• Optimierte AVI/QT-Video Decoder.
• Verbesserter Timer.
• Neues Shell-Interface, das ReadArgs() benutzt(es funktioniert, aber in kommenden Versionen wird noch viel geändert werden).
• Bugfix: QTs mit Stereo funktionierten nicht.
• Bekannte Fehler:
  • Die GUI stürzt auf manchen Systemen ohne offensichtliche Gründe ab.
  • Der QT-Parser behandelt nicht alle QTs korrekt.

• BookMagik V44.3 - Konvertiert Adressbücher zur Nutzung mit der aml.library.
• ReportGen V44.19 - Bugreport-Generator.
• IPop V44.9 - AppIcon Commodity, das die anstehenden(wartenden) Nachrichten anzeigt.
• EzSend V44.1 - Commodity zum einfachen und schnellen Verschicken von E-Mails.
• WBC V44.3 - Kontrolle für nicht dokumentierte Features der Workbench.
• FindFiles V44.7 - Dateisuche
• OpenURL V44.1 - Einstellungsprogramm mit Reaction-GUI für OpenURL.library.

======================================================================
   _    __      _     <>_   __      _    ||
  /\\    |\    /||    ||   /  `    /\\   ||  A M I G A   U P D A T E
 /__\\   | \  / ||    ||  || ___  /__\\  ||     -News and Rumors-
/    \\_ |  \/  ||_  _||_  \__// /    \\_||   (An Occasional e-mail
  I'LL BELIEVE IT WHEN I TAKE DELIVERY   ||       Newsmagazine)
======================================================================
        AMIGA and the Amiga logo are trademarks of Amiga, Inc.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
991018

                  O S   3 . 5   S H I P   D A T E

      I W I N   P R E S S   C O N F E R E N C E   R E P O R T

               I W I N   C O R P   T A K E N O V E R

              F U S I O N   P P C   S T A T E M E N T

  A M I G A C T I V E   O N   S T A N D S   ( I N   B R I T A I N )

      P E R S U A S I V E S O F T W O R X   S T A T E M E N T

     I M A G I N E   S T I L L   B E I N G   D E V E L O P E D

         C O N T A C T   M A N A G E R   A V A I L A B L E

               S T A R G A T E   2 . 2   I S   O U T

     P O W E R   P A C K   V O L   I   F R O M   E Y E L I G H T

          N E W S   F R O M   H A A G E   &   P A R T N E R

          V I R T U A L   G P   G A M E   A V A I L A B L E

               A M I R C   F R O M   V A P O R W A R E

                 S O U N D P R O B E   S A M P L E R

   M F T P - I I   A V A I L A B L E   F R O M   V A P O R W A R E

            V E R S I O N   1 . 8 B   O F   N E W S R O G

Editor's Thoughts and Introduction:

 We live in anomalous times. There's so much to think and talk about
within the Amiga community, and yet there's not that much real news.
It's possible we'll have to scale back our target of two AUs a month
for a while. Regardless, we'll bring you the news when it happens.
 Our other role is to provide entertaining rumors. We don't know how
entertaining the current rumors are, but here's what we've picked up
lately. Remember, these are all just rumors. First, Amiga the company
is all but gone. The AmigaObjects project is cancelled. Rick LeFaivre
has gone on to other Gateway work. The new employees brought in by Jim
Collas during his days at the helm of Amiga are all laid off. Dr.
Havemose is gone also. Second, Amiga International in Germany will be
disbanded at the end of this month. They're only being kept around to
sell the remaining stock of Amiga items.
 Is there any truth to either of those rumors? We don't know, but
they've been getting enough circulation on line that we thought we'd
include them here. Remember, just rumors ...
 On a much more positive note, we've communicated with Fleecy Moss
about Amino, Aqua and the Phoenix Consortium. Here's some of what he
had to say to us:

 "Bill [McEwen] and I have formed a company called Amino Development,
LLC, which we intend to use to provide THE total digital convergence
solution that the world will use. To do this, we intend to partner
with various outstanding companies which, we feel, develop products in
a manner that is in harmony with the Amiga philosophy. However, we are
not going to target talking ovens and flashing watches, and tell the
Amiga community that this is their future, we are going to apply a
dual market approach, one that speaks to both the global digital
convergence market, and one that speaks exclusively to the anti
wintel, something different, power user, philosophy before profit
market that found a natural home with the classic Amiga.

