More news from the World of computing as seen by Gary Evans, Editor of Electronics & Computing

Sinclair have received a vast amount of free publicity over the past few months and all of it bad. It concerns the fact that after the official launch of their new '32' bit micro, the QL, and an advertising campaign promising a 28 day delivery on the computer, no-one to date (early March) has seen a production version of the computer. Cheques have been cashed by Sinclair, and although all monies are probably in a separate account and anyone wishing for their money to be returned is sent a refund, Sinclair are reaping the benefits of the interest on the account. The ASA have stepped in to put a halt to the 28 day claim but the ads for the QL are still running.

If like many others the specification of the QL attracts you and you are thinking of ordering a machine, do not part with any money at the moment and do not expect to acquire a machine for some months yet.

Timex/Sinclair

Many of you will know that the Timex Corporation, best known in this country for their low cost watches, are responsible for the manufacture of both the Sinclair Spectrum and the Sinclair flat screen TV. You may not know however that Timex market versions of the Sinclair Spectrum and the ZX81 in the USA, or rather they have been responsible for this marketing until recently. At the end of February the company decided to pull out of the American market. In view of the vast sales of Sinclair products in this country at first sight it may be difficult to see why Timex could not repeat the success story on the other side of the Atlantic. The reasons are two fold. The first is that while the Spectrum and ZX81 before it broke new ground in this country, offering specifications and price that were far superior to anything on offer from the competition, various delays in translating the designs for the American market, meant that by the time they were launched across the pond, the Timex versions were not so far ahead in terms of performances. Add to that the fact that many manufacturers, including Texas and Commodore have been involved in a price war, and the second attraction of Sinclair machines, that of low price, is removed.

The Timex withdrawal is unlikely to have much of an impact on Sinclair themselves but for the many British companies who have set up US subsidiaries to market software for the Timex machines the decision has come as quite a blow.

Men From The Ministry

Although the following may seem like an April fool story it is in fact true. Some time ago a company called JLC Data claimed to have invented a fool proof software protection device. If this claim were true it could put to an end the loss of millions of pounds that the software industry in this country loses each year. As such it could well make JLC a small fortune.

The company hot footed it to the Patent Office. At this stage the MoD, yes the Ministry of Defence, enter the picture. Under an obscure section of the 1877 Patent Act they are claiming that the software protection device may be 'prejudicial to the defence of the realm' and have called the Patent Application in for inspection. Quite why a software protection device should put national security at risk has not been disclosed and nor is it likely to be. In the mean time the men from the Ministry are sitting on the design and if they move at the speed of some other branches of Government it could be some time before any decision on the Patent is made.

In the meantime software houses will have to continue to face the fact that for every legitimate sale of a package that they make, there will be five or six pirate copies floating around.

At The Sharp End

While not having enough space for a full review of the new Sharp PC5000, the machine deserves a mention for the fact that it is one of the first machines to make use of bubble memory devices. Bubble memories look like being THE memory of the future. They are non-volatile devices (effectively) and can store large amounts of data (128K in the case of the Sharp version) and can be treated in the same way as a conventional disk drive.

The devices are still rather costly but that will change over the next year or so. When cheap bubble memories are available they will be to the Sinclair microdrive as that device is to the humble cassette recorder.