Topic: Announcements

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.

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.

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

After much arm twisting, and support from the RISC OS community, I am pleased to announce the availability of the "Download Edition" of our highly acclaimed font management software for 26/32-bit RISC OS computers from OS 3.10 onwards.

We've just received this press release from Castle Technology. Castle are offering a free 4-port hub with every new Iyonix ordered in September and October, see full press release below:

From the comp.sys.acorn.announce newsgroup

RISCOS Ltd

Press Release 2nd September 2003

RISCOS Ltd and Virtual Acorn have today signed an Agreement to allow for the distribution of RISC OS 4 ROM images with the Virtual Acorn range of Emulators.

Martin Wuerthner has sent out this press release (quoted in full below).

This could mean that RISC OS Printing could be given a new lease of life. Leveraging off work done in the Linux world under GPL, Martin is looking at developing a new RISC OS printer driver based on the Linux gimp-print system.

Castle Technology have put together an FAQ about their recent purchase our favourite OS RISC OS.

In a nutshell,

• RISCOS Ltd can still produce RO4 & Select


• Castle want Select for RO5


• Castle can grant new licences for RO (for new areas so as not to get the backs up of existing licencees)


• Tematic deal with all the new embedded RO versions

For the full low-down visit the FAQ

Just spotted on our fellow RISC OS news sites (Iconbar and Drobe), Castle and Pace have done a deal, with Castle buying the rights to RISC OS and Pace will receive technical support for their existing products which use RISC OS.

Full details of the deal can be found in the Castle Press release

The impact of this move will no doubt have a major effect within the market....

We've just received a press release from Mike Williams on behalf of Castle Technology, announcing today, the availabilty of support for USB storage devices for the IYONIX pc.

From today you will be able to see, once registered and logged in, three new news feeds on the site. Those of Drobe Launchpad, RISC OS C Programming Info and the Unix Porting Project which should nicely add to the mix of news and information already available on this site and the news feeds we also carry from RISCOS.org, The IconBar and Acorn Arcade

Simtec have recently been updating their USB stack and this is now up to version 1.42.

Since exhibiting at the recent Wakefield Show, Microdigital have resumed their web site's NewsDesk feature (apparently by popular demand).

I am trying to find all the old and un supported commercial software that has been produced for the RISC OS platform over the years in an effort to keep this software alive.

I am currently able to offer full copies of Enterprise Accounts with printed manuals to any one that wants this software and I am looking for other packages to bring to the RISC OS community.

I am thinking about all those companies that have left(?) the RISC OS scene such as OAK, MINERVA, CC, etc they had or have wonderful software that can still be of great use to users at the right price.

If you have or know any one that has the rights to packages that are no longer published then please get in touch with me and maybe we can help RISC OS users together.
Thank you
Robert McCann

Martin Wuerthner has sent us a press release about the forthcoming ArtWorks 2.

First benchmarks of the current development version of ArtWorks 2 running on Castle's XScale-powered Iyonix computer have shown stunning results beyond expectation.

Our April meeting is the club's 20th Anniversary, and to celebrate the metting will be a little different with a couple of videos and a range of computers from the past to wonder at. Rick Sterry, one of our founder members, will tell us a little story!

After André's email to inform us of some updated software, I thought it was time that I announced my own little application (!BgrndCtrl).