#Commodore News
106 messages in this thread
The following was posted to USENET by Mark Brown, former editor of .info
magazine.
. ————————
. From: mbrown@icaen.uiowa.edu (Mark Brown)
. Subject: THE GOOD NEWS – COMMODORE STILL OPEN FOR BUSINESS
. Date: 7 Apr 1994 20:53:56 GMT
.
. I just got off the phone with A Person at Commodore, and though there is
. still much that is up in the air, I came away from the conversation with
. several items of GOOD NEWS concerning Commodore's current situation: .
. (1) They are still answering the phones at Commodore. The doors aren't
. closed.
.
. (2) Everyone is still at work. Though cash flow problems keep some
things . from happening, everyone is still punching the clock and
working on . projects, as always.
.
. (3) #2 above, includes the AAA chipset. Work proceeds, albeit at a .
slightly slower pace. Problems are being resolved, etc. The work is .
not "Cancelled" as some rumormongers have asserted here on Usenet. .
. (4) CBM employees were paid last Friday, as usual. So normal business
goes . on, even though budgets are tightened.
.
. (5) Commodore has been meeting with creditors this week to work out
deals on . the money they owe. Creditors and Commodore are still
talking and still . negotiating. So it's not the end yet.
.
Now, my own observations: Bankruptcy and reoorganization still remain GOOD
options for Commodore. A reorganization would provide TWO important
advantages: (a) protection from creditors, and (b) new leadership.
Commodore is a GOOD prospect for bankruptcy protection because of a
couple of factors. First, it is easy to prove that current management did
NOT run the company in the best, most businesslike manner, to assure good
sales and profits. Second, there is a good,
proven potential for Amigas and CD32 machines, AND Commodore is holding
onto a multimillion dollar contract with Hewlett-Packard for set-top boxes
that must be fulfilled. This means GUARANTEED income, plus good POTENTIAL
income. Both are important when the courts look at the potential of the
company.
In short, this may turn out to be the BEST thing that ever happened to
Commodore. There are still a lot of "ifs" involved, but keep your fingers
crossed. The fat lady hasn't sung yet!
-Mark R. Brown
former Editor
.info magazine
Steve,
Thanks for relaying the message from Mark Brown. Gee, I wondered what had
happened to Mark lately.
—Betty
Well, an interesting thing happened today…
I went to buy more CBM stock, and guess what.. CBM stock was no longer
listed… and I don't mean pulled by the NYSE.. I mean no longer listed at all!
The reason 'change of corporate ownership'. Commodore has been sold! I did
not believe this until one of the remaining guys at Commodore called me up to
ask about EMPLANT… he admitted that CBM had been sold, but not even he knew
who purchased it. I am suppose to make a presentation to 'somebody' shortly
about using the EMPLANT's technology in future machines…
I called a dozen different brokers today… they all had the same info…
'change of corporate ownership', no stocks are available for sale and none are
being accepted for sale.
Jim,
"He admitted that CBM had been sold, but not even he knew who purchased it."
I did a voice-call with a collegue of mine who ussually knows things about the
Amiga very new, but even he didn't _know_. But he did have some names he
guesses and hopes for, HP.
Ithad to do with the deal HP and CBM seemed to have made half a year ago. He
thinks this deal was made because HP needes a cheap and powerfull lowend
platform/chipset for the NextStep OS.
So the scenario could be :
"HP has bought CBM so they can use (parts of) the Amiga to create a lowend
NexStep computer or platform. Hopefully they'll implement NextStep for the
Amiga-platform.
Later they'll bring out a new Amiga, lowend's but also highend's using one or
more AAA-chips to create stunning graphics, 24 or 64 bit ( at least that's what
i understood about AAA)."
What you think, would this be, could this be, do we want this to be.
Anyhow soon we;ll know more about it.
To support the Amiga, one could buy shares, personally i think about some more
hardware, for example the anounced CD-extension for the A1200. If only there
would be a EMPLANT for the A1200 which could than turn the Amiga into many
things. For example a PHILIPS CD-I compatible machine.
Gave you any ideas ?
Good luck
Hans Keesom, Amsterdam
Hans,
Canon owns the rights to the NeXTstep hardware, not HP.
Don
Hi !
