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Week
of Nov 30 1998
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Dec
4
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VIDI, developer of the 3D program
Presenter 3D is closing its doors.
According to the company, remaining as the
only Mac-only 3D developer was no longer
possible and it was too late for them to
port to Windows.
However,
they say that they will release a free
version "as a Christmas present to our
existing and future users." The site also
talks about them continuing to operate the
site and offer tech support of a pay
basis.
The
software is not currently available; they
say it will be by December 25
<www.vidi.com>
Sony has only just started shipping
their mega-pixel digital camera, the
MVC-FD91 (which costs US$1099) and
yet they have announced the
DSC-D700. The digital camera market
continues to change.
Unfortunately
the price for this camera (US$1899) seems
a bit high considering the resolution is
only 1344 x 1024, which is only a little
higher than that of the other cameras that
are priced at around $1,000.
Specs:
- Up
to 1344 x 1024 image resolution
- 5x
manual optical zoom lens with manual
focus
- TTL
Optical Viewfinder
- Removable
ATA Type II PC Card Date Storage or
supplied Memory StickTM Digital Data
Storage Media
- Center
weighted averaging/spot metering system
with AE Lock function
- Exposure
Control: Program AE, Aperture Priority
AE, Shutter Priority AE, and Manual
- Manual
or Auto White Balance
- 4
seconds to 1/2000 second shutter speeds
<www.sel.sony.com
web page "DSC-D700">
Sony have also announced the first
direct-view, high-definition
television (HDTV), the 34-inch FD
Trinitron Wega HDTV (model
KW-34HD1) which is a 16-by-9 format
widescreen high definition set.
It
is able to decode all 18 Advanced
Television Standards Committee (ATSC)
formats for DTV, including HD
transmissions at 1080I (interlaced)
resolution.
The
new set is actually an integrated system
consisting of a 34-inch monitor,
tuner/decoder and integrated stand, sold
together for a suggested retail price of
$8,999.
<www.sony.com>
 
The Western Cable Show show was
this week, and there were several
interactive television announcements and
demonstrations. Many of these seemed to be
combination TV and Web technologies.
Here's just one example:
Digital
Renaissance Inc's T.A.G.
authoring technology allows producers to
create relationships between programs and
Web assets, including linking end users to
interactive Web content during a program.
T.A.G. is currently being used to produce
ExtendTV shows, such as the
first-of-its-kind, cross-media cooking
show that can be seen by visiting the Dish
It Out site. Other planned ExtendTV
programs include a music series, lifestyle
programs (focusing on gardening, shopping,
children, travel and sexuality), and
sports programming.
<www.dish-it-out.com>
The Advanced Television Enhancement
Forum (ATVEF) is a cross-industry
alliance of companies representing the
broadcast, cable, electronics and PC
industries. The alliance has defined
protocols for HTML-based enhanced
television.
<www.atvef.com>
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Dec
3
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GRAPHICS
MetaCreations Corp has shipped
Kai's Power Tools Version 5. KPT 5
includes ten new plug-in applications,
divided into real-time 3D tools, particle
growth effects and professional blurs.
KPT
5 is available at a SRP of US $199.
Upgrades to registered users of KPT are
available for US $99.
<www.metacreations.com>
NewTek is shipping Frame
Factory a hardware/software integrated
solution under $4,000 specifically for 3D
animation, real time video capture and
playback, 2D animation, video paint, 2D
and 3D video manipulation and video
processing.
<www.newtek.com>
NEWSLETTER
Game Developer's Newsletter is a --
now -- monthly email publication
containing timely and useful information
for Game Developers. Email contact
is:moondragon@home.com or check it out at
the International Game Developers Network
website.
<www.igdn.org/>
SuperCard News is a website that
covers news for SuperCard users.
<SuperCard
News>
Integration New Media has released
a Light Edition of its V12
Database Engine Xtra. You can use
V12-DBE Light Edition as an upgrade from
Lingo lists and FileIO Xtra, and as data
management support in projects. It is
designed for Macromedia Director, version
6 and 7.
Features:
- 100%
cross-platform compatible
- Stores,
indexes, sorts, searches and retrieves
any type of data
- Stores
and retrieves any type of media
supported by Director cast
members
- Powerful
search functions
- Handles
one table with up to 16
fields
- Sorts
and searches data in English, French,
German, Italian,Dutch,Spanish, Swedish,
Hebrew, etc.
V12-DBE
Light Edition is available directly from
INM at $199 US. Special introductory
pricing offered at $149 US until December
31st, 1998. A fully working evaluation
copy of V12-DBE Light Edition is available
FREE
<www.integration.qc.ca/V12light>
MAGAZINE
Microsoft and Miller Freeman Inc.
have changed the name of Microsoft
Interactive Developer, their magazine
for Internet developers to Microsoft
Internet Developer.
Timothy
Trickett, Publisher of MIND and MSJ said
"MIND is the only one hundred percent
developer-focused resource available to
Internet programming professionals. This
name change further clarifies what has
always been the principal editorial focus
of the magazine."
