|-------------------------- Acorn News Service --------------------------| | http://www.ans.org.uk/ | | ISSUE 251 17 May 2009 | | | | An independent monthly newsletter for the Acorn world. | | Send your news items or comments to ans@acornusers.org. | |------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Featured site this issue: http://www.netsurf-browser.org/ | |------------------------------------------------------------------------| Contents -------- 1) General News 2) Commercial News 3) PD/Shareware News 4) Club news 5) ANS information General News ------------ 1) Wakefield Show reports * Drobe * RISCOScode 2) 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: 3) 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. Commercial News --------------- 1) 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: Upgrade prices can be found at: Online ordering buttons are at: 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 2) 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 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. 3) 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. 4) 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: 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. 5) Photodesk 3.09x released 4D are pleased to announce a free update for Photodesk 3.09 users. They can download the free update from . 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 6) 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. 7) 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. 8) RISCube/RISCTower i7 New quad-core i7 based systems are now available from R-Comp, including the option of solid-state disk drives. 9) 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: PD/Shareware News ----------------- 1) 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. * ExifEdit, JPEG Exif editor Provides a frontend to a set of tools that read and write Exif tags embedded in JPEG images. * 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. * 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. * Peekaboo, desktop utility A small application that allows the iconbar to be hidden. * Transient, temporary directories A utility that provides a temporary directory on your hard disk, creating a new sub directory every day. * 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. 2) 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. * 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. * NetSurf v2.0 Web browser. This release contains many new features and enhancements as well as many minor bug fixes and improvements. * StrongED v4.68 StrongED is a programmer's text editor. There have been many changes as well as a number of bug fixes. * StrongMen v1.25a Application launcher. Now 32-bit and A9 compatible. * 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. * 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. 3) 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. Club News --------- 1) Upcoming meetings * ROUGOL (London), 18th May - Messenger Pro server version * WROCC (Wakefield), 3rd June * SASAUG (Sussex & Surrey), 8th June * LAUG (Liverpool), 9th June * ROUGOL (London), 15th June - Organizer 2 * WROCC (Wakefield), 1st July - PD software night * MUG (Midlands), 19th July * ROUGOL (London), 20th July - RISC OS Open Ltd ANS Information --------------- 1) Contact ANS To send in your news items e-mail or use the form on the ANS website . More information about ANS and other contact details are available on the ANS web site . 2) How to subscribe to ANS If you are reading this on the ANS web site, or have received a forwarded copy of ANS and would like to subscribe to the mailing list, simply send a blank e-mail to . Alternatively use the form on the ANS web site at . For details of other commands e-mail . ---------------- Acorn News Service, http://www.ans.org.uk/ ----------------