the Beta File

Welcome back to the Beta File, your source for the latest breaking news in OS/2 beta development. Every month we scour the OS/2 world to bring you interesting news of OS/2 software in development. If you have a product that you're sure is going to be the next killer app, or you want a little free exposure for your beta test drop us a note!

To start off this month, the long awaited Money Tree from Mt. Baker Software has officially entered beta testing! Initial plans were for this phase of the extensive beta test to run until mid-January or possibly early February. At press time the developers planned to have a public demo available by the end of January and to release the finished product some time in the first quarter of 1997.

Money Tree, for those who have not been anticipating it, is a full featured, 32 bit, multithreaded, WPS aware OS/2 financial application. It will feature support for every type of financial need you might have including an extensive set of budgeting features, "what if" abilities and .QIF file input support.

The suggested retail price for the final version of Money Tree will be US$59 when it hits the street. For a limited time, however, Mt. Baker is offering a "pre release special". Customers who order before the general release will get an early preview version and a US$10 discount on the final product. There will also be a competitive upgrade special. Current owners of In Charge, Check + and E-Teller will receive US$15 off Money Tree's suggested retail price. (These specials apply only to direct orders from Mt. Baker Software.)

The beta test for Money Tree is closed so unfortunately, if you want to participate, you'll be limited to examining the demo or ordering the pre release specials.

Turning to Adobe, the final beta of their popular platform-independent file reader has been released. The ongoing beta test of Adobe Acrobat has been extensive and public with many rallying cries on the Internet for OS/2 users to show their support by downloading the latest beta of Acrobat.

The bad news regarding Acrobat is that there has not been enough interest to do a port of the authoring product that Adobe sells to produce .PDF files. The good news is that the Acrobat reader will be released, and it should be done no later than end of February, according to Adobe employees. There will be European international versions as well.

This latest and last beta release is freeware, and does not expire. The same will apply to the "final" version when it is released. As of January 12th, OS/2 users could download the file from Adobe's web site, but it's a biggie -- almost 4 megabytes. This version features Netscape integration and forms capabilities. Unfortunately for users of older version of OS/2, this product requires Warp 3 or Warp 4.

For those of you looking to spice up your Warp Desktop or just manage that forest full of fonts you've accumulated, PVsoft is hoping to ease your burden with their latest beta test of Font Folder v3.0.

Font Folder is an OS/2 Font Manager which allows easy access to all your fonts while only keeping a small number installed (which makes OS/2 boot faster and shortens the font lists in your applications). It features the ability to:

• point and click install and uninstall fonts; browse fonts to see what they look like without having to install them

• build groups of fonts used in repetitive tasks and install and uninstall the entire group with a single click

• print samples of fonts (whether they are installed or not) and

• use fonts directly from a CDROM.

Primary developer Cliff Cullum tells us that this is an open beta so anyone is welcome to download the file from Hobbes, Walnut Creek or Leo (file name is fntfbeta.zip) and participate.

The general availability release is scheduled to be ready on February 1, 1997. It will be shareware and cost US$30 to register. Registered users of earlier versions will receive a free upgrade.

In the June 1996 OS/2 Magazine one reviewer wrote that Font Folder had, "Every font management function I could possibly use." In Cullum's own words, "If you own a font CDROM, you need this product."

And what Beta File would be complete without an Internet application to round things out?

Ralf Christen brings us news that the beta test of The Binary Newsreader (BNR) is just wrapping up. The beta ends January 31st and the final release is due at that time. More than 1000 people have downloaded the six beta revisions of BNR since September 1996.

BNR is designed for easy downloading and decoding of single- and multipart binary files which are UUE- or BASE-64 (Mime format) encoded from Internet newsgroups.

Exactly! It's made for all those alt.binaries... newsgroups.

BNR features multithreading, drag/drop, object oriented execution, a user-friendly configuration notebook and a filter feature (eg. get articles containing the words JPG or GIF). Users can stop and restart any time during a news download or even disconnect from the network and continue working after reconnecting without restarting the reader or reloading the newsgroup. And of course, BNR has the ability to connect and decode multipart UUE- and BASE64 (Mime format) coded files.

This shareware product will carry a registration fee of US$25 after it's "official" release.

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