South West show aftermath

Didn't go to the South West show? Here's a round up of the news you missed, compiled from reports and observations by drobe.co.uk correspondent Mark Stephens, OHP developer Tony Still and AAUG chairman dgs.

• The Castle theatre presentation focused on imaging and printing using an Iyonix. It was presented by Castle's managing director, Jack Lillingston and was a more hands-on presentation for a change, with none of the usual overhead slides. The presentation also included the new X100 Iyonix case, which apparently came about in response to demand from Castle's commercial customers. Jack was upbeat regarding the rate at which users and clients are migrating from RiscPCs and A7000s to the Iyonix platform.
  
  
• One avid Castle supporter received free champagne and chocolates, for an Iyonix purchase, from CJE only to then open the champagne all over his inkjet printer - much to the considerable surprise of his fellow visitors. We're not sure how well the punter's new bubble jet printer will perform.
  
  
• The RISCOS Ltd. theatre presentation focused on the forthcoming ROM release and the future of RISC OS 4. RISCOS Ltd.'s managing director Paul Middleton insisted the awaited RISC OS 4.39 ROM release wasn't the end of Select - just a useful milestone on the 10th birthday of the RiscPC. 4.39 is essentially the same as the latest Select release with a few new features and bug fixes. The fact that the RISC OS 4.39 kernel has been chopped into separate, manageable modules was also discussed. RISCOS Ltd. was also, as far as we're aware, the only exhibitor with an Omega.
  
  
• Aemulor Pro was in full effect, being demonstrated on the day by its developers. The Aemulor team admitted that games support was a growing priority, including support for pre-StrongARM games. Aemulor Pro was said to be about a month away from release, although the JIT feature probably won't make it to the first release. A bugfix update is also scheduled for Aemulor users.
  
  
• Qercus editor John Cartmell's show presentation covered Finnybank's future plans for their magazine, how they came to name it Qercus and the difficulties in running a monthly magazine. John also apologised for the delays in publishing the first issue (which, we've learnt, looks a lot like Acorn Publisher) but revealed that Mike Cook will be back with an article on 'RISC OS loves and hates', along with around thirty other contributors and freelancers.
  
  
• There were fewer RiscPCs on exhibitors' stands than ever before, all seemingly replaced with Iyonixes. XAT's HID software for Iyonix users was also a popular sell.
  
  
• Photodesk had apparently paid for a show stand but a calendar mix up left Photodesk boss Chris Hornby double-booked and out of the country on the day of the show.

Related articles
South West 2008 this weekend
South West 2008 show next month
South East 2007 show report

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