Talk here (Germany) circles very much around HP – but that they are only
interetsed in AAA and NOT Commodore as such. In any case how can you "buy"
(i.e. pay money for) a company with over 100 Mil $ negative net worth !
My guess is that certain parts of Commodore (e.g. Commodore Germany & maybe
also Commodore UK) will be sold off as entities. The Commodore Holding company
would sell the copyright on the technology to a market major (e.g. HP, Sony or
someone like that). The new owners of Commodre in Germany/U.K. for instance
would then pay only license fees to the states but apart from that be free to
manufacture and market on a local basis. On this basis Commodore Germany could
be sold as a going concen.
I expect an announcement in the next few days and am not overly worried – GTI
is
very much Amiga/CD32 committed and will remain so.
I see no point in buying shares however – the banks come first in any sale of
assets and I doubt if shareholders will find anthying left over for thm after
such a company break-up..
Regards
Richard Small
GTI GmbH
You'll be interested to know that I heard the word HP more than once
yesterday. It was told to me by someone who is might now (not sure if he
does) that Commodore had three offers before them this week.
1. HP
2. NewTek
3. (He couldn't remember the third)
I just sorta thought it was the HP rumor regenerated. I guess we shall
soon know.
-mark=
Otto Pilot Engaged..
Well, HP's got the bucks!
I don't see how Newtek could, but you never know!
Anyhow, if someone bought C=, then there'll be big changes ahead. As to
wether it's good or bad, your guess is as good as mine!
btw, it's sounds awfully supicious that he didn't remeber the 3rd
contender, maybe that's the buyer.
Bob Comer — Cruising the nets on Autopilot!
Cheyenne, Wyoming U.S.A.
This could be Great news…..
And maybe NOT.
Our stock has been relatively worthless for weeks now, it couldn't get
much worse. But it could get better. Pleeeeease.!!!!!
….John
Jim,
I'd change brokers if I were you. CBU is was from trading on the NYSE all
week. It was trading OTC. There was very heavy activity yesterday (300k+
shares traded … very heavy for CBU, but no biggie as there are 33M
outstanding shares).
The quote for yesterday's closing is …
CBU 0.875 – 0.125 on 4/08 on 303600 shares
Type "QUO CBU" at the Forum ! prompt or GO QQUOTES and see for yourself.
As I'd be interested in buying stocks as well could someone please
enlighten me what exactly "trading OTC" is? I understand this means "over
the counter" but what is this in respect to "normal" trading which, AFAIK,
still is not happening to CBU-stock.
Thanks,
Ottmar Roehrig from Hamburg, Germany
Ottmar,
"OTC" (Over The Counter) usually means that you buy directly from the
seller (via phone, Reuters or whatever medium) as opposed to exchange
trades where an official broker matches sell and buy orders in a regulated
market (for the limited time of the exchange's trade hours), so there's
usually a kind of "fair" price for exchange traded stocks (or a "fixed"
hypothetic price if no orders could be matched). As customers generally
are not allowed to trade at an exchange they still have to employ the
services of their broker or bank even for OTC trades. Interbank trading
before and after exchange hours is OTC even for stocks traded at the
exchange. Many stocks which don't fulfil the requirements for exchange
trading can only be bought/sold OTC…
// Chris coming in from Germany
\X/ on AutoPilot 1.061……….
Thanks!
Ottmar Roehrig from Hamburg, Germany
>>CBU is was from trading on the NYSE all week.<<
Not according to my broker, or QQuotes. CBU was not traded WED-FRI on the
NYSE, and the /CONEWS stories associated with QQUOTES also said that CBU
was not being traded on the NYSE.
My broker (who isn't exactly genius) couldn't find a trade on the NYSE,
Boston Exchange, Chicago Exchange, or the Pacific Exchange. I can't find
it trading anywhere.
What that meant to say was "CBU was held from trading on the NYSE all week".
It was trading on the Boston Exchange, Pacific Exchange, and others, just not
on the NYSE.
Charles Hill (I believe it was Charles) said he was buying stock last week. You
might ask him how he went about it.
I believe I read somewhere that C= stock is being traded on NASDAQ but does not
yet have a ticker symbol. Something to look into?
CBU is the ticker
I think 🙂
You need to tell the goons that run the Executive News Service as Commodore
stock has been listed as "not traded" for the last two weeks!!!
