Last Updated: Sunday, March 8, 1998
The Rhode Island Apple Group -- Rhode Island's First Apple Computer Club! P.O.Box 6081, Providence, RI 02940-6081

| Dec 97 | Jan 98 |

Thoughts from the big chair...


 When I wrote last month's newsletter I was preparing to go to California for some new equipment training. Well, "sunny California" it wasn't and we had rain and floods and mud slides all week long. While en route with plenty of time to read I saw a news article that Apple Corp. has just finalized a deal in which CompUSA will be the only Apple authorized reseller. This will solidify the Apple "Store within a store" concept, but will limit the Mac's exposure in other retail outlets like Sears, Circuit City and Office Max. I must say that the displays in these stores is very limited and not a service to Apple and the Apple community. While all this was going on Apple was reporting lots of good news like a big profit, monster sales of OS 8 and the new Power Mac G3's. I think that the good news will continue to flow out of Cupertino with even faster systems that will break the 1 Gigahertz speed zone.

An interesting sight on my way to California was the fact that at the Green Airport all the security systems were linked to Power Macs. I walked up to one of the security guards and asked about the system and she said that their entire system is based on the Mac and that it handles all the jobs needed and was user friendly. So the next time you're in the Green Airport check out the security desk, but don't act suspiciously or they'll ask you why you are so interested!

At the last main meeting we saw a demonstration of MacInTax by Intuit. I was so impressed with it that I went out and bought it! Now all I have to do is collect my documents and get started. At the Apple II SIG I gave a demonstration of Bottom Line which is a pretty powerful financial management program for the Apple II's. I used it for the last 4 years on the Laser and on the Apple II GS and the reports really helped me do the taxes in record time. Now that I've gone over to the Power Mac I hope that these programs will also help me stay organized (but I still have to get files out of the Apple II).

Speaking of the Apple II GS, we are starting a new SIG just for the GS people. We have a couple of "Power GS" users who are interested and they have selected the 3rd Saturday of the month for their meeting. Stay tuned for details. Among the new things on the GS's are the AppleWorks 5.0 and the Spectrum Internet Suite (that allows limited graphics and sound from the Internet and the world wide web). I also saw the Apple II emulator "Bernie II the Rescue" is now available for ordering. It allows a Power Mac to emulate a full Apple IIGS. I could then run all my software and not worry about what system it belongs to.

At our next main meeting we will be demonstrating the newest from ClarisWorks - version 5. It should be an interesting meeting for all the Mac users since most systems come with some version of ClarisWorks on it.

Hope to see you at some meeting over the next month, and bring a friend!

John Gentile

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