Author: A.P.P.L.E.

Apple has released a new version of the operating system for Intel based Macs.  Mac OS X 10.9.3 increases apple’s support of 4K devices.  Restoration of the USB syncing of Calendars and Contacts is also included in this update.  Also Apple has attempted to imporve the reliability of connections via VPN that use IPsec. They has also released Safari 7.0.3 in coordination with this update. The update is a 947mb download and is available now. For more information about the…

Antoine Vignau has announced an update of the Apple II Cassette Collection on Brutal Deluxe.  The update includes the following new items: Apple’s High-resolution graphics (002-0002-01) Apple’s Checkbook-1 (002-0005-01) Hayden’s Songs in the key of Apple The new additions brings the total number of offerings in the collection to 623 tapes.  For more information or to download the items in the collection, see the Brutal Deluxe Apple II Cassette Collection website at: http://www.brutaldeluxe.fr/projects/cassettes/

David Schmidt, curator of the ADTPro project, has announced the release of version 1.3.0.  According to the posting in CSA2, ” Just a quick purge of CVS as I prepare to get going on the new wide protocol in earnest – this should represent the known bugs up to today of the “1-byte protocol” ADT-compatible ADTPro client and server. There’s no new functionality, just a cleanup of earlier problems caused by yours truly.  There will be maintenance as required of…

A.P.P.L.E. has negotiated a discount for A.P.P.L.E. Members who purchase Option8’s Joystick Shield or the Joystick Shield Kit.  These connectors allow users to utilize their original Apple II series joysticks with their current Mac or PC.  Many emulators will also recognize the Joystick Shield. The discount code is available to A.P.P.L.E. members only through their login ID’s and is good for 10% off on the Joystick Shield and Joystick Shield Kit.  This discount does not apply to any other Option…

Apple has announced that Peter Oppenheimer, the Senior VP and CFO, will call it a career in September.   His retirement opens up a slow for the VP of Finance to move up.  Luca Maestri will replace Peter beginning in June. For more on this story, see the announcement at apple.com — http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2014/03/04Apples-Peter-Oppenheimer-to-Retire-at-the-End-of-September.html

Potion Factory, Publishers of software Mac based hits such as The Hit List and Tangerine has been acquired by the company which make Sandvox, the web production software for the Mac.

Silvern Castle was reported to have an update bug in it which was preventing users who had version 9.4 from upgrading to 9.5.   The bug did not affect other users, however, the author has chosen to release and update of the program.  According to his email, ” This release fixes the issue that prevented running the game after updating from v9.4 that was introduced in the original v9.5 release.” The  V9.5.1 release is available at the following websites: http://webpages.milwpc.com/finkjc/silverncastle/ http://finkjsc.a2hq.com/silverncastle/

From the Kansasfest Comittee announcement: “KansasFest 2014, the Apple II convention, is scheduled for July 22 -27 in Kansas City, Missouri.  Margot Comstock, co-founder and editor of the much-loved Softalk magazine, will join us with a keynote presentation. Comstock and Al Tommervik founded Softalk in 1980 to share the hardware, software, and people behind the Apple II.  At its peak, Softalk had 250,000 readers and uniquely offered broad and deep coverage of everything Apple II related, including programming, game playing,…

According to the author of Silvern Castle, Jeff Fink, the latest release of Version 9.5 has a bug in the program which affects the update from Version 9.4 to 9.5.  According to an email received by A.P.P.L.E> from Jeff, “It has come to my attention that if you update to v9.5 from v9.4, then it may fail with error #107-1190 when you start the game.  The reason is simple. At the following line numbers I entered 9.4 instead of 9.5:…

AppleIIGo version 1.0.9 has been fully implemented.  AppleIIGo is the emulator which currently runs the Java based version of the Virtual Apple II pages. Updates to the emulator include: – fixed disk speed-up bug (Sherwood Forest reads with the drive motor off) – added check for 2IMG header ID – fixed processor status bugs in BRK, PLP, RTI, NMI, IRQ The source code for the emulator will be available once we confirm that there are no issues with this release. …

