Disk Drives:
A new 3" microfloppy drive has been launched for the BBC Micro. The Micro Pulse from Northern Computers (0928-35110) combines compact size with a compact prize. For £169.90 (plus VAT) you get a drive, double-sided 100K utility disk, cable and user manual. Included in the software is a utility that allows you to transcribe software from cassette of 5.25" disk on to a microfloppy. At the other end of the scale Newbury Data (0784-61500) has signed a deadl with Maxtor Corp to manufacturer and market 5.25" Winchester drives with capacities of 65Mb, 105Mb and 140Mb.

Micro Pulse 3" drives - small is beautiful

Printers:
Brother seems out to prove it can make the cheapest printer available. The HR-5 costs just £147 (plus VAT) and can operate on battery or mains power. Printing speeds of 30 cps are possible with 10 or 12 characters an inch using a 9 x 9 dot matrix. It weighs only 3.5lbs and comes with a choice of RS232 or Centronics parallel interfaces. The cost of plotters also seems to be coming down. Pete & Pam Computers says that it hopes to take deliveries at the end of February of the Sweet-P Model 600 Six Shooter graphics plotter and to sell them at £850 (plus VAT) each. The plotter has a rotating carousel holding six colour pens (from a choice of 12), 2K buffer and a plotting speed of 14 inches a second. A novel feature is that the plotter automatically senses if a parallel or serial interface is connected and switches to the port in use. The Six Shooter comes with the Sweet-P graphic language and can be used with Apple, IBM and CP/M micros.

Brother HR-5 - the family grows larger

Joysticks:
Emax Computing (0262-602541) has cut the price of its Arcade Professional Joystick to £28.95 and is offering a New Year bonus to existing users - a refund on the price difference. In addition, the company is offering interfaces to use the joystick with the BBC B and the Dragon. AGF Hardware (0243 823337) is to cut the price of its programmable joystick interface to £6 from March 1, bringing it down to £26.95. The second player socket has been sacrificed but a design improvement allows the use of the Quickshot II joystick's rapid fire feature.

Sound Box:
Fed up with the sound from your Spectrum? Zeal Marketing (0246-208555) can help with a sound 'booster' costing £14.99. It plugs into the Spectrum and gives you a 3" speaker with volume control.