RISC OS news and information from Drobe

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Richard Brown takes over day-to-day running of ISP Orpheus
Richard Brown - IT consultant, friend of Castle and best-known for overseeing sales and support of RISC OS browser Oregano 2 and the demise of Oregano 3 - will take over the day-to-day running of the late Paul Vigay's ISP, Orpheus Internet. Richard has also joined the company's board of directors.
11 comments, latest by Hairy on 3/7/09 9:38AM. Published: 29 Jun 2009
BBC to record film on Acorn versus Sinclair in the 1980s
A film to be called Syntax Era, that will document the rivalry between Clive Sinclair and Acorn co-founder Chris Curry, will be screened by the BBC with the help of The Centre of Computing History. The programme will star Martin Freeman, from The Office, alongside Alexander Armstrong, of Armstrong and Miller sketch show fame, who will play Sinclair. It is likely to be aired in the autumn on BBC4, we're told. Filming starts on Monday, June 22 in London. It was written by Tony Saint. More to follow later.
14 comments, latest by Monty on 26/6/09 10:30PM. Published: 20 Jun 2009
New London RISC OS show to be held in October
More details to follow. It is understood this is to replace the annual South East RISC OS show, which is usually held in Guildford but will not take place this year as the venue that hosts the event is unavailable. Freeware developers are invited to exhibit their work for free at the London show. To book a space or for more information, email the organisers.
20 comments, latest by epistaxsis on 22/6/09 8:20PM. Published: 31 May 2009
Bug-fixed NetSurf 2.1 released
A bug-fix release of the NetSurf web browser has been released. Version 2.1 improves on page layout, mouse click handling, and for RISC OS users, improves drawfile export.
3 comments, latest by hzn on 7/6/09 1:50PM. Published: 23 May 2009
First screenshot: Beagleboard runs RISC OS 5 desktop
Picture exclusive - This is the first screenshot of Jeffrey Lee's port of RISC OS 5 for the ARM Cortex-A8-powered Beagleboard reaching the familiar ROS desktop and running several built-in applications. The port was produced using source code made available by the RISC OS Open initiative.
250 comments, latest by rjek on 5/6/09 5:01PM. Published: 10 May 2009
Five tips for ROL over the next five years
Opinion - Drobe man Paul Stewart offers a few suggestions to RISCOS Ltd to ensure the company and its platform survives over the coming years.
182 comments, latest by jess on 5/6/09 12:46PM. Published: 10 May 2009
Entry-level animation app Flicker goes on sale
Flicker is a new application that can playback animations made from standard RISC OS sprites and can combine these simple films and music from tracker modules to produce complete packages. It comes on a CD-ROM with seven sample movies to show off its capabilities and was developed by Drobe man Martin Hansen. Animations produced by Flicker can also be created from sprites generated by Complete Animator and Martin's ArtGraph Film Studio.
Discuss this. Published: 5 May 2009
New version of database package Impact available
Sine Nomine Software has announced that Impact version 3.33, launched recently at the Wakefield 2009 show, is now available on general release. Users can now edit data for almost all field types direct from the enhanced table view of the database, among other updates.
Discuss this. Published: 5 May 2009
New RPCEmu Spoon version with RISC OS 5.15 support
Open-source emulator RPCEmu Spoon Edition 0.8.4 has experimental support for the latest RISC OS Open ROM for RiscPCs and other IOMD-chipset machines, plus a couple of other bug fixes and updates.
1 comment, latest by Becky on 16/5/09 8:24AM. Published: 5 May 2009
News in brief
Links to interesting things from RISC OS Open, Organizer and more, including a RISC OS-themed podcast.
1 comment, latest by egel on 5/5/09 6:05PM. Published: 4 May 2009
Recent developments have left me feeling...
RISCOS Ltd has released a new RISC OS 6 update, ROOL have published ROM images for all for free, and meanwhile software developers have announced various new versions of their software: but matters most to you and why? Post a comment below to explain your decision, if you wish.
19 comments, latest by riscosboss on 2/6/09 1:00PM. Published: 30 Apr 2009
