Week
of May 25 1998
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May
29
|
We
interrupt our regularly scheduled program
to bring you some news that's
out-of-this-world!
Yesterday
it was announced that NASA's Hubble Space
Telescope has given astronomers their
first direct look at what is possibly a
planet outside our solar system -- one
apparently that has been ejected into deep
space by its parent stars. (NASA
Press
Release)
 
MacInTouch's Ric Ford has been
following the QuickTime Autostart
9805 virus. This virus is replicated
using the QuickTime AutoStart function
when an infected disk is inserted into the
computer.
To protect themselves against infection,
Macintosh QuickTime users should turn off
the AutoPlay function in the QuickTime
Control Panel. Instructions for
determining whether you might be infected,
and how to remove the infection are also
described. (MacInTouch
resource page "AutoStart
9805 Worm a.k.a. "Hong Kong"
virus")
 
Turntable Media (www.turntable.com)
has released Multimixer Xtra 1.5 for
Macromedia Director. Multimixer is a
scripting Xtra that can mix and pan
multiple audio tracks of any QuickTime
file. This release is cross-platform, and
support has been added for the Access Key
functionality of QuickTime 3 which can
encode a password into QuickTime media
that prevents access without the password.
Other features include:
- Independently
set the volume and balance of any audio
track
- Enable
and disable any media track
- Register
Quicktime Access Keys
Windows
users must have QuickTime 3 installed;
Macintosh users must have at least
QuickTime 2.1The Xtra costs $300.
More information and a fully functional
demo are available (Multimixer
info page
at Turntable Media)
VersaDisc is a free Interactive
Magazine on DVD disc which will
start monthly publication in June. Each
issue can be played in both DVD-ROM drives
and DVD Video Players, and according to
their promotional materials will contain a
full length feature movie, film previews,
music videos, computer games, children's
activities, magazine and newspaper
editorials and articles, and software
programs and media products related to
home, work and health issues.
Sign up at their website to get a free
subscription (www.dvd4u.com).
Meanwhile CNET reports that the release of
DIVX has been further delayed
because the DIVX production company is
finishing up transferring titles to the
DIVX format(www.news.com's
article "DIVX
rollout delayed
again")
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May
28
|
Macromedia Director may have been
around a long time, but that doesn't mean
other developers don't think they can
knock it off it's perch.
Bob Stein, who was behind the
electronic publishing company
Voyager, has started Night
Kitchen to build new authoring tools.
According to their web site, Night
Kitchen's first product, TK3, has
been designed to develop interactive
titles with a core linear component:
bodies of text, audio and music; films and
videos; photographic essays; and
illustrated lectures.
The
tool is supposed to do the
following:
- assemble
complex multimedia documents without a
programmer
- handle
text, audio and video equally well
- present
a rich set of user features
- provide
customizable templates, so multiple
titles can be created efficiently with
a consistent format and design
- be
truly cross-platform, including text
layout
- be
delivery-medium independent, so that
titles can be distributed over the
Internet or on fixed media such as
CD-ROM and DVD-ROM
if
you've been around long enough, you may
remember that Voyager at one point was
offering an electronic book publishing
tool that was built on top of Apple's
HyperCard.
The
new tool is supposed to be released in the
fall, but applications are currently being
accepted for beta users at their website
(www.nightkitchen.com).
If
anyone gets a look at the tool, drop us a
note with your impressions to
news@m2w.net
Real Networks last month announced
RealSystem G2, the "Next Generation
Streaming Media Delivery System." G2 is an
open, extensible system for delivering
verious kinds of media over IP based
networks.
A preview release of the RealPlayer
G2 is available for Windows 95 and NT
(www.real.com
preview of RealPlayer
G2).
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May
26
|
MacCentral has an in-depth report on
Totally Hip Software's (www.totallyhip.com)
upcoming release of WebPainter 3, a
Web animation and graphics editing tool.
This release makes use of QuickTime 3
features including vector graphics.
(www.maccentral.com's
article "Sneak
Peak: WebPainter gets major overhaul in
version
3.0")
CNN has redesigned their website. A
multimedia Specials section includes a
VRML tour of a hurricane (www.cnn.com
special section "Navigate
the Eye of a
Hurricane")
that requires Cosmo Player and an
IPIX tour of Israel (www.cnn.com specal
section "Israel
at 50: 360 degree tour of
Israel.")
The VRML model is an interesting idea, but
kind of dark and the animation isn't
always clear what's going on; we wonder if
an interactive, annotated animation
wouldn't have been better.
This IPIX tour has a nice interactive map
which shows small thumbnails of the scenes
as you move the mouse over the map, and
opens a secondary window to display the
IPIX movies. At the moment we get a script
error when using this with I.E.
4.0.
MacWEEK has generally positive reviews of
NewTek Inc's LightWave 3D 5.5
(www.macweek.com's
article "Lightwave
3D shines")
and their low-end package Inspire
3D which shares much of the interface
and feature set of LightWave, but has been
"scaled down" for multimedia and web
producers. (www.macweek.com's article
"Inspire
3D targets graphic
designers.")
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May
25
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Memorial
Day
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