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- MacWEEK 11/23/92
- -----------------------
- News: Apple to color in imaging line at expo
-
- By Matthew Rothenberg
-
- San Francisco - Apple is putting the finishing touches on new imaging devices,
- including its first color printer, slated to ship Jan. 6 at Macworld Expo here,
- sources said.
-
- Products reportedly will include:
-
- > Color OneScanner, a color flatbed scanner priced at about $1,500. The new
- device, which incorporates an engine manufactured by Tokyo Electric Co. Ltd. of
- Japan, can capture 300-dpi RGB (red, green, blue) images in a single pass.
-
- The scanner's filters reportedly are built into its CCD (charge-coupled device)
- element, so they won't change with age and repeated exposure.
-
- The scanner will ship with Ofoto 2.0, a forthcoming color version of Light
- Source Inc.'s scan-optimization software.
-
- > The Apple Color Printer, a 360-dpi unit based on Canon U.S.A. Inc.'s
- tabloid-size BJC-820 Bubble Jet engine.
-
- Tentatively priced at $2,600, the printer reportedly will ship without a
- processor or internal RAM, and it will include a serial port but no LocalTalk
- interface. Sources said network connectivity instead will be handled by
- GrayShare, a new software utility that Apple will bundle with the printer.
- GrayShare spools jobs over LocalTalk to the host Mac, which then sends them to
- the printer.
-
- Lexmark International Inc. of Lexington, Ky., already uses the Canon engine in
- its PS 4079, a $3,495 device that ships with a 16-MHz AMD RISC chip; HP-GL and
- PostScript Level 1 emulations; and LocalTalk, parallel and RS-232 serial
- interfaces.
-
- Both the Apple Color Printer and the Color OneScanner will come bundled with
- ColorSync, Apple's device-independent color-management software, which also is
- scheduled to ship at the January Macworld.
-
- > LaserWriter Pro 630 and 600, scheduled to ship for $2,999 and $2,399,
- respectively. Both printers are based on Canon's 600-dpi, 8-page-per- minute,
- letter-size EX engine, which made its debut in Hewlett-Packard Co.'s $2,999
- LaserJet 4M.
-
- Sources said the printers will include Adobe PostScript Level 2, but they will
- ship initially with a new version of the Level 1 LaserWriter driver instead of
- the long-awaited upgrade to Level 2. Each will come with Apple's font pack and a
- built-in TrueType rasterizer.
-
- The new printers are not RISC-based, sources said, but use a 25-MHz 68030 chip
- and an array of custom application-specific integrated circuits. Each will come
- with two 250-sheet letter-size cassettes and a 100-sheet multipurpose tray. A
- 500-sheet feeder will be optional.
-
- The LaserWriter Pro 630 features software switching between a hardware
- resolution of 600 dpi and a 300-dpi mode for printing with Apple's PhotoGrade
- and FinePrint image-enhancement software, which will not work at 600 dpi.
- PhotoGrade reportedly has been enhanced to handle 91 gray levels, 24 more than
- the previous version.
-
- The 630 includes simultaneously active LocalTalk, parallel, EtherTalk and RS-232
- serial ports, although it lacks a memory buffer. It also comes standard with
- internal and external SCSI ports.
-
- The LaserWriter Pro 600 lacks the EtherTalk and SCSI interfaces of the 630, and
- it will require a RAM upgrade to print at 600 dpi or use PhotoGrade, sources
- said.
-
- > StyleWriter II, a $400 inkjet based on the same Canon engine as the previous
- StyleWriter, which was $359. The new version will include a serial port and
- output at 2 ppm.
-
- Apple had no comment.
-
- MacWEEK 11.23.92
-
- News Page 1
-
- (c) Copyright 1992 Coastal Associates, L.P. All rights reserved. This material
- may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
-
-
- -----------------------
- News: PowerBooks aplenty pack pipeline for '93
-
- By Andrew Gore
-
- Las Vegas - Apple officials last week outlined aggressive plans to extend the
- company's PowerBook line in 1993, including delivering new models as often as
- every three to six months and shipping a system extension for file
- synchronization.
-
- Speaking at a mobile-computing summit at Comdex/Fall '92, executives from
- Apple's portable-computing group said $1 billion in PowerBook sales in fiscal
- 1992 represented about 15 percent of Apple's revenues for the year. The sales
- lifted the company from portable also-ran to the No. 1 U.S. manufacturer of
- portable computers and No. 2 worldwide.
-
- The company's success caught everyone, including Apple, by surprise, according
- to Randopyex/Fall '92, execanhan $he 1 mrable ainefie s ials iafisy from Andrew Gorepple had1he