amiga-news.de - Amiga, Inc.: Bill McEwen's September 2002 Executive Update

06.Sep.2002
Amiga Inc.

Amiga, Inc.: Bill McEwen's September 2002 Executive Update
Bill's latest update touches on a plethora of topics including the Sacremento show, the Amiga club, the AmigaOne, PDA/Cellphones, Bernie Meyer's product and the possibility of new product(s) from Amiga:

September 5, 2002 - From the desk of Bill McEwen
Greetings to one and all:

I would first like to thank all of those that I had the chance to meet in Sacramento. While a short trip it was indeed great fun and real delight meeting with all of you and hearing not only the encouraging words, but also sharing in your concerns, desires, and dreams. We are looking forward to deliver on what we discussed with you.

When we purchased Amiga from Gateway there were many out there who said that we would fail. There were many out there who have worked against our efforts, and others that have misrepresented fact and manipulated privileged information in order to further their obviously self serving goals. There have been those who have wronged us, and caused us damage.

But, guess what? We are still here! We are still delivering! We are going to stay here! Amiga is about people, technology, excellence, we are a most tenacious people, and we have the community to prove it. Has it always gone according to plan? no. Have we made some adjustments to the plan? yes. Are we delivering on the plan? yes. Will we allow others to dictate our future? Absolutely not. Period..

Because of you, the Amiga dream lives, because of you, Amiga's are still being used throughout the world performing amazing tasks and activities, and because of you, we are still here and moving forward.

Amiga is a giant resting for the day of the fight, and gaining strength quietly, for, as we embark on this mission together, nothing will tear us apart.

Thank you once again for supporting us, and showing to the world that what was begun in 1985 was truly only the beginning.

Bill McEwen, and the Amiga Team

Amiga Club Members:

I would also like to take a minute and say a special howdy to all of the club members. It is really encouraging to see all of the activity and input from you with regards to the shirt design and name for the club. The "I am Amiga" name did not go over as well as I had thought, but in the next couple of weeks (after we get the ok from those who already have the name that was selected) we will all have the name and shirt design with which an be happy and proud to wear. Each member will receive their first newsletter in the next two weeks, and there will be all sorts of great announcements and information e, so look forward to it in your inbox.

As a reminder we will be having a new drawing for an Amiga Enabled Cell Phone in September, and we would encourage those of you who have not joined yet, to get in here and do so. We have many plans and activities coming up for the club, and once again for only $ 50.00 you will receive the newsletter, Shirt and other special promotions. The lifetime membership offer has ended, but we would encourage you to be a part of something really exciting as the members will continue to receive special discounts and exclusive programs directed at the membership. We will honor the "$50.00 off" certificate for the next members who join through the end of September, at which point we will hold the draw for the new cell phone.

September 1st, 2002:

As mentioned in Sacramento at AmiWest, we had offered amnesty to those people/companies/entities who have knowingly stolen our IP and used it for their own gains, or who have shipped product knowing that they are illegal had until the end of August in order for them to comply and to get legal.

Now, I am not going to mention names nor am I going to get into a public discourse on what is happening.. But legal action has begun. In the next two weeks papers will be served. We will target one violator at a time with the hope that we will send a very clear signal that this is very serious, will not be permitted and will be stopped.

This is a private action between Amiga Inc, and those who wish to continue in this practice. While we announced publicly our intentions, the actions will be private. I am sure that everyone can understand this and I hope will support this.

AmigaOne Update:

Well, the amazing team of Eyetech and Hyperion are doing a great job. Many of you already have in your possession the AmigaOne boards, and many more of you have seen the hardware in action. This is indeed another major leap forward as we near the release of the new hardware and OS 4.0. Eyetech and Alan Redhouse have been doing a great job of keeping everyone informed of the progress, and we look forward to the products release.

AmigaOS 4.0:

Hyperion and the team are making amazing strides here. The screen shots that we all see and the updates from Ben and the people working on it shows great progress. I know that they are working hard with regard to the integration into the AmigaOne, and I for one am looking forward to seeing it all working together, and from what I hear we are not too far off from making that happen. With this stated we have received some more shots of the interface from the OS 4.0 team. You can see the new AmiDock screenshots here.

PDA/Cell Phone Update:

As mentioned in Sacramento the Amiga Anywhere Content Engine and associated content will be shipping on the new Sendo™ SmartPhone™ when it ships. Now, to answer the many e-mails that I have received about the Sendo phone…. I do not know when the device will ship commercially; it is out of our hands with regard to when they will have the phone available. I will tell you that before the end of the year we will be making at least two more Cell Phone announcements and at least two more PDA announcements.

We are really starting to move on getting these business deals done and there will be many more opportunities for our developers to create new products for these cutting edge devices.

A Possible New Product Offering - Let me know your thoughts:

In recent dealings with one of our hardware OEM's they offered an opportunity. This opportunity is for excellent laptop hardware at excellent prices. They would be dual boot systems with Linux/UAE, and Bernie Meyers product (formally known as Amithlon) pre-loaded on the device. Here is a sample of some of the pricing that you could expect, all prices quoted are in US$:

Processor	RAM	Display	Hard Drive	Optical media	Software	Price
Intel® 1.2GHz Celeron™	256MB	15.0" TFT	20GB	DVD	Linux/UAE Ami*	$999
Intel® 1.6GHz Pentium® 4	256MB	15.0" XGA TFT	20GB	DVD/CDRW Combo	Linux/UAE Ami*	$1579
Intel® 1.6GHz Pentium® 4	256MB	SXGA TFT	30GB	DVD/CDRW Combo	Linux/UAE Ami*	$1679

These examples are notebook computers. There are other options available, but I am trying to find out how many of you would be interested in purchasing these through your local Amiga dealer. Let us know by sending an e-mail to interested@amiga.com. There are also desktops and other configurations but I think that a notebook Amiga would be compelling. Let us know.

The Product Formally Know as Amithlo*:

As mentioned before Bernie Meyers has a wonderful product, and we expected it to be out by now. However there have been a couple of delays, none of these are engineering driven, that has delayed the release. I can tell you that the new product will be out very soon, and will offer some new requested features, and from what I understand is really going to knock your socks off. We will have an update concerning the timing of this release and the new name very shortly. So contrary to what you may have heard, it will be available soon.

Developers:

This message is an update for you. You have created some of the greatest content that the world has ever known. Your skill sets and your tenacity have overwhelmed many, and everyday you become more and more important to the future.

If you have been sitting on the sidelines I encourage you to jump in. We are getting requests from many of our OEM partners with regard to content that they are looking for on their devices.

While it has been a slow start (as is always the case in developing a market), this next quarter is going to see major movement, and distribution. We have many programs ready to take place for the Holiday season and we want you to be a part of it. So I encourage you to jump in make contact with us. Join us in creating the future.

In closing I wish to thank each and every member of the Amiga family for their support and good wishes in this amazing journey that we have embarked upon together. We are closer today than we were yesterday to the dreams and goals of Amiga. Tomorrow we will be closer again, and soon we can all share in the rewards.

Sincerely,
Bill McEwen and the rest of the Amiga Team
(ps)

[News message: 06. Sep. 2002, 09:27] [Comments: 3 - 07. Sep. 2002, 20:09]
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