Author: Brian Wiser
Seattle, Washington — May 14, 2018 — Apple Pugetsound Program Library Exchange (A.P.P.L.E.) and John Blankenship are proud to announce the immediate availability of the book The Apple House: How to Computerize Your Home Using Your Apple II Computer. Originally published in 1984 by Pearson Education, Inc, the new 186 page book is completely remastered and re-typeset. Additionally, all of John Blankenship’s custom home automation software featured in the book has been retyped and made available on a free disk…
Apple Pugetsound Program Library Exchange (A.P.P.L.E.) released a new, expanded paperback manual for the popular Apple II machine language programming tool Big Mac: Macro Assembler. Originally published in 1981 by A.P.P.L.E. from author Glen E. Bredon, the new 128 page manual combines for the first time Big Mac, along with Big Mac.LC, Symbol Cross-Reference, and Symbol Symon that expand its capabilities. Availability Big Mac: Macro Assembler is available through the A.P.P.L.E. bookstore with production and fulfillment by Lulu.com. The programs…
Southern Stars released what is likely the best iOS satellite tracker available – Orbitrack, a successor to their Satellite Safari. It tracks thousands of orbiting satellites, including military satellites, and has detailed 3D models, facts, mission descriptions, and when satellites will be visible for one’s location. Southern Stars has been innovating astronomy software for many many years. I found it intriguing that one can see the perspective from the satellite’s view, complete with a 3D model, beyond seeing all of…
AgileBits has released a beta of 1Password 7 with a plethora of new features they have been working on for several years. Available now for Mac and Windows, this venerable password manager adds new features such as: a dark sidebar, drag and drop between vaults, nested tags, pop-out items, an integrated Safari extension, and running as a single process for the first time. Additional standout features include notes with rich formatting and hyperlinks, a new “Courier Prime Bits” font for…
MARCH 30, 2018 — KansasFest 2018, the 30th annual Apple II convention, is open for registration. Users, programmers, hobbyists, and retrocomputing enthusiasts are invited to Rockhurst University in Kansas City, Missouri, from Tuesday, July 17, through Sunday, July 22, for six days and five nights of sessions, demos, announcements, contests, and camaraderie. The keynote speaker will be Roger Wagner. In 1978, Wagner started his own software publishing company and sold popular titles such as the Merlin assembler and ASCII Express….
Publisher DotEmu has finally updated Karateka Classic to support iOS 11. I’ve found it to be one of the more enjoyable ports and am very glad to have this Apple II game working again. Speaking of DotEmu and their Mac / iOS games, they’ve also done very nice ports of the popular action/adventure Another World and Jordan Mechner’s adventure The Last Express. Raiden Legacy and R-Type are also excellent, classic shooters.
A new film called “Steve Jobs’ Choices” is on IndieGoGo, produced by 8-Bit Generation who also produced “The Commodore Wars.” The documentary looks intriguing from the posted trailer. They have assembled some impressive interviews with people like John Sculley, Mike Markkula, Steve Wozniak, Andy Hertzfeld, Al Alcorn, Dan Kottke, Larry Tesler, Jay Elliot, Paul Terrel, Chuck Peddle, Alvy Ray Smith, Steven Levy, Alan Cooper, Stan Veit, Michael Swaine, and Paul Freiberg. About a month remains to complete their funding goal…
The popular audio tool X Lossless Decoder(XLD) has a new 64-bit beta test version that was released today. XLD is a very useful tool for converting lossless audio files into various formats like FLAC, Apple Lossless, MP3, and AAC among others. While the author is asking for feedback with his 64-bit beta, the current 32-bit release is another choice for new users and has been actively developed since 2006. Another powerful feature, for anyone with audio CDs, is the ability…
A future release of macOS Server is depreciating key server services, so that it can focus on management. Along with releasing macOS Server 5.5, Apple published this support document yesterday, Prepare for changes to macOS Server. Apple suggests replacements for these key depreciated services: Calendar, Contacts, DHCP, DNS, Mail, Messages, NetInstall, VPN, Websites, and Wiki. What is the purpose of server software that depreciates most key server functions? Will integrating suggested replacements be easy or practical? By focusing on management,…
SoftRAID, the venerable RAID software solution, has been updated to 5.6.4 and is now fully compatible with macOS 10.13 High Sierra and also back to OS X 10.6.8. While fully compatible with High Sierra, it does not support APFS volumes – that level of support is slated for the upcoming SoftRAID 6.0. Besides supporting RAID 0, 1, 4, 5 and 1+0, one of the best features is the Certify feature. Certify can run multiple passes to verify that every sector…