Bitmap graphics package Photodesk updated
PD 3.09 users can from this week download a free update: full list of changes here.
5 comments, latest by CJE on 5/5/09 11:39AM. Published: 30 Apr 2009
CJE seeks programmer to resurrect data entry package
RISC OS dealer CJE Micros is after a C programmer to further develop Dalriada's TableMate Designer II and hopefully produce a 32bit-compatible build. CJE this week confirmed it was able to continue supplying the software to RISC OS end users.
7 comments, latest by Hoyt on 5/5/09 8:01AM. Published: 30 Apr 2009
Text editor StrongED 4.68 available for download
Drobe favourite StrongED 4.68 is now available: see here for a list of updates.
2 comments, latest by lym on 3/5/09 12:03PM. Published: 30 Apr 2009
Is there a way out of RISC OS version number hell?
With the two streams of RISC OS being developed separately by RISC OS Open and RISCOS Ltd, the version numbering of the operating system's modules needs to be brought back into check as well as ways of allowing software to determine which features are present in any given OS release. ROL and ROOL are said to be cooperating on how to coordinate this and tonight ROOL staffer Andrew Hodgkinson opened the issue to the community to discuss the technicalities.
56 comments, latest by adh1003 on 8/5/09 4:44PM. Published: 28 Apr 2009
RISC OS Open 5.14 now available for free download
As covered over the show weekend, RISC OS Open has merged Castle's final 5.13 release of the OS (which features USB 2 support) with the ROOL shared-source OS that has benefited from contributions from third-party programmers to create an official RISC OS Open 5.14 release. It can now be downloaded for free and softloaded on Iyonixes. An experimental build, version 5.15, is also available for RiscPCs, A7000s and Iyonixes - bringing RISC OS 5 to Acorn-era hardware for the first time.
10 comments, latest by jess on 5/5/09 9:43AM. Published: 28 Apr 2009
OCR tool STRing updated
STRing, developed by Mark Beerling, takes images of scanned documents and extracts the text out of them so the words can be reused and edited elsewhere. This new version is reportedly faster and can accept template files to help with its character recognition.
4 comments, latest by sa110 on 30/4/09 11:51PM. Published: 28 Apr 2009
RISC OS 5 spotted running on RPCEmu
Tom Walker has been busy - the new experimental RISC OS Open 5.15 ROM for IOMD-chipset computers (RiscPCs and A7000s) can work on open source emulator RPCEmu, as this screenshot shows. Follow the development discussion here and source code changes here.
12 comments, latest by rjek on 30/4/09 3:15PM. Published: 28 Apr 2009
DigitalCD developer seeks beta testers for version 3.0
Programmer Andre Timmermans has called for volunteers to test a beta version of the next major release of music player DigitalCD on non-RiscPC computers and to proofread the documentation.
12 comments, latest by Jon on 29/4/09 4:59PM. Published: 28 Apr 2009
NetSurf reaches version 2.0
The latest milestone release of the open source web browser for RISC OS, Linux, AmigaOS and other platforms is now available for download. After almost two years of work by volunteer programmers, the team have announced a new HTML parser, SVG support, PDF export, improved page layout and a more complete GTK interface - full details here. Also: a new version of Tinct, a module used by NS for displaying images on RISC OS, is also available for download. Among other updates, Tinct now supports RISC OS 6's new 64K-colour screen modes.
6 comments, latest by bhtooefr on 29/4/09 4:12AM. Published: 28 Apr 2009
Wakefield 2009 wrap-up, photos and video
The weekend's RISC OS event has been and gone and we've got the rest of our lives to look forward to. Here's a round-up of extra news and Drobe's show-related coverage and some photos taken from Wakefield 2009 - plus a video from the show floor.
16 comments, latest by AW on 29/4/09 7:41PM. Published: 27 Apr 2009
RISC OS 5 pictured running on ARM Cortex-A8 kit
Picture exclusive - This grainy photograph shows a port of RISC OS 5, sourced from the RISC OS Open project, running on a Beagleboard - a device powered by a 600MHz ARM Cortex-A8 processor with a built-in graphics chip. The port, developed by Jeffrey Lee with help from Uwe Kall and ROOL staff, is seen as a major breakthrough for the shared-source project as it proves the OS can be ported to new hardware without the need for a large team of engineers.
