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Week
of Jan 4 1999
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Jan
8
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Macromedia now has documentation
for Director 7 available on their
website. Some documentation was supposed
to be on the CD, but didn't make it for
the first release.
Of
particular interest, there's documentation
for the Multiuser Server, which consists
of a PDF file and a Director file
example.
<www.macromedia.com
support index "Director
7">
StageTools has formally announced
OnStage!, a previsualization tool
designed for motion picture and video
producers or directors to help them
create, modify and preview the flow of
their shows. OnStage! is a "nonlinear idea
editor" that can create a rough
approximation of a show to aid the
planning of the production, before and
during the shooting process.
OnStage!
is Windows 95/98/NT based and supports the
OpenGL 3D rendering standard. An
evaluation copy can be downloaded from
their website. OnStage! is priced at $895
and will be available in Q1 of 1999.
OnStage! will be distributed exclusively
by L&S Marketing, Inc.
<www.stagetools.com>
Radius Inc has changed its name to
Digital Origin to "better reflect
its total dedication to developing
cross-platform DV software to serve the DV
camcorder market." Radius makes FireWire
cards and the EditDV software for editing
DV video.
<www.digitalorigin.com>
Macromedia and have announced that
Dreamweaver 2, now provides support
for WebObjects 4, Apple's
application server. The integration of the
two products allows Web site designers to
use Macromedia's Dreamweaver 2 as a front
end to Apple's WebObjects Internet and
intranet development platform.
Later
this quarter, 17 pre-coded WebObjects
modules will be available for Dreamweaver
2, radically streamlining the process of
building a WebObjects-powered Internet
site. Once installed, the WebObjects
components allow site developers to insert
WebObjects content into documents created
in Dreamweaver 2. The modules will be
available free to registered Dreamweaver 2
developers.
<www.dreamweaver.com>
MetaCreations Corp has announced
MetaFlash, which enables Web
developers to capture photo-realistic
3D images for interactive use on the
Internet.
MetaFlash
is the combination of a flash attachment
designed by MetaCreations for standard
digital cameras and software that
reconstructs the digital pictures into
texture-mapped 3D wire frame models. The
company believes that MetaFlash technology
will dramatically reduce the time and cost
involved in producing photorealistic 3D
Web images. MetaFlash outputs to the
MetaStream 3D file format.
MetaCreations
is pursuing relationships with key
partners to bring this technology to
market as quickly as possible.
<www.metacreations.com>
The New York Software Summit
scheduled for January 21 is hosting a
panel on Digital Music featuring
proponents of several leading digital
audio technologies and a technical advisor
to the RIAA.
The
panel features Michael Robertson, CEO of
MP3.com, <www.mp3.com>;
Howie Singer, chief technology officer of
a2b Music, <www.a2bmusic.com>;
Dick Wingate, vice president of content
development, Liquid Audio,
<www.liquidaudio.com>;
and Nick DiGiacomo, vice president of
Scient Corporation and consultant to the
RIAA on its Secure Digital Music
Initiative (SDMI), <www.riaa.com/tech/sdmiinfo.htm>
Moderator is Bob Ponce, President of the
World Wide Web Artists Consortium
(WWWAC).
More
information is available at the web
site:
<www.nysia.org>
Diamond Multimedia Systems Inc has
announced the preliminary release of the
Diamond Media Device Manager, a
software Application-specific Programming
Interface (API) for the Rio PMP300,
to Internet technology and content
companies including Liquid Audio and
Audible.
The
Diamond Media Device Manager API will
allow companies to build direct support
for Diamond Multimedia's Rio PMP300
portable Internet audio player and
follow-on products into specific software
applications while adding a layer of
copyright protection.
Liquid
Audio will incorporate the Diamond
Media Device Manager in its "Liquid Music
Player" in the first half of 1999,
allowing Rio customers to download and
play back Liquid Tracks.
