====================================================================== ________ _________ ____ _|__ __ __|_______ _________ __\ _____ \\\\ \_ _/ //___// _____//______\ _____ \\ // \\\\ /. \\\\__ \/ __// \\ \\____. /// \\\\ /. \\ \\___\¯ /___///___\ /___\ \\_________//\\___\¯ /___// ¯ \/ ¯ ¯ \/. |¯ ¯|z!o ¯ ¯ \/ ¯ A M I G A | 020930 | U P D A T E |________| "SO THE WORLD MAY KNOW" ====================================================================== AMIGA and the Amiga logo are trademarks of Amiga, Inc. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- L A T E S T E X E C U T I V E U P D A T E F R O M B I L L S E C O N D O T T A W A A M I G A S H O W W O R L D O F A M I G A S O U T H E A S T , U K M I N I A M I G A S H O W I N S L O V E N I A " A S K P E T R O " A N D B E I N H I S B O O K ? P A G E S T R E A M P L A T F O R M S U R V E Y / A M I G A M O R P H O S T E A M S T A T E S P O S I T I O N M E R L A N C I A O N I T S L E G A L S T A T U S B E R N D M E Y E R O N A M I T H L O N X L A M I T H L O N X L P R E M I E R A T O A S E 2 H A N D P O N A M I T H L O N I N F O O N E L B O X S P I D E R U S B P C I C A R D E L B O X E X P L A N A T I O N O N P O S E I D O N M E D I A T O R U S B D R I V E R S F O R P O S E I D O N W I L D F L Y E R F O R V I D E O T O A S T E R F L Y E R P I X L O A D 2 . 1 I S A N N O U N C E D V H I S T U D I O 5 . 7 , D I G I C A M P A C K A G E Editor's Thoughts and Introduction: Lots of news this month. Unfortunately, while none of it can be called "bad" news, much of it is unpleasant. The tone this month seems to be controversy. There's a legal statement from the Morph OS team, another from Merlancia, seeming controversy involving Elbox, and a bunch of unhappiness over Amithlon. Thought that was all settled, but now comes Amithlon XL and controvery resurfaces. We're not even sure what Amithlon XL is. We certainly haven't received any press releases or definitive information about it. What we do have is reported below. Meanwhile, there are some interesting stories on new products, and on Amiga shows. Much more fun "stuff". Have a look at the stories we've got for you, make up your own minds on the controversies and, if you're like us, hope for a more positive month next time. Brad Webb, Editor ---------------------------------------------------------------------- L A T E S T E X E C U T I V E U P D A T E F R O M B I L L September 5, 2002 - From the desk of Bill McEwen Greetings to one and all: I would first like to thank all of those that I had the chance to meet in Sacramento. While a short trip it was indeed great fun and real delight meeting with all of you and hearing not only the encouraging words, but also sharing in your concerns, desires, and dreams. We are looking forward to deliver on what we discussed with you. When we purchased Amiga from Gateway there were many out there who said that we would fail. There were many out there who have worked against our efforts, and others that have misrepresented fact and manipulated privileged information in order to further their obviously self serving goals. There have been those who have wronged us, and caused us damage. But, guess what? We are still here! We are still delivering! We are going to stay here! Amiga is about people, technology, excellence, we are a most tenacious people, and we have the community to prove it. Has it always gone according to plan? no. Have we made some adjustments to the plan? yes. Are we delivering on the plan? yes. Will we allow others to dictate our future? Absolutely not. Period.. Because of you, the Amiga dream lives, because of you, Amiga's are still being used throughout the world performing amazing tasks and activities, and because of you, we are still here and moving forward. Amiga is a giant resting for the day of the fight, and gaining strength quietly, for, as we embark on this mission together, nothing will tear us apart. Thank you once again for supporting us, and showing to the world that what was begun in 1985 was truly only the beginning. Bill McEwen, and the Amiga Team Amiga Club Members: I would also like to take a minute and say a special howdy to all of the club members. It is really encouraging to see all of the activity and input from you with regards to the shirt design and name for the club. The "I am Amiga" name did not go over as well as I had thought, but in the next couple of weeks (after we get the ok from those who already have the name that was selected) we will all have the name and shirt design with which an be happy and proud to wear. Each member will receive their first newsletter in the next two weeks, and there will be all sorts of great announcements and information e, so look forward to it in your inbox. As a reminder we will be having a new drawing for an Amiga Enabled Cell Phone in September, and we would encourage those of you who have not joined yet, to get in here and do so. We have many plans and activities coming up for the club, and once again for only $ 50.00 you will receive the newsletter, Shirt and other special promotions. The lifetime membership offer has ended, but we would encourage you to be a part of something really exciting as the members will continue to receive special discounts and exclusive programs directed at the membership. We will honor the "$50.00 off" certificate for the next members who join through the end of September, at which point we will hold the draw for the new cell phone. September 1st, 2002: As mentioned in Sacramento at AmiWest, we had offered amnesty to those people/companies/entities who have knowingly stolen our IP and used it for their own gains, or who have shipped product knowing that they are illegal had until the end of August in order for them to comply and