A beta of version 3 of Rearden's SiteCam webcam software, is available
if you go to the SiteCam 3.0 Beta
Program page, where you'll also find lots of info.
VR Toolbox is running a special competitive upgrade offer, allowing you to
purchase its QuickTime VR pano or object tools for $39.99 if you fax in proof
of ownership of a competing QuickTime VR authoring program. You can get phone, fax,
and email numbers for ordering the software through the competitive upgrade at the
VR Toolbox Tools page. The company
is also starting a public beta program of Scene Worx, their tool for creating
multi-node VR scenes; download the software at the VR
Toolbox Scene Worx page.
Version 2.5 of BarbaBatch (batch audio processing software which does a great
job compressing QuickTime audio, along with other formats) was released
this week. You can get lots of information at the MacSourcery BarbaBatch
page and download a demo at the BarbaBatch
demo page.
There's an eMediaWeekly
article concerning Final Cut, the editing package that Apple reportedly purchased
from Macromedia last year. The whole article is based on info learned from unnamed
sources. Also, check out an AppleInsider
site story, "Apple's Final Cut Pro 1.0 - Amazing in
Beta" ; it has some screenshots.
Pinnacle System has released version 1.1.3 of its software for the miroMOTION
DC30plus. You can download it at the Pinnacle
System support page.
There's a WebTools
article comparing QuickTime VR to LivePicture, and Apple's QuickTime VR Authoring
Studio to LivePicture's Reality Studio.
Avid Cinema for Windows, a QuickTime-based $139 consumer-level video editing system, started shipping this week. You can check the Avid Cinema Products page for info on both the Mac and Windows version of Avid Cinema.
A November 11th
Radius Press Release announces that the Radius MotoDV hardware and software
package for DV capture will now include PhotoDV, its DV still-image capture
software.The press release also announces a free preview version of their
EditDV Unplugged DV editing software for Windows. And a November 16 Terran
press release announces that the Mac version of EditDV will ship with the EZ Version
of Terran's Media Cleaner Pro 3. (Check the Terran
Press Release page for a web version of this press release.)
Version 1.0 of the Troi Grabber Plug-in for FileMaker is available. This is software
that lets you grab a still image from a video source directly within FileMaker.
The Troi Grabber Plug-in
for FileMaker page is the place to go to get more info or to download the software
to try it before buying it. (It's $79 for a single copy and $400 for a site license.)
Another new piece of software is Differencer, a QuickTime 3 effects filter that makes
mask movies of the differences between frames. These mask movies can then be
used to analyze and remove noise in movies. Trial versions of Differencer
for both Mac and Windows can be downloaded at the Codefy
home page, where you can also find a more detailed explanation of what this filter
does.
Version 5.7 of the Mac version of QuickEditor (a shareware QuickTime editor)
is shipping. You can get detailed info about the product and download it at the QuickEditor page.
Last week Microsoft and MindCraft released a white
paper, "Mindcraft's QuickTime Plug-In Analysis and Fix" which points
to both a detailed technical report and a summary report concerning the problems
with QuickTime and Internet Explorer under Windows.
The
Time Digital More News page for 11/15 has a little bit of commentary about the
timing of the Microsoft fix for QuickTime.
More info and rumors about the streaming version of QuickTime:
Lots of product upgrades this week:
DeBabelizer Pro for Windows now includes extensive QuickTime support, allowing you to compress QuickTime movies and convert between QuickTime and AVI, among other things. Go to Equilibrium's Software Download Library and get the Equilibrium DeBabelizer Pro 4.5.1 Video/Animation Service Pack to upgrade your software. You can also read the DeBabelizer Pro 4.5.1 for Windows/NT Update - Read Me to get more details about the upgrade.
You can now get Panorama Tools Version 1.5 beta 3 for both Macintosh and Windows at the Panorama Tools page. (This free software, a plug-in for a number of graphics programs, is for creating and tweaking panoramic images so they can be used to create QTVR panos.)
