Over the next week and a half, the Apple Learning Interchange will be webcasting the Mars Polar Landing mission, using QuickTime streaming, of course. Go to the Apple Learning Interchange - Mars Polar Lander page for details.
There's a new version of MegaSeg, a DJ music automation tool which allows you to dynamically set up a list of MP3 or QuickTime sound files and mix them on the fly. You can read more and download a demo at MegaSeg home page.
There's a new discussion list for the Aurora Fuse card. You can join by going to the Aurora Fuse page at ONEList. (Or send an e-mail request to Aurora-Fuse-subscribe@onelist.com)
If you check out the TINAs 1999 Best Internet Product Page, you'll see that PC Magazine UK has given QuickTime 4 a Technical Innovation Award. Ironically, the award seems to be based on a lack of understanding concerning the difference between RTSP streaming and HTTP streaming. They effectively state that QuickTime finally has true streaming (aka RTSP streaming), AND it's so good that Lucas used it for their Star Wars trailers. They seem not to understand that the trailers were done using the pseudostreaming (aka HTTP streaming) capabilities found in QuickTime before QuickTime 4.
Version 1.0.0b4 of SoundScript is available from Michael Norris's Software page. (This is a tool that lets you have different sounds in a QuickTime movie play or loop individually under script control.)
VRHotWires is a tool (now at alpha 5.5) which attaches actions to QuickTime VR hot spots. You can download a demo of the application as well as see other examples of what the tool can do at the VRHOTWIRES page.
If you're interested in joining an iMovie discussion list, go to the BeeHive Discussion Lists Subscribe and Unsubscribe Form and choose one of the iMovie selections from the Action pop-up menu.
MacInTouch has compiled a list of all things FireWire; check out the MacInTouch FireWire Guide
The schedule for January 2000 Macworld Expo San Francisco (Tuesday 1/4 - Friday 1/7) is out, and includes a large number of QuickTime-related sessions:
New software:
Microspot Renderer is a new QuickDraw 3Dô plug-in renderer that can be used with QuickTime's 3D track.(In QuickTime Player, you'd open the Movie Info window and use the Renderer panel for the 3D track to change to this renderer.) You can get lots more info, and download a demo if you go to the Microspot Renderer page.
John Johnson has created Simple QTPlaylist for creating a list of sound files that can be played one after the other. You can read more and download this free tool at the Simple QTPlaylist Page.
Software updates:
MacTV has been updated to version .81. (This is a client application for viewing Cisco's IP/TV video streams and other streams.) You can download it and read more about at the MacTV Home Page.
PTStitcher, a freeware stitching utility that creates a panoramic image to be viewed with all major VR viewers (including QuickTime VR, of course), has reached version 1.9.2 and can be found at the Panorama Tools page.
Version 3.35 of Play it Cool, a shareware QuickTime movie player, is available from the About Russell Clarke page.
Version 1.0.0b2 of SoundScript is available from Michael Norris's Software page. (This is a tool that lets you have different sounds in a QuickTime movie play or loop individually under script control.)
MacOS Rumors has info about Mac OS X DP2 (Developer Preview 2), including a screen shot of a movie playing application. (Note the standard controller!)
There was a technical glitch when BMUG changed ISPs and, though we updated the Little QuickTime page, you couldn't see it! Below you can read the October 26th and November 2nd installments, as well as the one for this week. Sorry, and thanks for your continued support. Judy and Robert
The QuickTime Live Conference was last week. Not surprisingly, a number of QuickTime-related announcements were made at the conference:
Apple previewed QuickTime 4.1, which includes support for SMIL (Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language), an AppleScriptable Player, variable bit-rate (VBR) MP3, and better firewall support. Apple also announced QuickTime Streaming Server 2.0. You can read more about both at a MacCentral article, "Schiller keynote: New version of QuickTime coming" . (If you're interested in finding out more about SMIL check out the W3C's Synchronized Multimedia page)
You can also a view the entire keynote address as, you guessed it, a QuickTime movie. Go to the QuickTime Live Keynote page.
Apple also announced that CNN will use QuickTime to stream news reports; read an Apple press release, "Apple and CNN.com Team Up to Deliver Top-Quality News Via QuickTime Streaming".
Oracle announced database products that are useful for storing and streaming movie data, as well as indexing it according to text track data. For more info read a MacWeek article, "QuickTime to plug into Oracle database".
Other announcements include a Novell caching server for live QuickTime streams; a summary of all the announcements are in a MacWeek article, "QuickTime to get e-commerce tools".