to get legal. Now, I am not going to mention names nor am I going to get into a public discourse on what is happening.. But legal action has begun. In the next two weeks papers will be served. We will target one violator at a time with the hope that we will send a very clear signal that this is very serious, will not be permitted and will be stopped. This is a private action between Amiga Inc, and those who wish to continue in this practice. While we announced publicly our intentions, the actions will be private. I am sure that everyone can understand this and I hope will support this. AmigaOne Update: Well, the amazing team of Eyetech and Hyperion are doing a great job. Many of you already have in your possession the AmigaOne boards, and many more of you have seen the hardware in action. This is indeed another major leap forward as we near the release of the new hardware and OS 4.0. Eyetech and Alan Redhouse have been doing a great job of keeping everyone informed of the progress, and we look forward to the products release. AmigaOS 4.0: Hyperion and the team are making amazing strides here. The screen shots that we all see and the updates from Ben and the people working on it shows great progress. I know that they are working hard with regard to the integration into the AmigaOne, and I for one am looking forward to seeing it all working together, and from what I hear we are not too far off from making that happen. With this stated we have received some more shots of the interface from the OS 4.0 team. You can see the new AmiDock screenshots here. PDA/Cell Phone Update: As mentioned in Sacramento the Amiga Anywhere Content Engine and associated content will be shipping on the new SendoTM SmartPhoneTM when it ships. Now, to answer the many e-mails that I have received about the Sendo phone.... I do not know when the device will ship commercially; it is out of our hands with regard to when they will have the phone available. I will tell you that before the end of the year we will be making at least two more Cell Phone announcements and at least two more PDA announcements. We are really starting to move on getting these business deals done and there will be many more opportunities for our developers to create new products for these cutting edge devices. A Possible New Product Offering - Let me know your thoughts: In recent dealings with one of our hardware OEM's they offered an opportunity. This opportunity is for excellent laptop hardware at excellent prices. They would be dual boot systems with Linux/UAE, and Bernie Meyers product (formally known as Amithlon) pre-loaded on the device. Here is a sample of some of the pricing that you could expect, all prices quoted are in US$: Intel® 1.2GHz CeleronTM Processor 256MB RAM 15.0" TFT Active Matrix 20GB Hard Drive DVD Drive Linux/UAE Ami* $999 Intel® 1.6GHz Pentium® 4 Processor 256MB RAM 15.0" XGA TFT Active Matrix 20GB Hard Drive DVD/CDRW Combo Drive Linux/UAE Ami* $1579 Intel® 1.6GHz Pentium® 4 Processor 256MB RAM SXGA TFT Active Matrix 30GB Hard Drive DVD/CDRW Combo Drive Linux/UAE Ami* $1679 These examples are notebook computers. There are other options available, but I am trying to find out how many of you would be interested in purchasing these through your local Amiga dealer. Let us know by sending an e-mail to interested@amiga.com. There are also desktops and other configurations but I think that a notebook Amiga would be compelling. Let us know. The Product Formally Know as Amithlo*: As mentioned before Bernie Meyers has a wonderful product, and we expected it to be out by now. However there have been a couple of delays, none of these are engineering driven, that has delayed the release. I can tell you that the new product will be out very soon, and will offer some new requested features, and from what I understand is really going to knock your socks off. We will have an update concerning the timing of this release and the new name very shortly. So contrary to what you may have heard, it will be available soon. Developers: This message is an update for you. You have created some of the greatest content that the world has ever known. Your skill sets and your tenacity have overwhelmed many, and everyday you become more and more important to the future. If you have been sitting on the sidelines I encourage you to jump in. We are getting requests from many of our OEM partners with regard to content that they are looking for on their devices. While it has been a slow start (as is always the case in developing a market), this next quarter is going to see major movement, and distribution. We have many programs ready to take place for the Holiday season and we want you to be a part of it. So I encourage you to jump in make contact with us. Join us in creating the future. In closing I wish to thank each and every member of the Amiga family for their support and good wishes in this amazing journey that we have embarked upon together. We are closer today than we were yesterday to the dreams and goals of Amiga. Tomorrow we will be closer again, and soon we can all share in the rewards. Sincerely, Bill McEwen and the rest of the Amiga Team ---------------------------------------------------------------------- S E C O N D O T T A W A A M I G A S H O W September 30, 2002 Amiga.info http://www.technomages.net/amigashow/ Ottawa, Ontario, Canada On Saturday November 9, 2002, the Amiga.info user group will be hosting the second Ottawa Amiga Show. Once again, the show will be held at the Routier Centre, 172 Guigues Street, in the market of downtown Ottawa, Ontario. With all of the interest in alternative operating systems, this is an excellent opportunity for the public to see the latest offerings from Amiga, Inc. This includes