|
Amiga News & Links to External Sites |
AMIGA OS SOLD!
Amiga has been in the news again this last week. The company that was going to return to the market in a stunning way has now sold off the operating system!
Amiga Inc. has sold the Classic Amiga OS, with rights to future versions, to a company called KMOS. To quote the press release: KMOS Inc., a State of Delaware licensed corporation, develops and distributes enabling technology, software applications and speciality content to the wired and wireless communication market. They must be a fairly new company because the web address http://www.kmos.com simply says: This is the future home of KMOS Inc. KMOS have not bought the Amiga name and they will honour the agreements that have been made with Eyetech and Hyperion.
Eyetech have, for quite some time now, been going to make the next generation of Amiga hardware. What they actually have made is the AmigaOne deevelopment board, which currently runs Linux PPC. The plan is to run AmigaOS 4.0, if it ever gets developed by Hyperion.
Amiga Inc. itself is going to concentrate on the mobile market. AmigaDE and Amiga Anywhere, which can run on various operating systems, including the various flavours of Windows, is produced in conjunction with the Tao group. This gives developers the means to run applications on a variety of systems.
I suppose Amiga must still be making money somewhere if the company is still going. It is just that I have seen many press releases, but little evidence that the Amiga has returned, in any form.
Brian Grainger
NEW AMIGA OS PRODUCTS
It is nearly a year since I last had some Amiga news but Alan Crease has passed me some information which shows there is still life in the Amiga, albeit of a different kind.
AmigaOS4 is the latest version of the operating system and recently announcements were made concerning its content. Have a look at http://os.amiga.com/os4/OS4Features.php.
A Linux based version of the AmigaDE has been incorporated into the Nokia Mediaterminal for the Swedish market. More information at http://www.amiga.com/corporate/022202-nokia.shtml.
Amiga Anywhere will be shipped with the Sento Z100 Smartphone. Applications will be downloadable or available via entertainment packs. More information at http://www.sendo.com/news/newsitem.asp?ID=58
Alan Crease and Brian Grainger
WORLD OF AMIGA SOUTH EAST SHOW
Amiga Active is sponsoring the World of Amiga South East Show to be held at Brentwood, Essex, on Saturday, 3rd November 2001.
Fleecy Moss, the Amiga CTO, will be in attendance to show the latest Amiga OS on the latest hardware. This could be your first opportunity anywhere in the world to see and even buy the AmigaOne and OS 4.0.
For the full details please see www.worldofamiga.com and also the Amiga Active website.
Janet & John Bickerstaff
KICKSTART AMIGA SHOW
When: Saturday 26th May 2001, 12 noon - 5pm Where: Banstead Youth Centre, Banstead Surrey Entry fee: £2.00 Directions: This is off Junction 8 of the M25. Follow the A217 (Brighton Road) northbound into Banstead,
then take the A2022 (Winkworth Road) and take the first right.Follow this street until you pass the school then turn right into "The Horseshoe" to find the Youth
Centre. Parking is available here also.Exhibitors include: Eyetech (sponsoring the show)
Forematt Home Computing
Blittersoft
Amiga Active
Weird ScienceGames Area: run by Blackpool Amiga Group User Groups: Various Visit www.kickstart-amiga.co.uk for more details and maps, plus a plan of the Hall.
AMIGA WORKS WITH SHARP TO DEVELOP CONTENT FOR ZAURUS AND OTHER NEW DEVICES
Handheld Device on "Free" Linux/Java Platform will debut with Amiga developed Software
ST. LOUIS, MO, March 30, 2001 - Amiga Incorporated, a pioneer in the development of multimedia and content, today announced a long-term partnership with Sharp Corporation, in which Amiga will develop content for next-generation Sharp handheld computing devices.
For the full announcement please see www.amiga.com/corporate/033101-sharp.shtml
Janet & John Bickerstaff
31 January 2001
AMIGA SURVIVOR
Some people may have got an email adverting something called 'Amiga Survivor'.
There are some questions about it that can't be settled to my satisfaction.
People are advised to do a bit of research before handing out any cash or information of any sort.
There may be legitimate answers but it does seem doubtful at present.
Ken Ross
2 November 2000
PRESS RELEASE - PETRO RETIRES
Dear Friends, Colleagues and Fellow Amigans,
It is with a heavy heart that I am sad to announce my coming retirement from the Amiga community. As you all undoubtedly know, I have been a loyal promoter of the Amiga platform for nearly twenty years since it was first broadly introduced by Commodore in the early 1980s. Later through the difficult years with Commodore and Escom I worked tirelessly with many of you to "Keep The Dream Alive." Now as the new Millennium has dawned, it is time for some of us older Amigans to pass the torch on to those who still have the vigour to take Amiga onward.
With these fond memories foremost in my mind, the time has nevertheless come for me to fade from the scene. Effective at the end of this year we will close all operations and offices in Germany. By then I expect our stock of finished goods will be nearly gone. I will continue to finalise the details of the closure through the end of March next year. I will also continue to your efforts in whatever way I can, consistent with my retirement. I hope all of you can find it in your hearts to wish me well.
In the mean time please address your questions and concerns to Bill McEwen and his staff in America. I remain confident in their commitment to realise the continued aspirations of Amigans everywhere.
Yours truly!
