====================================================================== _ __ _ <>_ __ _ || /\\ |\ /|| || / ` /\\ || A M I G A U P D A T E /__\\ | \ / || || || ___ /__\\ || -News and Rumors- / \\_ | \/ ||_ _||_ \__// / \\_|| (An Occasional Newsletter) BACK FOR THE FUTURE || ====================================================================== AMIGA and the Amiga logo are trademarks of Amiga International, GmbH ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 970420 G A T E W A Y N O T E T O A M I G A C O M M U N I T Y O N L I N E I N T E R V I E W - P E T R O T . T H E A A A A W A R D S P O W E R C O N ' 9 7 U P D A T E F I N N I S H W E B S I T E L A U N C H E D A M I T E C H ' 9 7 I N S W E D E N G H O S T S C R I P T F I X S O U N D S T A G E P R O M I D I T R A C K E R V 1 . 1 A V A I L A B L E Editor's Thoughts and Introduction: It seems we just sent you an issue, and here comes another. There's been a lot of activity in the Amiga community lately, and "Amiga Update" is doing its best to keep you informed. First is a short message from Gateway posted a few days ago. It confirms our suspicion that those people announcing the final approval of the sale earlier were jumping the gun. These things just don't happen that fast. However, all seems to be on track. In fact, eagle eyed readers may have spotted a subtle change in the "Amiga Update" masthead this issue. (I hear the sounds of many eyeballs snapping up to look at the top of the page.) Yes, Amiga Technogies is gone - in its place is Amiga International. We made the change as the Amiga homepage in Germany has already done so. This could cause us a minor problem. In the past we've used the AI abreviation for "The Amiga Informer" magazine. We'll have to watch ourselves. Speaking of AI - that is, "The Amiga Informer", our second story is lifted from the "Amiga Alley" web page and discusses an online interview to be conducted at World of Amiga in London with Amiga International President Petro Tyschtschentko. Plans include an opportunity for you to post questions through a web page. It seems the plans are still being firmed up, so stand by. We'll keep you informed. Sweden, home of the Nobel Peace Prize, is now the home of another valued award. While not so prestigious as the Nobel, we bet many Amigans will take a strong interest in the AAA awards. Details below. From the same corner of the world, an announcement of a new Amiga web site. This on is for Finnish Amiga users. If you can speak the language, you will probably enjoy checking it out. We have information for you this time on two upcoming Amiga shows (we've run stories on World of Amiga" in past issues.) One story is an update from the Powercon '97 organizers in Canada; the other provides facts about Amitech '97 in Sweden. The first AAA awards will be presented at this show. There's software in the news too. We have a short item about a fix to the recently distributed version of Ghostscript for the Amiga. A port from the Unix world, Ghostscript is a complex but very capable PostScript interpreter. You should be able to find a copy at most AmiNet sites. Soundstage Pro and Miditracker are two different items for working with sound on your Amiga. The first is a professional sound board for your computer; Miditracker is a shareware sequencer for composing MIDI tunes. Many interesting things to read about this time. Brad Webb, Editor ---------------------------------------------------------------------- G A T E W A Y N O T E T O A M I G A C O M M U N I T Y Gateway 2000 is still waiting for the final approval from the German bankruptcy court to complete the aquisition of the assets of AMIGA Technologies. Gateway 2000 is working hard to explore how to expand the world of AMIGA. AMIGA International and Gateway 2000 have received many positive responses from the AMIGA community and wanted to keep the community informed of the progress of the aquisition. AMIGA International plans on further communications regarding our strategy (pending final approval) during a press conference at the "World of AMIGA" on May 17th and May 18th in London. April 17, 1997 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- O N L I N E I N T E R V I E W - P E T R O T . Online interview with Petro Tyschtschenko {The following are two postings announcing an upcoming online interview with Petro Tyschtshenko to be held at World of Amiga in London in May. The original posting is followed by one describing some fine tuning of the