<www.microsoft.com/mind>
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Dec
2
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Claiming that user's experience of
digital TV is witnessing a
fundamental shift from "passive TV" to
"active TV" C-Cube Microsystems has
launched a new chip set platform to bring
digital TV and the Internet to the
consumer-priced digital set-top. C-Cube
provides other video technology such as
compression chips to a variety of
companies.
C-Cube's
new AViAtv product family includes
MPEG-2 decoding, robust graphics, two-way
networking, and a central processing unit
(CPU) for set-top platforms, allowing the
delivery of interactive video services.
With AViA@tv, cable operators, satellite
service providers, and OEMs could offer
subscribers multimedia set-tops with a new
set of interactive applications. Pioneer
and Pace have already adopted C-Cube's new
AViA@tv platform.
AViA@tv
supports 24-bit multi-planar graphics and
has a Flicker Filter feature to improve
picture quality of HTML content over the
television. Two-way network support (ATM,
HFC MAC) capability allows subscribers to
access data services such as e-mail and
home banking via the set-top.
<www.c-cube.com>
MegaZine 3D is accepting
submissions for the next issue. Deadline
on submissions is Dec. 10, 1998.
<website "MegaGrafx">
An improved version of AgentSheets
(1.4b1) has been released and can be
downloaded for free.
<www.agentsheets.com
web page "Download
AgentSheets">
Artificial Life has released
ALife-WebGuide Professional 1.0 a
tool designed to reside on a Web site and
help users navigate the site by accepting
and processing questions, such as search
queries, in natural language and
responding in natural language. They call
it a Smartbot(TM) and claim that by
engaging the user in a "conversation"
through questions and answers and, upon
learning of the user's interests, it can
display Web pages that match the the
conversation style. ALife-WebGuide comes
with Knowledge-Capture and
Knowledge-Editor tools that allow
companies to create and build customized
knowledge bases.
A
free test and trial version can be
downloaded for non-commercial use from the
Company's Web site.
<www.artificial-life.com>
Perceptronics, Inc is working with
Skyline Software Systems to explore
ways to add new capabilities for
multi-person, online planning and
collaboration over the Internet to
Skyline's Terra terrain visualization
products by combining them with
Perceptronics' InterGame collaborative
3D framework.
Skyline's
Terra program suite creates 3D terrain
visualizations by overlaying aerial or
satellite imagery on 3D terrain models.
The Terra rendering engine creates 3D
visualizations in real time on typical PC
platforms.
Perceptronics'
InterGame software tools and protocols are
designed to bring the DoD's High Level
Architecture (HLA) and Run Time
Infrastructure (RTI), in combination with
existing Internet open standards such as
Java, VRML and Living Worlds, to the
collaborative 3D market.
The
two companies are still in the early
stages of discussion, and have not yet
established a firm product development
plan or schedule.
<www.skyline.co.il>
<www.perceptronics.com>
Kodak is selling the
Entertainment Photo System (EPS)
which incorporates Kodak digital cameras
and digital color printers and is designed
to provide high quality images quickly in
settings such as amusement parks and
malls. Systems are scalable in size and
can be adapted to different locations. A
smaller EPS can be used to produce 100
photos a day, and a larger one as many as
3,000.
Fantasy
Imaging allows consumers to put
themselves into scenes using the same
green screen technology used to create
special effects composite shots in movies.
Visitors pose in front of a green screen
and are digitally inserted into a
make-believe scene stored in a computer.
The background images can include popular
animated characters or just about any
fantasy scene imaginable. A Kodak design
team works with attractions to create
fantasy scenes using theme park content or
licensed characters.
Kodak
Ride Imaging Systems use high-speed
cameras permanently mounted to photograph
every rider in action. The photos are
immediately transmitted to a computer that
displays them on monitors located in a
point of sale area. Customers select a
photo and a high quality digital print is
produced in just minutes.
<www.kodak.com
press release "Entertainment
Photo
System">
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Dec
1
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iShell from Tribeworks is a
new cross-platform multimedia authoring
tool. While I haven't been able to do
anything more than launch the demo
version, I have assembled some comments
from other people who have looked at the
product in my latest column.
<Multimedia Musings column
"iShell">
I encountered an interesting problem with
a Macromedia Director project
today. The movie kept displaying a message
"Sound Import Export not
found."
A
search of Macromedia's tech support found
a technote which suggested two reasons for
the problem; the first one was that we
were running in a 16 bit file manager that
only supported 8.3 filenames. The second
suggested cause was that we had a movie
created in Director 6.0 that was turned
into a projector using version 6.5. The
technote said "Attempting to run the
created projector will result in the error
message." (I guess the solution is not
running the projector!)
It
turns out that our movie files had been
created in 6.0, some editing was done in
6.5, then the files were edited in 6.0
again. When we looked in the movies they
had two copies of the Sound Import Export
Xtra listed in the movies Xtras list.
Deleting these files solved the
problem.
<www.macromedia.com>
MetaCreations has announced today
that it expects Microsoft Corp will
distribute MetaStream with the
Windows 98 operating system.