 "Phoenix is a group of developers that want to create an environment
and organisation in which they can work together for common standards,
mutual benefit etc. We are a member, but we are not the driving force
behind it. We are as equal as every other developer in the
organisation.

 "AQUA is the name of the architecture that we intend to develop.

 "We don't want to say too much, and in fact didn't want to say
anything until we had partners, money and staff. The Amiga community
has had too many dreams turn into dust and we don't want to be another
one, but the depression after the Collas and Schmidt announcements was
so deep that we felt just a small announcement was warranted.

 "Over the next few weeks, we hope to complete the creation of our
company and will release more then. If it all falls apart, then it all
falls apart, and we apologise in advance...we are trying though..."

 Something tells me no apologies will be required even if it falls
apart. I think most Amigans are just pleased that someone is trying to
build a future we can participate in. It's going to be a tough fight,
but there are a lot of us on your side. We'd like to point out to the
readers that it's very early days yet for all of these items, so be
patient. We'll keep you apprised of progress, and we'll include a few
juicy rumors, clearly labeled, as they come along also.

 Below we have a mixed bag of news this time around - some good, some
not so good. That's the way it is right now, and probably will be for
a while. One thing to keep in mind though - while there's news, we're
not dead yet, and the future can still be shaped.
 One quick word about letters. We've been receiving a great number of
letters from readers lately - no surprise there! We regret that we
can't answer them all and aplogize to the writers of those we've had
to leave out. Please don't stop writing - it's important to us to know
what our readers our thinking.
 Brad Webb,
 Editor
----------------------------------------------------------------------
E-mail to the E-ditor:

11 Oct 1999

We are running four Amiga 2000 computers with Video Toasters.  I am
concerned about Y2K problems with the Amigas.  Should I be?

Larry

Thanks.
~~~~~~
Larry,
 As far as I know, there's nothing to be worried about. Can the
readers enlighten us about Y2K problems with Amigas running Toasters?
Anything there to be concerned about, including perhaps with utilities
often used with Toasters?
 Thanks,
 Brad
======

17 Sep 1999

Brad -

 After reading Mr. Schmidt's 14 Sep 99 letter, I was very disappointed
with AI's new plans. I remind Mr. Schmidt we could have had an
Amiga-based set-top-box two years ago from Viscorp! I only hope AI
will have a liberal enough licensing program to allow current Amiga
developers (and the Phoenix Platform Consortium) to continue with
their ideas of what a new Amiga should be.

 Since we likely won't be seeing new generation Amigas soon, is anyone
making the A4000T? Quikpak supposedly reached an agreement with the
German attorney (regarding their inventory of A4000 parts) quite some
time ago. Is the company that ended up with those parts now producing
A4000Ts? I haven't heard any followup on this subject from any Amiga
news source.

Thanks for Amiga Update.

Mike
~~~~~~
Mike,
 My understanding was the A4000 parts once owned by QuikPak were sent
to Amiga Int. in Germany. I have no idea what has happened to them
since; whether actual units have been made from them or not. If anyone
knows, please tell us and we'll pass the information along.
 Thanks,
 Brad
======

26 Sep 1999

Dear Brad

 It is a sad time but not unusual for those of us devoted to the Amiga
concept. I still look forward to this letter in my mailbox and thanks
for at least trying to disseminate some information. I hope the
Phoenix lives up to its name.

 I am still here as are thousands of others. I am upgrading my 2000
big box because the damn thing at 10 years old is STILL MORE STABLE
than windows 95 and 98!! and I still like voyager aweb and ibrowse
better than ie5 and netscape ( though Netscape has potential)

 the 060 and egs board are on order

 Now if I can get the hang of Linux...

Dan
~~~~~~
Dan,
 Like you, I have great hopes for the Phoenix Consortium, the Amino
company and the Amiga community working together. Some of the best
Amiga minds from throughout our history are involved in the various
facets of this potential rebirth.If anyone can launch a computer's
rebirth , Amigans can. We'll keep you posted.
 Brad
======

26 Sep 1999

 MY barely computer-literate daughter told me today about some great
device that looks like a turtle (LOGO??) that you plug into your
computer and then you draw lines on the screen and the device vaccuums
the floor in the pattern you have drawn.

Is THIS what Gateway is going to do with the Amiga?????

It makes me sick at my stomach!

Macey
~~~~~~
Macey,
 Yours is one of the scariest letters is seen in a while! It would be
bitter irony indeed if Gateway could go so far as to make us hate the
name Amiga because of what they put it on. Better to drop the name
entirely.
 Brad
----------------------------------------------------------------------

                   O S   3 . 5   S H I P   D A T E

October 14, 1999

                     OS3.5 to be shipped soon!