the AmigaOne, the first new hardware for the platform since 1993, and the binary portable Amiga Digital Environment (DE), currently available for Microsoft Windows, x86 Linux systems, ARM and MIPS processors. The following is a list of the show exhibitors: ACK Software Controls from Niagara Falls will be demonstrating the AmigaOne, the first new Amiga hardware since 1993, and a modified Amiga 4000T, the last classic Amiga model produced. Ottawa's own Technomages will be showcasing their latest Amiga DE software, such as Eric Schwartz Puzzles and Memory. Their software will be running on a Windows x86 system and a portable MIPS based Windows CE system. ZEE4 of Toronto will be on-hand demonstrating their brand new Amiga DE offerings. There will also be three Amiga retailers at the show. Cinereal of Ottawa, Downtown Amiga from Montreal, and Livewire Systems of Ottawa will be selling a wide range of hardware and software for Amiga computers. Finally, Amiga.info will be presenting information about the user group and answering questions about the Amiga platform. Despite the G20 meeting that was held at the same time as the Ottawa Amiga Show of 2001, the show drew Amiga users from as far away as Pennsylvania, New York, Toronto and Montreal. The current position of the Canadian dollar makes coming to Canada an inexpensive proposition for our American neighbors. At the time of this writing, $100.00 USD = $155.00 CAD. Ottawa is about a two hour drive west of Montreal, five hours north-east of Toronto, and nine hours from Boston. You can also get to Ottawa by flying into the Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport. There is a mailing list that you can subscribe to if you would like to be kept up to date on the show details. To subscribe, send an email to oas-subscribe@technomages.net. Any questions about the Ottawa Amiga show can be directed to amigashow@technomages.net. About Amiga.info: Amiga.info, pronounced "Amiga dot info", is a bilingual Amiga users group located in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Formed in February 1995, Amiga.info is a non-profit resource for anyone interested in the Amiga computer. Amiga.info meets on the third Wednesday of each month. Membership is free. http://www.technomages.net/amiga.info/ Details of the 2001 Ottawa Amiga Show can be found at : http://www.technomages.net/amigashow/2001/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- W O R L D O F A M I G A S O U T H E A S T , U K 16 Sep 2002 Ladies and Gentlemen: Welcome to the clash of the year, presenting, In the Red Corner, all the way from Germany and the UK, with years of experience, a true survivor - Amiga OS4 supported by AmigaOne! Presenting in the Blue Corner, from Germany and France, the new young pretender to the crown, MorphOS supported by Pegasos! The main event will be held at the World of Amiga Southeast Show in Poplars Hall, Brentwood, Essex, England, (UK) on Saturday November 2nd 2002. Don't miss this exciting one off spectacular clash, get your tickets in advance from Fore-Matt Home Computing for only £3.50! This Action packed event will feature Amiga veterans, Eyetech, Weird Science, Fore-Matt Home Computing, ZeoNeo, Kicksoft, Thendic France, Mediator Support Team and of course Amiga inc. themselves. Plus the infamous Gaming Arena and the Mandatory After show speeches/demonstrations. This is a great opportunity to see AmigaOS4/AmigaOne Versus MorphOS/Pegasos under the same roof on the same day. For more information, please visit our temporary website http://www.seal-amiga.com/woase For tickets visit http://www.forematt.co.uk or call +44 (0)8700 11 22 34 World of Amiga Southeast 2002, aren't you glad you are going? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- M I N I A M I G A S H O W I N S L O V E N I A Sept. 09, 2002 The 4th Amiga Mini Show will took place on saturday, 19th october at Krajnik racunalnistvo d.o.o., Kidrièeva 66/a in ©kofja Loka. Show will begin at 10am. We are proudly to present AmigaOne, AmigaOS 4.0 (preview), USB products and more. Because of closeness of railroad station (cca. 50 meters away) you can take a train to attend the show. More infos about AMS will be released in the following days. http://www.amiga-klub.si/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- " A S K P E T R O " A N D B E I N H I S B O O K ? Sept. 14, 2002 Petro Tyschtschenko, who worked at Commodore Büromaschinen GmbH since October 1982 continues to work on his long-awaited memoirs. One of the chapters planned allows Amiga fans to ask Petro questions, which he will answer. Petro Tyschtschenko, a well-respected figure in the Amiga community was chief of Amiga Technologies, a branch of ESCOM, which bought all rights of Commodore and the Amiga in April 1995. As Escom also got into bankruptcy 1996 Petro tried everyt hing to ensure the survival of the Amiga and became chief of Amiga International, Inc. after Gateway 2000 bought the rights in 1997. He encouraged the further development of the AmigaOS, then released in version 3.5. In April 2001 he retired o fficially from AMIGA Inc.. He has not left altogether as he still goes to Amiga events to talk with Amiga fans who were customers and are now friends. The Amiga Community now has the opportunity to put forward some interesting questions about his life and the Amiga. You can e-mail your questions to: mail@commodore-amiga.de. {This item was taken from the Czech Amiga News site, at http://amiga.realdreams.cz/index.html. As we've often said, that's a site too good to miss, so stop by if you haven't. Brad} ---------------------------------------------------------------------- P A G E S T R E A M P L A T F O R M S U R V E Y / A M I G A {An August story, but we just recently got the