MetaStream is an open graphics file format
for streaming, viewing and manipulating 3D
objects via the Internet. The MetaStream
client-side engine will be integrated as a
DX Transform into the Microsoft
DirectAnimation application programming
interface, a component of Windows
98.
Previously
MetaCreations announced that Microsoft
would include MetaStream in its
Chromeffects interactive media technology.
but Microsoft recently put a halt to
Chromeffects development.
A
Macintosh-compatible version of the
MetaStream plug-in is currently in
development.
<www.metastream.com>
A demo of PanoTouch 1.0 is
available on the AdessoSoft Web
site. PanoTouch is an editing application
for QuickTime VR movies. The
PanoTouch Demo works like release version
except that it puts a "demo" notice across
content. Also, for a few more days, the
$99 Pre-Release price is still
available.
<www.adessosoft.com>
The DVDFile website has published
an article by Dan Ramer that explores the
business case for including 16 x 9
transfers on DVD. While DVD makes it
possible to support 16 x 9 not all studios
are bothering to support this
format.
Personally
I hope that 16 x 9 is adopted quickly so
that the price of these televisions comes
down and I can get one! Note that we're
not necessarily talking about HDTV here.
While HDTV uses the 16 x 9 aspect ratio,
it's also possible to get "low" resolution
sets in that ratio. The cheapest unit I'm
aware of is from Toshiba and costs $2,000
US.
<www.dvdfile.com
article "The
Business Case For
16x9">
CNET reports that IBM has
reached an agreement with Sony, Warner
Music, EMI Group, Universal and others to
participate in a digital music
distribution system called the Madison
Project.
<www.news.com
news "IBM
eyes digital music
delivery">
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Nov
30
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QuickEditor 1.7 for Windows is now
available. QuickEditor is a QuickTime
video editor designed to perform common
editing operations. It is available for
Macintosh (Mac OS) and Windows (95/98/NT)
Computers with QuickTime 3.
Some
of QuickEditor's main features
are:
- Simple,
"all-in-one-window", scalable
interface.
- Support
(via QuickTime 3) for a variety of
movie, sound and image formats (
including .mov, .avi, .aiff, .wav, .au,
.bmp, .jpg, .gif, ... ).
- More
than 100 Transitions and
Filters.
- Support
for Sound and Music (QuickTime Midi)
tracks.
QuickEditor
is shareware ( 35 $ Registration Code for
unlimited access to every feature), or
available on CD for 75 $ (Full
documentation, enhanced version of the
program, more than 400 audio samples
).
<wild.ch/quickeditor>
Sony Mavica owners looking for
alternative software for downloading and
managing images from their cameras have
several options:
DIGIPICS,
for Windows copies files from a Mavica
floppy disk, organize and let you manage
the files.
<coyote.ycp.edu/~chall/digipics/>
Javica
is a Java Image viewer for the Sony
Mavica. It claims that it lets you view
images 100 times faster, allowing you to
see the contents of a Mavica floppy disk
instantly. It will even create a gallery
of web pages with a single click, and it's
available for Windows and Macintosh.
<web page "Javica">
Finally,
for Macintosh users Mavicadabra! is
a utility which also claims to speed up
the process of copying and renaming files.
Mavicadabra! can even convert files to
Macintosh PICT format, create QuickTime
previews, add a thumbnail icon, change the
file's creator type to that of your
preferred graphics editing/viewing
application, split multi-images into 9
separate files, add a timestamp, and
create index pictures. Also included is an
optional system extension that monitors
floppy disk activity and automatically
activates Mavicadabra whenever a photo
disk is detected. Mavicadabra! is designed
for use with the FD71 but should work with
the FD5, FD51, FD7, FD81, and FD91 models
as well. Mavicadabra! costs $20.
<web page for "Mavicadabra!">
Macromedia has released a free
public beta of its Flash Player for
the Sun Microsystems, Inc.'s
Solaris operating environment and
the cooperatively developed Linux
operating system. The free player is
available from Macromedia's Web site.
<www.macromedia.com
web page "Shockwave
download">
Apple Insider contains a
mini-review of the beta of Apple's
Final Cut, Apple's video editing
application, that includes screen shots.
Final Cut was originally developed by
Macromedia. No word on what the status of
the software is.
<www.appleinsider.com
article "Apple's
Final Cut Pro 1.0 - Amazing in
Beta">
Narrative Communications,
Hewlett-Packard Company and Amazon.com
have developed an interactive ad
that offers an instant excerpt of Tom
Wolfe's book A Man In
Full.
Amazon.com's
Tom Wolfe banner ad allows potential book
buyers to print out an excerpt of the book
and order it immediately if they like what
they read. The ad even includes a Tom
Wolfe trivia game that can be played while
printing the five-page excerpt. The ad can
be seen on cnn.com and
previewtravel.com.
Amazon.com's
Tom Wolfe ad was created utilizing
Enliven HardCopy Web advertising
technology, which is jointly developed by
Narrative Communications and HP.
<www.narrative.com>
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