Petro TyschtschenkoThis message was sent from Amiga International on 2nd November 2000 at 14:30. For any additional information see the following Amiga websites at:
Amiga Inc. site at: http://www.amiga.com
Amiga.org site at: http://www.amiga.org
21 October 2000
AMIGA ONE
It is with great pleasure that we are able to announce the first new Amiga hardware in over 6 years. The AmigaOne, our first consumer product, will be targeted at the desktop and workstation market. Further products to follow will cover the markets from Personal Digital Assistants and upwards. All these products will run a single piece of software, the revolutionary Amiga Digital Environment (DE).
We completed the AmigaOne specification three months ago, and dubbed it the "zico". It is a specification and not a product because Amiga is a software company, not a hardware manufacturer. The ability of the Amiga DE to host itself on multiple hardware and operating system platforms frees us from hardware dependency and gives our partners and our customers the freedom to chose the hardware that best suits their needs and tastes.
The zico specification is as follows:
- One AmigaDE friendly host processor (PPC, x86, Arm, SH4, MIPS)
- 64MB+ memory
- Next Generation Matrox graphics card
- Creative EMU10K1 based audio card
- 10 GB+ HD
- CD/DVD
- USB 1.0
- Firewire
- 10/100 Mbps Ethernet
- 56k modem
- Spare PCI slots for expandibilityWith the completion of the specification stage of the AmigaOne,we contacted several respected hardware companies with a view to selecting partners who would be interested in creating AmigaOne products.
The AmigaOne process involves close co-operation between Amiga and our partners' hardware groups, the running of the AmigaDE on the hardware, and a thorough quality certification of the final product. Only then can the product be called an AmigaOne.
Whilst still in detailed negotiation with several companies, we are delighted to announce the first partner company and its initial set of AmigaOne products.
The Eyetech Group Ltd, of Stokesley, UK already has an excellent reputation in the Amiga community. They have done much to keep the classic Amiga alive during the last five years, and we feel that in the creation of the first new Amiga machines and the transitioning from the classic to the next wave, that experience will prove invaluable.
Bill McEwen President of Amiga Inc commented: "This arrangement builds on and extends our existing partnership agreement with Eyetech, first announced in April of this year. Our experience during this period has shown Eyetech to be a no-nonsense company capable of delivering what they promise on time and this consideration also weighed heavily in our choice of a hardware partner for the PPC based AmigaOne."
Alan Redhouse, Managing Director of UK-based Eyetech, said; "I am delighted that we have been able to build on our existing partnership with Amiga and continue our close working relationship with them on both a technical and manufacturing level. Our decade of Amiga experience, plus our hardware and software efforts to push the Amiga forwards means that we are able to work with Amiga to deliver a proven upgrade solution to Amiga users which gives their existing 'Classic' applications an immediate and substantial performance boost whilst providing full forward compatibility with the new Amiga DE. Our work on the Predator line of boards means that we can help Amiga to fulfil its requirement of maximising the investment of the current community as it moves forwards."
Fleecy Moss, Chief Technology Officer, Amiga Inc added: "After talks with the hardware development staff of several companies I am convinced that working with Eyetech will allow us to offer an elegant solution that gives both an excellent level of backward compatibility and a powerful basis for the new Amiga Digital Environment. Top of our requirements list was to ensure that those Amigans who have spent considerable money in staying with the Amiga would not be left out in the cold. Whilst you can't please all of the people all of the time, we think we have come up with a set of products and solutions that will put a smile on as many faces as possible."
Eyetech is focusing on an immediate need in the existing Amiga market. Many have already invested considerable resources in their classic Amigas, both in terms of hardware and in terms of software. Whilst keen to move forwards with the AmigaOne, they also want to maximise their investment in the classic platform.
The Eyetech AmigaOne PPC 1200 is a custom board which uses Eyetech Predator technology with the "zico" specification to provide a perfect synergy of classic and next generation. It provides all the functionality of the standalone AmigaOne PPC, but has been extended to mate with a classic Amiga A1200. This allows customers who have a serious investment in the classic Amiga to continue to use their machines whilst also having a brand new Amiga at their disposal. The 68k processor in the A1200 will be emulated at a substantially increased level via the PPC processor on The AmigaOne, whilst the classic operating system can take advantage of the AmigaOne's next generation hardware resources.
The AmigaOne PPC 4000 machine is similarly designed to allow customers who have a significant investment in their classic Amiga A4000 to be able to move that investment forwards whilst also benefiting from the next generation capabilities of the AmigaOne.
The Eyetech AmigaOne PPC 1200 will be available as an upgrade for owners of towered A1200 computers, the Eyetech AmigaOne PPC 4000 as an upgrade for Amiga 4000 desktop computers in tower conversion cases. Options for producing AmigaOne PPC upgrade designs for other Classic Amiga designs (such as the A3000 and Amiga International A4000T) will be looked at (subject to demand) once the A1200 and A4000 products are released.
In order to implement all the features of the AmigaOne specification the, A1200 and A4000 upgrade versions will feature one AGP and six PCI slots, a user-upgradable G3/G4 (Macintosh-type) cpu slot, up to 512MB SDRAM and a high speed IDE/ATAPI interface. The system will be dual-bootable both into the Amiga DE and into Classic Amiga Workbench. This latter feature will allow purchasers to have the performance benefits of full G3/G4 cpu speeds and 512MB of SDRAM memory whilst running Classic Amiga software. Both these boards are scheduled to ship in first quarter 2001, with developer versions being available in December 2000.
Design of both the Eyetech AmigaOne PPC A1200 and A4000 products has been done with great sensitivity to the existing user and developer community.
