Newsbits

By Scott T Boyd, Editor

Cross-platform, Royalty-free Electronic Publishing

Foundation Solutions announces royalty-free MultiDoc Power Publisher. It includes fast, comprehensive searching capabilities; efficient handling of large amounts of data without slowing performance; use of existing source material in a variety of formats; and a production process that enables easy revisions to content and interface. A publishing team can build MSWindows and Macintosh multimedia, interactive, electronic publications with customized presentation formats. Microsoft’s Encarta 94 Multimedia Encyclopedia and Cinemania were created with MultiDoc Power Publisher.

Evaluation packages are available, as are volume discounts, training courses, and support contracts. Introductory price until February 1, 1995 of $4995 for a single platform package, $6995 for a multi-platform package.

For more info, contact Foundation Solutions at 2000 Regency Parkway, Suite 345, Cary, NC 27511. (800) 247-7890, (919) 481-3517 voice, (919) 481-3551 fax. AppleLink Foundation, CompuServe 71303,1314.

World Wide Web Patent Site

Gregory Aharonian runs a web site with 500 MB of PTO & patenting information, including the beginning of an Internet site that provides full searching capabilities of the Patent &Trademark Office’s patent text databases for free. Beyond lots of documents, the current Mosaic site allows you to retreive patent titles in any class/subclass by clicking through a few screens. The service is free. Donations are welcomed. The Mosaic site is at:

http://sunsite.unc.edu/patents/intropat.html

Butt-head Undefined

According to the Media Law Reporter, vol. 22, pp. 2141-2146, the U.S. District Court, Central District of California, has dismissed a libel suit against Apple Computer brought by astronomer Carl Sagan.

In 1993, Apple had a project code-named Carl Sagan. Dr. Sagan made a legal request that they quit doing so. Then, according to the court’s opinion, Apple started calling the project “butt-head astronomer.”

Judge J. Baird writes: “Plantiff’s libel action is based on the allegation that Defendant changed the ‘code name’ on its personal computer from ‘Carl Sagan’ to ‘Butt-Head Astronomer’ after plaintiff had request that Defendant cease use of Plaintiff’s name There can be no question that the use of the figurative term ‘Butt-Head’ negates the impression that Defendant was seriously implying an assertion of fact. It strains reason to conclude that Defendant was attempting to criticize Plaintiff’s reputation or competency as an astronomer. One does not seriously attack the expertise of a scientist using the undefined phrase ‘butt-head.’ Thus, the figurative language militates against implying an assertion of fact ”

“Furthermore, the tenor of any communication of the information, especially the phrase ‘Butt-Head Astronomer,’ would negate the impression that Defendant was implying an assertion of fact.”

SmalltalkAgents Supports 7.5

Quasar Knowledge Systems, (QKS) Inc. announced that the current version of SmalltalkAgents supports newly released Macintosh System 7.5 features. SmalltalkAgents is an interactive, dynamic object-oriented development environment providing powerful application development tools which tightly integrate Macintosh OS functionality

SmalltalkAgents v.1.2 DR/1 supports DoScript AppleEvents, Macintosh Drag & Drop, multi-threaded execution, and the asynchronous SCSI Manager 4.3. Support for AOCE services and QuickTime 2.0 will be included in version 1.2 DR/2.

Technical contact: David Buell, (301) 530-4853, dbuell@qks.com. Marketing contact: Nobuko Isomata, (301) 530-4853, isomata@qks.com

PhoneBridge® Developer’s Kit Available

Collaboration Technologies announces the ‘Pre-Release Developer Version’ of PhoneBridge, the voice telephony platform for all Macintosh software developers. It’s a peripheral device that integrates the functions of a desktop telephone and voice mail system into any Macintosh computer.

A few of PhoneBridge’s features include: integrated headset, caller ID decode, distinctive ring decode, DTMF encode/decode, record and play audio to and from the phone line, over-the-phone speech recognition, text-to-speech generation, and enhanced call progress detection.

Developers can control all hardware and software features of PhoneBridge, and can create applications that include integration of voice mail, computer-controlled answering/ dialing, interactive voice response, and more, into such environments as help desks, telemarketing centers, purchasing departments, and other telephone intensive operations.

PhoneBridge is completely Macintosh Telephony Architecture (MTA) compliant and allows easy integration with existing code, databases, and scripts and is compatible with all popular development environments such as Metrowerks, THINK, MPW, databases, AppleScript, and HyperCard.

The ‘Pre-Release Developer Version’ is available now, and includes feature-complete prototype hardware and the PhoneBridge SDK (still in development) for $500 plus tax and shipping (where applicable). The kit includes a free upgrade to the final product when available.

The commercial version will ship next quarter and for under $300. Bundled software includes an on-screen dialer and a simple answering machine. The SDK includes the PhoneBridge Telephone Tool, PhoneBridgeIAC (for control via Telephony AppleEvents), and sample code for popular development environments. PhoneBridge is compatible with PowerTalk, AppleEvents, AppleScript, Macintosh Drag and Drop, Telephone Manager, and System 7.5.

To place orders or for more information, contact Wayne D. Correia of Collaboration Technologies at (415) 494-6611 voice, (415) 494-6962 fax or send e-mail to info@collab.com.

New Jasik Update

Jasik Designs announces an update to The Debugger & MacNosy. Enhancements include:

• Memory Watch for PowerPC

• Directly change the values of variables, registers and memory in the windows they appear in (just like a real Mac program)

• Set/clear breakpoints by clicking in the left edge of a code window (the cursor changes to a ‘stop’ sign)

• Change window titles by typing into them (Sticky Notes á la Jasik)

• Miscellaneous Human Interface improvements such as a new scroll bar CDEF with double arrows to indicate page scrolling, etc

The update includes many bug fixes and other little changes to make using The Debugger more enjoyable. For more info, contact Jasik Designs at macnosy@netcom.com or (415) 322-1386 voice.

NeoAccess 3.0

NeoLogic announces NeoAccess 3.0, their cross-platform object database engine. NeoAccess provides object persistence as well as the organizational and fast searching capabilities of a high-end database engine, with a memory footprint of under 100K. New features and enhancements include: multi-threading support with object locking, thread and semaphore classes; the ability to dynamically add and remove indices from a class; consolidated indices that organize all objects having a given base class together; support for multiple blobs or part lists in a single object; improved architecture which reduces the need to subclass; even better performance.

The NeoAccess Developer’s Toolkit sells for $749 per developer (plus shipping and tax) with no runtime licensing fees. It includes full source, numerous sample applications, 450+ pages of well-written documentation, and 30 days of online technical support.

For more info, contact NeoLogic Systems, 1450 Fourth St, Suite 12, Berkeley, CA 94710. (510) 524-5897 voice, (510) 524-4501 fax, neologic@holonet.net, CIS 71762,214, AOL NeoLogic, AppleLink NeoLogic