75 comments, latest by rjek on 30/4/09 3:15PM. Published: 25 Apr 2009
Long-awaited Organizer 2 on sale with iCal import and export support
Version 2 of popular RISC OS life-management software Organizer is to be released on April 29 and will feature support for importing and exporting iCal files, plus a completely overhauled to-do list manager. The program will now be compatible with applications including Apple's iCal Microsoft's Outlook, Mozilla Sunbird and the online Google Calendar, according to publisher Nigel Willmott. Programmer Martin Avison has also given Organizer a new slimline user interface although the old filofax-look can be brought back at the user's discretion.
7 comments, latest by martin on 1/5/09 9:05AM. Published: 25 Apr 2009
Vpod: first pictures of new RiscPC graphics card
Stuart Tyrrell Developments' graphics accelerator was unveiled today as a RiscPC podule card "designed specifically for RISC OS 6" with 32MB of on-board VRAM, some hardware acceleration and desktop resolutions including 1680x1050 in 16 million colours. The video chip is a SM500-series device from Silicon Motion - as found in the A9home and predicted here first. The card uses a "more advanced version" of the A9home's SM501 video driver. It's also a pure graphics card with no other interfaces, such as USB and networking found in its predecessor, the Unipod. And it costs 149 quid. More updates here
35 comments, latest by sa110 on 2/5/09 1:10PM. Published: 25 Apr 2009
RISCOS Ltd relaunches riscos.com with new design
While Drobe readers were this week stepping up calls for RISCOS Ltd to revamp its website and fill it with details on the latest versions of the operating system, ROL appears to have been working towards that - and today the company pulled back the red curtain to reveal its redesigned riscos.com website.
15 comments, latest by bucksboy on 27/4/09 5:44PM. Published: 24 Apr 2009
Your 60-second Wakefield 2009 preview
Thank God it's Friday night - but wait, tomorrow is the Wakefield 2009 show. Here's your quick round-up of what's going to happen on Saturday that hasn't yet been reported on Drobe.
2 comments, latest by bucksboy on 27/4/09 10:25AM. Published: 24 Apr 2009
RISCOS Ltd issues bug-fix update to Select subscribers
RISCOS Ltd has managed to produce an OS upgrade with no discernable user-facing features because the programming team has been "concentrating on lower-level support and in consolidating and optimising the existing feature set based in part upon feedback from users" - quite possibly the most fanciest way of saying they've fixed bugs and tidied up the code. Although there's little further detail at this point, we'll try our best to uncover precisely what's changed in RISC OS 6.16, aka Select 5i2.
9 comments, latest by riscosboss on 29/4/09 5:06PM. Published: 21 Apr 2009
New family history application available
R-Comp have announced the release of DP Genealogy Records, a family history package that allows users to build up a full overview of their ancestors' lives. The software is internally powered by their DataPower database engine.
1 comment, latest by em2ac on 28/4/09 9:50PM. Published: 21 Apr 2009
Wakefield 2009 Show is this Saturday
The Wakefield 2009 Show is this Saturday, April 25. Click the link for exhibitor details and a theatre presentation timetable. A round-up of the show's pre-event news should appear on Drobe later this week.
1 comment, latest by AW on 22/4/09 12:24AM. Published: 21 Apr 2009
New DataPower release marries email with databases
Version 3.10 of DataPower allows users to send emails generated from databases - useful for sending out invoices or subscription reminders automatically, for example. The free upgrade also features other improvements and bug fixes.
2 comments, latest by sa110 on 21/4/09 6:31PM. Published: 21 Apr 2009

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This week's poll

Recent developments have left me feeling...

Assured ROS will appear on new hardware		55%
Pleased OS desktop features are being developed		10%
ROL and ROOL will eventually kiss and make up		5%
App developments are critical		10%
Dave Holden sleeps easy at night		19%

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