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

For those members who are interested in our Vintage Magazines, Out collection of the Australian Apple Review is nearly complete.  The issues will be downloadable as they are scanned over the next 3 days.  We will be adding cropped versions of the issues and making an announcement on Christmas Day for the general public.   Thanks to the efforts of Andrew Roughan, Bill Martens, and Brian Wiser, these issues will be available to the public for the first time.  While…

This technical article discusses the recent LZ4 data compression algorithm and its ability to become a good multi-purpose lossless compression format for the Apple IIGS computer. Mostly for game programming area, where we have to handle multi-types of data (Graphic, Sound, Music, Code, Misc data…), the availability of one generic compression / decompression algorithm will ease developers’ life! LZ4 Compression for the Apple IIgs is part of Brutal Deluxe’s Cross Development Tools project, a full set of utilities available on…

Brian Picchi has released a new Apple II game, Lamb Chops.  The game which plays much like the old Atari games, is a multi-level fast action arcade game which speeds up as you progress through the stages.  The object of the game is to protect sheep as they cross a pasture.  Wolves and aliens of different species attack the sheep and the player, forcing him to keep on the alert at all times.  The player can only shoot one bullet…

AppleCommander, the java based floppy viewing software has been updated.  Dr. John B. Matthews has put forth version 1.3.5.14 which is intended to address a freezing issue which has been in many early versions.  The issue addressed in the update affected SWT and has long forced users to to FORCE QUIT the application.  The new version has been confirmed to work on all versions of Mac OS X from 10.5.x to 10.9.x. AppleCommander is a floppy disk image viewer which…

Dont Run With A Plasma Sword, the runner game by XperimentalZ Games has been updated. DRWAPS includes 5 levels of difficulty in both a challenge mode as well as an endless arcade style mode.  Each level of the challenge mode concludes with a Boss fight which allows the user to continue to the next level upon completion. The Endless mode includes a variety of objectives, some of which upon completion, unlock the next level of the Endless Mode.  The lastest…

The What is the Apple IIgs Website (WITA2GS) has added a host of new educational titles to their website.  The new titles, archived by the website’s curator, Alex Lee, while on a trip to California offer an ever expanding glimpse into the world of Apple II education.  There are over 20 new titles on the website in Alex’s push in completing his collection of Apple IIgs software and Apple II 8-bit software which was issued on 3.5 inch floppy disks….

Well, another year has passed and of course Apple has updated their iPhones in September with the advent of the 5C and the 5S.  While most of the S series phones over the years have been fairly stable, this latest version has left a bad taste in a few consumers mouths.  Even our own in-house models of the phone have been less then stellar. The first of these glitches comes in the form of the Camera.  The new 8 megapixel…

Ewen Wannop has released two software updates this week.  The first is to his Apple IIgs Byte Editor, Chewbagger.   The second update is to his NNTP client, SNAP.   According to the press release in CSA2, “ Version 1.1.5 of ChewBagger and 1.1.5 of SNAP are now available from my website: http://www.wannop.info/speccie———————— This is an update of ChewBagger, and amongst many small bug fixes and  cosmetic changes, has two new features: Please read the Manual and ‘Changes’ files for more details…

Apple, Inc. quietly shutdown their Apple Store and then added the Mac Mini 2.  Long delayed by a number of issues, the Mac Mini 2 comes in 2 models and 2 colors.  Silver and Space Grey are the colors currently available in the Apple Store. While the US store has made both the Wi-Fi model and the Cellular model available, the Japan store is only listing the Cellular model.  4 memory configurations are available: 16, 32, 64, and 128 gb….

We have decided to once again make the PDF available of Call-A.P.P.L.E. Magazine.  Once again, the magazine will be chocked full of news, interviews, and product announcements and will coincide with the release of articles here on the A.P.P.L.E. Website.   Stay tuned for more!