"By releasing the classic compatible AmigaOne PPC products first," said Alan Redhouse. "We are providing a transitional path forwards for the existing community, enabling them to maximise their current investment whilst also leaping ahead with the new Amiga DE."
In order to facilitate this transition, the classic Amiga operating system will see its lifeline extended. OS3.9, to be launched before Christmas will add a raft of new features and functionality, and will be able to run on the Eyetech AmigaOne PPC classic products.
Eyetech are also keen to talk to existing hardware manufacturers about possibilities for licensing, manufacturer and other co-operation in order to ensure a smooth transition of the existing Amiga community from the present to the future.
Amiga is also very close to signing up partners for a standalone AmigaOne machine. The ATX form factor AmigaOne has been designed to run the full consumer version of the Amiga Digital Environment (DE) allowing the best of the Classic Amiga software which has been ported to run directly under the Amiga DE, and the use of a wide range of Amiga DE-based digital content - such as productivity software, content creation suites, development environments and 3-D games - to be used 'out of the box'.
All this work - including extensive testing of hardware and software components - is scheduled to be complete in time for end user deliveries third quarter 2001. Amiga Inc is currently in negotiation with several potential partner companies for the development and manufacture of the stand-alone AmigaOne and its related digital content/software. Companies interested in producing this version, utilising the PPC processor family include Eyetech, and bplan GmbH of Germany. We hope to have announcements to make on this within the next few weeks. Other companies and other processors are also under negotiation.
A new website is being set up, specifically to provide a focal point for news, questions, comment and discussion on the AmigaOne, and we encourage people to visit it and participate.
http://www.amiga.com/products/one
10 October 2000
PRESS RELEASE FROM INNOVATIVE
Innovative, known as the developers of popular AMIGA®-titles such as fxPAINT, fxSCAN, VHI Studio and Ultraconv today announced the future plans of the enterprise.
fxSCAN 3.0 with intelligent OCR-engine (OCR = Optical Character Recognition)
fxSCAN will soon be available in version 3.0. It will be a major update including the following new features:
- intelligent OCR-engine
- Support for free BetaScan-drivers
- comfortable Copymachine-function
- reworked user-interface
- JPEG-files are now loaded via PPC
- many small improvements
The price for V3.0 will be at 69 DM/35 EURO/35 US$. An update from V1.0/V2.0 will cost 59 DM/30 EURO/30 US$. We won't offer updates from V1.0 SE (ScanQuix-special edition). fxSCAN 3.0 can already be ordered from Innovative's online-shop, (http://www.innovative-web.de/), and will be delivered as soon as the final product becomes available.
A completly new fxSCAN-website will be online at the time the new version is introduced.
The present
Innovative regards the AMIGA® market as too small to exist only from revenues of this market. Innovative doesn't see any tendencies towards improvement, as key-enterprises have either left the AMIGA® market or have gone out of bussiness with important hardware products only available as long as they are still in stock.
Faster, more up-to-date or completly new hardware doesn't seem to be within reach and major improvements of the current Classic AmigaOS® are not expected in the near future. The AMIGA® SDK is a highlight, but it is not a guarantee for the future existance and maintenance of the new AMIGA® Operating-/Computersystems.
The current situation forces Innovative to look for new markets and to no longer work exclusively in the AMIGA®-market.
The future
After the availability of fxSCAN V3.0, Innovative will intensify work on a new technology. (Details are not available due to reasons of protecting Innovative's intellectual property). Programs developed with the aid of this new technology, (Codename "InNT"), will be more comfortable to use and will have an even more spectacular optic. Furthermore, programs developed with it will be highly portable to other platforms and CPUs.
Indeed, porting an application is expected to take only a few days, cutting down both the amount of development time and money that has to be spent for that task. As soon as the first version of this new technology is finished we will start porting already known Innovative titles to the new technology and a variety of different platforms.
Besides the AMIGA® market, the Windows® and Linux® market will be target of the developments of the company. It's also planned to hand out licences for this new technology, but this still has to be decided. The result of the decision will be announced in a later, seperate press release.
The AMIGA® conversions
We regret to say that our new technology will most probably not be able to run on 68K-PPC-Dual-CPU-Systems as it is currently used in some AMIGAs. A separation of the GUI and the program will be hard to perform and a 68060 definitely seems to be too slow for fluid and comfortable work. Once the development of the first version of the new technology is finished Innovative will evaluate the possibilities of a port to MorphOS and APUS Linux and is currently planning a port to these platforms. The Tao® Elate® based new AmigaOS® will be supported by Innovative as far as it is available. This way, AMIGA® users will be able to continue enjoying the high quality and highly innovative software by Innovative.
The current products
It can't be denied that future plans are in conflict with the further development of the current product line for AMIGA® computers. Nevertheless, the currently existing products will be developed further and updates will be available at a regular basis, though not as often as in the past. As soon as the versions developed with the new technology are available users will get an update offer. So everybody buying an Innovative product today buys a product that will be developed further in the future and they will be able to use even after switching to other OSes like Windows®, Linux® or "Amiga® NG"
The webservices
We will stop offering webservices, as the amount of time and money spent can in no way be justified with the resulting revenues. Existing contracts will continue to exist for a yet undefined time whereas we won't do any new contracts. Of course, we will continue to offer special solutions for companies in the future and we'll also keep updating the "Amiga Link Directory".
Frequently asked questions
Question: So you'll stop development for the AMIGA ?