Diamond
Multimedia has also entered into a
partnership with Audible, developer
of a secure delivery system for spoken
audio content over the Internet. Audible
intends to incorporate the Diamond Media
Device Manager into their audio delivery
system, giving their customers the ability
to purchase, download and playback through
Rio business programming, audio books,
news programs, on-demand radio conference
proceedings and lectures. Audible has made
available an MP3 showcase on their
website
<www.audible.com/mp3>
<www.diamondmm.com>
<www.liquidaudio.com>
VR Toolbox is shipping VR
SceneWorx, a multi-node scene designer
that creates photo-realistic, interactive,
virtual environments. VR SceneWorx
combines panoramas, objects, still images
and linear QuickTime movies into an
immersive imagery experience .
Upcoming
Windows versions of all the companies
products will ship in the beginning of
1999. Scheduled for January are VR
PanoWorx and VR ObjectWorx, with VR
SceneWorx following in just a few
weeks.
<www.vrtoolbox.com>
Hitachi is entering the DVD market.
The DVP250U (target introduction
2Q/99, target price $399), will feature a
double speed drive, component video output
and built in Dolby AC3 decoder.
More
interestingly, the company is also
demonstrating two optical disk recording
devices; a home recording deck and
camera. Both are expected to record
on a medium that is compatible with DVD
players and PC-DVD drives, and are
targeted for introduction in the year
2000.
Using
MPEG2 compression, the recorder
will be able to store approximately four
hours on a 12cm disc. Longer recordings
can be achieved by varying the bit
rate.
The
camera uses an 8cm disc to record up to
one hour of under current MPEG2
specifications.
<www.hitachi.com/tv>
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Jan
7
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Tribeworks has announced that
iShell is now free (without
support and some options.) iShell is a
media authoring tool for creation and
deployment on both Mac and Windows-based
computers. Additionally, Tribeworks has
announced a commercial open source
distribution model for its software.
Source code will be available as part of
Tribeworks Full Member program.
There
are two membership options:
Free Membership makes the iShell Editor
and Runtime available for free with
registration. Runtime executables must be
registered and downloaded separately for
each project created. All technical
support is self-service.
Full
Membership adds technical support, access
to the source code for the Editor and
Runtime and iShellís Software
Developerís Kit (SDK), early
seeding of new product versions, marketing
support including referrals and presence
on the Tribeworks Web site, and additional
plug-ins and utilities. Full Membership is
priced at $2000, renewable annually.
<www.tribeworks.com>
Final Cut Pro, the video editing
application Apple is developing hasn't
been announced formally (as far as I know)
but it does have a web page which
describes the product and includes some
screen shots. The page concludes with the
line "Professional digital video
production at a cost you never would have
thought possible. Available in Spring
1999."
<www.apple.com
web page "Final
Cut">
The web address given for 3D Dreams
was incorrect. It should be:
www.shells-ifa.com
3D
Dreams is a Director Xtra which
adds support for 3D to Director projects.
The product manager dropped me a note to
point out that the product has been
available for a year now and that they are
working on version 2. There will be two
versions of the next release: a basic
version and a professional version. There
will also be a MAC player available.
When
this MacWorld business and a few other
things get off my plate I hope to go back
and look at this product in more
depth.
<www.shells-ifa.com>
ReplayTV a set-top device that is
essentially a tape-less VCR has been
honored as Innovations 99 "Best of Show"
winner for video at the International
Consumer Electronics Show. Replay provides
a number of features that current tape
based devices can't offer (like replay of
a portion of a program while the device
continues to record the end of the
program.)
Marc
Andreessen, Netscape Communications
co-founder and recently named
Replay-Networks board member, calls
ReplayTV "just about the coolest thing
I've ever seen." He says "Replay could do
for television what Netscape did for the
Internet." [Presonnally, I think he's
smoking something, but it does look
interesting -Ed]
ReplayTV
will begin volume shipments in the first
quarter of 1999 starting at $699.
<www.replaytv.com>
Here's a couple more details on Avid's
USB video product for the Mac:
Scheduled for shipping in Q2 í99,
at $299 through traditional Apple
retailers.
<www.avidcinema.com>
Media 100 Inc is demonstrating a
Media 100 PowerBook G3/300
configuration that gives videographers
real-time nonlinear editing for field
applications requiring compact equipment
configurations and ease of
mobility
The
configuration comprises P6000 hardware and
Version 5.0 software from Media 100,
Apple's PowerBook G3/300 and a Magma
PowerBook PCI Expansion System. These
three components occupy two square feet
and weigh less than 20 pounds, but can
produce broadcast-quality output. The
Media 100-PowerBook-Expansion
configuration also provides 4 PCI slots
and a high-capacity internal drive array.
