Display article   Subject:  June 1992
   04/30/97   19:55:32


TANDY USER GROUP NEWSLETTER.............................JUNE 1992

Material contained herein may be reproduced in whole or in part
in user group newsletters.  Please quote source as Tandy
Corporation/Radio Shack.  The company cannot be responsible for
inaccuracies or for information which changes prior to or after
publication.

Send questions/suggestions to:  Ed Juge, Director of Market
Planning, Radio Shack, 700 One Tandy Center, Fort Worth, TX
76102.



Multimedia Ver. 1.1

Radio Shack is taking delivery, in its warehouses, of the new
Tandy multimedia PCs we've been referring to as "Version 1.1."
We first showed them at Spring COMDEX, which I told you about in
April.  These are versions of our 2500 SX/25, 4825 SX, 4850 EP
and 4833 LX/T computers.  The new units include the Tandy 16-bit
audio board for improved stereo sound.  This single board
includes the CD-ROM interface, so only one expansion slot is
required.

The video now includes the Tandy Enhanced Graphics chip for full
VGA compatibility plus up to 16 million colors in RGB modes, on a
standard VGA monitor.  Although no software is yet available to
take advantage of 16 million colors, many software vendors are
working on it.  These new Tandy MPCs will be ready when the
software is available.

The entry cost of multimedia computing has also come down with
this generation of machines.  The Tandy 2500 SX/20 Multimedia PC
sold for $2,799 just a few months ago.  Today, the faster 2500
SX/25 Multimedia PC is just $1,999 at participating Radio Shack
stores and dealers nationwide.  The monitor of your choice is
extra.

I mentioned last month that WIN 3.1 includes drivers for
multimedia. Some of those drivers are present, but it seems a few
aren't.  I can attest to that because on my own Multimedia PC, I
upgraded to WIN 3.1.  The graphics portions of several multimedia
programs I tried work fine.  When I try to get sound, the program
drops me back to Windows' Program Manager.

Tandy multimedia PCs are still being delivered with Windows 3.0
plus Multimedia Extensions 1.0, because all of the necessary
multimedia capabilities have not yet been implemented in Windows
3.1.   As soon as those features are included, purchasers of
these MPCs will receive a software upgrade at no additional cost.

In addition, these new MPCs offer an option some of you have
asked for.  Our CDR-1000 CD-ROM drive was the first to break the
$400 price barrier, and was one of the few to provide the
required (by the MPC specification) 150 KB/second data transfer
rate.  The tradeoff was a slower access time of about 800 ms,
where the fastest access times run about 350 ms or slightly less.

When we introduced the CDR-1000, most of the faster CD-ROM
drives couldn't transfer data at 150 KB/second.  Animation was
slow and jerky because most of these drives had to reseek
frequently.

Once the CDR-1000 finds its first track, it never has to reseek,
if the data was laid down on the disc in a continuous stream.

This year, you'll have a choice.  For an additional charge, you
can choose a sub-350 ms CD-ROM drive in place of the CDR-1000.
So, for those who wanted it, there is now a faster option
available.


Why Does Radio Shack Not Include a Monitor with Its PCs?

The answer is, so you can have your choice of available monitor
types.  We offer a selection of VGA monitors ranging from
monochrome to very high-resolution color.  Not everyone makes the
same price/performance choice.  You might even already own a good
one, and want to keep it with your new PC.

In my case, I own a VGM-440 monitor, and unless an opportunity
came around for one of the super high-res 20-inch monitors, it
stays with me through all PC changes for the foreseeable future.

I have never seen a monitor I thought equalled the VGM-440 in
crispness and clarity.


Where is the 3830 SL Notebook?

In the April newsletter, the shipping date for the 3830 SL was
quoted as May.  There was a delay in printing the DOS 5.0 Manual
to ship with it.  The computers are built and may ship before you
read this newsletter.  Speaking of notebook PCs...


Tandy 486 Notebook PCs!

By the time you read this, Radio Shack will be at the Consumer
Electronics Show in Chicago, showing its first two 486 notebook
PCs!  These incredible units are expected to be available in June.

The Tandy 4800 HD is a 20 MHz 486 SX-based notebook with 60 MB
hard drive and 2 MB of RAM.  It has a big, bright screen, our
PowerView system that tells you when you close the PC with power
still on, and much more.  It's very compact, and weighs only 5.95
pounds.

The Ni-Cad battery provides up to 3 hours of use between charges.
And the price, with Radio Shack's coast-to-coast service, is only
$2,999!

The Tandy 4860 HD notebook is an absolute screamer!  It is
exactly like the 4800, except based on a 33 MHz 486 DX.  It sells
for $3,499.  Norton's SI CPU benchmark on this machine is 72.2,
outpacing everything I have tested with the single exception of
our Tandy 4850 EP!

It's the same size and weight as its little brother, and battery
life is rated at 2-2.5 hours. Everyone who has tried the 486s has
been tremendously impressed.  A couple of years ago, it was
unthinkable that any notebook could match or outperform any
state-of-the-art machine.  And it's even more remarkable when you
consider the size and weight.  Why, you might ask, would Radio
Shack sell a 486 SX and the 3830 SL I told you about last month,
at the same price point?

Someone in our merchandising department recently called it a
"Mercedes vs. a Ferrari" choice.  A Mercedes combines excellent
performance with creature comforts, while the Ferrari is built
for all-out speed.

My personal choice is the 3830 SL.  Some of the creature comforts
it offers are the convenience of a built-in trackball (optional
extra on both 486's) a 30% larger hard drive, the front-mounted
floppy drive which I have really come to like, and the nickel
hydride-battery.  This battery technology is more expensive than
Ni-Cad, but it lets me plug into the charger whenever I like,
without worrying about overcharging or the Ni-Cad "memory"
effect.  Even the rear door, covering expansion ports, folds
around under the bottom to furnish a slight incline to the
keyboard.

The 3830 is very slightly larger than the 486 units, but weighs
the same, and provides slightly more battery life... 3-3.5 hours.
The speed is excellent for major programs like Lotus' Agenda,
Microsoft's Excel 4.0 and Word 2.0, and Symantec's OnTarget.

To each his or her own, though, so we give you a choice.


Radio Shack at Summer CES?

You heard right.  This is our first booth at the Consumer
Electronics Industry's major show.  In the past, it has been a
show exclusively for dealers.  This year, it will be open to the
public for the last day and a half.  So, we'll be there showing
several things.

This will be the first public showing of the actual Optimus
Digital Compact Cassette (DCC) unit.  Previous technology
demonstrations have been done with prototype units.  DCC will
ship later this year.

Our booth is in the "home office" section of the Chicago show,
so the emphasis will be on computers.  GRiD will be on hand to
show its "wearable" PalmPad computer and several of its other
GRiDPads.  Radio Shack will show the new line of high-power,
low-cost Tandy PCs, and the newest Tandy notebook PCs... both 486
units, and the 3830 SL.

See you next month!