information. Brad} August 12th, 2002 The results from our platform survey are in and counted! The volume was higher than expected, and we thank those who took the time to fill out the survey. The results of the survey distinguish three platform choices above the rest. Amiga OS 4.0/AmigaOne PPC, Mac OSX, and Linux i86 being the heads above the rest. Here is a loose review of these three platforms and how development will be handled. {Edited, eliminating all but the Amiga section. Brad} Amiga OS 4.0/AmigaOne PPC - Development for this "platform" has two interesting twists to it. First, PageStream Amiga should run in emulation mode on this system, so Amiga customers can leverage their existing version of PageStream. Second, customers don't actually have this "platform" yet, so while there is probably going to be a decent installed base, there is of course currently no existing installed base of customers! All that being said, if Amiga OS 4.0 and AmigaOne PPC is released in a form similar to what is being talked about, and a reasonable number of our customers get the "platform", we will be developing a new version of PageStream which is compiled natively on the PPC, and will use what OS 4.0 functionality is deemed appropriate for PageStream. We also expect to make an i86 version of PageStream for Amithlon as well. The costs to develop these versions and the perceived demand will determine if they are bundled with the "classic" Amiga version of PageStream, or sold separately. Most likely this development will be done by Deron Kazmaier, as he is the most involved these days with the Amiga libraries. Luckily for him, this development can't begin until the new OS is released, since he has enough to keep him busy right now. http://www.grasshopperllc.com/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- M O R P H O S T E A M S T A T E S P O S I T I O N 02-Sep-2002: MorphOS position paper about its legal status There have been many rumours regarding MorphOS and its legal standing. After careful consideration, we have concluded that those allegations are unfounded, those most frequently raised being the following two. 1. Stolen code It has often been said that MorphOS is based on stolen source code. Why would anyone go through the trouble of stealing a code, and jeopardise his legal standing, when code sufficiently approximate has been released to the public with the blessings of the holding company? 2. Unfair Competition It would be ideal for a company not to have competition but this is not what free trade is all about. MorphOS however has up until now competed with no other product simply because it is a work in progress free product, with time limitations. The past beta version in particular has relied on other true Operating Systems and their presence, thus perhaps enhancing those OSs marketability through added functionality. This however will not be the case when MorphOS is released to the public as a final product. Competition should thus be expected in the future. On the other hand, given the persistent empty allegations and actions taken against MorphOS, we have a pretty strong case of anticompetitive actions performed against us. Such actions, this not being a complete list, include the posting of various messages delivering empty, repeated threats and the direct involvement against MorphOS being presented in a TV show. Although it is clear to us that we can pursue legal action against those defamatory acts, we prefer as a matter of policy to settle accounts outside courts. Patience has of course its limits and since we can afford a long legal battle, if forced, we shall take action. For those purposes we have taken the following steps: a) Analysed all data available to us, interviewed people involved, and verified the consistency of all information. Although, as anticipated, we found nothing new or contradictory, this is something that we should do. b) Analysed all allegation raised and those which are possible to be raised as a ``last resort'' attempt. Although allegations are easy to be raised, and are thus many, we have concluded that they are weak, if not unfounded, at the very best. Our analysis was based on MorphOS past, present and future. c) Ascertained counter actions that will be spawned from filling an action against us. Dragging people in court just in the vain hope to intimidate them or disrupt their business does have consequences. d) Ascertained all harmful actions made against us, collected defamatory statements, analysed further conduct. Additionally, we investigated the possibility of intellectual property belonging to us being unlawfully exploited. e) Prepared a full draft legal document, concerning the above points. Emphasis has been given on countering the allegations, rather than taking the offensive which is not within our current interests. Despite that, the offensive part is sizeable. f) Preliminary consulted lawyers outside the company's resources so as to verify some conceptions of ours. We are here and we are ready. Legal battles may not be our preferred route of action but we can most certainly perform well if needed. Best regards, All of us...:) Singleview Thendic-France/bplan/MorphOS Team D. Scheibler http://www.morphos-news.de/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- M E R L A N C I A O N I T S L E G A L S T A T U S FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 18th September 2002 Merlancia Industries 3516A West Cactus Road Phoenix, AZ 85029 USA 1-877-53-AMIGA | ++1 602-789-0956 http://www.merlancia.com | RC@merlancia.com -- Merlancia Industries Clarifies Questions Regarding Current Legal Status To all concerned with recent discussions and/or questions regarding the current legal status of Merlancia Industries