Answer: No. Please read the paragraphs "The AMIGA-conversions" and "The current products" carefully.Question: You're always talking about a new technology, what is it ?
Answer: Our intellectual property. Therefore no information on this will be made available to the public on request. (Please don't send us EMail, letters, call or fax us) but exclusivly on our own initative via our website. Any information not found on our website isn't true.Question: When will you have finished work on the new technology ?
Answer: As we don't want to put ourselves under pressure with this strategically important development, we won't release any time-table in the near future.Question: What products do you plan ?
Answer: Our information policy doesn't foresee the announcement of new products at this time.Question: I'd like to license this new technology. How much is it for a license ?
Answer: We will think about handing out licenses at a later time, but we haven't come to a decision on this yet and therefore can't give you prices.Question: I'd like to betatest. Simply send me a beta!
Answer: We won't send out betas.Disclaimer: AMIGA® is a registered trademark of Amiga, Inc. Windows® is a registered trademark of Microsoft. Linux® is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. Elate® is a registered trademark of the Tao Group. All information is subject to change without notice. You cannot derive or demands rights from this piece of information.
VHI Studio reads from Sony® Memorysticks®!
Thanks to a new VHI-driver. (sony_msac_sr1.vhi), AMIGA® users can finally access Sony® Memorysticks®. The driver uses the "Sony® MSAC-SR1" reader for the serial port that is shipped with most Sony® cameras. If you want to see Memorysticks® and Compactflash® cards compared regarding their size, visit our website.
7 September 2000
SEAL-O-RAMA! 2000
You may be interested in SEAL-O-RAMA! 2000. It`s our Amiga show which is being held this Sunday (10th September) in Basildon, Essex.
Amiga? Yep, and the new incarnation of its OS, (see www.amiga.com), is being hosted on top of Red Hat Linux. The Amiga SDK, (Software Development Kit), is being sold on their website, amongst others. Briefly, the new AmigaOS is platform independent. It's based around a virtual processor, which has an abstraction layer to which it translates code to whatever processor or OS is under it. At the moment the OS can run on PPC, Intel, AMD, RISC and many others, as well as on top of Windows, Linux (of course) etc. Because the instructions that are relevant to the CPU or OS are loaded at load-time, there isn't the traditional emulation lag. Anyway, I'm not a techie or programmer so I won't blather on. Suffice to say that whoever writes a program for the AmigaOS, that program can be run on any platform, CPU, or OS that has the AmigaOS running on it as well.... without porting. Sound interesting? There`s a few links at the bottom which will tell you more.
It'll be shown at the show, as well as BEOS and other Linux as well. Of course, all the generic PC hardware you could want will be there as well, (as the Amiga uses most of it too).
So if you are curious and don`t mind spending a pound make a visit. There's loads of door prizes as well, so you may end up taking a brand new Amiga home :) .
All the details are at our website... just follow the SEAL-O-RAMA! link.
Cheers,
Gary Storm
SEAL
http://www.seal-amiga.co.ukother Amiga sites you may find of interest:
www.realdreams.cz/amiga
www.amiga.org
www.powerc.com
www.eyetech.co.uk
www.amigafresh.co.uk
27 June 2000
PRESS RELEASE FROM INNOVATIVE
Innovative brings Digita(TM)-power to your AMIGA
Innovative has developed a driver for DigiCams running the Digita(TM) Operating Environment. Digita(TM)-enabled DigiCams offer much more flexibility and abilities than everything else currently on the market. Digita(TM) is used in high-end cameras of different companies, runs on PowerPC- and Coldfire-CPUs and allows you to run scripts, applications and games (incl. MAME!!) on your camera. The developers of Digita(TM), Flashpoint(TM) (http://www.flashpoint.com/) wants to make Digita(TM) the standard for DigiCams and specified a standardized communication-protocol between computer and camera. With the now available VHI-driver, AMIGA-users finally get access to these amazing cameras and can download and rework pictures from these cameras. Currently available Digita(TM)-enabled DigiCams are:
Kodak DC 220, DC 260, DC 265, DC 290
Minolta Dimage 1500 EX, Dimage 1500 3D
HP PhotoSmart C500, C619, C912
Pentax EI-200, EI-2000
P.S.: In this case, Digita(TM) has nothing to do with the developers of Wordworth but is the name of a product by Flashpoint(TM).
New marketplace (buy & sell) for VHI-boards and -DigiCams
Due to popular demand, we have decided to create a forum for selling and buying VHI-boards and -DigiCams. This forum can be reached via "Support" from the VHI Studio-Homepage. The popular VHI-forum can now also be found there again after a short absence.
New fxPAINT-workshop online
Yet another workshop for fxPAINT is online. This time it covers the composition of images and the usage of the magic stick. A must for every fxPAINT-owner! The workshop can be found under "support" from the fxPAINT- Homepage.
VHI - Example driver - sourcecode online
The VHI-Standard has been extended to support DigiCams recently. Three DigiCam-drivers are already available. The new extensions are not yet documented and so we decided to release the sourcecode for the CamEx-driver for download to support the development of new drivers. The sourcecode can also be used as a basis for the development of drivers for videoboards.
French translation of fxPAINT
Réléc Hard- & Software have done a complete translation of the fxPAINT catalog file and a part of our homepage pages. If you prefer a French GUI or if you want to read our product-information in French, have a look at their homepage.