No ship date or pricing has been
announced.
<www.media100.com>
The world of digital cameras is rapdily
changing. New printers such as the Olympus
model described below suggest that digital
photographers will be able to do more with
their images without having to use a
computer.
Olympus
America Inc has announced the
Olympus P-330 Instant Home Photo
Printer. This 4 x 6" print size
dye-sub printer can be used as a computer
printer, and can also be used to grab
frames from a video signal for printing.
Most
interestingly, it includes a SmartMedia
card reader, which allows all SmartMedia
memory cards from Olympus (or other
digital cameras) to be inserted directly
into the printer for downloading of images
via the parallel port (Windows
only).
Images
can also be manipulated using sharpen and
cropping capability in two sizes in the
printer. Images can also be individually
tagged on the SmartMedia card using the
Olympus digital camera image selection
feature for later printing.
The
P-330 has two ink ribbon cartridges; a
three pass standard ribbon, or a four pass
ribbon that adds UV overcoat protection
for extra image longevity. It prints a 4``
x 5.5'' page at a rate of about 2 minutes
per page. The P-330 is available for both
Macintosh or PC computers immediately and
is expected to sell for $449.
<www.olympus.com/digital>
FIREWIRE
MacInTouch in their field report
for MacWorld says that FireWire
support in the new G3 PowerMacs is limited
to digital cameras and that support for
other peripherals won't be available until
System 8.6 is released in
March.
Still,
companies are showing other Firewire
products at the show. Companies with new
FireWire products debuting at MacWorld
include: Castlewood (orb drive), Dicomed
(digital camera), Epson (printer interface
card), Fujifilm Microdevices (photo
scanner), Indigita (tape drive), Kodak
(digital cameras), La Cie (CD recorder,
hard drive and DVD-RAM), MacTell (CD
recorder, hard drive and hub), Newer
Technologies (A/V converter), PhaseOne
(high-end scanner, digital camera), VST
(hard disk and magnetic optical drives),
Yamaha (digital audio mixer) and Yano
(hard disk and magnetic optical
drive).
<www.macintouch.com>
VRtools has released a couple of
new VR tools.
deliVRator optimizes QuickTime
VR movies for streaming over the web
(not to be confused with the long await
QuickTime streaming.) It includes
drag&drop reordering of media samples
to further optimize QuickTime VR and other
types of QuickTime movies. Changes in
media sample reordering can be tested
immediately without saving the
movie.
conVRter
creates QTVR 1.0 movies from QTVR 2.0
single node panorama and object movies and
multinode panorama movies (ie created with
Apple's QuickTime VR Authoring Studio).
The easily created QTVR 2.0 movies can be
converted to QTVR 1.0 movies for
circumstances where QTVR 2.0 is not
supported: Windows 3.1, QuickTime Plugin
v1. Converted movies retain the original
image quality; conVRter does not edit the
video or hotspot images. conVRter also
converts any QTVR 1.0 movie to web
optimised streaming QTVR 2.0
Both
cost $149.00 for each (though there's also
a shareware version of conVRter.)
<www.vrtools.com
web pafes "deliVRator"
and "conVRter")
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Jan
6
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Apple's MacWorld show kicked
off today so most of the news today
concerns Macs in some way. Apple announced
new G3 Macs which include FireWire
(instead of SCSI.) Unfortunately, my local
CompUSA hadn't received any stock as of
this evening(!)
I
tried to watch the keynote via streamed
video (RealNetworks server from ZDNET.) At
first the performance was acceptable, but
about 20 minutes into the presentation the
image refresh rate started to fall, and
then the speech started to break up, and I
gave up after 15 minutes of trying to make
out what was going on. Network video just
doesn't work for popular
events.
While
Steve Jobs demonstrated FireWire
using a digital video camera, and there
was also a demonstration of video
streaming, he did not announce or talk
about QuickTime 4 which was
supposed to be shown and would include
streaming. There are reports that the
announcement has slipped to the World Wide
Developers Conference. There was a mention
of demos of Final Cut, but no other
details available yet.