 The long awaited AMIGA OS3.5 will be shipped to the dealers and
distributors worldwide, starting October 18. To order, please contact
your local dealer.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

    I W I N   P R E S S   C O N F E R E N C E   R E P O R T

By Mathias Ortmann (Author of UAE)

{Note: this item was posted to the Net by Mr. Ortmann. Brad}

2 Oct 1999

 This morning, I attended the Iwin press conference in Unterhaching.

 Although in theory, 23 people should have come (there was room for
30, and according to [1], "7 places are still available"), there were
only *three* guests (and I hadn't even bothered to apply for an
invitation), the other two being from http://www.amiga-news.de/ (a
more detailed report should appear there tonight).

 Martin Steinbach arrived with nothing but ten copies of the Iwin
"press kit", consisting of printouts of the PDF files we already know
(product specs and the five-year roadmap), plus two sample ads ("Would
you like this to be your new girlfriend? - Everything you were
dreaming fo for such a long time" and "High end computing for
game-console prices! Las amigas vuelven en casa..."). There was no
video (as promised on [1]: "Iwin - an introduction") and no "Iwin
Insurance 1.0" or "Iwin VideoStore" presentations.

 We had a three-hour talk with Martin. Unfortunately, he failed to
give a single convincing answer during that time. He claimed that the
Iwin custom chips were basically UAE source code cast in silicon and
that the sample chip design and production was done mostly for free by
their hardware partners. He tried to explain the fact that he is a
Merant employee with tax reasons (about the photos posted at
compcity.nl, he claimed that some of them showed the Merant office,
while the others showed the actual Iwin office, and the Merant
pictures "should not have been published"). Regarding Tulip and the
"Commodore" name, he stated that the price doubled from 18 to 36
million (he didn't specify a currency - I believe he meant Austrian
Schillings, as he is from Austria) after an interview was published
early. He said that "black boxes" will be shown during the
Indianapolis show on the upcoming weekend, but made conflicting
statements about the meaning of "black box" (just empty boxes vs.
working beta hardware) and that they would not attend HEW due to
problems with AInc. Germany. Regarding the fake files in the download
section, he refused to give an answer and told me to ask Rue Ann
instead.

 The Holiday Inn lunch buffet was okay. Of course, most of the seats
remained unused. :-)

 I left with lots of promises (he wants to send me the missing video,
a *working* PowerSE demo CD and tons of info material) and the uneasy
feeling of having been lied to for three hours in a row.

[1] /News/Press/Press_relations/October_Conference/
body_october_conference.htm
----------------------------------------------------------------------

                I W I N   C O R P  T A K E N O V E R


 On Monday, the 4th of October negotiations with "FOCKE SYSTEMS
Ges.m.b.H" in Austria were finished resulting in a takeover of Iwin
Corporation. Negotiations already started a month ago, but both
parties were forced to keep silent during the negotiations.

 Focke Systems Ges.m.b.H first announced that the management will
stay, but in a rushly called in meeting last night, the President of
Focke Systems Ges.m.b.H - Mr. Gerhard Frank - announced that the
management of Iwin Corporation will be replaced. Only Rue Ann Mark
will stay as CEO and Chairman of the new firm "Iwin Hardware
Products". Iwin Corporation will be split into three new independent
firms. "Iwin Software Products" which will continue the development of
Server and workstation computers and the C-Series. "Iwin Consulting"
which will be responsible for installations, support and training. New
CEO's, presidents and chairmans have to be found for "Iwin Consulting"
and "Iwin Software Products". A seperate press-release will be sent
out as soon as they have been found and elected.

 The current management has resigned from their positions. Martin
Steinbach and Peter Steck will continue to be available for "Iwin
Hardware Products" and "Iwin Software Products" for general questions.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

               F U S I O N   P P C   S T A T E M E N T

14 Oct 1999

To all Amiga emulation users,


 Blittersoft would like to make a statement regarding the response to
the Fusion PPC Amiga situation.

 Whilst Microcode Solutions announced the 60 day countdown on
September 20th, there was not the required 500 prepayments that were
supposed to trigger this.

