1/7/2K: One of our deep sources as Apple submitted the following report. Our comments are in black. (Interesting, the things that happen at Apple while the rest of the world is watching Macworld Expo!)
In a surprise move today, Apple iCEO Steve Jobs and FileMaker, Inc. President Dominique Philippe Goupil made a special joint announcement at today’s post-Expo Apple Special Event. This is the first time FileMaker has been included in the Special Event program since it became a daily feature in Cupertino.
In their joint presentation, Jobs and Goupil announced an unexpected upgrade to Claris Home Page, long thought dead on the vine. Dubbed FMHP (and the “FM” doesn’t stand for FileMaker!), the Home Page 4.0 release date is still vague, but Jobs remarked, “FM Home Page is getting a sustained investment. You’re going to be very happy with future releases of Home Page.”
Riding the crest of the recent new feature-laden FileMaker Pro 5, FileMaker President Goupil reviewed several of the exciting existing Home Page features, including Open, Close, and Save as… menu items. Pricing of Home Page will remain at $99 with a discounted upgrade to previous users available at $98. Group licensing will be available at prices as low as $95 per user for installations of 1,000 or more users.
After the joint announcement, Jobs wowed the throng of 3 or 4 approved Mac writers (print media only – webmasters not affiliated with Mac Publishing need not apply) by announcing AppleWorks 6.0 for Mac and Windows. The integrated office suite now includes features from Claris Emailer, including Open, Close, and Save as… menu items. Although the exact release date of the AppleWorks upgrade was not stated, Jobs enthusiastically told the crowd, “AppleWorks is getting a sustained investment. You’re going be very happy with future releases of AppleWorks.”
In a sharp departure from previous Apple Daily Special Events, Jobs also hinted at upgrades in progress to HyperCard, Cyberdog, and Firmware Update 1.1. While not mentioned with the others, Jobs appeared to almost reveal something as he said, “HyperCard, Cyberdog, and Firmware Update are getting a sustained investment. You’re going be very happy with future releases of HyperCard, Cyberdog, Orga . . . um, and Firmware Update.”
During the Daily Hardware Update, Apple Exec Phil Schiller demoed the latest educational iMac, which comes in a completely transparent case. Most features were difficult to detect, as the Educational iMac’s stealth invisibility feature was inadvertently activated just before the demo, making the already difficult-to-see model as hard to see as the 300 MHz G3 All-in-One.
After astonishing the crowd with the StealthEd iMac, both Jobs and Schiller shared the stage explaining Apple’s concern for gamers experiencing whiplash from the incredibly quick screen redraws with the new AltiVec technology included with top-end G4 Macs. As a service to customers having such units on order, Apple is replacing the dangerously fast G4 chips with a safer, slower G4 chip at no additional cost.
At this point, no Apple employees were lost while delivering this news. We are doing our utmost to protect the identity of the individual who filed this report.
Thanks, Hank!
– Anne Onymus