Lee Bosch
Lee,
It hasn't traded on the NYSE since the 25th of March. It has traded in other
exchanges.
Hi Steve,
I had a phone confirmation from my broker on a purchase of Commodore stock on
April 5th at $.875… Also, he has sent me written confirmation of that order.
Symbol CBU, CUSIP #202660106000.
Also, although I have several days of "NA" (Not Available) from my data
source (Dial Data), I have been getting daily quotes on Commodore stock.
– Dave
You can get daily quotes here on CIS. I get the opening quote in the AM when I
first log on and then the closing quote after 4 PM EDT. Because the stock is
not being traded on the NYSE I don't get mid-day quotes.
At any Forum ! prompt you can type QUO CBU and get latest update.
CBU today traded on the NYSE finally.
Trading was suspended once (twice possibly) due to a lack of SELLERS on
the floor!
Looks like someone may be snatching up shares for a possible take-over?
Chris – Fast and Low on my '020!
…Is it significant that my spell checker doesn't know "Intel"?
"CBU today traded on the NYSE finally."
Interesting. Sounds like they got a few bucks in the bank to meet the minimum
qualifications and that there may not be any "change of corporate ownership" in
the works. Also, they still have the problem of not having an opinion letter on
their last audit, but that could be overcome.
"Trading was suspended once (twice possibly) due to a lack of SELLERS on the
floor!"
At its current price, it doesn't make much sense for anyone whose ridden it
down this far to sell. The difference between 7/8ths and a total loss is
negligible. Stocks priced this low will often bounce upward a time or two
before settling into oblivion. And sometimes they take a real run upward.
"Looks like someone may be snatching up shares for a possible take-over?"
I'm sure you know more about this than anyone anywhere, but if this big
snatch is going on, how come the prices haven't risen? Maybe I missed it, but
where's the trading volume that would indicate such activity?
I know you know everything, but in my experience such moves are accompanied
by upward pressure on the stock price as the supply of available shares
diminishes.
Jerry
Chris,
CBU was not traded on the NYSE on 14 April 1994. It was traded on the
Boston, Chicago, and other exchanges as it has been all along. It closed
the day unchanged with 215k shares traded … much higher than the average
of the last couple of weeks (30k) but hardly a "snatching up" as there are
33M shares issued.
-sja
BTW ….
CBU 0.875 unchanged at 4:07 on 35900 shares
Steve,
I'd check that closely if I were you. If you go ENS and get the news
on CBU you will find the NYSE saying that CBU.N will not be traded and the
last price was 3.
Vic,
I've said many times that CBU has been suspended from trading on the NYSE since
the 28th of March. It is being traded on smaller exchanges. If you want to
buy, see your broker. Just because it is listed (and held) on the NYSE does
not mean you can't buy or sell. Volume today was 30k+ shares.
So someone finally picked up Commodore. Sure hope we find out who
soon. Anyhow, if they want you to make a presentation, chances are the
Amiga has been picked up by someone who would like to see it continue on.
Peter M. D'Angelo
Cruising Over NY on AutoPilot
Change of corporate ownership? Whoa! Any guess who might have gotten
them?
I've heard the same news was spread around at the LA Toaster User Group on
Saturday April 9.
The latest information I have is that Phillips has made an offer to purchase
Commodore, and Commodore management has until the end of this week to respond.
JP
> The latest information I have is that Phillips has made an offer to …
Nope. Wouldn't mind doing it, but I doubt I could afford it. Perhaps that Dutch
company, Philips, might be interested. <chuckle>
-larry
<g>
Me, I think you should buy it anyway. :^)
–Ben
…via AutoPilot
"The latest information I have is that Phillips has made an offer to purchase
Commodore, and Commodore management has until the end of this week to respond."
Now that is interesting. With it's own technology facing significant
difficulties in the marketplace (after what some claim is a billion dollar
investment), why would Phillips want to add a competitive line?
Phillips' cashflow is huge, so they don't need it for that reason. Their
distribution in Europe is strong, so adding Commodore's distribution network
would provide no great advantage.
In the US, neither Phillips nor Commodore are very strong, so there's no
advantage there.
Any ideas, Jim?