and all Merlancia Companies: Merlancia Industries is still alive and functioning as a private company. The mentioned corporate dissolution on ANN and possible other internet sites has to do with a paperwork error on our behalf. All S class corporations are required by the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) to file annual repots on inner corporate activities for the purpose of showing that the corporation is still in existence. The purpose of this is to allow the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) to 'throw away' any dead companies in their database. It is a fact that this paperwork was not received by the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) for this year. We are currently investigating this, and will most likely have the situation resolved in a matter of days. Dissolution is not the same as insolvency and/or bankruptcy. Merlancia still continues to function as a private company and will regain its status as an Arizona Subchapter S corporation shortly. Currently we are recognized by the state as a private company. The only difference between the two is how the company is organized. Merlancia is not only alive, and in a state of financial solvency, but we are working on both hardware and software products for the industrial market. As soon as an OS solution is available to us for the Amiga ® market, we will be ready to release product. Until such is available, we will continue to offer support for current Amiga and multimedia products, and continue to offer wholesale and retail products for the multimedia and industrial markets. Any questions on this matter should be directed to merlancia industries at the address above. In the meanwhile... Please note the new www.merlancia.com website. There have been many updates and changes, and the new graphic interface is almost out of beta. All portions of the old merlancia.com website are now available on the new, and the old site will be deleted shortly. Our software programmers are working on a new ordering system based on Rebol ® technology which will become available in the coming weeks, as well as other products including a new internet software suite to be given away free as part of the AmigaZone Internet Services that we offer. This software package is going to be freely distributable and offered for free on CD-ROM which will ab available for the cost of mailing or included with orders shipped from many Amiga ® dealers worldwide. If you should have any questions, please feel free to contact us at the addresses shown above, or via e-mail or telephone. Additional contact information is available on the Merlancia.com website. Thank you for your interest in Merlancia Industries. http://www.merlancia.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------- B E R N D M E Y E R O N A M I T H L O N X L Sept. 28, 2002 Regarding so-called "AmithlonXL" ================================ * I have absolutely no knowledge of this "product" beyond that which is publicly available on Amiga news sites. * I am not in any way involved with this "product". * At the current time, it is unclear (to me at least) whether this is supposed to be an add-on for existing Amithlon users (akin to the Elbox "Multimedia CD", simply offering a collection of new drivers), or whether it is meant to be something including emulator executable and ROM files. * If it is just a collection of drivers, I have no problem with it. About bloody time, I'd say. * If, however, someone is planning to distribute my IP (as contained in the emulator executable), I'd strongly advise to reconsider, as neither Harald Frank nor Haage&Partner have any license to do so. Furthermore, to the best of my knowledge, neither of those parties have a license from Amiga Inc for the distribution of kickstart images. * The announcements on www.amiga-news.de and www.ann.lu also talked about the demo machine being equipped with a Dual Head Matrox card. I sincerely hope that this is not an indication that my multi-head capable gfx driver for Amithlon is considered or presented as part of"AmithlonXL", as the license attached to that driver quite clearly prohibits it. * Let me also reiterate that of the contents of the amithlon_contrib* packages released by me, ONLY the parts under the GPL are available for inclusion with any Harald Frank or H&P product, and that inclusion of those parts would require the strict adherence to the licensing terms of the GPL. * Obviously, I won't be supporting an "AmithlonXL" which violates my intellectual property rights in any way. This would certainly include making sure that the proprietary parts of any further contrib packages I release for the users of the original Amithlon would not work with such an "AmithlonXL". Personally, I despise crap like that, but what can I do? * I would finally like to ask everyone to recognize that at the current time, to the best of my knowledge "AmithlonXL" is purely a Harald Frank idea --- I have yet to see a single word about it from Haage&Partner. So please don't abuse H&P over something they, for all I know, might not even know about. Bernd Meyer, Main Amithlon programmer ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A M I T H L O N X L P R E M I E R A T O A S E 2 Sept. 14, 2002 {While this item refers to a show now past, we thought we'd run it in light of the press release from Mr. Meyer, above. We haven't found much else "official" about AmithlonXL. Brad} AmithlonXL world premiere at O.A.S.E.2 event in Graz The O.A.S.E.2 event, which will be held this weekend in Graz, will see the first public demonstration of AmithlonXL components. Some of the parts shown would regularly be first available only with the release of the announced OS4 operating system. The