 As announced by Microcode Solutions, Blittersoft made the commitment
for 500 orders to enable this product to actually see the light of
day. This was made with some confidence given the many users who
stated they would pay after the countdown began.

 Unfortunately, despite over 600 pledges, we have seen about a third
actually prepay. Many have declined to authorise and the situation is
that we have backed this process believing the Amiga community who
made a commitment would actually follow through and keep their word.
This is despite the countdown being close to half way.

 Whilst I accept that there will be those who circumstances may effect
the ability to complete their pledge, I think it is fair to say that
this would cater for a handful. It is sad to report that many people
who pledged must have done so without ever considering the
consequences of failing to meet this pledge.

 Well, the consequences are that Blittersoft will not make this type
of gesture again. The same situation could well happen with the PCx PC
software. Again, there have been many requests (about 350) and it is
Microcode's intention is to begin the countdown for this after the
Fusion PPC is released and 500 pledges become 500 payments.

 Blittersoft will be prepared to make the same gesture and back the
product to the tune of 500 orders if we receive the level of support
promised by the Amiga emulation community.

 Everyone knows the situation with Amiga development. Piracy is still
a big problem and now it seems that even planned schemes to secure
development can also not be trusted.

 The bottom line is that the Amiga needs quality support by it's users
if there is still to be quality development.

 I will end with a simple request:

 If you did pledge your suppport to pre-pay Fusion PPC and have not
done so, please reconsider and do so now.

Best wishes,


Paul Lesurf
Blittersoft
----------------------------------------------------------------------

  A M I G A C T I V E   O N   S T A N D S   ( I N   B R I T A I N )

2 Oct 99

{Posted to the neb ty Angus Manwaring. Brad}

 Just in case you've not heard, the new Amiga magazine AmigActive is
on sale in newsagents now. It looks pretty good to me, nice and
glossy, it's not as thick as we'd like, but the content appears to be
high. There's also a 35 meg (I think) demo of T-Zero on the cover
disk. From what I've seen the magazine looks like a fine effort, well
worth checking out.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

       P E R S U A S I V E S O F T W O R X   S T A T E M E N T

26 Sep 1999

Future of Amiga Statement

 In our opinion, the Amiga - as we know it - simply is dead.

 And this since years.

 There's still a number of software delivered, that at least somehow
 has kept the so-called Amiga community alive so far, but in our
 opinion it's more than unlikely that we ever will face
 a real Amiga successor, that does provide a sufficient
 level of backward compatibility, thus being able to build
 a working and persuading way of smooth migration.

 Maybe once AROS will allow to at least port a few applications
 to other platforms, but this solely won't make an Amiga successor.
 As neither would make the sole capability to run UAE, since this
 already is possible on EVERY major platform.

 Development of a real new platform, consisting of a real new
 OS and real new hardware INCLUDING a decent software-emulation
 for 68k/PPC backward compatibility in our opinion will fail
 because of either one or all of the following reasons:

 - no one to take the riscs
 - no financial backing
 - no full-time efforts
 - not enough people willing or able to actively contribute
 - not really enough people exactly sharing a common goal
 - nearly everyone has a different opinion, thus: different goals
 - a number of people only are interested in their OWN views (and
EGOs),
 i.e. trying to prove themselves
 - own business is seen more important than a common goal
 or vision (naturally)
 - at the beginning, it takes small teams to follow visions,
 not large groups
 - too expensive (in production and end-user pricing)
 - etc.

 This all could be watched in newsgroups and other public places
recently.

 We nevertheless will support the Amiga rest-market (68k/PPC) as long
 as possible. However, for the future, we do recommend to take a look
 at other systems, like BeOS, Linux, Mac or Windows (not necessarily
 in this order). It may be the better choice, than waiting for any
 kind of "Amiga sucessor", that maybe actually won't be one.

 Hello, wake up! The dream is over!

 P.S.:  ...or at least buy a G4 board and register your software.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

    I M A G I N E   S T I L L   B E I N G   D E V E L O P E D

Imagine for Amiga

 2nd October 1999 - We would like to assure everyone that Imagine for
the Amiga is still in active development, and will continue to be
developed in light of the future Amiga development plan details
released from the Amiga parent company/Gateway.

 Imagine is currently in the Constant Upgrade Program phase, where the
current release is version V5.16. Further PowerPC support, and many
enhancements, will be added in future ACUP releases.