Jerry
Jerry,
Buy out the competion, Use their technology, hedge bets, tax writeoff,
etc. All have been done in the past.
Don
CD-32 is competition against CDI… if you can't beat the competition, buy it!
"CD-32 is competition against CDI… if you can't beat the competition, buy
it!"
Could be. But do you think it's logical that you want the problem of
positioning two essentially different technologies in the same marketplace when
you haven't done a good job with the first (CD-I)? It makes a perverse kind of
sense, but I have my doubts on that one.
Jerry
Maybe they are dropping CD-I in favor of new technology? CD32 would be a
good starter for a CD-I 2 system.
Chris – Fast and Low on my '020!
…Is it significant that my spell checker doesn't know "Intel"?
To get rid of their competition for pennies on the dollar. If the buying
company can make it worthwhile for the management team, then the
management will convince the shareholders that the sale is a good thing.
Then they'll start dumping bodies. I know from first hand experience.
-Jerry
"To get rid of their competition for pennies on the dollar."
Now that makes a lot of sense. In Europe, particularly, where Commodore is so
much stronger.
Good thinking, Jerry.
Jerry
Correct me if I'm wrong, but my understanding is that as a corporation,
CBM is not management's to sell, but rather the stockholder's. Any offer
would have to be approved by a shareholder vote.
– Joe
P.S. How've you been, Jim? Congrats on VTU! What a magnificent monster
you've turned it into!
I believe you are correct. It is interesting, however, to see that the
last shareholder vote contained something about turning the approval
process from the shareholders to the board of directors. I believe it
was voted down.
My sources say that Mehdi (with Phillips offer in hand) is talking to another
party, looking for a sweeter offer. No specifics on who the "other party"
is…supposedly an "international distributor." That's the latest info (rumor)
that I have… Stay tuned.
JP
P.S. Hi Joe Lowery. Longtime no see/talk. Hope all is well with you. Gimme a
call sometime.
Thanks for posting that info, Jim. Should be interesting to see what
happens…..
Joe,
Management has to accept the offer and then present it to the
stockholders….unless it's a hostile takeover.
Don
Joe,
sure, it's the stockholders' decision whether they want to sell their
shares… Of cource you can't just buy a joint-stock company – you have to
make an offer to the shareholders to buy the shares of the company from
them. Now, if the management of C= had enough shares to provide control
over the company they could of course decide to sell those to another
company or whoever at an agreed price. Thus, the other party had
effectively "bought" the company…
// Chris coming in from Germany
\X/ on AutoPilot 1.061……….
That's a pretty wild rumor, Jim. Phillips has its own share of financial
troubles, although obviously they have deeper pockets than Commodore right now
(heck, you and I do too 🙂 ). I don't quite understand the synergy of
Phillips and Commodore although I guess Phillips figures CD32 is better and
more successful than CDI (which is true).
Paul,
CD-i has sold way over 300K units and over a million discs… to end users. Its
titles (especially forthcoming ones) are said to blow all competition away in
depth of authoring (depends on your viewpoint and needs, of course). And
Philips is doing very well financially these days after slimming down.
So I doubt that Philips figures CD32 is "better and more successful", and I
can't think of any reason they'd want Commodore except perhaps because it was
such a steal they couldn't resist it. Although they are some Amiga fans at
Philips, so maybe those guys want to see it survive. I hope so.
kev
I heard the same thing…that Phillips offered Commodore $11 million for thier
CD32 stuff and Commodore said "no…all or nothing, not just CD32". Word is
that Phillips wanted to kill CD32.
-Chas
How would filing for Bankruptcy force Commodore to change their management? I
would rather see Newtek buy C=, after all, Newtek is the only reason the Amiga
didn't die years ago.
ps. I miss the 'INFO' magazine
rich
Richard,
I don't agree that Newtek is the only reason the Amiga didn't die. There
are many reasons the Amiga hasn't died.. SCALA is one of them. There are
many others like the folks who gave us Pro Video Post, etc.
The Amiga survives because it solves unique business problems. Not
because of Newtek.
-mark=
Otto Pilot Engaged..
I'm not upon bankruptcy law, so I don't know the answer to that.