new stuff demonstrated there, will include Audio drivers for SBLive, TerraTec Solo1, TerraTec 512i, CMedia and many many others. However, because of the short time we had, we were unable to get all the hardware to demonstrate all new Audio drivers. The Network connection will be established trough a RealTek 100Mbit card controlled by the brandnew TCP/IP-Stack RoadShow from well known Olaf Barthel. The features of RoadShow will include great services as PPPoE, firewall and extended routing possibilities. The system will be presented by Mr. Schober on his AthlonXP 1800. This machine will be equipped with SoundBlasterLive, RealTek 100Mbit Network Adapter and Matrox DualHead graphics card. If possible, some benchmarks with the new FFS2 file sytem will be made, but if time should prove to be short for those, we will deliver their results on our Amithlon product home page later. More information about AmithlonXL and AmigaOS XL Updates will be available shortly on the usual web sites of our distributor Haage&Partner. Naturally these will also contain information about pricing and availability. Link to O.A.S.E.2 event http://www.oase.at/cgi-bin/start.cgi Link to Amithlon/AmigaOS XL Homepage http://www.amithlon.de Best regards VMC Harald Frank, founder and developer of Amithlon ---------------------------------------------------------------------- H A N D P O N A M I T H L O N 19. September 2002: The current differences between every party involved with the Amithlon project are by way not that easy as they are described in the internet discussions - often from one perspective only. Our contract regarding the distribution rights for Amithlon is still valid. We have been reluctant with public statements, cause we try to resolve the differencs between the parties privately. We want to resolve the problem and would like to see the contract being fulfilled by all parties. The internet audience can not help with these negotiations and will often be used, to spread the own oppinions as the only ones that are true. Also the one, who cries the loudest, just expresses the own perspective. To solve the conflict round on Amithlon it is important to mediate between the different perspectives in private negotiations. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- I N F O O N E L B O X S P I D E R U S B P C I C A R D Sept. 12, 2002 Elbox Computer is proud to introduce the first USB 2.0 host controller for the Amiga computers. The Spider USB 2.0 PCI card provides a simple and affordable way to add five Hi-Speed USB ports to Mediator-equipped Amigas. The Spider USB 2.0 Hi-Speed PCI controller is backward-compatible, which means it works also with older USB 1.1 peripherals. Features: · Four external and one internal USB 2.0 Hi-Speed forts · Compatible with both USB 2.0 (480 Mbps) and USB 1.1 (12 Mbps) devices · Compliant with EHCI, OHCI and PCI 2.2 standards · All ports can handle high-speed, full-speed and low-speed transaction · Supports up to 127 downstream USB devices · Supplies 500 mA power to each USB port · Supports PCI-Bus Power Management Interface · Hot Plug Capability Requirements: · One free PCI slot · Mediator Multimedia CD The package contents: · Spider USB 2.0 High-Speed PCI card · Mediator OHCI USB drivers for the Poseidon stack · Unregistered, time-limited version of the Poseidon USB stack Mediator EHCI USB drivers for the Poseidon stack will be shipped to registered Spider Card users as a free update (when completed). Pricing and availability: The Spider USB 2.0 High-Speed PCI card will be on sale as of 16 September 2002, at the suggested retail price of EUR 39.95 (VAT excl.) To locate an authorized distributor or purchase the product visit the Elbox Computer website at http://elbox.com/buy.html Mediator users are the first, as always... Mariusz Wloczysiak ELBOX COMPUTER, Press Department contact: press@elbox.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------- E L B O X E X P L A N A T I O N O N P O S E I D O N URL : http://amiga.realdreams.cz/local/20_9elbox.html Title: Elbox explains Poseidon issue Sept. 20, 2002 This is an official statement on behalf of the Elbox Computer company aimed at explanation of the recent misunderstanding concerning support for the Spider USB cards in the Poseidon stack. Chris Hodges, author of the Poseidon stack, approached our company several weeks ago with the proposal of co-operation. He suggested that we prepared hardware drivers for Mediator for the Poseidon to enable operation of USB cards, the support to which under our own USB stack was to be released in a short time. The proposal from Mr. Hodges was analysed in detail and accepted after many additional mutual considerations. Its basic principles were presented in the mutually accepted announcement: http://www.elbox.com/news_02_09_11B.html To clarify the issues once and for good: 1. The number of models / types / of USB PCI cards supported by our drivers was never the subject matter of the mutual considerations. Elbox, the party who prepared the drivers, decides which cards to support. 