 A brief list of additions and changes for the V5.16 release are
detailed below:

 - Reworked Detail and Stage editor menus to bring them into line with
Imagine For Windows.

 - Detail editor: Save object "overwrite requester" improved.

 - Added Lightwave and 3DStudio object export functions.

 - Added three new primitive object types - Hemisphere, Rod and Box.

 - Added new "sharp edges" option to the relevant primitive objects.

 - Added new right mouse button "popup menu" functionality.

 - Added support for double-clicking an object type within the
primitive object window.

 - Added support for double-clicking a render size type within the
sub-project/render resolution window.

 - Added "path length" option to Detail editor.

 - Added two new "lite" procedural textures - Purplehaze and Caustics.

 - Added three new procedural textures (in 040 and 060 CPU versions) -
SSFBumps, SSPBumps and SSRBumps.

 - Optimized PPC version of the MPEG video creator; Now utilises the
custom PPC maths routines.

 - Improved GUI; This includes the main editors, and the requesters.

 - Added default X & Y aspect ratios to rendering resolution types.

 - Added an Imagine Splash screen. This uses the OS3.x Datatypes, and
also supports the 24Bit datatype system if available.

 - ...and Miscellaneous other changes/enhancements which are detailed
in the included AmigaGuide documentation.


 Further information and screenshots can be obtained from the main
Imagine for Amiga webpage at: http://www.cadtech.demon.co.uk/
----------------------------------------------------------------------

      C O N T A C T   M A N A G E R   A V A I L A B L E

26 Sep 1999

 The Contact Manager from VaporWare is a unique product for the Amiga.
It's best described as a diary / address book which allows you to
store all your contacts' user information, favourite web & ftp sites
and IRC server/channels. It has been designed as a replacement to all
the different bookmarks, addressbooks and similar GUI's that are built
into the many different Amiga Internet and comms programs.

 Contact Manager is versitile enough to work as an API between other,
non net related programs. For instance setup an arexx script in
Wordworth to pool information to mail merge into documents. ie. say
you want to send a standard document to a number of friends, simply
create a script that grabs names and addresses from the 'users'
section within Contact Manager, then merge and print them to your
document.

 Contact Manager offers a number of features not found in many of the
internal bookmark/addressbooks, as seen below.

 Information Storage & Interaction

 One user can have different types of information. Include their
address, email address, phone number, fax number, web site, ftp site,
ICQ number, etc. All these options can be utilised by other software.
Voyager can use the web information, Microdot-II can use the email
address, STFax Pro can use the fax number, STRicq can utilise the ICQ
number and so on. Some programs may use Contact Manager in other ways
too, such as pressing To: in Microdot-II.

 One GUI, many programs

 You can store all the information you require within one simple
interface. No need to worry about Microdot-II's addressbook, Voyager's
bookmarks, STFax Pro's phonebook, AmFTP's server list etc.

 Retrieve Information From Anywhere!

 Textinput (the built in Vapor text editor that ships with
Microdot-II, Voyager, AmIRC, STFax Pro amongst others) now supports
the ability to insert Contact Manager information into any document.
While writing a message with Microdot-II, you could insert a name,
email address, phone number or any other Contact Manager field,
directly into that document. You will never have to remember a friends
email address ever again!

 Groups & Subgroups

 Contact Manager allows you to create groups for different kinds of
users/addresses. AmFTP, for instance, does not allow you to create
groups or sub-groups within its server list, however this can be
achieved via Contact Manager.

 Multi-user support

 If you are using Genesis as your TCP/IP stack, then Contact Manager
will support and allow multiple users within one interface. If there's
more than one user in your house (other family members, perhaps), each
user can have their own configurations, password protected, so that
their information remains private.

 Plugin links

 AmIRC (from v2.1) now ships with an internal Contact Manager plugin,
allowing you to add users to the Contact Manager from within AmIRC
(based on the current userlist), and also to add your favourite
channels to Contact Manager's channel list. You can even search for
entries within Contact Manager from within AmIRC.

 Please remember, Contact Manager is shareware. If you use it, please
register the software and help support Amiga software development.

 Download Contact Manager today from the VaporWare web site and see
how much easier it'll be to manage your sites and friends.