The venerable Carbon Copy Cloner backup software has been updated to version 5.05. The software has been maintained and regularly upgraded since 2002, with version 5.0 first appearing in August 2017 to more fully support macOS High Sierra and Apple’s APFS filesystem. It has features like bootable backups, updating only files that have been added or modified, checksums, as well as scheduled and manual backups. It can even backup Macs remotely and supports macOS 10.10 through 10.13. One of my…
I came across documentation about the popular Apple II copy program EDD 4 that experts like Anthony Martino at UltimateApple2, the creator of the “EDD 4 Plus” clone card, were not familiar with and asked me to share. That information is within three documents I scanned and linked here as PDFs. Highlights from those documents: EDD 4 Program Information List #4-13, February 1993: download PDF This may be one of the last EDD program lists created. It also mentions…
Seattle, Washington — July 21, 2017 — Apple Pugetsound Program Library Exchange (A.P.P.L.E.) and Kevin M. Smallwood are proud to announce the immediate availability of the book GBBS Pro Bulletin Board System: Version 2.2 and the software update that accompanies it. GBBS Pro is a user-friendly, highly-modifiable Bulletin Board System (BBS) for communications and entertainment. It has advanced features that can be configured by a novice, yet challenge advanced programmers. Originally released between 1980 and 1993 for Apple II computers,…
The Jan/Feb 2017 issue of Call-A.P.P.L.E. magazine has been released to A.P.P.L.E. members. This 36-page full-color issue features many exclusive articles including: – Akalabeth: The Beginning of a Legacy– Steve Jobs: The Quiet Philanthropist– GBBS Pro: The Official Archive– The Apple II Web Server in BASIC– Uthernet II update– Freshly Squeezed Reviews: Swift Be My Playground A.P.P.L.E. members can log into their accounts and download the PDF magazine. If you are not yet a member, be sure to join through…
NeoFinder, the popular digital asset cataloging and management tool, has been updated to version 7. NeoFinder is quit simply the best such tool that I’ve ever used. It makes it very easy to create a simple catalog of drives and disks, and can store complex metadata about documents, photos, songs, and movies along with optional checksums to verify integrity. The program has been updated and enhanced for over 10 years, and the latest version has a number of new features:…
Apple Pugetsound Program Library Exchange (A.P.P.L.E.) has updated the manual for the popular Apple II graphics programming tool Turtlesoft: Turtle Graphics for Applesoft with a new softcover manual. Originally published in 1983 by A.P.P.L.E., the new manual features revised formatting and now includes the 15 sample programs with screenshots. In addition to the original Turtlesoft DOS 3.3 version by Robert Gallup, John Brooks converted it to work with ProDOS. Both Turtlesoft disk images are available and also include sample programs….
The WOZPAK Special Edition, first released in 2013 in Softcover and Hardcover, has been upgraded with a forward by Don Williams and some additional information on the back cover. For those who purchased the original edition of the book, we’ve made Don Williams forward available as a high-quality PDF that can be printed and inserted in the book. The press release follows: Originally produced in 1978 by Val Golding and Dick Hubert of A.P.P.L.E., The WOZPAK was the first official…
Apple Pugetsound Program Library Exchange is proud to announce the book Call-A.P.P.LE. Magazine 1979 Compendium – a nostalgic look back at the early years of the Apple computing revolution through the eyes of Call-A.P.P.L.E. magazine and the Apple Pugetsound Program Library Exchange (A.P.P.L.E.) user group. All 9 issues from the second year of Call-A.P.P.L.E. magazine are included along with a four page forward by Don Williams. Over 340 pages are enhanced and restored in high-quality grayscale, complete with the advertisements…
Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, spoke at the Utah Tech Tour yesterday with other industry leaders. Members of the audience had the rare chance to submit questions to Tim. As always, Tim is very thoughtful, articulate and clearly brilliant. I feel lucky to have been there and heard his insights into encryption, being a successful entrepreneur, AR vs. VR, and embracing Steve Jobs’ vision at Apple. These are the highlights from Tim: What can students do to be competitive in…
I had the pleasure of interviewing Mike Harvey of Nibble magazine at KansasFest. Wanting to give the interview the broadest audience possible, I invited my good friend John Leake from the RetroMacCast podcast to participate. The interview audio can be heard on RetroMacCast episode 413. Mike Harvey, the founder and publisher of the long-lived Nibble magazine, has career that spans major companies in the computing and financial realms. Through those years Mike studied management philosophy, systems, and methods voraciously and developed…