plans. As the plans are finalized, we'll let you know about it. We think this is a very worthwhile effort on the part of the Amiga Web Directory and "The Amiga Informer". Brad} 13 April The President of Amiga Technologies, Petro Tyschtschenko, has agreed to a unique, interactive question and answer forum, to be held on line.The Amiga Web Directory and The Amiga Informer are sponsoring the forum. Mr. Tyschtschenko will answer five questions. The questions will be asked by the Amiga community at large, by way of a form on a web page. Everyone will be allowed to pose five questions. All of the questions recieved will be tallied and sorted by catagory. The ten most asked questions will be submitted to Mr. Tyschtschenko. He has agreed to answer any five of these questions, at his discretion. The questionaire form will be posted following the AmigaTechnologies press release at the WOA. It is expected that this press release will answer several questions about the future of the Amiga. The form will posted from June first until the middle of the month. This will give you about two weeks to think up and submit your questions. Mr. Tyschtschenko's replies will first appear on AWD. In replying to [the] request to be interviewed, Mr. Tyschtschenko said, "I think that is a great idea and I would support you and the [Amiga] community of course." He went on to say that he was very busy now trying to "lead AMIGA in the successful and right direction". Any news of Gateway's intentions, or of Amiga Technologies' plans will be gladly received by the Amiga Community. This is your chance to actually pose the questions you would like answered. 16 April The "Amiga Alley" web site received this from Mr. Tyschtschenko on the 16th of April: Relax.......We will make our official statement on the WORLD of AMIGA in London 17/18 May 1997..... Press conference is planned 16 May 1997 So, this means that instead of answering only five questions, he will field questions from the press on May 16th. --------------------------------------------------------------------- T H E A A A A W A R D S Date: 19 Apr 1997 11:48:20 GMT The AAA Awards - You're in the Jury! Umee, Sweden - Friday, April 18, 1997. Amiga Computer Group (ACG), an amiga user association based in Umee, Sweden, hereby announce the introduction of the annual ACG Amiga Achievement Awards (the AAA Awards) - an award program aimed at strengthening the Amiga Community. Background The Amiga computer has always been recognized for its devoted users and developers. Even after the Commodore bankruptcy in 1994, and also the ESCOM bankruptcy in 1996, Amiga users are still supporting and using their favourite system, often with even more intensity than ever before. There is great potential in the Amiga Community. Amiga users are innovative, both in terms of hardware and software. The Commodore commercials of 1989 stating "Amiga - A Computer for the Creative Mind" are still valid as ever before. However, in times like these, when the future of the Amiga is somewhat uncertain, all members of the Community need motivation and inspiration to go on working the Amiga magic. The Amiga has still so many boundaries to break, and we all need to work together to show it to the world. That's where the AAA Awards come in. The AAA Awards are intended to be a source of inspiration and motivation for users, developers and other people working for and with the Amiga. The AAA Awards may also be a source of unification, bringing about groundbreaking international Amiga projects. Regard them as the achievement awards of the Amiga Community. The Awards The AAA Awards are presented by Amiga Computer Group (ACG), a non-profit-making Amiga User Association based in Umee, Sweden together with its associates world-wide. The AAA Awards logo has been designed by Bjvrn Hagstrvm (orgin@medio.mh.se), of "AmiTech '97" and "Svenska AmigaMagazin" logo fame. The AAA Awards consist of fine hand-written diplomas with motivation and the honorable official recognition. The AAA Awards are divided in two groups: International and National. The AAA Award International and the AAA Award Sverige (Sweden) will be handled by Amiga Computer Group. Amiga user groups in other countries may apply for exclusive representation in their own native country. Please see the AAA Awards Homepage for more information on this, or contact Amiga Computer Group by phone or mail. Everyone is welcome to suggest candidates for the AAA Awards. If you do