Steve
Richard,
Here in th UK (and the rest of Europe) the Amiga is NOT heavily used for
video, therefore NewTek have little to do with it's success. In fact the
games developers are the ones who have supported the platform, it is also
the reason why CD32 was released here first and is selling well.
Kevin 68030/40 A1200…
Flying AutoPilot from Surrey in the UK
I may be wrong about Newtek being the sole reason for the Amiga's survival, but
here in the U.S. they have to be the main reason. I heard that Cd-32's were
doing well in Europe. I find it strange that Commodore could lose so much
money when they were selling so much hardware? C= needs a serious management
change.
rich
Rich,
Here here, I couldn't agree more, it seems as though the only profitable
C= comapanies are the European ones which ironically have been strongest
in the games market, yet I know LOTS of Ami users who rarely play games –
myself included, although the wife is partial to a game or two 😉 of
Tetris especially…
Kevin 68030/40 A1200…
Flying AutoPilot from Surrey in the UK
Hi
Here in Germany we have seen the amiga move over the years from being a
predominantly games machine to one used mainly for application software.
(escpecially in German speaking Europe there is a whole range of VERY GOOD
productivity software which never sees the light of day in the UK let alone the
States – one exception which proves the rule being the excellent Disk Expander
which Tony at Power Computing is now selling in the UK – theres plenty more
where that came from !!)
At the same time the PC has moved sharply into the consumer market with many
now buying PC's "just to play games with". We have many customers who use a PC
for games and the Amiga for more serious stuff !!
By the way I heard that Commodore was shutting their US Warehouse at the end
of this week – have any of the Stateside dealers got confirmation on this ?
Still no announcement seen regarding the European operations – they are still
delivery product here !!
Regards to all
Richard
Commodore hasn't been using any or much of the warehousing facilities in
WC for months. Of course, they are still using office space in the same
building, but have sublet the rest.
— Dale L. Larson, Intangible Assets Manufacturing
— INTERNET:dale@iam.com
Thanks for that info.
Commodores warehouse in germany is operating normally – we had a delivery
yesterday and are expecting at least 2 more major deliveries this week.
A number of dealers here are trying to push as much product through for
Commodore as possible. This thing has got to work !!!!
regards
Richard
Whether Commodore warehouses product itself is really irrelevant to the
health of the company. In the U.S. product just goes straight to
distributors now rather than stopping in WC first. Can be more efficient
anyway…
— Dale L. Larson, Intangible Assets Manufacturing
— INTERNET:dale@iam.com
That reminds me a lot of a chatr I had with an Electronic Arts person at a show
in 1986. He said something like "If it wasn't for EA, the Amiga would be
nothing."
Well, that's just ego speaking in his case, and basically, anyone who thinks
that any one company is responsible for the survival of the machine, is
ndulging in much the same thing.
If you do a lot of video stuff, and hang around with people who do likewise, it
is not surprising that you might think the way you do. I can assure you that
NewTek and/or their products are far from the minds of most of the Amiga owners
I know, and the interests expressed by those same folks are as varied as the
people themselves are.
-larry
Larry…
Exactly! If EA, or Newtek for that matter, had never entered the market, then
someone else might have with similar products. There is no way to know for
certain. Sometimes the existence of strong products in any given field will
scare others with similar (or better) products to not even try, and thusly a
monopoly develops.
But I do believe that EA and Newtek both were major contributors. As were
Gold Disk, PP&S, ASDG, and a bunch of others.
Jim
I have no qualms calling EA or NewTek, or any one of a number of other
companies, major contributors. In fact, there are even a number of people I
would place in the same category.
-larry
Hi
Good news !!!!!!!
We got a letter from Commodore Germany today introducing the new head of sales
who is a very experienced person with a lot of experience by the Nintendo
European Distribution Company. This guy has just been hired and is already in
place !!!
Either he's from another planet or he knows something we don't.
I surmise the latter
This is NOT rumour but fact !!
Amiga lives on …………
Richard
William Hawes; John Tobbes… people like that. :^)
–Ben
…via AutoPilot
You should include GVP in that list. They're far and away the biggest Amiga
developer.