 There is a Contact Manager Mailing List run by VaporWare for users to
discuss the software. Please feel free to sign up for it, your
question may be answered there.

http://www.vapor.com/
----------------------------------------------------------------------

                S T A R G A T E   2 . 2   I S   O U T

Toysoft Development Announces StarGate 2.2

October 4, 1999

 Toysoft Development Inc. is pleased to announce the release of
StarGate v2.2. StarGate is an email and news client for Workbench 3.x.

 Features in v2.2 are:

 o Random forms when composing a new message
 o Deleting a message will open the next unread message
 o Support for Virtual Card file. You can now send and receive
business cards. This includes users from Windows platforms
 o Added support for External editor
 o Supports Followup when reading news articles
 o Batch picture download. Select news groups and StarGate will scan
for any binary files. StarGat can also display the picture as it
downloads or save them for later viewing

Additional features:

Mail
----

 o Supports multiple E-mail accounts. Accounts can be turned off at
 anytime.
 o Detailed address book with multiple email acccount support.
 o When sending email you can address users by their first or last
name.
 o Auto preview of messages.
 o Peek mail. Preview your mail on the mail server before downloading.
 o Support PowerPC for MIME decoding and encoding of files.
 o Direct http links to your web browser.
 o Easy file attachments using UU or MIME methods.
 o Button, Large or Small 256 color icon interface.
 o Toolbar support for text formating. eg: Bold, Underline, Italic and
 Colors
 o Optionally send mail as embeded HTML

News
----

 o Integrated with StarGate Mail. eg: AddressBook, Folders, Filters,
etc..
 o Post articles include files in UU or MIME format.
 o Decode files in UU and MIME format.
 o Batch article download.
 o Article filing to custom folders.
 o Retrieve article at a specific position eg: skip the first 50
article.s
 o Supports embeded HTML. Use your web browser to view HTML articles.
 o Double click on URL hot links or email address to send an email.

 For more information please visit http://www.toysoft-dev.com To
download the demo version double click
http://www.toysoft-dev.com/stargate.html
----------------------------------------------------------------------

   P O W E R   P A C K   V O L   I   F R O M   E Y E L I G H T

October 7th, 1999

 ROME, ITALY (October 7th, 1999) Eyelight is proud to announce that
the first volume of the PowerPack series is ready and shipping.
PowerPack Volume I: Image Maps, is a collection of professionally
painted and acquired image maps suitable for any rendering package.

 PowerPack Volume I: Image Maps, is shipped on CD-Rom and contains
over four hundreds high-resolution, high-quality, image maps in
seamless TARGA format. In addition to normal maps, there is also a
large selection of seamlessly tileable images and predistorted
spherical images for pixel perfect reflection mapping.

 "Every Computer Graphics textbook I have read says complex texturing
is the most important thing when rendering realism is expected"
comments Massimiliano Marras, Eyelight founder and CEO "I'm pretty
sure the PowerPack's many images can cope even with the most demanding
creations."

 Enhanced by an easy to use index system that can be read by any
modern Web Browser, the PowerPack is compatible with virtually any
rendering package and any operating system. It also features
appetizers from further volumes of the PowerPack series: Organic 3D
models and Animated Maps.

 Eyelight is a 3D Graphics and animation firm located in Rome, Italy,
whose flagship software product is Tornado3D, a modeling animation and
rendering package for Amiga and DraCo computers. PowerPack Volume I is
priced at 29.95 EURO (approx 30.00 USD) and is available direct from
Eyelight's web site as well as from the many Eyelight-approved dealers
worldwide. Both an online viewable table of contents, and a free
Appetizer demo are available on http://www.eyelight-it.com/ppack.html

Eyelight
Via del Serafico, 64
00142 Rome
Italy
voice: +39-06-51965486/7
fax: +39-06-51965488
e-mail: sales@eyelight-it.com
www: http://www.eyelight-it.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------

         N E W S   F R O M   H A A G E   &   P A R T N E R

28 Sept 99: STFax 4.0 available

 STFax 4 was written with the intention of creating a centralised
communications tool for the consumer and SOHO market. The main
intention of STFax 4 is to offer advanced features, yet retain ease of
use, supporting a number of different communication mediums, such as
fax, voice, data, and, later, email and GSM/SMS.

 STFax 4 offers scalability, adapting to the home user needing a
simple answer/fax machine replacement, through to a company requiring
automated fax and voice message distribution across small network of
computers.

