The Amiga continues on its slow but steady revival, with developments racking up nicely in both the mobile and desktop environments. At the end of July, in Sacramento, AmiWest 2002 yielded much in the way of announcements and surprises, along with clarifications on a few disappointments. You can't help but wonder whether the long-running joke of the "Curse of Commodore" is still lurking away when Nokia pull the plug on their media terminal and Sharp ship their Zaurus PDA sans AmigaDE. Both would've provided a major boost to Amiga Inc's plans earlier this year.
Ah well, onwards and upwards for despite the disappointment, much is going on...
Mobile Amiga Content
On the mobile front, Amiga's AmigaAnywhere system continues to find interest amongst various new and established players. Sendo, a UK mobile phone manufacturer, and O2 have inked deals with Amiga Inc which will help establish the AmigaAnywhere platform as a core technology for the future of mobile applications and content. Sharp look set to eventually ship Amiga support with the Zaurus later this year and it shouldn't be forgotten that Nokia won't have forgotten the technology for future projects.
I've also learnt that Olivetti-subsidiary Royal will be making use of AmigaAnywhere in the near future. Details are minimal - Royal have made very low-cost, low-spec PDAs in the past but they do have a decently specced Linux PDA in their line-up and I can't help but wonder if this is the likely target for the Amiga partnership. I await further information with interest.
Furthermore, apparently emphasising a particular UK/European feel to proceedings, electronics retailer Dixons will be selling AmigaAnywhere products later this year.
With the line up of Sendo mobile phones, PDAs from Sharp and Royal, plus the retail backing of Dixons, things are beginning to work out nicely after the many hurdles and setbacks. As if that wasn't good enough, Amiga Inc also appear to be close to making further PDA and mobile phone announcements before the year is out. For those who thought AmigaAnywhere had faltered, time to think again.
The Amiga Desktop
Development of AmigaOS 4.0 continues at a brisk pace, with new screenshots released of the UI and assorted components such as AmiDock. My sources reveal that things are looking very good for a pre-Christmas launch. The guys at Hyperion have pulled off a fantastic job since taking on the project, with many aspects scheduled for later 4.x releases being folded into the initial
| Here's the follow-up discussion on this article: | View all related messages |
For a complete listing of article comments, questions, and other discussions related to John Chandler's Amiga Software topic, please visit the Discussions page.