The Open Apple Podcast, run by Ken Gagne and Mike Maginnis features Bill Martens of A.P.P.L.E. this month.  Discussions about the latest news in the Apple world, Apple II software, preservation and other related topics took place.  Brian Wiser also joined the trio of long time Apple II afficandos to discuss his and Bill’s WOZPAK Special Edition release as well as other forthcoming projects. You can listen to the podcast in its entirety on the Open Apple website at: http://www.open-apple.net/2013/11/02/show-032-martens-history-founders-wozpak/

The San Jose Mercury News is reporting that what everyone feared has come to pass; Steve Jobs’ home is now a historic landmark.  Designation was passed by the Los Altos Historical Commission due to the homes association with Steve Jobs.  Apparently it was a unanimous vote when the home came up for designation. Source: http://www.mercurynews.com/my-town/ci_24407428/jobs-house-cleared-apos-historic-resource

Apple has sent invitations to their next event at the Buena Yerba Center in San Francisco.  The event scheduled for 10am on the 22nd of October, is expected by most media outlets to be the announcement by CEO Tim Cook of the release of the iPad 5 as well as the iPad Mini 2.

Brutal Deluxe has announced the addition of a number of new cassettes to the Apple ][ Cassette Collection.  Their press release on CSA2 states that “Thanks to Ron Graff, former publisher of Magnemedia and Innovative Computer computers, please find new complete titles at http://www.brutaldeluxe.fr/projects/cassettes/  Ron kindly accepted to send his applications to me which I have digitized and scanned.  Magnemedia now contains the five different eduware programs, probably among the first eduware titles for the Apple II. The Innovative Computer…

The Virtual ][ Emulator for  Mac OS X has been updated.  Version 7.3 was released with a host of new fixes and updates including: The “No Slot Clock” now reports Monday as weekday no. 1. Previously it reported Sunday as day no. 1, which was incorrect. Added Applescript properties for better control of the connected devices. The application preferences now offer two color schemes for high resolution rendering. The Inspector now retains its window positions when the virtual machine is…

The CFFA3000 compact flash drive card for the Apple II series computers is now on sale again. Rich Dreher, the creator of the CFFA3000 has made a total of 575 boards available for the third run of the card. The new CFFA3000 RevC board also now works in the Apple /// computer and comes with the David Schmidt produced driver.  The CFFA3000 is available for $149.95 from the R&D Automation website at: http://shop.dreher.net/

After an extended downtime due to a server issue, the “What is The Apple IIgs” website has returned.  Alex Lee, the website’s curator posted a note in CSA2 announcing the return.  WITA2GS is an Apple IIgs related website that contains information, programs, photos and documentation from nearly every software package produced for the Apple IIgs computer. For more information, check the What is the Apple IIgs website at: http://www.whatisthe2gs.apple2.org.za/

By Hugh Hood (CSA2) AppleIIWorks Envoy is a ‘faceless’ application for Mac OS X (10.4.x Tiger through 10.8.x Mountain Lion) with a two-fold purpose. First, it provides for Mac OS X Finder recognition of Apple II AppleWorks Files, presenting both a custom Mac Finder icon as well as a custom ‘Kind’ description for AppleWorks Word Processor (AWP), Database (ADB) and Spreadsheet (ASP) files. Second, the application implements a Spotlight metadata importer for AppleWorks Word Processor (ProDOS type ‘AWP/$1A’) files that…

Paris, September 1st, 2013 – Brutal Deluxe Software is proud to introduce BenchmarkeD to the Apple II community. BenchmarkeD is a benchmark utility for the Apple IIgs. It allows you to calculate the average throughput in reading and writing files and sequential disk blocks of your ProDOS volumes. BenchmarkeD uses standard GS/OS routines to perform its tests. Until now, there were no such utilities for the Apple IIgs. Nowadays, disk devices are USB sticks or Compact Flash cards, physical devices…

The curator of the Aztec C Museum, Bill Buckels, has announce the immediate availability of two new directory builders for Dos 3.3.  The new Directory Builders Dir33 and LS33 are available from the Aztec C Museum as a free download.  Complete source code and documentation is included as part of the download. According to the note on CSA2 posted by Bill, “ The Aztec C65 DIR33 Project for Apple II DOS 3.3 – RWTS revealed with structures and everything… Download…