INFORMATION CHANNELS: When UPDATE purchased the Z88 back in January 1989 three issues of “News Notes” were received. NewsNotes is a very informative two page User newsletter published by Cambridge North America. After not receiving follow on newsletters, a call was made to the telephone numbers given in the literature supplied with the Z88 computer. A recording was received “Sorry, but that telephone number has been DISCONNECTED”. Other Z88 users may have reached a dead end with attempts to contact Cambridge North America. Follow on persistance resulted in finding the current telephone and postal addresses of Cambridge North America.
The Sales and Marketing office of Cambridge North America receives mail and telephone calls at: Cambridge North America, 750 West Algonquin, Arlington Heights, IL 60005. Telephones: 800 366 0088 and 312 593 0253. This is the appropriate office for calls and correspondance pertaining to Technical Information and publications. A helpful person there is Mr. Grant Kief. Mr. Kief promised to keep Update Magazine on their mailing list for all releases of User and Technical information about the Z88.
The Cambridge North America office for Warranty and repair is: Cambridge North America, 424 Cumberland Ave., Portland, ME 04104. Telephone number: 207 761 3700. This is also the Corporate Headquarters of Cambridge North America. This is the office to contact for Repair Service and for general business pertaining to Dealerships and Corporate business. Mr. Maurice Giguere is the “hands on” CEO.
The publication of Cambridge NewsNotes has been suspended during the period of office moves. Update Magazine hopes that this nice newsletter will be resumed. A suitable alternative would be the regular release of USER INFORMATION to Magazines that are willing to devote page space for USER SUPPORT. Such programming and technical information from the manufacturer is needed during the early life of a new computer while user support is developing. Once programming support materializes within the user group the magazines can fulfill the on-going needs for information support. If a sufficient flow of user information from Cambridge North America develops, Update Magazine will publish a regular column titled “Cambridge News Notes”.
NEW Z88 Support: A recent development extends the versatility of the Z88. A Disk Drive system for the Z88 is now available from your dealer. This is a portable battery operated 3 1/2″ disk system that matches the motif of the Z88 as a “carry around” computer system. Call your dealer.
The width of the Z88 market encompasses the whole computer industry. Traditional Sinclair users, such as the subscribers to Update, are keenly interested in the Z88 but represent only a significant fraction of the user group that is forming. This new computer also has high appeal to IBM users, Macintosh users, and to the general public for portability. It should be fun to pace this growing user group in the pages of Update Magazine and extend our horizions.
-BJ_