2. One of our proposal: bundling by us or by our distributors the registered version of the Poseidon stack with the USB PCI cards, was rejected by the author of the Poseidon stack. And we accepted it. Two days ago, we were surprised with the message signed by Mr.Hodges, but posted by the producer of the USB card for the Zorro II slots. Mr. Hodges has not contacted us since the Sunday presentation of the Spider card in which he participated. Therefore, yesterday we asked him to provide explanations on his part. We have received his reply today. We understand from his explanations that the whole misunderstanding is due to the fact that Mr. Hodges did not know that almost all the objections in the Mediator list were posted against him by people who do not have Mediator busboards and do not want to have them. Those who shout loudest "on behalf of Mediator users" own other PCI solutions, which are not produced by Elbox, or they do not even have Amiga computers at all. There were messages in the list from just a few "loud" people. On the other hand, the messages coming in recent days to us express huge support and satisfaction from our releasing the Spider USB 2.0 card. It should be clear to everybody that the registration method chosen by Mr. Hodges for the Poseidon stack, directly with him, is the most advantageous option for Mediator users (when price is concerned). In this way they avoid all taxes and similar extra fees, which would have to be added when registration is performed by the companies selling the registered Poseidon with the USB hardware. I hope this explains everything. Let me take the opportunity to inform you that Spider USB 2.0 cards are now on their way to our distributors and will be available from them as of the coming Monday. Mariusz Wloczysiak ---------------------------------------------------------------------- M E D I A T O R U S B D R I V E R S F O R P O S E I D O N 11 September 2002 Elbox Computer is pleased to announce that its drivers to PCI USB cards in the Mediator busboard operate under the Poseidon USB stack. These drivers have been prepared by Elbox programmers as a result of co-operation started a few weeks ago by Chris Hodges, author of the Poseidon stack. As the Poseidon stack is already supported by authors of third-party commercial software, we have decided that releasing another, our own, USB stack for Amiga under such circumstances would mean doubling effort of Amiga programmers. We are sure that high-quality software included in the Poseidon stack package and our hardware-optimised drivers resulting in high performance achieved by PCI USB cards in Mediator will satisfy even the most demanding users. The unregistered, time-limited version of the Poseidon USB stack will be available in the Mediator Multimedia CD. Registration of the Poseidon stack for Mediator users will be provided by Chris Hodges. About Poseidon: The Poseidon USB Stack is a software solution that unleashes the possibilities of the Universal Serial Bus (USB) and the devices with USB interface, ranging from mice, keyboards, tablets, joysticks, printers, scanners, webcams, digicams, flash card readers, zip drives, floppy disk drives, harddisks, memory sticks, ethernet adapters, scanners and audio adapters to less common things like power supplies, GPS location devices or finger print readers. It is intended to be a solution for all systems. For more info about Poseidon stack please visit Chris Hodges' website. About Mediator: The Mediator PCI busboard line is designed so as to enable expanding the Amiga computers with a wide range of standard PCI cards like Graphic cards, Ethernet and Fast Ethernet network cards, Modem cards, ISDN cards, USB and SCSI cards, Sound cards and Multimedia cards: TV tuner and MPEG-2 hardware decoders. Expanding the Amiga with the Mediator PCI busboard opens the way to employing the power of the latest PowerPC G3/G4 processors in Amiga, around which SharkPPC and SharkPPC+ cards are based. For more info about Mediator please visit Elbox website. Mariusz Wloczysiak ELBOX COMPUTER, Press Department http://www.elbox.com/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- W I L D F L Y E R F O R V I D E O T O A S T E R F L Y E R Sept. 22, 2002 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE DiscreetFX Announces Wild Flyer For The Amiga Video Toaster Flyer® Our beta testers have reported no major problems with the latest build of Wild Flyer so we will be shipping it shortly to our Video Toaster Flyer customers. What is Wild Flyer you ask? It is a Front End application to the very powerful and often misunderstood program Wild Fire. Wildfire 7 is ADO animation sequencing, 3D effects, transitions, and animation package by Andreas Maschke. It can be compared to SGI Flint or Flame systems and it is capable of creating amazing 3D effects by mapping video sequences. The bad news about Wild Fire has always been the steep learning curve and very difficult to understand user interface. Wild Flyer changes all this. It uses all the power of Wild Fire as its background render engine. Wild Flyer gives this amazing German application an easy to use storyboard interface. All actions happen within the Video Toaster Flyer screen. Users can just drag and drop the ADO animation sequences within their Flyer and Wild Flyer takes care of the rest. Imagine the power of an SGI Flint or Flame system but on your Amiga VT Flyer! And it is very easy to use unlike these high-end SGI ADO solutions. WF attains its speed by using the power of a PowerPC processor as its rendering effects engine. The PPC processor does not have to be in your Amiga. It can be a networked Amiga One or Pegasos computer. If you already have a Phase 5 CyberstormPPC card in your Amiga this will also work but will be slower. One of our beta testers reports on the Pegasos Betatester system he is getting near real-time ADO Effects from Wild Flyer. Wild Flyer features include 1. Height-field deforms, cubes that automatically unfold and fold again. 2. Lightwave object support. 3. 3D magnet effects, 3D transitional morphing, unlimited mathematical deformations, twists, sphere mapping, twirling, water transitions, perspective transforms and more! 4. Easy to use interface that opens on the Video Toaster Flyer screen. 5. All effects are pure 24bit, no pixelizing or jaggie edges. 