I don't think GVP is the largest Amiga developer… according to their sales
report (obtained 2nd hand), we did substantially more business with just
EMPLANT alone than all of GVPs products combined. We sold over 10,000 EMPLANT
boards in the last 90 days, and I don't see it slowing down even if CBM goes
completely under… all the more reason to keep your Amiga instead of having to
fork out more money for another complete system. 🙂
>>We sold over 10,000 EMPLANT boards in the last 90 days<<
Jim,
Holy smoke. Where are all of these people going to find the ROM's?
Congratulations on such phenomenal success!
I was asked for up to 399$ today!
Rafa <Motorola Inside>
…via AutoPilot 1.061 now from Berlin
10,000 Emplant boards in ninety days. Very impressive, you should all
be congratulated.
I guess that sort of success carries its own rewards, eh?
-Vree in VA
Will the EMPLANT support the 486 instruction set anytime soon!!! Just
wondering…. Catya,
I don't suppose an A1200 version is anywhere close to done is it?
Chris – Fast and Low on my '020!
…Is it significant that my spell checker doesn't know "Intel"?
Congratulations. I'm amazed, frankly.
Jim,
I'm amazed (although, not entirely surprised)! I hope you keep doing as
well, in whatever circumstances are to come!
Robb
Yikes! Better get me an Emplant! I heard nothing but good things!
Congrats!
TJ
>just EMPLANT alone than all of GVPs products combined. We sold over
>10,000 EMPLANT boards in the last 90 days, and I don't see it slowing
PLEASE ELABORATE
Which country got the 9998 that wasnt sold in Norway?
Geir Molstad, FAMO as, Fax +47 22357797
Last I knew, we had sold around 50 EMPLANT boards to Norway (direct ordering
from UU). I know we now have a dealer there, but I do not know the status of
them.
We have sold many thousands of boards to the UK and Germany, with the rest
being sold in the US (mostly to Hollywood, TV stations, and higher end
businesses).. I think we have only sold 5 or 6 thousand boards to the general
public since EMPLANT's release, but that number appears to be growing rapidly.
With more than 4 million Amigas that EMPLANT can work in, selling 10,000 boards
is a very small percentage.
I just think the problem generally (excepting Commodore's own
marketing/management problems) springs from the fact that the Amiga in
many ways was ahead of its time; the marketplace wasn't quite ready. E.g.,
A-Squared's LIVE! boards handled real-time digitized video in full-screen
color back in the late '80s, but now (I believe) the operation is defunct,
just as boards of this type are just surfacing on PCs and Macs, with Amiga
second-generation stuff promised. Sad. OTOH, I know LIVE! boards were put
to good use and probably still are being used, just not by enough people.
What you say is absolutely true. It's DEFINITELY true that products make a
difference, but no one product makes all the difference. Obviously the Toaster
hasn't made THAT much of a difference or Commodore US would be much stronger.
On one hand, you say no one product can make much difference… on the other,
you say that if the Toaster was strong enough, Commodore US would be saved.
Which is it?
If the Toaster hasn't made much difference, then which products or applications
have made a difference?
The Toaster, while phenominally successful for NewTek, has not been
sufficiently successful to help Commodore in US in what they would consider a
significant enough way. The Toaster is definitely a big fish in the very small
US sales pond.
I see, you define "importance" as how a product has directly influenced
Commodore's sales figures. I've heard guesses that NewTek moved roughly a
thousand Toasters a month on a regular basis, and since CBM was shipping XXX
numbers of 2000/3000/4000s, we can somehow say that the Toaster wasn't
influential if the ratio is small. I don't think it's that clear-cut.
I think Amiga dealers would give a different answer… iif it wasn't for the
videots who continued to buy other software packages at a regular rate, I think
a lot of them would have dropped the Amiga products a long time ago. Is there
more profit selling GVP accelerators or $20 games?
So can you think of other products or companies that you'd rank as "important"?
"I've heard guesses that NewTek moved roughly a thousand Toasters a month on a
regular basis, and since CBM was shipping XXX numbers of 2000/3000/4000s, we
can somehow say that the Toaster wasn't influential if the ratio is small. I
don't think it's that clear-cut."
I think it was Computer World or one of the other trade magazines that listed
Commodore's total shipments as 937,000 machines of all kinds for 1993.
There was no breakdown by type.
