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Here's the latest scoop from Internet and elsewhere.

TopDraw 2.0 Acquired

Appsoft, publishers of WriteNow for NeXTstep, has acquired the exclusive worldwide publishing rights for TopDraw 2.0 from Media Logic Incorporated, of Pacific Palisades, California.

TopDraw 2.0, an announced but not yet released successor to TopDraw 1.0, is a graphics and illustration program developed for the NeXT platform by Media Logic. Appsoft will release the product under the name Appsoft Draw. 	

"When we saw the great job Media Logic had done enhancing TopDraw, we just had to have the product in our line," said Randy Adams, president of Appsoft. "NeXT users are going to love this product. It combines the ease of use of MacDraw with the power of Adobe Illustrator, at an affordable price."

Appsoft Draw is expected to begin shipping in early February 1992. Contact Appsoft at (800) 428-APPS.

NeXTstep 3.0

The NeXT FedExpo revealed some future operating system features for NeXT including built-in Apple Ethertalk and Novell IPX, "remote objects" and the DBkit. NeXT is also adding Objective C type extensions to C++ so that C++ can be used with Interface Builder (Objective C++?). We may see it in March or April, 1992.

Wingz Available

Informix Software, Inc. has released Wingz, a graphical spreadsheet program, updated for NeXTstep 2.1. Wingz now provides users with integrated fax capabilities, full color and 3.5" floppy disk support.

"We are pleased to port Wingz to the Mach 2.1 operating system and support many of the features that make the NeXT system unique," said Mary Giunta, Wingz marketing manager. "We also support NeXT's concept of Interpersonal Computing to increase individual and group productivity by improving people's ability to communicate and exchange information and ideas, effectively and easily. We aim to make that concept a reality to our customers."

Wingz features include advanced charting with 3-D graphics, desktop presentation capabilities, and HyperScript, an application development language.

Wingz is currently available for major graphical desktop environments including Macintosh, Windows 3.0, OS/2, OPEN LOOK, and OSF/Motif. Call Informix at (800) 438-7627.

NeXTWORLD Expo

The first NeXTWORLD Expo is planned for January 22 through 24, 1992 in San Francisco. Users and Developers conferences are scheduled and everyone who is anyone in the NeXT market will be there to show off their wares.
This extravaganza is sponsored by NeXTWORLD magazine, NeXT Computer and World Expo Corporation and is expected to draw more than 5,000 NeXT faithful. Steve Jobs will give the keynote address (who else?). Send us a report if you can get to California for this.

Macintosh Emulator

Abacus R&D is shipping Executor-MSW and HFS_XFer. Executor-MSW is a program that will run Microsoft Word 4.0 for Macintosh under NeXTstep. HFS_XFER is a utility to read and write Macintosh 1.44MB floppy disks. The two are bundled together for $80 (single user, a network licence is available) and can be ordered by calling Abacus at (505) 766-9115.