Apple Computer Inc’s Claris Corp in Santa Clara, California has added more than 100 features to its FileMaker Pro database application for formatting and report generation: FileMaker now has a Zoom feature for viewing layouts at up to 400% and editing them at all magnifications, as well as Buttons and Scripts to automate program commands; it can share data with other Macs without a file server and is built around Claris’s XTND architecture, increasing the number of file formats it can read from and write to; Claris says that it will be available in June and cost $300.
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Informix Software Inc has DataLink RetroPack, priced at UKP39, to enable Mac users to access SQL databases via the Wingz graphical user interface: with Wingz-DataLink, users can point-and-click to create SQL queries and data can then be presented in a Wingz worksheet or an executive information system written in HyperScript, which can also call in multimedia data from Informix’ OnLine database; users can access data from any databases on a network using point-and-click since the RetroPack connects to software running on Unix, MS-DOS and OS/2 through the Apple CL/1 interface.
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Fairfield Software Inc, from the heart of the corn belt Fairfield, Iowa has a new version of ClearAccess, a data access product which uses Apple’s CL/1 interface or Oracle’s SQL*Net software to enable Mac users to point and click SQL queries at data held on a wide range of mainframes, minis, workstations and personal computers and bring information from them into any Macintosh application; new features include an improved query builder and full DB2 compatibility; version 1.2 begins shipping on May 1 and costs $350 for a single copy; registered users get free upgrades.
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C-Cube Microsystems, San Jose has an Image Master kit, complete with Image Master board and Compression Workshop software, for developers to implement the Joint Photographic Experts Group, JPEG, image compression standard on the Apple Macintosh II: the board is a single NuBus board with C-Cube’s CL550 processor on it while the software emulates the chip – the idea being that OEM customers and software developers can play with the chip and then use it to integrate the image compression standard into their products; it costs $3,000.
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Apple Computer Inc has come out with the Macintosh Programmer’s Workshop 3.1, which includes more than 200 tools to help in the development process, along with a Motorola 68000 microprocessor family assembler, C and Object Pascal compilers and a source level debugger: version 3.1 has an improved source level debugger, extended to debug object-oriented programs and added support for Object Pascal; it is available now as a single CD-ROM but no pricing has been released.
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Connectivite Corp, Elmsford, New York is another company capitalising on the infestation of Macs that has been spreading through corporate America – and elsewhere – with its own solution to the micro-to-mainframe link problem: its contender is called Masquerade, and is a family of Macintosh products that provide tools for users to create front-ends for access to mainframe applications: it includes a 3270 connection module, Masquerade 3270, enabling users to create a Macintosh application that serves as a front-end to any IBM 3270 mainframe application without the user having to sully his mind with programming on the Macintosh or the mainframe and there are no changes of any kind to the target mainframe application; according to Newsbytes, mainframe data (text) is actually mapped into Macintosh objects – clickable icons, pictures, menus, windows, dialogue boxes, scrolling lists, and such, so that the mainframe program is transformed into a genuine Macintosh application – that’s the theory anyway; no price.
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Abaton Inc, Fremont, California has unleashed LaserScript at Macworld Expo: this 300 dot per inch PostScript-compatible laser printer for the Mac, MS-DOS, OS/2 and Unix environments is a multihost, multiapplication desktop machine and is priced at $3,000; it has
a 15MHz NS32CG16 embedded system processor from National Semiconductor to run the Microsoft-Bauer PostScript interpreter and gives the LaserScript performance capabilities greater than the LaserWriter IINTX; LaserScript comes with a standard 3Mb of memory, expandable to 6Mb for those users that require larger download font capability; it ships in May, and will be distributed by Everex Systems Inc, Fremont, California.
Lotus Development Corp announces Lotus MarketPlace, software to erase those mailshot blues: priced at $700 for software and the first 5,000 names of the user’s choice; the product runs on Apple Macs and combines CD-ROM databases of names and addresses of US businesses and households with software for targeting customers and analysing markets; the data will be updated quarterly and users can subscribe annually at $150 for updates; MarketPlace requires an Apple Mac hard drive, CD-ROM drive and 4Mb of RAM.
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Adaptec Inc, Milpitas, California weighs in with the EtherMac II family of NuBus add-in boards for the Macintosh II, linking the computers to thin Ethernet or 10Base-T Ethernet: claimed to be fully compatible with Apple Computer Inc.’s EtherTalk card, the EtherMac II for thin Ethernet, and EtherMac II/10T provide 32-bit networking links and are priced $100 to $200 below most of the competing products on the market; Adaptec is also supporting 10Base-T in the Nodem local network interface unit, an external box that connects Macintoshes to Ethernetworks through the computers’ Small Computer Systems Interface ports; with 10BaseT support, Nodem-10T enables Macintoshes to connect over twisted pair cable and is compatible with Farallon Inc’s StarController EN; EtherMac II is $500, II/10T and Nodem-10T are $600 each.
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Now Software Inc, Portland, Oregon is offering Now Utilities, a $150 collection of 12 system enhancement utilities for the Macintosh: the set is claimed to be the first to concentrate on programs to enable users to customise the Macintosh making it even more powerful, accessible and fun – previous utilities, it says, have focused on hard disk repair and maintenance, not on enhancements to system performance; the 12 components of Now Utilities are AlarmsClock, Customiser, DeskPicture, InstantAccess, MemorySetter, NowMenus, Persistence, Print Previewer, Profiler, RearWindow, Startup Manager, and WYSIWYG Menus.
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And, as reported, Peter Norton Computing Inc, the Santa Monica, California company that has been saving MS-DOS users from themselves and their silly mistakes and misfortunes with its Norton Utilities, is ready with Norton Utilities for Macintosh, including Disk Doctor, UnErase, Format Recover/File Saver, Speed Disk, FastFind and KeyFinder.
