User group Newsletter Editors: Utilize this content in your newsletter -- PLEASE ... reference The User Group Network _ / _ UG Network Channel _ / _ NEWS_/ _ Info Manager The Info Manager is looking for your rumors and tidbits... give him a post! ...or subscribe... see subscription notes below . Info Manager - 5/26/Y2K Wolf Camera; Access Magazine; Spanish iMac; SoftMac 2000; Sony; AltaVista Radio; MacEdition . Wolf Camera One of the biggest camera retailers has signed an agreement with Apple to distribute Macs that are digital camera ready. It is described as similar to the recent deal with the Wiz stores. Wolf Camera's 700 retail stores will sell iMac DV systems in a special bundle with the new Canon ZR-10 camera. Sounds like a good deal for Mac users and video people as well. . Access Thought I would mention something about the weekly Internet magazine that comes with many newspapers around the country. It is primarily about the Internet and talks about how to use the Internet for every day purposes. They do have a computer help columnist who does a good job of supporting PC and Mac questions. However in a recent issue, he did an aside about how Apple was going to make him spend $1000 on a "free game" for his child. It seems the child wants to play Bugdom and it is only available for the Mac. While I think it is only fair that a game is available only on the Mac for a change, I want to thank him for promoting the fact that Apple's machine now has good games. (Though personally I don't think that Bugdom is one I would choose as a way to promote the Mac.) . Hispanic iMac MacOSPlanet says that Apple has announced that all the iMacs will be available with a localized version of Spanish within the US. To order an iMac in a localized Spanish edition you call 1-800-MYAPPLE and speak with Spanish speaking sales representative. (more: http://www.macosplanet.com/index.shtml#spanish) Don't know why they haven't done it sooner. I remember a fellow user group member in Honolulu who booted his wife's MacPlus in 1986 and it came up in Japanese. He said "I'm glad I knew where shut down was on the menu." So why not make it available in any language that is needed. (Especially direct from Apple). I know a lot of Hispanic and Japanese people that could use it. I am sure there are a lot of other "minorities' in the US that could use a computer if they weren't required to know English. What a niche market! . Softmac 2000 Macintouch had a link to Emulators, Inc. to talk about Softmac 2000, the latest Mac emulator for Intel machines. It was released on May 5. It will run System 6 through 8, and emulates 68K Macs. (Power Mac - OS9 and OSX are still under development.) It will run on 486 computers and higher running various flavors of Windows. (Of course, the newer the processor the better). Supports 4-1024 megs of emulator memory. It will read Mac disks directly on the C. It comes with optional OS8/ClarisWorks and PowerPrint CDs. For more detail: <http://www.emulators.com/softmac.htm> . Sony Well, it looks like Bleem! has pushed Sony to far. They announced that they were developing a Playstation emulator for the Sega Dreamcast console. So Sony has now sued for patent infringements on that product as well as its PC and Mac counterpart. The Court of Appeals had just lifted a ruling barring the use of Playstation games in its advertisements. Last week, a court dismissed 7 of 9 charges against Connectix for a similar computer product. Stay tuned for further developments. . AltaVista Radio On 5/22, it was announced that AltaVista Radio launched with more than 150 commercial free stations. While I haven't tried it at 28K or on a machine that wasn't hooked up to a T-1, the Jazz selection is very nice. They claim a minimum of a 28K hookup with a Windows 98/NT machine with IE 4.01 or Netscape 4.0 (or better, not including Netscape 6.0) or a Mac using Netscape 4. However I connected using my IE at work on a Pentium 333 with Win95. As I said, it is nice. Check it out at: http://radio.altavista.com . . Power On Software I will probably regret this as it will lower my chances of being a winner, but Power On Software is running a contest with prizes including a trip to New York Mac World Expo, a Mac G-4, 10 Palm computes and selections from their software lineup. So if you want to sign up go to: http://www.poweronsoftware.com/contest/contestmain.html If you do win something as a result of this notice, please let me know. BTW - some of their products are Now Up-to-Date & Contact; DiskLock; Action Menus; Action WYSIWYG; Action Files; Action GoMac; Action Utilities; Space Doctor; On Guard for Mac and On Guard for Windows and more. They have download version of their software available on the web site if you want to save a few bucks over the hard copy prices. All of these programs are good, although a few of the Action items had some conflict problems in earlier versions. . Quote of the Week: "I always remember an epitaph which is in the cemetery of Tombstone, Arizona. It says, 'Here lies Jack Williams. He done his damnedest.' I think that is the greatest epitaph a man can have when he gives everything that is in him to do the job he has before him. That is all you can ask of him and that is what I have tried to do." -----Harry S. Truman . Kodak & Quicktime Sometime ago, Apple promised that Quicktime cameras would be available that didn't require a computer. On 5/24, the Wall Street Journal reported that Kodak signed a license agreement with Apple in order to produce such a camera for producing video clips. Apple is not saying what Kodak is paying for the license. . Web site of the Week: MacEdition There appears to be a new contender for the top Mac rumors site. Check out www.macedition.com Recent Edtions have included rumors about the next PowerBook.(G3 or G4) and a Mac based cable box. . Shareware of the Week: This is my first stab at talking about shareware in this format. So I thought I would go with something that helps those who don't have a PowerMac. Lestrade 3.0.2. Lestrade is a search engine that uses Sherlock plugins! For Window users, Sherlock is a file and Internet search engine built into Mac OS 8.5 and better. Mac OS 8.5 requires a PowerMac computer. So not only are Windows users left out, but so are those with older Macs. Lestrade will allow Mac 68K and Windows machines to use Sherlock plugs ins for doing Internet searches and works somewhat like Sherlock without some of Apple's interface improvements in some cases, but better than the Sherlock 1.0 interface in others. For example, it does allow sets of plug-ins. You can get it from the publishers web site at: http://lazymountain.webjump.com/ The Windows version is a 786K download and the Mac version is 1663K. It does come with a number of plug-ins. TUCOWS rates it 5 cows! (BTW - if you aren't familiar with TUCOWS as a shareware site, you should be. It has both Mac and PC software. See it at: www.tucows.com ) . pau **** Don't forget For User Group Newsletter Editors there's a TEXT version of this file available for use in your newletter. Any suggestions for topics and reports of rumors are always welcome. Please me know at the address below. Thanks ... the Info Manager invites you to use all or part of his column in your user group newsletter. Please let him know at rumormangr@aol.com and if possible send an electronic copy for the old scrapbook. 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