Totally Hip has released LiveStage 1.0, a tool that provides access to QuickTime
3's interactive features. You can read about the product and find a download
link from Totally
Hip's LiveStage page. You can also download it from the download.com
- LiveStage page.
MacCentral points out that Squamish Media
Group has announced educational pricing of $50 on SoundsaVR, their tool for
adding directional sound to QuickTime VR panos. Go to the SoundsaVR
educational registration page for details.
A couple of articles of interest:
And, an item that we forgot to mention previously: Powerbook (2400, 3400 or G3) owners may be interested in the CapSure video capture card which is now only $100. For details about the card go to theiRez CapSure page. Check out your favorite web-based retailer, such as Outpost.com. and search for "Capsure", if you're interested in buying.
MacInTouch reports (on the Macintouch
Previous News Archive page) that the price of the Aurora Fuse card, a high
quality video capture card for PCI-based Macs, has dropped from from $649
to $499. Aurora has also updated their software driver to version 1.6, available
at the Aurora Downloadable
Software page.
Electrifier Inc. has announced version 2.0 of Electrifier Pro (the only tool that
can create "wired" QT movies). It will be available Q2 99, will do live
streaming, and there will be a Windows version as well as a Mac version. There's
a MacCentral article
about Electrifier Pro 2.0 if you want more info.
The Bay Area QuickTime VR Association meets this Thursday (1/21), where Tribeworks will present iShell, an authoring
tool with extensive QuickTime and QuickTime VR support. Meeting Location and
time time details are at the BAQTVRA site.
(Click Meetings Calendar and Map)
Version 2.0 of Sorenson Video, the highly-praised web video codec,
will be available about the first week of March, according to the Upgrade
to 2.0 page at the Sorenson Vision site.
Terran has an article
on "How to Produce High-Quality QuickTime".
You may want to check out the MacOS Rumors page
and the AppleInsider
site for QuickTime 4.0 rumors.
Last week we told you about the Y2K HAL ad; this week check out the Apple
New Ads page for more new ads, all QuickTime 3 movies.
We've got the slides from our Macworld SF talk,
"Doing QuickTime Right", exported as HTML.
There were no major QuickTime-related announcements at Macworld SF last week (including no mention by Apple of QuickTime 4), but a few noteworthy upgrades, new products, and other news:
Apple introduced the new PowerMacintosh G3, "the blue G3". Of interest to QuickTime users is the built-in Firewire connection, allowing you to import video directly from digital camcorders without the need for an add-in card. You can read a January 5 Apple press release, "FireWire Goes Prime Time at Macworld Expo", or check out Apple's PowerMac G3 products page.
Apple also showed Final Cut Pro, the video editing and compositing software it purchased from Macromedia, created by the author of Premiere. It's not released, yet, but you can get info at the Final Cut Pro page.
Apple and Intel have released the Indeo 4.4 codec for the Mac, giving Mac users still another choice for compressing QT movies, as well as the ability to open more Indeo 4.4 compress AVI files. You can get this codec at the Apple Indeo Codec page. MacFixIt, has been tracking problems with this release; check out the MacFixit January 1999-a Archive, and do a find on the page for "Indeo".
Radius announced that it is including Adobe Premiere 5 LE with MotoDV, its digital video capture solution for DV camcorders and tape decks with 1394 FireWire ports. Check out a Radius January 5 press release. They also have a new vision of the free, EditDV Unplugged software; there's more info at the EditDV Unplugged page.
Radius also announced that they've changed their name to Digital Origin Inc. You can read about this in a January 6 Radius press release.
Adobe showed off After Effects 4; it's set to ship in about a month, you can check out Adobe's AE 4 page for more info.
CineKit is a new QuickTime movie creation tool now in beta. It's being largely targeted at the educational market, as it provides an easy to use interface for organizing media and storyboarding movies. It can create movies with QuickTime 3 effects and scrolling text, but no interactivity. Go to the CineKit page for more info and to sign up to be a beta tester.
VRTools has a new tool, deliVRator, which can be used to test the streaming of QuickTime movies (using a virtual connection) as well as to optimize movies for better "streaming". You can get info, download a save-disabled version, and register your copy at the DeliVRator page.
Other upgrades since our last posting here:
Interactive Solutions updated MoveWorks to 4.1.1; you can get the updater at the MovieWorks download page.
Beta 5 of VR SceneWorx (QuickTime VR multinode scene creation software) is now available. Go to the VR Toolbox download area, enter some info about yourself and you'll be brought to a download page where you can get the software as well as a tutorial.
Version 1.0 of PanoTouch, a set of Photoshop plug-ins for Mac for touching up QTVR panos, has been released. You can read more and download a demo copy at the AdessoSoft home page.
There's also a freeware tool for touching up QTVR panos: the final 1.5 versions of Panorama Tools for both Macintosh and Windows is at the Panorama Tools page. (Panorama tools comes as a plug-in for a number of graphics programs.)
Rearden Technology has shipped SiteCam 3.0 webcam software; you can read more about at the Rearden's SiteCam page.
Mark Eaton has released QTSpeed, version 1.0.1. QTSpeed works in conjuction with the Location Manager to switch your QuickTime Connection speed based on your settings in Location Manager. You can download it at the QTSpeed page.
Truvision has new versions, 3.0, of their Targa software for the Mac OS; you can ftp it from Truevision's Mac FTP site.
The Media Cleaner Pro 3.1.2 Updater is now available for download from the Terran download page.
Version 6 of QuickEditor, a Mac and Windows $35 shareware QuickTime editing tool, is now out. Go to the QuickEditor page to find out more and download the product.
Also recently released is version 1.0.3 of VideoScope, software for Mac G3s which allows you to analyze and tweak an incoming video signal before digitizing, or to analyze an existing QuickTime movie. Check out the VideoScope home page for more info.
And other news:
Tribeworks, the makers of iShell (the next generation of Apple Media tool), has announced that they'll provide iShell for free to those who are willing to forego customer support. This tool has lots of QuickTime 3 support, including support for QTVR. You need to go to the Tribeworks web site, click to Signup for Free Membership, register, and then download the software.
You may want to check out a new web page "QuickTime Virtual Reality for Educators and Just Plain Folks" that has info and tutorials for using some of the less expensive QTVR products.
The first major project of the International QuickTime VR Association is now posted at the Sacred Worlds Project site. This site showcases the work of 40 artists from 13 countries and has a variety of different QuickTime VR movies utilizing QuickTime 3, all centered on the theme "Sacred Worlds".
You can see Apple's new made-for-the-web commercial (a QuickTime movie, of course), starring HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey. It's a 900 K QuickTime movie available at the Apple's It Was a Bug, Dave page.
One piece of bad news: the Chapter List Maker Download page announces that the Chapter List Maker tool has been retired. This means that there are currently no free or inexpensive tools to create chapter lists. (Some of the commercial tools, including Media Cleaner Pro, T.A.G. Editor, and Electrifier Pro, do it, however.)
To all the people that have e-mailed us, please be patient. We'll try to answer within
the week.
--Judy & Robert