On September 19th, Apple announced that System 7.5 had commenced
shipping in North America. The System 7.5 Personal Upgrade is avail-
able 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 Macin- 
toshes to include larger hard drives at the same price or lower than
existing configurations. Additionally, the AV models were discontinued
as such — consumers can now purchase 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 Competi-
tive Upgrade, it provides 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 indepen-
dent 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 special 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 tech- 
nical 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 calendar 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.
