May 98


May 26, 1998

For both Mac and Windows users wanting to use QuickTime VR in Director, there's a new version of the QuickTime VR 2.0 Xtra from developWare. This provides access to more features of QuickTime VR 2.0 than are available in Director 6.5, but requires Lingo programming and costs $100. You can get info and download a demo from the developWare site.

There are betas of new Objects for Macromedia Dreamweaver, which help you create QuickTime embed tags (QT 3 and QTVR 2), as well as an Online QuickTime 3.0 Embed Tag Wizard for those that don't have Dreamweaver. Find them all at the Tools section of the QuickTime VR Tutorial Page.

Susan Kitchen's book,"The Quicktime VR Book : Creating Immersive Imaging on
Your Desktop", published by PeachPit Press, is due to be released. You can order it from Amazon's QuickTime VR Book page or order it (or find store locations) at Computer Literacy's QuickTime VR Book page.

Version 2.0.1 of QuickTimeTcl-2.0 (an interface between the Tcl/Tk scripting language and QuickTime) is now available (with a Read Me) at Bruce O'Neel's home page.

Totally Hip Software is coming out with WebPainter 3, a QuickTime 3-based application that allows you to create media for the Web in a variety of formats. MacWEEK's WebPainter 3 story and MacCentral's WebPainter 3 story provide details.

VersionTracker reports a number of QuickTime-related updates this week:

There are new beta drivers for Turbo TV at ixMicro's Download Drivers page.

There's an upgrade to version 4.03 of Interactive Solutions' MovieWorks (a QuickTime-based multimedia tool) at the MovieWorks Download page.

There's a new version of PlayMovie CMM (a shareware contextual menu module that lets you play QT movies directly in the Finder).

There's a demo version of CinepakPro (an enhanced version of the Cinepak compressor). Go to Compression Technologies' Products page for information and a link to a page where you can request the demo.

There have been modifications to a number of QuickTime-related documents in Apple's Tech Info Library; see the Tech Info Library Recent Changes page or the Tech Info Library Search page, and look for "QuickTime".


May 19, 1998

Premiere 5.0 is now officially shipping. See the Adobe Premiere 5.0 page.

There's another new QuickTime resource on the Web, QT3.COM.

iREZ has new software for its Capsure card at an iREZ Mac ftp directory.

Apple's QuickTime site has some recent additions. At the QuickTime Tools page there's a new application called QD3D Movie Maker, which lets you create dynamic 3D tracks.
At the Sprite Samples page there are some examples of movies with Wired (interactive) Sprites.

There's an update to the FrameBlenderQT tool that we mentioned last week. Get version 1.0b2 at the Dragonfly Freeware/Shareware page.

Some interesting discussions have been going on at the QuickTime-VR list concerning vertical panoramas. In particular, Rabbet (the main guy behind the Wrinkle in Time project) has been experimenting and has a page with a sample and some info, a page with another sample and rudimentary instructions (hint: use the Info window, accessed by choosing Get Info from the Movie menu to do most of what he's talking about.). Both of these pages have links to more samples.

Truevision has new drivers for their Targa cards; they don't say they're for QuickTime 3, but they seem to work OK with QuickTime 3. You can download them from the Truevision FTP site.


May 12, 1998

Yay! Apple has revised its licensing agreement! Most significantly, developers need only include the QuickTime 3 installer, the "spam" is greatly lessened, and it's possible to license QTW 2.1.2. For a more extensive summary of the changes, read a message about Updated Terms for QuickTime SDA on the QuickTime-announce list.

There's was a lot of talk about QuickTime in Steve Jobs' keynote for the World Wide Developers Conference. Peter Hoddie (with Jobs) showed off live QuickTime Streaming technology; they said it would be available in the fall release of QuickTime. Hoddie showed a live QuickTime stream playing inside a Word 98 document. They also demoed the ability of the broadcaster to "push" html pages out along with the live stream. If you want to see a (bad) QuickTime movie of the presentation, you can go to the WWDC Conference Theatre and select the Opening Keynote. (Warning: it's a 15 MB file.) Stuff about QuickTime's importance and pervasiveness starts about one-third of the way through the clip; information about QuickTime Streaming starts about two-fifths of the way through. There's also a QuickTime Technology Overview talk (about 10 MB) by Peter Hoddie that's worth watching. (Plus, by the end of the week there'll be more.)

Director 6.5, which includes the new QuickTime 3 Asset Xtra, is shipping. Check out a Macromedia press release, titled "Macromedia Announces and Ships Director 6.5 Upgrade", as well as the Director New Features--QuickTime 3 Support page and the Director New Features--QuickTime VR Support page.

There's a new cool little extension to QuickTime and MoviePlayer called FrameBlenderQT, that lets you export a movieóone that's composed of framesóas a blended still image. This removes random noise if there's no motion (good for getting higher quality stills from video), or provides motion blur effects if there is motion. Get a beta version at the Dragonfly Freeware/Shareware page.

The Pro edition of the QDesign Music Codec is now available from Terran. More information is at the Media Cleaner Pro and QDesign Music Codec page.

Astarte has released yet another version of their M.Pack software (converts QuickTime to MPEG). You can get more info and download version 2.1.6 at Astarte's M.Pack page; the software will run in demo mode without a serial number.

There's now an ActiveX control for applications developed in Visual Basic, C++ and Access which provides QuickTime 3 support; it costs $49 for a light version and $129 for a full version. See the SkyLight QuickTime 3 ActiveX Control page.

Apple announced, in a press release titled "QuickTime 3 Hits the Million Mark", that there are over a million QuickTime 3 users, two-thirds of which are Windows users.


May 5, 1998

ElectricFish has a beta version of a plug-in for After Effects that lets you manipulate QTVR panoramas at its QTVR Matte User's Manual page.

Both MacInTouch and MacFixIt have pointers to information about a new virus that spreads via the QuickTime auto-play feature.

There's an Apple announcement that it has acquired technology from Macromedia, "to enhance future versions of QuickTime". No other details. (Maybe Final Cut? Maybe Flash?) It looks like Apple will have some announcements on May 6, according to an Apple Update about a May 6 event; maybe some more information will be available then.

QuickTime-related items at MacWEEK this week include:

An article about QuickTime support in the new version of HyperCard.
An article about the next version of MediaPaint (a tool for painting on QuickTime movies).


MacAddict has started posting QuickTime PureVoice-compressed versions of previously broadcast talks from its Imagine Radio show (the originals are broadcast live as RealAudio). While the talks aren't necessarily about QuickTime, they're a nice example of streaming QuickTime audio. See the "MacAddict News:Our own private radio" story

There's an interesting QTVR panorama at the VRTools web site--it includes the built-in QuickTime cloud effect. See the Red Hart page.

The Apple WorldWide Developer Conference is next week, and there are a number of good QuickTime talks listed at the WWDC QuickTime sessions page. Registration fees range from $500 to $1400; see the WWDC Registration page (and note that the cheaper advanced registration ends this Friday).


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