Jerry
I guess you're still not seeing my point. Of the total number of Amigas sold
in the US, the Toaster has been a VERY significant factor. I think we agree on
this. My point though, is that the total number sold is STILL SMALL compared
to what Commodore sells in Europe, for example.
One more thing – if NewTek sold 1000 Toaster a month, which is GREAT for
NewTek, that means, at the very best case, that this causes Commodore to sell
12000 Amigas a year. Big deal.
ICP, of course!
Trent Johnson
ReAnimators
(Syndesis groupies :-> )
Someone complimented me the other day by saying "Well, you've carved out a
niche, and you outlasted Commodore." 🙂
Tis true!
TJ
I've noticed that Toaster User is easer to find than Amiga World.
-Vree in VA
NO KIDDING!
AmigaWorld here (Southern Pines NC) makes it about 2 days on the stand.
(10+ copies), Toaster User lasts 2 months!
I'm still trying to get the latest AW!
Chris – Fast and Low on my '020!
…Is it significant that my spell checker doesn't know "Intel"?
VideoToasterUser has a larger circulation than AmigaWorld. VTU should not be on
the newstand for more than a month because resellers normally take unsold
copies off and return the cover for credit I believe. At least that's the way
it used to work.
We have a nice PageStream 3.0 ad in the next issue of VTU.
Michael @ Soft-Logik Publishing Corp.
"we have a nice PageStream 3.0 ad in the next issue of VTU"
Hm. Well, <he said in quiet voice> when can I order my upgrade, or new
product, or whatever? PS 3.0 is not something I'll do without, based on my
experiences with PS 2.0…
Can you say, yet?
–Ben
…via AutoPilot
You can order your upgrade now. You can't get it this week or next, and
probably not the week after that. Past then, who knows…
— Dale L. Larson, Intangible Assets Manufacturing
— INTERNET:dale@iam.com
No, we're just not ready. We'll never say one day that on the xxth day of the
month we'll be shipping. One day we'll just magically start shipping. We do
have a new target date, of course, but we're loathe to publicize it because
people will bug us if we miss it. End of May is our best guess right now.
We've got boxes stacked to the ceiling, all nicely folded. And shipping is
stuffing literature envelopes and labelling disks. Generally, we're doing
everything possible so that when the disks come out of the duplicators we can
stick them in boxes and ship them out the door.
But in the meantime, we have cool PageStream3 T-Shirts! 😉
Michael @ Soft-Logik Publishing Corp.
It may be a product of our WB outlet. They recently had AW show up for a
week, only to have it replaced the following week with a newer edition!
Chris – Fast and Low on my '020!
…Is it significant that my spell checker doesn't know "Intel"?
Well, one thing I can tell you for certainty, Commodore is NOT responsible for
the length the Amiga has lived.
rich
That may change since Newtek is now actively supporting the new standards
converter box (NTSC, PAL, SECAM, whatever) from that third party company
whose name escapes me — Prime Image, I think. If Newtek thinks it can
work with the Toaster, that means in effect a PAL Toaster market.
Ron,
You are right, the Ami is breaking into the Video market over here at
last, although the convertor box does not offer the same quality as a
Toaster in nativ NTSC mode so it's still regarded as a halfway house over
here apparently (I've had no experience with the Toaster so cannot comment
on this, I'm only saying what I've heard and read)
Kevin 68030/40 A1200…
Flying AutoPilot from Surrey in the UK
Not in Australia.
Newtek dont work here 🙂
PS How about a PAL toaster.
–> Television without lights is Bad Radio 🙂
–> WES TATTERS, BRIZ 31, AUSTRALIA –<
Actually, the latest issue of Video Toaster User has an article about an
agreement between NewTek and Prime Image, which should make PAL Toast a
reality…
Trent
The last I heard they were walking about doing some sloppy standards
conversion.
Ie not building a real PAL toaster be just doing some conversions. If
this is true knowing the problems inherrent in the PAL -> NTSC process I
guess I'll have to wait for OPAL Vision.
Hmmm no Lightware though – sigh . . .
–> Television without lights is Bad Radio 🙂
–> WES TATTERS, BRIZ 31, AUSTRALIA –<
According to the article, it really isn't a PAL version of the Toaster.
Apparently Prime Inage has developed an add-on card. (whether it's a poor
standards converter, I don't know)
Trent/ReAnimators