The DevelopWare QTVRXtra (for using QTVR movies in Director) v1.2 is available at the DevelopWare site. (This gives you much more control than the QuickTime 3 Asset Xtra that's part of Director 6.5.)
There's an upgrade to version 4.1 of Interactive Solutions' MovieWorks (an inexpensive QuickTime-based multimedia tool which supports many QuickTime 3 features) at the MovieWorks Download page, where you can also get a demo version.
Version 1.2 of the AX QuickTime Kit, for cross-platform QuickTime and QuickTimeVR support in mTropolis 2.0 is available at the AX QuickTime Kit page.
There's an update to the software (to version 1.1.2) for the MiroMotion DC30plus card at the MiroMotion DC30plus Updates and Drivers page.
You can get the latest release of the Aurora Fuseô Drivers version 1.5 at the Aurora Design Downloadable Software page. These drivers fix a bug when 'Printing to Video'.
Plus some new products:
A new cross-platform authoring and delivery tool with extensive QuickTime and QuickTime VR support, Tribeworks iShell, was introduced this week.You can read a slew of press releases about the product at the Tribeworks Press page. To use the product requires a Tribeworks membership, costing $2000, but you can try a free 30-day trial membership. Go to the Tribeworks home page for more info.
MTI MovPlayer, which lets you play (some) QuickTime movies on a PalmPilot, is available at the MTI MovPlayer Download.com page.
A $30 shareware set of QuickTime 3 effects and transitions is available at the Buena Software QuickTime Effects Pack page.
A $10 shareware movie-playing application is available at the Mystic Movie Player page.
And more on the Microsoft DOJ trial and the question of whether Microsoft tried to sabotage QuickTime:
A November 4th ZDNet article about Microsoft trying to discredit Apple testimony
A November 5th ZDNet article about Microsoft threats to QuickTime.
A Microsoft's Press release claiming that Apple made programming errors.
Reader contributions at Macintosh News Network in response to Microsoft.
There's also a short ZDNet article about the next (streaming) version of QuickTime.
For those interested in the QuickTime angle on the DOJ case against Microsoft,
you can read the direct testimony
of AvadisTevanian,
Jr. (Senior Vice President Software Engineering at Apple) in which he details
the tactics Microsoft took to undermine QuickTime on the Windows platform.
There's also a MacChat summary
of Tevanian's testimony.
Totally Hip has announced the development of a new product, LiveStage, that provides
access to QuickTime 3's interactive features. Currently you can see screen
shots of the application and samples created with it at Totally
Hip's LiveStage page. (We figure they'll have a beta to download someday soon.)
For a good overview article about QuickTime 3 for
Windows, see a 10/30/98
WebTools article, "QuickTime Does Windows"
There's a review of Aurora
Design's Fuse video card at MacInTouch. This is a $700 high quality video
capture card for PCI-based Macs.(You can get the card for $550 through a special
promotion. See the Aurora
Fuse Card just $550 page.)
There's an Apple Tech
Info article,"Mac OS 8.5: Obtaining QuickTime 3 Pro Upgrade Key"; it
steps you through the steps you need to follow in order to upgrade to QuickTime
3 Pro. (This is only slightly different than the Apple
Tech Info article about upgrading to QT3Pro under OS 8.5 that we mentioned several
weeks ago. Beats us why there's two...)
There's an eMediaweekly
article about VR Toolbox,which talks about the QuickTime VR products that
VR Toolbox started shipping last week (VR PanoWorx and VR ObjectWorx), as well
as future products.
New versions of various QuickTime applications are available:
A free update to Apple's QuickTime VR Authoring Studio is available at the QTVR Authoring Studio v1.0.1 update page
soundSaVR version 1.1 is available at the soundsaVR main pageAn updater to VideoScript (update 1.2 to 1.2.1) is available at the VideoScript Download page.
The upgrade to Premiere 5.1 is available online at the Adobe Premiere 5.1 page.
Version 5.6 of the Mac version of QuickEditor (a shareware QuickTime editor) is shipping. You can get detailed info about the product and download it at the QuickEditor page.