From CSA2 Announcment by David Schmidt: For your consideration this Christmas day:ADTPro 1.2.9 has been released. There are a few tweaks that came up under some heavy usage scenarios: Nibble sends now work in batch mode, and they are a little more tolerant of communications failures. This gets really handy when you have, for example, a pile of 13-sector disks to image. Linards Ticmanis’ 13- sector ADT13 was always an option, but due to the fact that DOS 3.2 and…
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…
Apple is making the push for iOS developers to adopt the iOS interface and standards. Chuong Nguyen writes on gottabemobile.com The company has advised iOS developers that all apps submitted after February 1, 2014 must be optimized for iOS 7 and built using Xcode 5. The move would at the very least remove visual fragmentation in the way apps look and feel for the iOS operating system. This is Apple’s plan to fight fragmentation of users who have not upgraded to…
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…
December 2013 Following up on comments in this space last month, the Spy still has had none of the issues reported by others who’ve adopted Mavericks. Apart from the need to upgrade a handful of programs, all continues smooth. However, iTim’s elves are busy at work releasing betas of the first incremental upgrade to fix issues some have seen. Of greater interest might be what they’re doing with system XI. And, the reader will recall the troubles reported here with …
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…
As we all know, it’s never a dull moment in the world of Apple II. Let’s look around and see what’s happening. We are all still looking forward to Dr. Weyhrich’s Apple II History book. The Daily Apple blog is talking about podcasts, emulators, and the prices of old Apple equipment. option8 made a USB to Apple joystick adapter. It lets you plug in a USB joystick. Bill Buckels is still at work with Aztec C, and now has Aztec…
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!
Dr. Steven Weyhrich’s upcoming history book, Sophistication & Simplicity, is now available for pre-order on Amazon.com for $22.40. It will go on sale 1st December 2013. Weyhrich states on his blog that, I will say that although the core of the material in the History has not changed much, there is additional information in nearly every section, as well as a more interesting presentation of that material. In other words, the $29.95 price of the book (before Amazon’s discount) is not…
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 wave of Apple’s future was supposed to be a simplification of the user interface, a de-skeuomorphism of visual elements, and a unification of MacOS and iOS. The most recent version of the latter went a long way toward this mark However, MacOS 10.9, a.k.a. Mavericks, is, on the whole, a stay-the-course mild enhancement of Mountain Lion 10.8, nothing radical. Thos who want radical change will have to wait for MacOS 11. The important changes are in the upgrade process…
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
Quite a lot has happened since last time. Let’s take a look at what’s new in the world of Apple II! David Schmenk has made an Apple II card that will interface with the Raspberry Pi. It is called Apple II Pi. A new utility called Spyglass is an online disk image browser that will show disassemblies, hi-res graphics, and BASIC listings. It is in beta and will be improved in the coming weeks. Option8 is selling Apple IIe card…
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.