Terran announced its Media Cleaner Power Suite, which includes an Ultra BlueICE PCI hardware board, versions of Media Cleaner Pro 4 and Sorenson Video 2 (Developer Edition) which can take advantage of this card, as well as the Pro version of QDesign Music Codec 2. All of this "stuff" allows you to compress your video to get the highest quality in the shortest time. (At $6499, however, it's not cheap.) Go to the Media Cleaner Power Suite page for more info.
Tribeworks announced version 2 of its iShell multimedia authoring tool, which is based on QuickTime and has good QuickTime support. Currently only Tribeworks full members (who pay $2000 a year) can get a copy of the preview version of 2.0. For more details read an iShell 2 press release.
Miscellaneous QuickTime-related software updates:
Adobe has an update for the CyberMovie QuickTime Module of GoLive 4. It fixes a bug that only shows up on G4 Macs. You can read more and download the patch at Adobe GoLive 4.0/4.0.1 CyberMovie QuickTime Module Update for Apple PowerMac G4 page.
Version 1.2 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.
Escape Information Services has released version 1.0.3 of their QuickTime import component for the DICOM image format. (DICOM is an image format used by health care professionals.) You can read more about it, purchase it, or download an evaluation copy at the DICOM Import Component for QuickTime page.
VideoScript 1.8.2 is now available. (VideoScript is a tool that can be used to write scripts for processing video.) Go to the VideoScript home page where you'll find links to download the new version or a Lite version, as well as links to release notes for this version.
And a few other items of interest:
Avid is restructuring and discontinuing Avid Cinema, its consumer video editing product according to a November 10 Avid press release.
MacWeek has posted the Findings of Facts for the Microsoft anti trust case. QuickTime-related points start at page 40 of the Findings of Fact.
Amanda Wolfe's article, "QuickTime 4 Pro Loves You" (at W3Nation) talks at length about using QuickTime in Flash (it's almost a tutorial).
The Little QuickTime Page will be on a 2 week hiatus as we prepare for and attend the QuickTime Live! conference.
Judy and Robert
Totally Hip is now shipping LiveStage Professional, the most up-to-date tool for authoring interactive QuickTime content. Check out Totally Hip's web site for more info (and note that all interactive elements were created with LiveStage and are QuickTime movies).
Other software updates:
Sorenson has released version 2.1 of the Sorenson Video Developer Edition codec. It has been optimized for the G4 and MMX. They report a 100% speed increase on the G4 and 30-60% on MMX processors. You can read more at the Sorenson Upgrade to 2.1 page.
Etchelon Tracer, a vector-based morphing animation program that outputs as QuickTime has been updated to version 3.5. More info and a download are at the Etchelon Tracer page.
Version 3.33 of Play it Cool, a shareware QuickTime movie player, is available from the About Russell Clarke page.
Entera has released a beta 16 (beta 12 expired on Oct 31) of its ELSA (Entera Lightweight Streaming Application) Server, for serving streaming QuickTime movies. You can download the Linux on x86, FreeBSD on x86, Windows NT/98, or Solaris SPARC at Entera's ELSA download page.
Aurora Designs has an updated drivers for the Igniter card; get this software at the Aurora Designs software page.
There's a new FireWire discussion list. You can join by going to the DV-FireWire page at ONEList. (Or send an e-mail request to DV-Firewire-subscribe@onelist.com)
Apple has updated its QuickTime VR Authoring pages; QuickTime VR authors will find these pages more helpful than they were previously.
Students at Vancouver Film School have started a Streaming Media site called VFS Live; they'll be presenting their Grand Opening show this Wednesday (11/3) at 8:30 pm. PST.(However, they're currently streaming only high-bandwidth movies, for cable modems or higher.)
A new utility, called Soundscript, lets have different sounds in a QuickTime
movie play or loop individually under script control (as well as manually). Download
version 1.0.0b1f from Michael
Norris's Software page.
Bill Meikle of Deep Forest Multimedia has been hard at work on tools for (and demos
of) interactive QuickTime features. VRHotWires is a tool (now at alpha 2) which attaches
actions to QuickTime VR hot spots; you can download a demo of the application
as well as see examples of what the tool can do at his VRHOTWIRES
page.
There's a MacWeek blurb about the upcoming QuickTime Live conference.
More slams at Apple's current user interfaces: Macintouch points to an article in The Independent by Dan Brennan titled "Has Apple finally lost the plot?".
Here are two interest items on QuickTime: One is an open letter by Abby Digital titled "QuickTime TV sucks more than the vacuum of real television", and the other is an article titled "Apple pushes QuickTime at Educause '99" by Wendy J. Mattson of MacWEEK.com
And, for those looking for yet another reason to use QuickTime, there's a MacWeek article discussing RealMedia's intrusions on your privacy..