 Enhanced flexibility also enables a travelling businessman to install
onto his notebook, running under UAE, connect his GSM phone and
send/receive a fax, receive/reply/send an SMS message,
write/send/receive email or even remotely access the local STFax 4,
situated within the office.


The new features

   o 120 professional recorded messages (English and German)
   o improved usability
   o many extended features
   o much improved Remote Access system
   o much improved Fax on demand system
   o auto-forward of incoming faxes
   o background printing
   o plays a sample when a new fax/file/message arrives
   o improved USRobotics support (quality improvement)

 System Requirements

Processor / CPU: 68020

Operating System: AmigaOS 3 or better

RAM: 2 MB Fast, 1 MB Chip

Graphics System: any

Storage: Hard Disk, CD-ROM

Others: 14.4k Modem
(US Robotics, ZyXEL, Dynalink, all Rockwell based modems)

STFax does *not* support ISDN modems and cards yet.

graphics board or 2Mb of chip to display big faxes

 68030/50 is the minimum needed to playback voice messages to Amiga
audio

 Prices and Availability

Availability: beginning of October

Version: 4.0

Format: CD-ROM

Price Full Version: 98 DM

Price Update: 59 DM

Price Sidegrade: 79 DM

 (of GPFax, TrapFax, MultiFax, FaxQuix; please tell us your
registration number!)


 A demo of version 3.7 is available on our FTP server. STFax is a
product of Active Technologies and Simone Tellini. It is distributed
by Active Technologies and Haage & Partner (world-wide except for UK).



28 Sept 99: NetConnect 3 available soon

 NetConnect 3 is the latest version of the award-winning NetConnect
package from Active Technologies. NetConnect 3 is the easiest and most
comprehensive Internet compilation for the Amiga to date, and is
designed to enable any Amiga user from novice to expert to get onto
and use the Internet. More Details

Please visit our homepage for more news and information:
http://www.haage-partner.com/e.htm
----------------------------------------------------------------------

         V I R T U A L   G P   G A M E   A V A I L A B L E

                      Paolo Cattanis Virtual GP

 Released: August 1999

 Versions available: CD Rom

 Game Genre: Racing Simulation

 System requirements: AGA or GFX card Amiga, 6 MByte Ram, Harddrive

 Price: DM 89.- / 45,40 EURO

 Introduction: Paolo Cattanis Virtual GP is the best fomular one car
racing simulation since the classic Microprose game Formula One Grand
Prix. It includes all 16 1999 tracks, all teams and drivers with their
abilities. The game features the best 3D engine of any Amiga racing
game so far. But more important, Virtual GP is probably the most
acurate simulation of formula one racing ever, on any platform!

Features:

           All 16 championship tracks
           All teams of the 1999 season
           Race complete championship season or just single races
           Qualifying, Warm Up and Race
           3D texture mapped graphics
           In game speech
           Choose from 6 different camera angles
           Spectacular crashes
           Opponenets that will learn your tricks

Download Demo

http://www.epic-marketing.de/VGP_UK.html
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

              A M I R C   F R O M   V A P O R W A R E

26 Sep 1999

 AmIRC was the first VaporWare application to be shown to the Amiga
world. Its author, Oliver Wagner, has worked too many late nights on
the program to count, and continues to update it to this day.

 AmIRC's main strengths lie in its interface - it's one of the easiest
IRC clients to use on any platform, yet it also keeps the power users
happy with advanced ARexx scripting and its plugin API, allowing
unique new features to be added. It also features a URL grabber to
capture any URLs mentioned in any channels or query windows, a
lag-o-meter to measure your system's lag from the server, and strong
builtin flood protection including a staggered output queue to stop
you flooding yourself off the server.

 For IRCing on the Amiga, AmIRC should be your number one choice.

 Please remember, AmIRC is shareware. If you use it, please register
the software and help support Amiga software development.

 Download AmIRC 3.2 and see why it's the best IRC client for the
Amiga. If you registered AmIRC 1.x or AmIRC 2.x, you can update to
version 3.2.

 There is an AmIRC Mailing List run by VaporWare for users to discuss
the software. Please feel free to sign up for it, your question may be
answered there.