Bill Buckels, curator of the Aztec C Museum has released a new image comverter for the Apple IIgs.  According to the announcment on CSA2, “BMP2SHR is a command line utility to convert BMP files to Apple IIgs SHR Files. Please see the User’s Manual and the Tutorial for information on using BMP2SHR. If you have BMP2SHR Version 1.0 upgrading to Version 2.0 is well worth the effort. If you want to learn more about the SHR (Super Hi-Res) display on…

The Kansasfest committee has release a teaser email containing the 2014 rendition of the Kansasfest Logo.  Kansasfest is an Apple II centric enthusiast convention which happens each year in Kansas City, Missouri.   The event draws hobbyists from around the globe and is usually inundated with advancements in the hardware and software on the Apple II series platforms.  The 2014 Kansasfest will take place July 22nd to 27th.  For more information, check the Kansasfest website at: http://www.kansasfest.org

Virtual Apple ][‘s database has been updated this week with the release of Version 1.22.  Current efforts include adding the blurbs of all of the games in the system as well as adding a new EBay pricing guide with the High and Low prices for items being sold on Ebay.   The current database sports nearly 1500 records and is expanding daily.  If you have the iOS version of the ActiveGS app, just click the update button at the top of…

Thanks to Charlie Reiman, the following typeset Aztec C Manuals originally scanned by the late Paul R. Santa-Maria have been reformatted (they are now smaller and searchable and pastable as plain text), and are now available for download at the following links: Aztec C 65 Version 3.2 cross-compiler http://www.aztecmuseum.ca/docs/CG65A.PDF http://www.aztecmuseum.ca/docs/CG65B.PDF Aztec C 65 Version 3.2 ProDOS native-mode compiler http://www.aztecmuseum.ca/docs/MANXC65B.PDF http://www.aztecmuseum.ca/docs/MANXC65B.PDF ProDOS Aztec C Unix-Like Shell http://www.aztecmuseum.ca/docs/SHELLC65A.pdf Charlie did a great job with these. Before Paul passed-away (June 19, 2010), he…

A posting in the CSA2 Users Group has announced a cracked version of the EA game Amnesia.  According to the posting by a CSA2 user going by the moniker Random J Hacker, ” Amnesia is an Apple II text adventure written by science fiction author Thomas M. Disch.  Its copy protection is in the form of a disk check that  upon failure prevents the player from picking up any objects in the game,  including the bedsheet you are required to…

Apple has released a minor update to the iOS operating system.  iOS 7.0.5 is intended to primarily provide support for the networks run by China Telecom.  This was necessitated by Apple’s recent agreement with China Telecom to provide the iPhone through them.  The update addresses issues with the iPhone 5c and the iPhone 5S connecting to the network. For more information, see the iOS 7.0.5 update page at: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1718

Brian Picchi, the author of Lamb Chops, has announced the release of his latest Apple ][ Game.  Retro Fever is the first release of 2014 for the Apple ][ series computer and is Brian’s second foray into the realm of Apple ][ action games.  According to the release on Facebook, ” For this game I teamed up with programmer and friend Brandon Bogle of retroswitch.com (some of you may know him as the creator of the Flyer Internet Modem for…

Paul Hagstrom has posted a number of the ST.MAC magazines on his blog.  Known as Softtalk Mac officially or Saint Mac unofficially, the magazine was the natural progression for the SoftTalk enterprise which ran from 1980 to 1984.  The first issue of ST.MAC was released in February 1984 but was to run only until August of that year due in part to the shut down of the Softtalk enterprise. Now enjoy a bit of that era as we face the…

Apple, Inc. celebrated the 30th anniversary of the introduction of the Macintosh this week.  January 24th, 1984, Steve jobs showed the world his new machine complete with graphical user interface. The machine initially envisioned by The like of Jef Raskin and Steve Jobs had come to a fruition and Apple introduced it in a manner which has never been forgotten. Few can forget the image of Steve Jobs up on stage two days after the commercial aired during the Superbowl,…

An announcement by chat leader Andrew Roughan says that the DownUnder Chat which occured on local time Friday Evenings in Australia is once again a weekly event.  According to the posting in CSA2, ” After a hiatus… it is time for a come back. Calling all Apple II enthusiasts who are awake between 9pm and 11pm Australian Eastern Summer Time on Friday nights to visit the #a2c.chat channel on the A2Central IRC server. That’s probably likely to be Aussies, Kiwis,…