We've received a short press release from STD this afternoon stating that they are to close for seven days to allow them to minimise losses and review recent market changes.

For those who don't follow the newsgroups, you may have missed the latest update (as I did) to Pete Everett's Kino Amp video player for RISC OS.

KinoAmp is now up to Version 0.32 and is an excellent application that can show off some of the capabiities of a StrongArm Risc PC.

Just to update on the current situation with regard to legal discussions over RISCOS Ltd's licence...

Paul Middleton was apparently travelling when news broke of the Castle Technology statement, but Drobe managed to get hold of a communication from Paul Middleton in which RISCOS Ltd totally refute all allegations. See Drobe's posting of the full statement.

Although this news was posted out by Castle before the statement about RISC OS legal issues, we've not had chance to post both until now, and thought that the legal one should be posted first.

Castle have announced the immediate availability of a new 1GB version of the Panther - The Panther TC.

Following reports here and elsewhere on the net, Castle Technology Ltd. have today issued a statement about the legal dispute between previously unnamed parties.

We have included the statement in full at the bottom of this item.

A new version of my Background Control application is now available for download via the downloads section of Myriscos.

For anyone who's not used the Myriscos Downloads section before, it's as easy as downloading from any other website, only on Myriscos, things are sorted into categories and come from many different sources. Additionally, you as users within the Myriscos community can submit your own downloads for inclusion in our database.

As also reported elsewhere on the net, it is unfortunate that Both Stuart Tyrrell Developments and Virtual Acorn in two independent press releases have temporarily suspended supply of Virtual RiscPC software and A6 / A75 computers until further notice.

Stuart Tyrrell Developments have sent us a press release about their Generic MassFS product for the Simtec USB card. We've not included the entire release but the main highlights can be found below...

Stuart Tyrrell Developments are pleased to announce the immediate availability of an extension of their MassFS mass-storage drivers for the Simtec/STD USB card, MassFS V1.00

Chris Hughes of the Wakefield RISCOS Computer Club has sent us a press release about availability of advance tickets. The release is quoted below:

We are pleased to be able to announce that Advance tickets for this years Wakefield Show being held over the weekend of 15th and 16th May will become available from 26th March.

So you start sending your advance orders NOW!

To celebrate the Festive Season (and the release of ArtWorks 2.1 at the Guildford Show in October) the following Christmas offers are available when ordering the full version of ArtWorks 2 or upgrades from plain ArtWorks 1 between Dec 15th 2003 and Jan 15th 2004:

- Either -

• get £10 (EUR 15) off the regular price AND get a free 64 pagecolour printed manual

- Or -

• get a staggering £25 (EUR 35) reduction off the regular price

This offer is valid for orders with cash/cheque/bank transfer payment only (Sterling cheques and Euro bank transfers).

Online credit card orders during the offer period are at the regular prices but include the free 64 page colour printed manual. The manual is delivered world wide without any extra postage required.

Acorn User and Acorn Publisher have been (partially) merged under the name Qercus. We have to use just the one name in order to ensure its distribution, and availability, throughout newsagents in the UK.

Subscriptions will continue to be available for what was Acorn User:

• Qercus: 12 issues annually (every calendar month) + 1 annual special


• December only offer 45.95 [55.05 Europe & 66.75 World]

Order Qercus (all issues) from Finnybank Ltd 30 Finnybank Rd Sale M33 6LR or ring 0161 969 9820

Finnybank Ltd earlier announced that it has purchased Acorn User magazine from Tau Press and promised more details of the format of the new magazine. Finnybank now own both Acorn Publisher and Acorn User magazine and whilst it might be tempting to simply merge the two publications there are subscribers to Acorn Publisher who may not be interested in taking a general RISC OS magazine.

Acorn Publisher will consequently continue as it is at present and will be produced every two months as in the past using the same team of contributors as before. UK Subscription rates will remain unchanged but there will be a very slight increase in the Europe and World rates to help pay for the postage of the additional issue of the magazine that will be sent to all subscribers.

At a time when there seems to be a divergence in most things RISC OS related, eg two operating systems, two USB stacks, etc Finnybank have bucked the trend! It was announced today, that Finnybank, the company behind Acorn Publisher magazine have added to their portfolio of magazines by buying Acorn User from Tau Press.

Finnybank Ltd and Tau Press today announced the sale of Acorn User magazine. Tau Press have been responsible for publishing Acorn User for the last five years, mainly under the editorship of Steve Turnbull. The magazine now passes into the hands of Finnybank Ltd who currently produce Acorn Publisher magazine.

Steve Turnbull from Tau Press commented

"I am very happy that John has agreed to take over the publication of Acorn User. With Tau Press moving into new areas we won't be able to devote all our energies to it and a change in publisher always generates new ideas and new viewpoints. You can be sure that I will continue to use my own RISC OS machines and I think we are all in for some interesting times."

John Cartmell, editor of Acorn Publisher magazine, confirmed that it was Finnybank's intention to continue to produce Acorn User as a monthly magazine available from newsagents or by subscription. There would be changes to the magazine but the best of the current contents would be retained and Steve Turnbull has been invited to continue to write for the new magazine. Readers can also expect to see new contributors and articles, with favourites returning from some years ago

IC Software has launched a new web-site containing details of their current RISC OS printed manuals, as well as those which might be produced in the near future.

IC Software's first manual was a 64-page Artworks 2 manual, produced in association with MW Software, the developer of RISC OS' leading vector drawing program. It is hoped that future collaborations will result in the production of other paper-based documentation, including a much needed, up-to-date Photodesk manual.

On one of our fellow RISC OS portals over the weekend (Drobe), we've noticed an interesting article describing the use of RISC OS for entertaining the masses with music.

As reported on other RISC OS portals, RISC OS Ltd. have released a patch to the RISC OS 4.02 boot sequence that, fixes issues with use of the latest Toolbox modules. The patch also includes a fix for Select users who've had problems switching to and from Softloading of Select / RISC OS 4.

Spellings Computer Services Ltd, the team who brought you Aemulor, the 26-bit emulator for Iyonix PC, are pleased to announce details of their next project.

"Cino"

The project itself consists of three major parts.
1. Software DVD Player
2. DVD filing system
3. Digital surround sound output