7 June 2000
PRESS RELEASE FROM INNOVATIVE
New Release of fxPAINT - Now version 1.5
An overview over the new features:
includes all changes of EK #1 and EK #2 (alone more than 60 new features)
Tutorials (Video & HTML) on the CD
heavily improved fxALBUM with new presentation-functions and a new, professional HTML-overviewfunction
improved palette with HTML-colorcode-export and colorchooser
ARexx-Launcher
new effect to reduce or remove JPEG-fractures
DigiCam-support
many small improvements
New Release of VHI Studio - Now version 5.2
The new version features faster MPEG-Export and the ability to create either MPEG-1 or MPEG-2-files.
New Release of fxSCAN - Now version 2.0
New effects (incl. Sharpen and a high-quality scaling-routine as known from fxPAINT), a direct link to fxPAINT and bugfixes are significant for this update.
Guided tour for fxPAINT online
You can now make a guided tour on the fxPAINT-homepage.
Our company's activities move more and more into the graphics area and into development of online applications
6 June 2000
AMIGA ANNOUNCES THE FIRST
NEXT GENERATION AMIGA DEVELOPMENT MACHINESAmiga Inc. of Snoqualmie, WA is pleased to announce a strategic relationship with Eyetech Group Ltd. of Stokesley, North Yorkshire, UK to manufacture the first release of the Next Generation Amiga Development Machines and to distribute these in Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland.
This will no doubt come as welcome news to the British Amiga community who have long enjoyed an excellent relationship with Eyetech.
Eyetech is well known as a leading supporter of Amiga and the Amiga Community. Eyetech's involvement in the Amiga market dates back to 1993.
Amiga and Eyetech both share a vision and strategy to re-establish the next generation Amiga Operating Environment as the leading multimedia, hardware-independent, delivery platform for the year 2000 and beyond. Both companies believe that this strategy will return Amiga to its rightful position as a leader in multimedia computing and thereby re-deliver the recognition and pride back to the loyal Amiga community that has waved the flag over these last 15 years.
Of particular interest to both Amiga and the community is Eyetechs EZTower Mk5 which networks together - in a single tower system - both an A1200, (with optional PPC/BVision), with a next generation Amiga Development Machine and the Amiga SDK. "The reputation of Eyetech as well as their ability to offer such a high quality and wide-ranging choice to the Amiga community in the form of both the EZTower Mk5 and the EZDev-Plus - Eyetech's stand-alone DevBox - is unprecedented. We wholeheartedly support Alan and his team at Eyetech and join the community in welcoming Eyetech to the Amiga future." said Randall Hughes, Vice President Sales and Strategic Alliances at Amiga.
Alan Redhouse commented: "I am delighted that Eyetech has been chosen as Amiga's partner to help UK companies and individuals take advantage of porting and developing applications under the new Amiga Operating Environment. We will of course continue to service and support Classic Amiga users Worldwide from the 5000 square feet (500 square meters) of warehouse space dedicated to Amiga products here at our UK base.
"The Classic Amiga also forms the basis of our Multimedia Presentation and Kiosk systems as its tightly integrated, purpose-designed preemptive multitasking, multimedia-centric operating system allows us to achieve levels of performance, reliability and cost-effectiveness which cannot even be approached on a PC-based system. We are now looking forward to developing new, high-performance multimedia products around the new generation Amiga Operating Environment, as well as providing continued support for our existing commercial and leisure customers."
Eyetech's developer platforms for the new generation Amiga Operating Environment will be officially released on 1st June 2000. The product portfolio will include EZTower Mk 5 based integrated systems, upgrade kits for existing EZTower users and the stand-alone EZDev-Plus system. All systems will ship with Eyetech's 5-click Amiga - Linux networking software, specially tailored for the new Amiga Operating Environment.
3 June 2000
AMIGA ANNOUNCES
THE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT KITPress Release: Amiga is Back, and will change computing forever, again.
June 3, 2000, Snoqualmie, WA - Amiga announces the release of the Amiga Software Developers Kit for Amiga, Linux, and Java developers, the first new product to introduce the next generation Amiga platform.
The Amiga Software Developers Kit provides the initial tools and examples for developers to create exciting multi-media content for multiple devices and computing environments. The unique strength of the New Amiga comes from the partnership with the Tao Group in Reading England, providing a foundation where developers are able to take advantage of an ubiquitous computing environment.
In 1984 Amiga established what is known today as multi-media. As a result of this, Amiga systems are used around the world by leading film studios, animators, and in mission critical applications. Using this as the foundation, the Amiga is moving forward by creating multi-media for numerous devices and computing environments in the home, in the office and beyond.
The Amiga OS is capable of being self-hosted and sitting on top of other operating systems. A single application is capable of running on X86, Power PC, M.core, ARM, StrongArm, MIPs, SH3/4, and others. In a hosted environment the new Amiga runs on versions of Linux, Windows 95,98/NT, Windows CE, OS/9, QNX4, and others to be announced.
The new OS also embraces the Java language in a new, powerful and compliant way. The intent Java Technology Edition from Tao is world renowned for its speed and compact execution of Java applications. With the new environment, developers will be able to take advantage of both Java, and portable assembler coding.
"Today we take the first step towards the future," said Bill McEwen, President/CEO of Amiga, Inc. "The new Amiga SDK provides an environment where the best developers in the world can build exciting applications, that can transcend hardware limitations. Today Amiga developers can be joined by Linux and Java developers in an environment that provides the foundation for the delivery of future content."
