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".
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.
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.
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).