Acorn News Service Newsletter
Issue: 251 (17 May 2009)
Featured site this issue: http://www.netsurf-browser.org/
General News
Wakefield Show reports
New IYONIX ROM release
RISC OS Open have announced the release of the latest RISC OS ROM image
from Castle Technology (Castle) for the IYONIX pc desktop computer.
This is an official release from Castle and represents the first formal
ROM release to include changes and improvements which have been fed back
into the shared source project.
You can download your copy of RISC OS 5.14, either as a softload (to try
it out) or as a ROM programmer tool, from:
<http://www.riscosopen.org/content/downloads/other-zipfiles>
<http://www.riscosopen.org/>
Select 5i2 released
Select 5i2, the latest Select release, is powered by RISC OS 6.16 and is
available for download by all current subscribers.
Select 5i2 does not have any new user facing features, instead
concentrating on lower level support and optimizing the existing feature
set.
<http://www.riscos.com/news/news_items/PR200409.htm>
Commercial News
ArtWorks 2.9 released
ArtWorks 2.9, the latest version of the platform's most popular advanced
vector graphics package, was released at this year's Wakefield Show. It
features alpha masked bitmap export, multi-page handling improvements,
and improved editing in text areas, plus a few other extras. The new
version is now available for purchase via the online ordering system, bank
transfer or cheque payment.
You can find a feature list at:
<http://www.mw-software.com/software/artworks/aw2features12.html>
Upgrade prices can be found at:
<http://www.mw-software.com/paying.html>
Online ordering buttons are at:
<http://www.mw-software.com/paying2.html>
New features in ArtWorks 2.9 include:
- Alpha mask export
- Support for 64 thousand colour screen modes
- Multi-page editing improvements
- Editing improvements for text areas
- PDF export improvements
- Various bug fixes
<http://www.mw-software.com/>
Impact 3.33 released
Sine Nomine Software has launched Impact version 3.33 at the Wakefield
Show. Impact is an easy-to-use relational database system for RISC OS.
Please see <http://sinenomine.co.uk/software/impact/> for full details,
including demo downloads of version 3.33 and the updated manuals.
The main new feature since version 3.31 is the ability to edit data for
almost all field types directly from the table view of the database. The
table view itself has been much enhanced in version 3.30 and 3.31 by the
ability to resize or hide columns and select the font.
The manual has been expanded to include more examples of how to perform
calculations and use action scripts. There are several new example action
scripts, including a couple for doing fun things with postcodes.
<http://sinenomine.co.uk/software/impact/>
Flicker desktop sprite animator
The MathMagical Software Company is pleased to present a new RISC OS
desktop application called Flicker.
Flicker is a desktop sprite animation player. It comes on a CD-ROM with
seven sample films to show off its capabilities. Each film has a musical
soundtrack. The CD-ROM of Flicker and sample films costs GBP5 and is
available to order from the MathMagical web site.
Flicker was demonstrated and first sold at the recent RISC OS show in
Wakefield. Flicker plays a sequence of sprite images, held in a standard
Sprite file, as an animation. One of the 'sprites' is actually a music
'tracker' file which Flicker knows how to decode and play as the
animation's soundtrack.
Flicker uses Paint as its 'film editor'. However, because Paint cannot
handle sound, Flicker provides the functionality needed to convert music
'Tracker' files into the music 'sprites' that are added (using Paint) to
the images to be animated.
Animations may be produced by hand, with the Complete Animator, or with
MathMagical's ArtGraph Film Studio.
<http://www.MathMagical.co.uk/>
Organizer 2
The new version of the RISC OS personal information manager, Organizer 2,
is now available for purchase for GBP20. Full details are on the web site:
<http://www.organizerpim.co.uk/>
The download comes with a new, user-friendly HTML version of the manual
and some guides to the new features. The licence allows the program to be
used on several machines, but by one user only.
Photodesk 3.09x released
4D are pleased to announce a free update for Photodesk 3.09 users. They
can download the free update from <http://www.cjemicros.co.uk/photodesk/>.
Other users can purchase upgrades.
The new version, 3.09x, which was released at the Wakefield Show, includes
assorted improvements, bug fixes, and tweaks to the user interface.
Photodesk is a bitmap editing package for the RISC OS platform. True
studio quality is available with enhanced quality tools and effects with
extensive calibration, accuracy and previewing giving much improved
productivity for the professional user.
Upgrade pricing (including European delivery):
- 3.09 to 3.09x: Free download or GBP4 on floppy disc / GBP5 on CD
- 3.08 to 3.09x: GBP17
- 3.05 or 3.06 to 3.09x: GBP27
- 3.00-3.04 to 3.09x: GBP42
- 2.xx to 3.09x: GBP63
- Full copy: GBP84
<http://www.cjemicros.co.uk/4d/>
TableMate available again
4D are pleased to announce that, following an agreement with Dalriada Data
Technology, they are now able to supply TableMate again.