"Tao has been talking for some time now about our developments to create Digital Heaven(TM) and we see Amiga and its community as a fundamental part of the new order that can make it happen and take an industry lead. With the sheer tenacity and the many qualities of McEwen and his Amiga team, the world is going to see Amiga as a Premier Brand for connected digital appliances," said Francis Charig Chairman of the Tao-Group.
For the developer, the new SDK creates a single environment that is scalable from handheld devices, such as cell phones upwards New versions of the kit later in the year will introduce many new media features. Both the current and future versions will enable compact, high performance and robust media solutions to be used across a broad range of devices using identical binaries..
The New Amiga SDK is available through local retailers for $99.00 and from the Amiga web site. Amazon.com and other sources available soon. A version via a Japanese distributor will be announced shortly.
Extract from the Executive Update of 3 June by Bill McEwan
Make no mistake, though: this product is truly for developers. This SDK is not for people looking for the next version of the Amiga. This is a developers kit that provides the tools to start developers on writing VP code and Java. This is designed as a reference platform to get started, and there will be more releases of the SDK over the coming months. We will add new features and expand the AmiVerse.
This is a change from the announcement in St. Louis on April 1, 2000. We had originally planned to release a hardware and software only solution, but we received so many comments and emails suggesting something different that we decided to take the time and launch a software version of the developer release. Yes, we listened.
We have also changed our plans on the hardware portion of the announcement also. We had planned to be the sole source for the dev-box, but within hours of the St. Louis show we had numerous companies coming forth saying that they could build the developer boxes for less. Again, we listened and changed our plans. We have gone with a regional approach now, and are finalizing the list of Amiga Dev-Box companies authorized to sell an approved system. These will be local companies in each of your areas, which should help with hardware support and warranty concerns.
For those of you who think that we are sitting around, please note the following:
Currently there are over a quarter of a million lines of code written for the new version of Boopsi. We call it BOOPS. It is in testing and optimization. It will be ready for release very soon. We are also working very hard on a new scripting language, very similar to AREXX, that we know that everyone will enjoy.
19 May 2000
PRESS RELEASE
FINAL EXHIBITOR LIST FOR 3rd KICKSTART AMIGA SHOWThe Kickstart User Group (http://www.kickstart-amiga.co.uk) is pleased to announce the final exhibitor list for K3 – The Kickstart Amiga Show.
The Date: Saturday May 27th 2000
The Time: 12-5pm
The Place: Brook Hall, Brox Road, Ottershaw, Surrey
Admission: £1 per personRetail Exhibitors:
Eyetech Selling a huge array of hardware expansions for all Amiga models, in particular the A1200. Items on sale will include the Zorro4 Busboard expansion and Eyetech’s new EZ-Tower A1200 tower conversion and EZ-Key keyboard adapter. Analogic Co-sponsor of the show, selling Amiga hardware including the Squirrel SCSI interface for the A1200 and A600, along with hard drives, CD drives and other peripheral expansions. Join Kickstart at the show and get £50 off a 3.1Gb 2.5inch hard drive. Forematt Home Computing A long-time supporter of the Kickstart Show, Forematt will be selling their vast stock of Amiga games, utilities, educational software and serious application software. Foremat will also be previewing several titles on Kickstart’s 8ft projection screen. Ramjam Consultants On hand with copies of acclaimed disk filing system PFS3 and other Amiga products. Alive Mediasoft Will be selling their catalogue of current and classic Amiga games. Epic Marketing Offering an array of Amiga games, serious software and compilation CD sets. AmigActive Magazine The UK’s number one newsstand Amiga magazine will be on hand to take subscription orders and to sell copies of the brand-new issue of the magazine, back-issues and AmigActive merchandise. Digitec UK Stocking printer supplies (ink, toner etc) printer paper and other computer consumables. Kelly Taylor A regular independent trader at the show offering a range of classic Amiga software and hardware for sale. Stephan Another regular independent trader at the show selling the latest in peripherals such as hard drives, monitors, printers and CD drives. (exact sale stock to be confirmed). Chris Green Selling a range of Amiga software, games and hardware - including copies of MacOS 8.1, ideal for Fusion or ShapeShifter emulation and a limited stock of Amiga-compatible memory SIMMs. Dean Swift Selling books, back issues of Amiga magazines, software and hardware. Usergroups:
Kickstart The host usergroup will be on-hand to sign up new members and sell copies of its Amiga Insight fanzine. Seal The Essex-based usergroup and publisher of the Clubbed Amiga fanzine. ASA A growing usergroup in the Portsmouth/Southampton area. PAG A new usergroup in the Portsmouth area. Contacts:
For show enquiries and stand bookings (stand-by only) please contact Ray McCarthy (Show Promoter) at ray-mccarthy@cwcom.net or call (01737) 215432.
For all other enquiries, please contact Chris Green (PR Co-ordinator) at chris@amigainsight.com or call (07971) 273850.
Directions to the Show:
Directions to Brook Hall: From the M25, J11 take the Woking exit, at the next roundabout take the first left onto the A320 to Woking, at the next roundabout take a left again into Murray Rd, about 20yds on the left is a car park, park here and Brook Hall is straight in front of you, on the corner of Murray Rd and Brox Rd.
Public transport: Ottershaw is close to Woking, which is easily accessible from London and the South. From Woking to Ottershaw transport is by Bus or Taxi. Taxis cost about £5.