Features

   o Advanced Low Level Plugin API.
   o Single Window Iconification.
   o Lag-o-meter shows lag from the server
   o Individual window logging.
   o Intuitive channel window with userlist and mode display.
   o Builtin high speed DCC drivers, incl. Secure Chat.
   o ARexx port includes event trapping.
   o IRCNet and UnderNet extensions.
   o Oper and clone announcement.

   o Builtin IdentD, disables itself if needed.
   o Bind sound effects, auto deiconify or ARexx to events.
   o Last nick history, TAB key cycles through.
   o URL grabber saves any URLs to send to your web browser.
   o Supports colored text for both input (WYSIWIG) and output.
   o CTCP/DCC flood protection.
   o Timestamping of lines and inline clickable URLs.

http://www.vapor.com/
----------------------------------------------------------------------

             S O U N D P R O B E   S A M P L E R

Amiga Version News

 02/10/99 - The final curtain looks set to fall on the Amiga
Soundprobe. Further work on the Amiga version seems more and more
unlikely as time passes. Whilst Soundprobe has become a popular
editor, the Amiga user base just isn't capable of supporting future
developments. The only hope now is that the PC version can be ported
back to the Amiga, but by the time this happens (year or so), the
Amiga will be even further behind, possibly making it impossible to
port.

 We'll still try and support the Amiga version, if you have any real
problems (bugs), please do let us know, but you may need to be patient
as we're both final year students (i.e. very busy!), you may need to
keep reminding us.

http://www.soundprobe.freeserve.co.uk/news.html
----------------------------------------------------------------------

      M F T P - I I   A V A I L A B L E   F R O M   V A P O R W A R E

26 Sep 1999

 mFTP-II is a File Transfer Protocol client that allows the
transferring of files from one computer to another. Some sites may be
restricted, requiring the use of an assigned user name and password,
while most sites (such as business and corporations) allow anonymous
FTP, in which you will usually give your email address as the
password.

 mFTP-II also allows you to upload files to any remote computer. This
is an ideal way to maintain your web page, uploading files and pages.
You can even open two FTP connections and then transfer files between
those sites!

 Please remember, mFTP-II is shareware. If you use it, please register
the software and help support Amiga software development.

 Registered users of AmFTP can cross-upgrade to mFTP-II at a discount
(Online only)

There is an mFTP Mailing List run by VaporWare for users to discuss the
software. Please feel free to sign up for it, your question may be answered
there.

Requirements

   o Workbench 2.x
   o MUI 3.x
   o TCP/IP compatible stack
     Genesis, Miami, AmiTCP, ..

Features

   o Multithreaded and object oriented design
   o Connect to multiple FTP sites at once
   o Site-to-Site transfer (via you)
   o High speed async. transfers
   o Batch download facility
   o Resume partially received files
   o Optional Contact Manager 'Phonebook' as GUI
   o Download, DirTool and ADT GUI Layouts, per host
   o ADT Support and filter feature
   o Drag & drop GUI functionality
   o ADT-Find search for Aminet servers

http://www.vapor.com/
----------------------------------------------------------------------

          V E R S I O N   1 . 8 B   O F   N E W S R O G

16 Oct 1999

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 ShadowWorks Software announces the Version 1.8b update to NewsRog,
the most advanced newsreader available for the Amiga platform. NewsRog
has a wealth of features for the power user, many of them unavailable
in any other newsreader on any platform.

 Version 1.8b includes 15 changes and improvements to version 1.8.

 For a full list of major changes in this version, as well as
descriptions of major NewsRog features and example screenshots, see
the NewsRog preview page at:

   http://www.frii.com/~srk/ShadowWorks/Preview/NR.html

 The version 1.8b update is free to registered users and may be
downloaded from the "Updates" section of the above web page.


 PRICING AND AVAILABILITY

 NewsRog is priced at (US) $35 plus shipping and handling. Orders may
be placed by telephone by calling:

   (US) 1-303-659-4028

Or online via major credit cards from either of the following pages:

   http://www.questarproductions.com/NRorder.html    (unsecure)

   https://www.dimensional.com/questar/NRorder.html  (secure)

Free NewsRog updates may be downloaded from the Support web page.


REQUIREMENTS

NewsRog requires:

   o  MUI 3.8 or later
   o  8 Mb RAM & 8 Mb HD (more recommended)
   o  AmiTCP, Miami, or other compatible networking software
   o  A 68020 or faster CPU (68040+ recommended)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
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 1999 by Brad Webb.    Freely distributable, if not modified.
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  U P D A T E  /__\\   | \  / ||    ||  || ___  /__\\    U P D A T E
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