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Technology Stocks : Apple Inc. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sam Scrutchins who wrote (12603)	5/4/1998 8:37:00 PM
From: Adam Nash	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 213177

Can anyone comment on the significance of this announcement? From Yahoo: biz.yahoo.com Well, there are a few ways to look at this, each of which is not completely accurate, but still gives valid insight: 1) Apple has decided to directly augment its multimedia authoring portion of Quicktime. This potentially could bring back the haunted: "Apple is competing with its developers." This is not really true (yet) because there has been little detail about what technology Apple will actually ship in product, and in what form. 2) Apple has decided to make Quicktime a cross-platform solution unto itself, almost like Java. This may seemed far-fetched, but think about it. The easiest way to provide cross-platform content is with Quicktime, no question. Quicktime is no longer just movies, but handles variants of media like VR, 3D, sprites, and hotspots. The beauty of the Quicktime file format is that it stores content and control tracks. Watch this one: Quicktime is Apple's 3rd platform (Rhapsody, Mac OS). But I wouldn't be too sure which order they are ranked by management in terms of long-term, sustainable value. BTW, this is almost trivia, but did you know that a significant portion of the Mac OS is implemented in Quicktime 3? This means that a good portion of the Mac OS API is actually available for Windows 95/NT, and even Java (w/ QT for Java). 3) Apple has decided that there is technology that Macromedia has that they want to make sure works best or only with Apple systems. Probably best, not likely only. Apple's strategy seems to revolve now around making sure that everything is everywhere, for marketshare, mindshare, etc, but "better" on Apple systems. In the long term, this is the only viable strategy. Mac-only technologies are great, but not enough people know it. By making them cross-platform, people realize their coolness, and then, if necessary, gravitate to the systems that do them best. A good way to firmly capture the "best quality" computing niche. We shall see. BTW, these are just my guesses, there is no inside information reflected here whatsoever.

To: Sam Scrutchins who wrote (12603)	5/5/1998 1:04:00 AM
From: HerbVic	Respond to of 213177

The Yahoo news snippit did not specify which software Apple acquired from Macromedia. We can infer that it has to do with Quicktime and multimedia but little else. Lifted from Macromedia's web site: Macromedia, Inc. (NASDAQ: MACR) is the leading provider of cross platform software tools for Web publishing, multimedia and graphics. Headquartered in San Francisco, only Macromedia delivers a complete, affordable set of software tools for digital media creation and delivery anywhere. Macromedia's award-winning products for Windows, Macintosh and the Internet are available to business, education, and government customers worldwide in more than 50 countries. Additional information on Macromedia is available on the Internet at macromedia.com. From the homepage we learn that Macromedia has not been idle on the software front: Dreamweaver 1.2 ships! Check out the great new features in this award-winning web design tool. Download the 30-day trial or upgrade your licensed copy now. Smart Shockwave: A better download experience Smart Shockwave automates the selection, download, and installation of Shockwave players. Win COOL Prizes! Enter the Fireworks Art Contest and show off your web graphics. Extended until May 31. Enterprise Learning Solutions Macromedia's enterprise learning solutions help you create, deliver, and manage interactive learning courseware over networks and the web. Download our free Authorware trial version. New Flash 3! Download the Flash 3 beta, the web standard for vector graphics and animation. It's free! Also, from the Flash product team, announcing Flash Generator for automated, server-based creation of web site graphics. See the demos! Get Fireworks! Download the hottest new design and production tool for web graphics now. It will rock your world! Get the FreeHand 8 demo, tutorial included! Take the tutorial and learn about breakthrough FreeHand 8 features. Download the free demo now! Director Export Xtra for Java Developer Release version 2 now available! Check out the Director Export XtraT for JavaT to see how you can play Director files on the Web without a plug-in! Designers & Developers Centers You can Doc Around the ClockT because we never stop publishing. Check out TechNotes, how to's, expert advice, and more. Authorware Academic Challenge We're looking for the learning application of the future. All you need to do is create it! Take the Authorware Academic Challenge, and you could win a PowerMac G3. Flash Open File Format Macromedia to make Flash file format available as open Internet standard. Associated Press, IBM, Broderbund, Netscape, RealNetworks, Sun, WebTV and other industry leaders support effort to create graphics standard. International Customers! Don't miss Mediawave 98, Macromedia's exclusive free seminar series, covering 25 major cities throughout the world. See the details and register online. Whatever Apple bought, Macromedia is not yet boasting about it on their homepage. Could it be that Macromedia had a product [Flash] that competed with Quicktime and was being distributed as shareware? HerbVic