so, please include a brief explanation as to why this person or group of persons should receive the AAA Award. Also include your own name and addresses, as we may want to ask some additional questions. There are basically no limits as to who you may suggest. Private persons, companies, associations, etc. The AAA Awards may be presented posthumously, and you may also suggest yourself. The criteria for the AAA Awards are very simple: "The awards should go to he/she/that/those which/who has/have done the greatest achievement in contributing to the upkeeping of AMIGA. values during the past year." Suggestions for the 1997 AAA Awards will be accepted until January 5th 1998 through the AAA Awards Homepage, e-mail or regular mail. All suggestions will be considered by the ACG-appointed jury and its international associates in early 1998, and three final nominees for each category will be made official. Anyone may then vote at the AAA Awards Homepage for the nominee he/she feels should receive the AAA Award. This voting period will span over one month. Exact dates will be announced at a later time through the AAA Awards Homepage, Amiga-related newsgroups etc. ACG and its associates world-wide will then solemnly announce the AAA Awards Winners 1997. First Winners The first AAA Awards will be presented at the AmiTech 97 show in Stockholm, Sweden 25 - 27 April 1997. This will signify the launching of the awards. Those awards will be presented for long-term achievement. The jury has decided as follows: AAA Award International Dave Haynie "For his contributions to the computer development in general, and a true commitment to the Amiga platform, bringing a unique personal touch to the machine. And of course for being cool." AAA Award Sverige Thomas Svenson "Fvr sin starka drivkraft och entreprenvrsfvrmega i att frdmja Amigans fortlevnad och utveckling i Sverige." ("For his strong driving force and entrepreneural ability in promoting the survival and development of the Amiga in Sweden.") Contributions Companies, associations and such that wish to contribute to the AAA Awards by donations or likewise, may see the AAA Awards Homepage or contact ACG president Martin Sahlin at martin.sahlen@amiga-cg.se for more information. We offer great advertising opportunities at the AAA Awards Homepage. Supporting Visit the AAA Awards Homepage and download a AAA Awards Button which you may include in your own WWW pages. Please do not refer to the image on our server at your homepage, since that will result in our server being over-loaded with requests. Updates All the latest news regarding the AAA Awards will be made official at the AAA Awards Homepage. Please check back regulary, the pages are yet not completed. Acknowledgements The AAA Awards is copyright 1997 Amiga Computer Group. The AAA Awards logo is copyright 1997 Amiga Computer Group and Bjvrn Hagstrvm. The national and international AAA Awards are copyright 1997 Amiga Computer Group. Contact: Martin Sahlin Amiga Computer Group Skolgatan 14 SE-903 22 UMEE Sweden martin.sahlen@amiga-cg.se More information: AAA Awards Homepage - http://www.amiga-cg.se/aaaa/ AMIGA. is a registered trademark of Amiga International. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- P O W E R C O N ' 9 7 U P D A T E PowerCon'97 NEWS UPDATE (97/04/14) ---------------------------------- - CUBE the first Be User Group in Montreal, will be present in the user section to show several aspect of the BeBox/BeOS! - GfxBase a resellers of Amiga products will demonstrate the PowerUP boards from Phase5. - BeatWare a company developping BeOS software will present their BeSuite (Reggae Paint/Draw/Write). And also give a seminar on how to develop application with AppSketcher. - PowerCon'97 Site has been updated. We have done alot of changes on the sites during the week-end, and expect more updates during this week! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- F I N N I S H W E B S I T E L A U N C H E D Date : 13 Apr 1997 15:02:27 GMT A Finnish Amiga users' group, the Finnish Amiga Users' Association (Suomen Amiga-kayttajat ry.) have new pages on the World Wide Web. The pages contain relevant information about the association and the latest Saku e-zines for Finnish Amiga users. The pages can be found at: http://www.ic.jytol.fi/~saku/ -- Janne Siren (siren@mikrobitti.fi) Webmaster, Finnish Amiga Users' Association ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A M I T E C H ' 9 7 I N S W E D E N AmiTech '97 25-27TH April AMIGA CONVENTION STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN This is a preview of what will happen at the AmiTech '97 show. The three heavyweights Amiga International's President Petro Tyschtschenko will make a statement about the Amiga's future, exactly one month after the Gateway 2000 buyout. http://www.amiga.de Phase5 Digital Products', President Wolf Dietrich will present the roadmap of his company and their latest addition, the Amiga PowerPC accelerators. http://www.phase5.de PIOS Computers, President Stefan Domeyer will present his company and show the state of the hardware of the TransAM PowerPC, explain their concept for the future. http://www.pios.de -- The MOTOROLA PowerPC RISC Unit, Sweden Is one of the sponsors of the show, and will send a speaker to give an in-depth technical presentation of the PowerPC line of processors. http://www.motorola.com LIVE ISDN Internet We have 4 channels of ISDN hookup at the show (256Kb/s) and we will do our best to bring you live video from the show, including the above speeches. At least there will be ongoing IRC chat all the time from the convention. Visit our web site http://www.canit.se/amitech during the show for details. HiQ Siamese System; Stephen Jones, General Manager of HiQ UK will launch the new exciting version of the Siamese System, V2 RTG. Bringing integration of Amiga-PC to all new heights, it's regarded a strong part of the Amiga's future. http://www.hiq.co.uk/ IBrowse, Amiga WWW Stefan Burstrom core programmer of IBrowse, the leading Amiga Web Browser will host a seminar and demo his latest fresh version of IB at the show. http://www.omnipresence.com Going press! We have decided to advertise the event in a daily Stockholm newspaper the 5 days before the show, in a hope the attention will bring back curious ex-Amiga users to the show. The newspaper reach 540,000 readers each morning, and is free for everyone, in the subway and other places. Competitions At the show there will be awards for Best Amiga DEMO and Best Amiga picture. The winning awards will receive fine hardware, sponsored by Distribution 4. Imagine 5.0 Amiga Christian Seron from Infologic, the Impulse European representative will Demo and talk about the new Imagine, the Amiga version only costs 1/7th of the PC! http://www.coolfun.com Swedish Amiga dealers Only the leading and loyal will come, here are the ones that so far have decided to come. Distribution 4 Tricom Data Vision AB Mematex Micsam Vidamus MM Orebro Videoreklam Comprex Amiga person of the year At the show the Swedish Amiga person of the year will be awarded by the Amiga-CG usergroup. Amiga user groups SUGA AUGS AIU Amiga-CG AmigaTeam Jamtlandska AmigaForeningen Amiga Magazines AmigaInfo SAM Tecno Misc Products on display (a few highlights) Cassablanca, CyberVision 3D, Imagine 5, Picasso IV, Ariadne, QuickCAM, SiSys, Worms DC, A4000T/060, Apollo, Blizzard, PowerUP, Mustek Scanners, Genlocks, 56k modems, Draco, Storm C++, pOS, CyberStorm, AmiNET CD, A1200 Ethernet, PC HD Floppy adapter, Nokia 17" 'Amiga' monitor, and much more. 'And a few more surprises! :-) For now that's all we will present, tune into the web site at the time of the show, the show is on from 25th-27th April, 10am-6pm Central European Time. GMT 9am-5pm. Best regards, The AmiTech '97 Group. Comments on the contents of this text, email Fredrik Lundin at flu@tricom.se ---------------------------------------------------------------------- G H O S T S C R I P T F I X Date: Sat, 19 Apr 1997 10:50:48 GMT Hello All, For all of you who already have downloaded Ghostscript4.03 and discovered that gs -sDEVICE=amiga_custom didn't work, I have uploaded a new set of binaries to Aminet which should appear in a day or 2. For those that didn't know yet, I uploaded last week the latest version of GS including the source to Aminet. Read the readme's to know what is new and needed. Joop --- Joop van de Wege Joop.vandeWege@medew.ento.wau.nl Mobile Computing Consultants Tel: +31 318 553292 Net/Web specialist ---------------------------------------------------------------------- S O U N D S T A G E P R O Date: 19 Apr 1997 11:48:40 GMT TITLE SoundStage Pro (Hardware) VERSION Revision B (Rev.C of the SoundStage series) COMPANY Applied Magic Inc 2234 Ruthford Rd Carlsbad, CA, 92008 Toll Free: 1-888-MAGIC-55 or Phone: 619-931-6417 FAX: 619-931-6440 email: product_info@amagic.com web: http://www.amagic.com/ or http://www.applied-magic.com/ or http://www.sorceror.com/ DESCRIPTION SoundStage and now the SoundStage Pro series is a professional digital audio board for Amiga 3000(T) and 4000(T) computers. It hardware is based on a Texas Instruments 40MFlop DSP, which is used to manage all audio I/O up to six different sources. Audio I/O consists of 4 balanced +4dBu input and outputs, and 2 channel (1 stereo pair) AES/EBU digital input and output. Digital I/O also supports the SP/DIF standard. For further details and software features please look at the Applied Magic Inc web pages, or for SoundStage information directly, go to http://www.amagic.com/html/sound4.html. NEW FEATURES The SoundStage Pro incorporates 20bit audio samplers and digital to analog convertors to acheive the best signal to noise ratio. Previous hardware revisions only used 16bit parts. Many other audio quality issues have been addressed. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS An Amiga with a Zorro-III bus (SuperBuster-11 required). AmigaOS 3.x. PRICE SoundStage Pro with ProducerAUDIO software $1899 US. AudioLab16 for SoundStage $149 US. Timecode option $149 US. AVAILABILITY Shipping from 21-April-1997. Timecode option will ship in May. POSTED BY David A Newman Director of Engineering Applied Magic Inc dan@amagic.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------- M I D I T R A C K E R V 1 . 1 A V A I L A B L E Date: 19 Apr 1997 11:48:31 GMT TITLE MidiTracker V1.1 AUTHOR Sven Thoennissen Karlsgraben 35 52064 Aachen Germany svent@pool.informatik.rwth-aachen.de sa80@corona.tng.oche.de (if the other email doesn't work) DESCRIPTION MidiTracker is a MIDI sequencer that uses the 'tracker' concept for composing songs, hence the name. :-) Unlike other tracker programs that have MIDI capabilities, MidiTracker has been designed specifically for MIDI composing and does not use Amiga audio (except for the metronome). If you have used trackers before, then it shouldn't take you too long to get accustomed to MidiTracker. The intention with MidiTracker is to keep everything as dynamic as possible thus giving you more freedom and control over your MIDI data within a tracker environment. For example, have you ever had the problem of wanting to realtime record pitchbend, modulation, aftertouch and sustains but the tracker either didn't get the notes properly or wasn't capable of doing so? MidiTracker can do it. NEW FEATURES Important changes since 1.0: - Keyboard Actions Window (trigger transport-controls via synth) - Import OctaMED MMD1 modules. - Import GM-type-1 files (SMF). - The Stacker/Remapper is not disabled if MT is unregistered. People asked me and wanted to test the MIDI-thru feature so here it is. - Block-randomize function (in Block-menu). - Tempo BPM values from 1-27 are also allowed. - SysEx Editor - MIDI In/Out Filter - New Score window layout, looks like a timeline now. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS - Kick 2.04, better 3.0+ - 68020 with fastram would be good - MIDI interface plus equipment (e.g. synthesizer, keyboard) strongly recommended for composing AVAILABILITY MidiTracker is available on all Aminet sites, eg. ftp://ftp.doc.ic.ac.uk/aminet/mus/midi/MidiTracker1_1.lha It is also available at its support mailbox in Germany: Corona BBS, Sysop is Mathias Frankenbach. +49 241 39164 USR V34+ 24846 V34 Zyxel D 4090012 V34 Zyxel 2864ID (ISDN + V34) 4090013 ISDN Master Login: MidiTracker Password: MidiTracker PRICE Shareware DM 50,- or US $35.00 or AUS $45 (at the Australian Registration Site). DISTRIBUTABILITY MidiTracker is Shareware. The archive as provided by myself may not be altered. It can be distributed everywhere if it's free of charge. MidiTracker is (c) Copyright 1996-1997 Sven Thoennissen. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Amiga Update on the net: some issues available at: http://www.sharbor.com/amiga/news/ (in html format) http://www.amigacom.com (in ASCII text) Australian Mirror Site: http://www.comcen.com.au/~paulm/index.html All back issues available (in ASCII text) at: http://www.globaldialog.com/AdventureCentral/AU.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 1997 by Brad Webb. Freely distributable, if not modified. ====================================================================== _ __ _ <>_ __ _ || /\\ |\ /|| || / ` /\\ || Brad Webb/AmigaUpdate /__\\ | \ / || || || ___ /__\\ || bandr@globaldialog.com / \\_ | \/ ||_ _||_ \__// / \\_ || ======================================================================