December 96

December 16

Apple has released the QuickTime browser plugin version 1.1, which supports both Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer, on both MasOS and Windows 3.1/95/NT. It's available on the QuickTime software page. The plugin now deals with QuickTime VR, so you no longer need a separate QuickTime VR Components file (and one less file to download and keep track of is always a good thing!). Version 1.1 supports more media types, as well.

Apple's QuickTime Conferencing team has been busy. On the QuickTime TV page, you'll find a bunch of tools and information. Included is QuickTime TV 1.0.4b19, an application for viewing live video and audio on the net, which you can get if you click the Download QuickTime TV Client. Also released was the QuickTime TV Broadcaster Lite 1.0b2, an application for broadcasting live video and audio on the net; this isn't all that simple to set up, however.

Judy and Robert

THIS WEEK'S HOW-TO
We've got a list of a whole bunch of MoviePlayer keyboard shortcuts.

December 9

Apple has finally given us software MPEG playback on a Power PC Macintosh!!! You can get a beta version of the QuickTime MPEG Extension at Apple's QuickTime beta software page. This is an extension that works in conjunction with QuickTime 2.5 to allow the playback of MPEG-1 files. In conjunction with the QuickTime browser plug-in 1.1, you can view MPEG video in your web browser. Other really cool things about this MPEG decoder are that you can edit and combine the MPEG movies with all of the QuickTime tracks (music, text, sprite, 3D). You can also view VideoCDs within MoviePlayer and have the VideoCD chapter lists displayed. When you download the MPEG Extension, you'll also get MoviePlayer 2.5.1b1 (a brand new version). If you're looking for MPEG movies to check out, there are some really nice MPEG movies at Heuris/Pulitzer's site.

There is a new beta version of Apple's QuickTime browser plug-in for Macintosh (1.1f2) as well as betas of the plug-in for Windows 3.1/95/NT, all available from the QuickTime beta software page. For more info, see what we said on 11/11/1996

This week Paceworks has released what will probably be the last public beta of Dancer 1.0b21 (They say they will have it for sale on the floor at Macworld-San Francisco, which is just a month away!). Dancer, for those who don't know about it, is a 2D animation tool, and the only commercial tool that allows you to create a QuickTime sprite track; it also has some other cool features. Get the beta at Pacework's web site. Paceworks has also changed the name of Dancer to Object Dancer.

THIS WEEK'S HOW-TO
If you want to insert data into a movie for a specified amount of time, use MoviePlayer.

December 2

Apple released a new version of the QuickTime Conferencing extension. Version 1.5 can be downloaded along with Apple VideoPhone Lite (an audio and video conferencing tool) from the Apple VideoPhone Lite System Requirements page. This software works only on PowerPC-based Mac OS computers. (By the way, Apple VideoPhone Lite is the same as CoolTalk for Macintosh from Netscape.)

If you want to create your own MPEG files, there's a new software MPEG encoder for MacOS computers. You can read more in a MacWeek story about the Heuris/Pulitzer MPEG encoder. Lots of info about MPEG can be found at Heuris/Pulitzer's MPEG information page.

Also, we've added some new links on the Links page.

THIS WEEK'S HOW-TO
If you need to downsample an audio track, you can do so with MoviePlayer, though it's not quite as simple as one would hope.

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