<www.apple.com>
RealNetworks has announced new
offerings for the Macintosh, including the
preview release of RealPlayer G2
for the Macintosh and the debut of
RealProducer G2 for the Macintosh, as well
as deeper support for the QuickTime
authoring format. Users of RealSystem G2
can now author in QuickTime and use system
capabilities like SureStream, RealVideo
G2, and RealAudio G2.
RealPlayer
G2 offers Intel Web video streaming
technology and RealAudio G2 support for
streaming audio. RealPlayer G2 for
Macintosh requires MacOS 8.1 or newer and
runs on PowerPC 604 or PowerPC G3 CPUs.
The preview release of the Macintosh
version of RealPlayer G2 is available
immediately for free download
RealProducer
G2 provides wizards that let authors
create and deploy streaming media Web
pages. An Email wizard lets users add
RealAudio and RealVideo clips to Email as
an attachment or URLs. RealProducer G2
will be made publicly available in 90
days. Developers interested in being part
of the RealProducer private beta program
should contact devzone@real.com.
The
RealSystem G2 for QuickTime Kit allows
application developers to publish their
QuickTime-authored content for RealSystem
G2, from within popular video and
multimedia authoring applications. The
RealSystem G2 will be made publicly
available in 90 days. ISVs interested in
learning more about this technology should
contact Developer Relations at
RealNetworks: devzone@real.com.
<www.real.com
web page "Mac
G2 Player">
Panasonic says Apple will
offer Panasonic's LF-D101 DVD-RAM
drive as a separate build-to-order (BTO)
option for its new Power Macintosh
G3 family of personal computers. The
DVD-RAM drive offers 2.6GB of rewritable,
removable storage.
The
LF-D101 can read CD-ROM, CD Audio, CD-R,
CD-RW and video CD drives, as well as PD,
DVD-ROM, DVD video, and DVD-R drives.
Designed
to provide more than a 100,000 overwrites,
the "bare'' 2.6GB single-sided media comes
in a cartridge that can be removed for
loading in newer DVD-RAM-compatible
DVD-ROM drives and in DVD-RAM drives The
Panasonic DVD-RAM drive provides access
speeds of 120ms and a data transfer rate
of up to 10.5Mbps. A 2MB buffer is
included.
DVD-RAM
media will be available for less than
$25.00 for the 2.6GB media and $45.00 for
the 5.2GB media.
[Apple's
Build-to-Order store has been having
trouble all day, so while I was able to
check some things I was unable to confirm
that this item is currently listed as an
available item. Personally, I want to find
a FireWire CDR. -Ed]
<www.apple.com>
GRAPHICS
BitJazz Inc has announced
QuickTime support for the company's
BitJazz lossless, photo-quality
compression software technology.
Available for both Windows and Mac OS, the
software enables any application that
supports QuickTime to natively read and
write PhotoJazz files, which losslessly
compresses photo-quality images with an
average of 2.5X reduction in file size.
BitJazz claims it uses the same amount of
memory for any size image and compresses
3X as fast as PNG (Portable Network
Graphics). The BitJazz compressor is
already available as a Photoshop
plugin.
The
PhotoJazz reader/evaluation copy is free
and available for immediate download.
PhotoJazz Expert, a US$149 solution for
QuickTime and Photoshop-capable
applications, has full write capability of
all color modes, including 16-bit channel
support. PhotoJazz Pro, which sells for
$99, outputs 8-bit channels only, while
PhotoJazz Lite, $49, outputs RGB only.
<www.bitjazz.com>
Sorenson Video 2.0 is the latest
version of the Sorenson Video QuickTime
codec and is up to four times faster than
the original Sorenson QuickTime video
codec. It also supports multi-processor
workstations--such as those operating
under Windows NT-- dividing the workload
among the number of available
processors.
<www.s-vision.com>
Terran Interactive, publisher of
digital video production utilities
including Media Cleaner Pro, has
introduced VideoPrism. Developed by
Delta E, VideoPrism is a color
enhancement application for digital video
that combines color management techniques
within a QuickTime 3 effects filter that
enables videographers to instantly apply
both color correction and effects to their
clips. Features include:
- Instant,
real-time playback following any color
adjustment.
- ICC
Color Management technology. Supports
both Source and Destination device
profiles to maximize color fidelity.
