4.0.0
Date: 2006-12-24
Download: http://aminet.net/biz/dopus/DirectoryOpus418.lha -
{But see below before downloading! Brad}
This is the Amiga OS4 port of DirectoryOpus 4, released under the GNU
GPL. Currently developed by Joachim Birging. See README.txt inside
archive for complete license.
See directory History/ inside this archive for what has been done in
the OS4 port. Also the guide, Docs/DOpus4 Manual, has changed to
reflect these changes.
Thanks to the Opus4 ML for their support and bugreports, and a special
thanks to Christoph Gutjahr for the manual. To join the ML see the
guide.
29 December, 2006
4.18.1
I've decided to release a quick fix for the "Extract" command crash.
Apparently no-one with OS4 beta ever tested this command. Nothing else
is fixed in this release. Exe only available here:
http://www.zerohero.se/DirOpus-Exe.lha
Happy Holidays,
Joachim Birging
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I R O N Y ? - A M I G A B I R T H I S N E W S A G A I N
PONTIAC, MI. 9 November, 2006- In what many have dubbed the world's
first multi-media presentation on July 23rd 1985 at the Lincoln Center
in New York, the maverick art legend Andy Warhol stood on stage using
a new computer to paint a portrait of pop star Debbie Harry in his own
unique style. That night the world was introduced to something
entirely new in computing: the Amiga. Prior to this computers were
aimed at a relatively limited audience. The message was clear: for the
first time, an affordable computer was powerful and flexible enough to
be a true creative tool, and user friendly enough to be used by
artists, not just technologists.
Andy Warhol was just the first of many creative people to find that
the Amiga offered entirely new possibilities and new ways of working.
With powerful audio and video capabilities as well as the best
graphical display of the era, Amigas rapidly found a place in the
hearts and studios of many artists, filmmakers and musicians, as well
into the homes of millions of ordinary families. Amigas were used by
Disney and Spielberg, in Babylon 5 and Star Trek. They were found in
television studios around the world, used by Arthur C. Clarke to
create images of Mars, and by NASA to track satellites. They made the
basis for many of the first Virtual Reality systems and provided
interactive displays in countless museums. They've been used to
control laser displays, run theme park rides, and operate stage
lighting systems in the West End and on Broadway.
In the following months after its launch, Warhol acquired a battery of
Amigas and experimented using these computers with the same enthusiasm
as any medium he ever approached.
Until its 2001 discovery, what had only been hinted at and rumored is
that Warhol had actually created a short digital film on one such
computer, probably the first such digital creation by any important
artist. Titled YOU ARE THE ONE, the digital stills were discovered on
a floppy disk among thousands in Warhol?s estate. Long believed lost,
this short masterpiece (20 painted frames) was reconstructed by Arnie
Friedhoff and his team at ITN on a retro-fitted Mac G5 and reunited
with what is believed to be its original soundtrack (also discovered
on another floppy disk marked in Warhol?s familiar scrawl ?soundtracks
for imaginary movies, i.e., you are the one?.
Now, after five years of painstaking archival reconstruction, YOU ARE
THE ONE is being debuted for the first time anywhere at the Museum of
New Art (MONA).
However, due to threatened legal action tied to estate disputes and to
its pending seizure, the museum will only be allowed a one day
screening of the film.
?We are so excited at this once in a lifetime opportunity," remarked
Mr. Friedhoff, then added sadly: ?Yet after this single viewing, I?m
afraid the work will be lost again for at least another generation.?
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Amiga Update on the net:
All back issues available at:
http://www.globaldialog.com/~bandr/AU/index.html
Stop by and check out our archive! Now in our 13th publication year.
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Copyright 2006 by Brad Webb. Freely distributable, if not modified.
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