PLEASE NOTE: All software sold by anyone at the show must be original and proof of ownership may be required from vendors before entrance to the sale is permitted. Kickstart reserve the right to refuse entrance to any person, regardless of a booking. Kickstart cannot accept responsibility for any goods purchased at the show. Entry to the show is at your own risk. Kickstart reserve the right to add or remove events from the show without notice.
25 April 2000
PRESS RELEASE FROM INNOVATIVE
fxPAINT EK #2 completed
The second update for fxPAINT has been completed and offers many new features. Thanks to optimisation, a higher execution speed was achieved. The most important changes since EK #1:
fxVIDEO-System: Tutorial-videos are now possible directly from within fxPAINT!
new drawing utility: bevelcircle
6 new effects (Edge-Detect, Sharpen, Texture, "Deep inside", DisplaceMap and a new buttonborder-effect)
real antialiasing for text
improved tableau-support
vastly improved fxALBUM (especially improved HTML-Album-creation)
wap.plugin: fxPAINT is the first and only program on the AMIGA, that can read and write WBMP-images!
AXIS-color calibration system for optimized screen-display
Mousewheel-support for mice that support the NewMouse-standard (e.g. VMC 4D+ mouse)
improved loader- and saver-speed thanks to the PPC
Furthermore many improvements in detail have been made, that were inspired by users.
VHI Studio 5.0 available
Today, Innovative released VHI Studio 5, the successor of the well-known VLRec NG.
This software allows recording, editing and grabbing via a digitizer-board (various are supported via VHI, e.g. VLab, FrameMachine, Masoboshi MVD 819, GVP IV24) or digital camera. Further extras like manipulation of images, animated effects, webcam and timelapse-creation-capabilities are available as well. With VHI Studio it is now even possible to access all image-data as if they were saved on a harddisk.
New features compared to VLRec NG 4.0 are:
- DigiCam-support added
· Support for serial-numbers and therfore the ability to create commercial
VHI-drivers for DigiCams
· Read-in the content of the DigiCam's memory into the Snapshot-Center
· Information on the snapped picture are displayed in the Snapshot-Center
· Information about the status of the camera can be shown
· Pictures can be taken by pressing a button- direct process-possibilites within the Snapshot Center
· Mirror-functions
· Rotation-functions
· Optimizations- New driver CamEx.vhi
· three virtual inputs with different animations (these are transfered as JPEG
to VHI Studio and are decoded in realtime)
· Simulation of a DigiCam (only limitation: The simulation does not store
information on which pictures should be deleted from the cams memory)- VHI Studio VD (Virtual Disk)
· all imagedata in memory is available as files
· MPEG-Encoding does no more require ANY temporary files
- Save space on your HD
- faster encoding, as the imagedata is no more loaded from HD but from the
much faster memory and also doesn't have to be saved previously
· Access to DigiCams as if they were harddisks- Multichannel-preview (watch up to nine inputs at once)
- new driver for the GVP IV24
- Driver for Olympus-DigiCams is available optionally
- Driver for Kodak-DigiCams is available optionally
- Direct support of Picasso 96 (not until now via the cybergraphics.library-Emulation of P96)
- Loading of new pictures in the Snapshot Center is now possible
- IFF-ILBM-Files can now be loaded and savedAt the same time, Innovative released three new VHI-DigiCam-drivers, that allow users to run
up-to-date devices on their AMIGA. The following cameras are supported by the current drivers
olympus.vhi, kodak_dc21x.vhi and kodak_dc2_48.vhi:- Olympus
Camedia C-420L Camedia C-820L Camedia C-830L Camedia C-840L Camedia C-900Z Camedia C-920Z Camedia C-1000L Camedia C-1200Z Camedia C-1400L/XL Camedia C-2000Z Camedia C-21 Camedia C-2500 - Nikon
· Coolpix 700- Kodak
DC 200 DC 200+ DC 210 DC 210+ DC 215 DC 240 DC 240i DC 280 VHI Studio is delivered on CD with all VHI-drivers and CPU-optimized versions of the program as
well as some goodies and developer-information. Drivers for DigiCams are delivered separately.
Pricing:
Product DM Euro $ VH2I Studio 69 35 35 VHI-DigiCam-driver 20 10 10 Shortcuts to our product pages
http://fxpaint.innovative-web.de/
http://fxscan.innovative-web.de/
http://mlcpro.innovative-web.de/
http://ultraconv.innovative-web.de/
http://vhistudio.innovative-web.de/The page of the VHI-standard also has a new address:
http://vhi.innovative-web.de/Pictures = Files .. the new Stargate-Plugin for fxPAINT
The latest version of the stargate-plugin allows you to access pictures loaded into fxPAINT as files. Furthermore it is possible to send images directly to fxPAINT. PhotoAlbum, CyberShow, Superview, VHI Studio NG and Ultraconv NG already support the "Stargate Airport".
.3 February 2000
AMIGA NEWS NOW WITH AMIGA LINK DIRECTORY (ALD)
Following the demise of the Amiga Web Directory run by CUCUG on the 1st January it is good to hear from Innovative that they have set up a similar service. Here is the text of their press release.
amiga-news.de opened the new Amiga Link Directory (ALD) for the public on 23.1.2000.
The new directory`s aim is to become THE directory for AMIGA-pages. Innovative (http://www.innovative-web.de), a software-company based in Herzogenaurach/Germany developed the required technology for this exciting enterprise.
Entries are sorted by categories and letters, or can be found easily via the available search-function. In order to guarantee an always up-to-date database, entries can be changed by the "owners" of the entry at any time via a previously defined password. For every entry further information is available, if provided by the "owner". This can include, but is not limited to, the postal adress as well as the phone-number, email-adress and homepage.