- Multiple
effects and undos and clip-level
correction capability
- Tools
including curves, levels, replace
color, presets, cast adjustment,
autostretch, as well as brightness,
contrast, saturation, and more...
- Color
adjustment without intermediate
rendering
Available
now for the Mac OS, VideoPrism will retail
for under $399 with an introductory price
of $199.
<www.delta-e.com>
<www.terran.com>
Radius Inc is now including
Adobe Premiere 5 LE with
MotoDV, its digital video capture
solution for DV camcorders and tape decks
with 1394 FireWire ports. Radius announced
that the price of MotoDV has been reduced
from $499 to $399 as a special,
time-limited offer.
MotoDV
is a cross-platform product that includes
software, the Radius 1394 FireWire card
and cable. Also included is a PhotoDV
plug-in that permits users to import still
photos from their DV footage directly into
Adobe Photoshop LE. Users who want more
editing power can upgrade to either Radius
EditDV or the full version of Adobe
Premiere.
Radius
also announced a Mac OS version of
MotoDV Studio - a product
previously available only for Windows
users. MotoDV Studio for Mac OS includes a
full version of Adobe Premiere 5.1. MotoDV
Studio for Mac OS will be available direct
from Radius for a special introductory
price of $599.
<www.radius.com>
Xing Technology Corporation has
announced AudioCatalyst for the
Macintosh, a digital audio software
product that converts music held on a
compact disc into MPEG Layer 3
(MP3) files. The AudioCatalyst for the
Macintosh will be available for purchase
on January 15.
AudioCatalyst
includes both analog and digital encoding,
Variable Bit Rate (VBR) Support, the
ability to listen to the song as it is
being encoded, and can save files either
in MP3 or AIFF format.
<www.xingtech.com>
Puffin Designs has a major upgrade
to Commotion, their visual effects
package for video, film and digital
content creation. Version 2.0 of Commotion
expands the creative tool set with 3rd
party plug-in support, a new FX Brush for
creating texture and stylized media brush
effects, and new text creation and
animation tools.
3rd
Party Effects Plug-in support provides
access to Knoll Lens Flare Pro lighting
effects from Puffin Designs as well as
effects packages from ICE, Artel Software
(Boris FX), DigiEffects, Ultimatte, and
others. The FX Brush allows users to
create texture and stylized media brushes
for 2D animation and special effects.
There are also over 20 new Filter
Effects.
Commotion
2.0 will ship with an MSRP of $2,495.00
(U.S.). Customers who purchase Commotion
Version 1.6 between January 5th and the
ship date will receive Version 2.0 at no
charge. Commotion Version 2.0 will ship in
April 1999, and upgrades will be available
for $249.00 to all registered Commotion
users.
<www.puffindesigns.com>
Avid Technology and ESKAPE
Labs are developing a new USB video
capture device aimed specifically at
the Apple iMac. ESKAPE Labs, Inc., a new
start up company, is focused on developing
multimedia and visual computing hardware
peripherals for the Macintosh market.
ESKAPE Labs developed the drivers and
software for the iMac while Avid provides
their Cinema software.
The
product will use Zoran's ZR36060
Motion-JPEG (M-JPEG) codec IC for a
real-time compression capability of 30
frames per second (fps). Zoran's M-JPEG
compression solutions are used in other
consumer products, including: The Matrox
Marvel, the Iomega Buz, and the Pinnacle
miroDC10plus.
<www.avid.com>
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Jan
5
|
Adobe Systems has acquired the
assets of GoLive Systems, Inc.,
including GoLive CyberStudio web
design and publishing software, and the
GoLive Web Publishing System. Adobe
already has their own HTML editor
(PageMill) which curiously was not
mentioned in the Adobe press release;
though most of the other Adobe products
were.
While
I'm probably wrong, I suspect that is was
the Web Publishing System (which is still
under development) that really caught
Adobe's attention. As announced by GoLive
this is going to be a comparatively
inexpensive groupware site management
system. I hope to find out when this
product will be released (I want to use it
for this site!)
[Under
the curious coincidence file, check out
the last item in today's news -
Ed]
<www.adobe.com>
<www.golive.com>
As expected, Adobe formally
announced After Effects 4, which
will be available in early February.