Initially this will be the last version released by Dalriada, TableMate
Designer II version 5.03d, which is available now with a new lower price
of GBP35. Updates for earlier versions are also available from GBP12.
4D hope to be able to offer a 32 bit version in the future.
<http://www.cjemicros.co.uk/4d/>
R-Comp announce new family history research software
R-Comp is pleased to announce the release of a major new application for
anyone using RISC OS computers for family history / genealogy research.
DP Genealogy Records (GBP35) provides a comprehensive system for
recording, indexing, and linking together the multitude of different
materials gathered during family history research. Marriage certificates,
baptisms, births, death records, gravestones, war graves, military
honours, census records, wills and probates, photos, files of GEDCOM
information, books, and even correspondence with other genealogists, can
be stored and linked together via unique personal and family identifiers.
<http://www.rcomp.co.uk/>
RISCube/RISCTower i7
New quad-core i7 based systems are now available from R-Comp, including
the option of solid-state disk drives.
<http://www.rcomp.co.uk/>
R-Comp announce DataPower 3.10
DataPower version 3.10 is now available as a free upgrade for DataPower
3.xx owners. The new version includes the ability to create e-mail
directly from your database, using R-Comp's DirectMail system. DataPower
3.10 also introduces a revised/expanded choices system which makes
upgrading between versions much easier.
More information about DataPower can be found at:
<http://www.rcomp.co.uk/>
PD/Shareware News
New software summary
- DoubleTake, desktop utility
A small module that allows you to open application directories and to
load any file into a text editor without holding down the Shift key.
Instead you doubleclick and hold down the second click for about 0.2s.
<http://www.stronged.iconbar.com/fjg/>
- ExifEdit, JPEG Exif editor
Provides a frontend to a set of tools that read and write Exif tags
embedded in JPEG images.
<http://www.stronged.iconbar.com/fjg/>
- FTPsFE, FTP server frontend
A simple frontend for FTPs - an FTP server for RISC OS. It presents the
FTPs accounts in a way that is easy to read. It allows you to add, edit,
and remove FTPs accounts.
<http://www.stronged.iconbar.com/fjg/>
- House of Cards, desktop card games
House of Cards is a suite of 41 desktop patience card games with many
advanced features, including: automatic card movement, hints,
statistics, illustrated instructions, animation of card movement, cheat
option, design your own cards, and game scripting in Lua. The demo
version of House of Cards allows you five different deals of each game;
the full version costs just GBP5 and includes unlimited upgrades.
<http://sinenomine.co.uk/software/>
- Peekaboo, desktop utility
A small application that allows the iconbar to be hidden.
<http://www.stronged.iconbar.com/fjg/>
- Transient, temporary directories
A utility that provides a temporary directory on your hard disk,
creating a new sub directory every day.
<http://www.stronged.iconbar.com/fjg/>
- YAC, desktop calculator
YAC is a calculator similar to SciCalc but with of few extras.
Extendable by adding new modes. Additional memory, named A-Z. Base-N
calculations support 8, 16, and 32 bits, both signed and unsigned.
<http://www.stronged.iconbar.com/fjg/>
Updated software summary
- CashBook v1.20
Home accounts application. Alongside a number of minor changes and bug
fixes, version 1.20 has three major new features compared to v1.11:
transaction presets, report templates, and extended adjust-click menus.
<http://www.stevefryatt.org.uk/software/cashbook/>
- DrawPrint v1.16
DrawPrint allows you to print a Drawfile (or Sprite or JPEG) over
several pages at the scale of your choice. The latest version fixes the
bugs introduced in v1.14.
<http://sinenomine.co.uk/software/>
- NetSurf v2.0
Web browser. This release contains many new features and enhancements as
well as many minor bug fixes and improvements.
<http://www.netsurf-browser.org/>
- StrongED v4.68
StrongED is a programmer's text editor. There have been many changes as
well as a number of bug fixes.
<http://www.stronged.iconbar.com/>
- StrongMen v1.25a
Application launcher. Now 32-bit and A9 compatible.
<http://www.stronged.iconbar.com/fjg/>
- SuperDoku v1.19 released
An advanced Sudoku generating and solving program. The new version adds
a new type of puzzle - Twist, a variation on the traditional square
puzzle with an extra irregular block on top. Shareware, GBP5.
<http://sinenomine.co.uk/software/>
- VNCSvr v1.09
VNC Server front end application. The latest version adds functionality
for RISC OS 6.14 / 6.16 users. The application should downgrade
functionality gracefully on machines with older operating systems, but
this is not exhaustively tested.
<http://www.blastzone.demon.co.uk/software.html#vnc>
Abut
The Spring 2009 issue 5 of RISCOScode features an up-to-date desktop
version of the classic "15" sliding tile puzzle for free download. By
default, the puzzle has numbers printed on its tiles, as is traditional.
However, the RISCOScode version comes with ten additional sets of picture
tiles. It is possible to create your own set of tiles from any image.
This will be explained in the next issue of RISCOScode.
<http://www.RISCOScode.com/>
Club News
Upcoming meetings
ANS Information
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