Part of the ALD, (meaning only entries of "owners" who want their entries to be part of a "directory" on the Aminet-CD), will also be available via the popular Aminet-CDs. For the first time there will be a bridge between the AMIGA online and offline world and it will be called ALD. This way communication within the AMIGA-community will improve and companies can also reach users, that don`t have an internet-connection yet.
Help us building the greatest online-directory for AMIGA websites worldwide and add your website today.
The ALD can be found at:
http://www.amiga-news.de/cgi-bin/anwd-db.pl
LINKING THE PSION TO THE AMIGA
HAND IN HAND by Peter ReeveAt a recent meeting at Biggin Hill entitled "PDA's and Portables" there was a very interesting and informative evening devoted to, what perhaps we often call, Palmtop or Organiser type computers. A number of these were ably demonstrated and explained by David Annal and Tom Cranstoun. The use of the club's recently purchased VDU projector, which threw a large image from a camcorder on to a screen made everything clearly visible.
It emerged that a very important requirement of these devices was the ability to communicate data to and from a PC, as this enhances the usefulness tremendously. Some time was spent explaining how this was done with a description of the software required.
A Psion 3a was one of the devices mentioned, and towards the end of the evening, one of the questions asked was how the could the Amiga be made to communicate in the same way? Perhaps a few notes on this may be helpful.
The Psion and the Amiga have always been able to communicate with each other, right back to the first A1000 and the early Psion XP, without any additional software. A Psion serial lead is required to connect them together of course. Through the Amiga's AUX: device the Psion can completely control the Amiga. The display on the Psion's screen becomes the same as seen on the Amiga shell screen and the Amiga will do anything that is typed in on the Psion - even run programs and retrieve data, format disks etc. However, not surprisingly, there is some additional software which can make things easier - there always is! This utility is called AmigaNCP and is easily available as a non crippled shareware application. When run, it creates a new device on the Amiga called NCP: This is seen by the Amiga as an extra disk containing all the Psion's files. The Psion can still see the Amiga's files and devices. As the Psion stores files like a PC, which the Amiga is happy with, the files become freely available for reading, writing, renaming, deleting etc. in either direction. This situation becomes particularly flexible when a disk management utility is used such as Diskmaster, Dirworks or Directory Opus.
Among its many inbuilt applications, the Psion has a wordprocessor, a database, a spreadsheet and a diary. Because each computer can see each other's files they can interchange data automatically. With word processing, text can be pasted either way using the paste command in each wordprocessor. The Psion's database can be set up to use commas as field delimiters the same as SuperBase. This means that data again can be updated either way by using the import and merge commands quite automatically.
As most spreadsheets have a Lotus123 compatibility including the one on the Psion, again data can be sent either way with, for example, FinalCalc or Maxiplan on the Amiga. Transferring data from the Psion's diary is a bit more convoluted as certain control characters have to be removed. The diary has to be printed to a file, the default name of which is called P.lis. This file can then be processed for use in SuperBase for example. Perhaps the term Palmtop is very appropriate as together with other computers they indeed go hand in hand.
AmiCrawler - Amiga Web Search Engine (1000+ Amiga Sites)
Search the amiCrawler database:
These links were supplied by
Alex Whittaker and were current at 19/06/2005.
Please contact the Webmaster if a link does not work. Thank you.
http://www.amigacentre.co.uk/uk/
A list of Amiga User Groups
www.amigaworld.net
AmigaOS forums and news
www.amiga.org
Community site with forums/news etc for AmigaOS and related OSes
www.intuitionbase.com
Information on the new AmigaOne and AmigaOS4 systems
www.aminet.net
The definitive source for Amiga files
www.os4depot.net
AmigaOS4 PPC files
These links were current at 05/08/2001. These are less likely to work, but have not been removed just in case they do!
http://www.evenmore.co.uk
A Shareware site with a freeware textviewer for the
Amiga or emulator. Support for file conversion plugins (MSWord,
HTML, RTF, etc), full colour ANSI text and much more.
www.geocities.com/blobrana/
An Amiga magazine area. Suffers a bit from pop up
windows but quite interesting for Amiga enthusiasts.
Scottish
Based Amiga Powered Website
John
Chandler's Amiga Home Page
Adam
Atkinson's Amiga Home Page
Vulcan
The largest Amiga Games Publisher in the World!
Brian Fowler Computers Ltd
Suppliers of Amiga Computers and perhiperals.
Jerry Leik's
Home Page on Alternative Computing Platforms
CUCUG's Monster List
of Amiga Links
Softwood - Final Writer, Final
Calc, Final Data and more
The Sysop is John Marchant, one of ICPUG's new Technical Advisors, and the host machine is an Amiga 4000/40 with USR Courier 28.8Kbps modem. The service is available between 1800 and 0800 Hrs only, but that is seven days a week.
This is a "serious" BBS specializing in communications, programming ((C) and Aexx), and Amiga utilities, but there is a wide spread of other subjects, including general information and help texts. The latest Aminet CD is on line, and unlimited downloads are possible. Help is given to beginners.
The BBS closes when the sysop is away!
If you have a related URL
which you wish to have added to this page
please goto the response
page.
[What's  at ICPUG][Home] [About us] [Objectives] [Services] [PC News] [Regional Gps] [Shareware] [Sale/Wanted] [UK Gps] [Personal Pages] [Visitors] |