6. Full support for all Amiga PowerPC solutions a. Amiga One running Amiga OS 4.0 (We hope, need OS 4.0 to test this) b. Pegasos running MorphOS 1.0 (Tested and working) c. SharkPPC (We hope, we need one to test it) d. Cyberstorm PPC running PowerUP (Tested and working) Minimum system Amiga 4000 with CyberstormPPC card, Video Toaster 4000 & Flyer card, 18MB RAM, 1 GB Harddisk. Recommended system Amiga 4000 with Mediator PCI busboard and SharkPPC card, Video Toaster 4000 & Flyer card. Or Amiga 4000 with Video Toaster 4000, Flyer card and Network card that supports TCP/IP networked to Amiga One or Pegasus computer system. ***More information coming soon*** http://www.elbox.com/products/mirage_4000_pro.html http://www.eyetech.co.uk/amigaone/300502update.php http://photosamiga.free.fr/Thendic0802/album.html Get Wild Flyer and let your Video Toaster Flyer go wild. Best regards Bill Panagouleas CEO DiscreetFX ---------------------------------------------------------------------- P I X L O A D 2 . 1 I S A N N O U N C E D Sept. 19, 2002 DESCRIPTION : This loading "bar" allows you to launch any program or script by one click on icon. A bubble help tells you the name of loaded program. Three help files (GUIDE, HTML and PDF) are available. CHANGES : - Drag and drop is now available on Pixload bar and also on each icon (three first icons from left, others detect file types) - Icons are scalable - All settings of each icon are saved and can be loaded again WHAT ABOUT : It is a borderless window with buttons including IFF pictures. Each click on button, loads a command line which loads a program. Drag and drop is also available. It makes in AREXX, RXMUI and MUI for graphic part. You can modify everything (colors, aspect, etc.. from the Pixload contextual menu). CONFIGURATION : There are 3 elements to configure : - Icons (IFF Pictures in Pixload/icones folder). First color of each icon will be TRANSPARENT !!! - MUI (look at documentation). You can configure MUI from Pixload contextual menu (MUI settings) .Prefs files (Pixload.1.prefs and Pixload-prefs.1.prefs) are located at SYS:prefs/env-archive/mui and RAM:Env/mui - The Pixload from Pixload-Prefs, which loads the configuration program (look at help bubble) - click on Pixload.prefs in the Prefs folder and choose : - if you want to display Pixload horizontaly or verticaly (horizontaly by default) - if you want sound or not - numbers of enabled icons (15 by default, but if you choose 10, the five lastest icons will be saved but disabled) - size of icons (%) - name and path for each programs used by drag and drop for reading text, picture and music module - for each line, path and name of programs and bubble help content. - sounds for each programs launched (listen to it !!) MUI settings, is available from the Pixload contextual menu. N.B : If you drag and drop file on 1st, 2nd or 3rd icon, program linked to this icon will be launch and your file. A popup window will appear with the linked program bold name. By example : Drag and drop a icon of text file on 3rd icon will load EDITPAD and your file. If you drag and drop this icon anywhere else on Pixload bar, there will be a filetype auto detection and, from your settings, a text viewer will be load, otherwise it will be Multiview. A popup window will appear with the filetype name found, in bold. If you drag and drop a removable disk icon (CD Rom, Zip, etc), it will be ejected By default, Pixload analyses some file types (thanks to Filetypes file in S folder) but it only reacts for : GIF, JPEG, PNG, PSD, 8SVX, IFF, ILBM, ILBM24, Rexx, Text, Mod, Mods, Modules, MP3 You must have all datatypes for each file types listed above in Devs/datatypes and Classes. For reading MP3 files, OS 3.9 is required because Amplifier is used for this. http://perso.wanadoo.fr/pixel-art ---------------------------------------------------------------------- V H I S T U D I O 5 . 7 , D I G I C A M P A C K A G E 10 Sep 2002 We´re proud to announce you the availability of a new and expanded version of VHI Studio today. New features/improvements in VHI Studio 5.7: * USB-support (Digitalkameras, Webcams) * new, integrated FTP-client for the webcam-functionality * completly newly written .mov-animationexport * automatic framerate-recognition * an ARexx-port has been added * heavily advanced webcam- and timelapse-functionality * example-webcamfiles with elegant design in the archive * extended PPC-support (e.g. JPEG-decoding) * now uses fxWARP 9 technology * native CPU-modules for PPC (PowerUP, WarpUP, MorphOS) and x86 (Amithlon) Along with the availability of the new version we also have relaunched our VHI Studio-pages. VHI Studio is the award-winning software for videoboards, digicams, webcams and other video sources on the AMIGA with the broadest hardware-support. Functionality includes recording and cutting of videoclips, download of images from digital cameras, still-picture-grabbing and their optimization, watching TV on the Workbench, a full-blown webcam-software (besides, this feature also works with videoboards, digicams, etc!) and the easy creation of timelapse-animations. ---- IOSPIRIT Felix Schwarz Am Gründla 3 D-91074 Herzogenaurach Germany EMail: info@iospirit.de WWW: http://www.iospirit.de/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Amiga Update on the net: All back issues available at: http://www.globaldialog.com/~amigaupdate/index.html Stop by and check out our archive! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 2002 by Brad Webb. Freely distributable, if not modified. ====================================================================== _ __ _ <>_ __ _ A M I G A /\\ |\ /|| || / ` /\\ A M I G A U P D A T E /__\\ | \ / || || || ___ /__\\ U P D A T E / \\_ | \/ ||_ _||_ \__// / \\_ amigaupdate@globaldialog.com ======================================================================