<www.adobe.com>
Kona Systems has released Show
The World a software application
designed for people with digital cameras
who want to quickly put images onto the
web.
Show
The World organizes images into an album.
Images can automatically be reduced in
size as they are added to the album and
each image can be given a caption, date,
and commentary text. The program also
allows photographs to be cropped and
resized, and the brightness and contrast
changed. The entire collection is then
published as a Web photo album. No Web
authoring skills are required.
Show
The World runs under Windows 95, 98, or NT
4.0, and requires the Microsoft Java
Virtual Machine. It is available now at an
introductory price of $49.95.
<www.konasys.com>
RAYflect is shipping RAYflect
PhotoTracer, a plug-in for Adobe
Photoshop that enables users to add
3D graphics to creations made within
Photoshop. It features reflection,
refraction, transparency, texture and
bump-mapping, professional quality
anti-aliasing and a fast rendering engine.
Included are 23 3D objects designed for
this extension.
RAYflect
PhotoTracer' suggested retail price is
$129. RAYflect PhotoTracer V1.0 is
immediately available for Windows 95/98/NT
at a special introductory price of $99.
RAYflect PhotoTracer for the Macintosh is
expected to be available in January
99.
<www.rayflect.com>
MetaCreations Corporation has
acquired Canoma Inc., a privately
held software company that is developing
software technology that creates 3D
digital images and content from 2D digital
images for use primarily over the
Internet, and in other
applications.
The
two founders of Canoma Inc. were key
members of the team that developed
PageMill, a web-authoring product
which is marketed and distributed by Adobe
Systems Inc. [Curious; see the
first news item -Ed] Both founders
of Canoma will become employees of
MetaCreations, further enhancing the
company's Internet development
team.
MetaCreations
intends to bring to market a 3D Web
content creation product based on this
technology in the first half of
1999.
MetaCreations
is already developing a 3D streaming
technology: MetaStream
<www.metastream.com>
<www.metacreations.com>
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Jan
4
|
HAPPY
NEW YEAR!!!
Wishing
everyone a happy and
prosperous New Year!
A pox on graphic designers! Why do they
insist on making web pages that are
difficult to navigate? Why can't I
immediately find the information I want
when I go to a website? Why have I still
not found it after clicking about for five
minutes? And why, oh why, do people insist
on using categories like
"Buzz?"
Okay,
I'm feeling a little better
now...
3D
Groove is a company developing a 3D
Xtra for Macromedia Director. It's
cross-platform, there's a beta on the
Director 7 CD-ROM, and it's expected to
ship in Q1. Features include: high-level
Lingo programming interface, visual tools
for programming-free authoring, 3D worlds
with 6 Degrees Of Freedom and screen
resolutions of up to 4000 x 4000 pixels.
This tool is intended for development
companies, and while there's no royalties,
the cost for the software is
$2450(!)
So
it could be worth looking at; but they're
website drove me nuts (by the way, if you
don't have Shockwave you won't be able to
see anything.)
<www.3dgroove.com>
For those on a budget, and not requiring
cross-platform support, 3D Dreams
is another Director Xtra that
offers 3D support for Director. 3D Dreams
is compatible with Shockwave, supports
hardware acceleration and can import from
3D Studio and Microsoft .X format. It's
currently at version 1.1, and a fully
functional evaluation version is available
at their site. Cost is $449 for
commercial, or $229 for Educational
licenses.
<www.shells-ifa.com>
GRAPHICS
Main Event Software's PhotoScripter
1.0 automates AppleScript in Adobe
Photoshop 5.0. The plug-in
implements the Apple Event Object Model
and can automate Photoshop functions such
as image adjustments, filters, layers and
opening documents.
PhotoScripter
costs $299 for a single-user license or
$999 per machine license.
<www.mainevent.com>
I'm looking forward to this weeks
MacWorld both because Apple is
expected to announce QuickTime 4
which will support live streaming, as well
as their new desktop models which
are supposed to include Firewire
(but no SCSI.) There's also a possibility
that Final Cut, the video editing
application Apple purchased from
Macromedia will appear at the
show.
I
have seen rumors that QuickTime 4 might
not actually be shipping at the show, but
might only be shown. Stay
tuned.
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