On September 19th, Apple announced that System 7.5 had commenced shipping in
North America. The System 7.5 Personal Upgrade is available on either high-
density disks or CD-ROM for approximately $100 US., $150 Cdn. System 7.5
features an enhanced Finder, QuickDraw GX, AppleGuide, AppleScript, PowerTalk,
QuickTime 2.0 and MacTCP.
Apple Reorganizes PPC Prices
In September, Apple U.S. changed the specs of many PowerPC Macintoshes to in- 
clude larger hard drives at the same price or lower than existing configurations.
Additionally, the AV models were discontinued as such — consumers can now pur-
chase the AV card separately for installation in regular PPC models.
While Apple Canada did not announce any configuration changes, it did lower the
price on a number of higher-end Power Macintosh configurations. Additionally,
the Power Macintosh AV Upgrade Card is now available in Canada for approximately
$650 Cdn.
PageMaker Competitive Upgrade
QuarkXPress users can now benefit from Adobe PageMaker features through a  
special offer from Adobe. Called The PageMaker 5.0 Competitive Upgrade, it pro-
vides a full retail version of Adobe PageMaker 5.0 for the Macintosh or Power
Macintosh, the QuarkXPress Converter utility (which converts Quark 3.x
documents to PageMaker 5.0), the Adobe TrapMaker Addition, and 90 days of
24-hour technical support. Until December 31, 1994 Canadian and American
Quark owners may purchase the competitive upgrade package for $199 (U.S.).
Proof of QuarkXPress ownership is required, and may be in the form of a copy of the title page from the owner's manual or of the system disk with the serial number. For more info call Adobe Customer Services at (800) 628-2320.
Adobe Has Big Plans for Acrobat
At the recent Seybold conference, Adobe promulgated a slew of announcements  
that show ambitious plans for its platform independent publishing system,
Acrobat. A new, improved version of the Acrobat products (Reader, Exchange
and Distiller), will debut this fall. The reader will be available free in a spe-
cial CompuServe forum and will be bundled with many Apple computers in
North America and Europe. Adobe has also licensed the software to some high
profile publishing concerns that include Equitable Life and the Associated
Press. Finally, rumours are that Adobe is working on incorporating Acrobat abilities into the recently acquired PageMaker in an attempt to revolutionize electronic publishing in much the same way PageMaker revolutionized traditional publishing.
Norton Utilities 3.0 Alert/Fix
 
On September 6, Symantec Corp. announced that it discovered a technical problem
that could cause data loss, with the Speed Disk module of the Norton Utilities for
Macintosh 3.0. Since that time, the problem with Speed Disk has been corrected
in version 3.1. The new version is now shipping and an updater utility is available
on various on-line services. Symantec Customer Service can be contacted at
(800) 441-7234.
Connectix MODE32 7.5
Connectix Corp. has been licensed by Apple to update the MODE32 memory enabler for System 7.5 compatibility. MODE32 is an extension to System 7.x that allows older Macs like the Macintosh II, IIx, IIcx, and SE/30 to operate in 32 bit addressing mode which makes it possible to access more than 8 Megabytes of RAM. (Apple has apparently given up on its own System 7.1 32-Bit System Enabler). The new MODE32 7.5 is now available on most on-line services and from Connectix (800) 950-5880 (415) 571-5100.
Claris Organizer/FileMaker Pro Deals
Claris Corporation is now shipping Claris Organizer, a new personal  
information manager (PIM) for the Macintosh, at a special introductory
price. Unlike other PIMs which tend to provide separate contact and cal-
endar managers, Organizer comes as a single, integrated program. Claris
Organizer is available now from authorized Claris resellers in the U.S. at a special introductory suggested promotional price of $49. After October 31, Claris Organizer will be offered at a SRP of $99.
Until December 31, Claris FileMaker Pro 2.1 is promotionally priced at $149 CDN ($99 U.S.). This represents a 60% savings off suggested retail pricing. More information is available from Claris Canada at (800) 361-6075.
