Apple Announces Version 2.0 of Apple Media Tool and Apple Media Tool
Programming Environment

Includes Many New Powerful Features Such as QuickTime VR Support; Enables
Easier Creation of Interactive Media Titles

MACWORLD, SAN FRANCISCO, California--January 9,1996--Apple Computer, Inc.
today announced a new version of Apple Media Tool and its companion
product, the Apple Media Tool Programming Environment. Version 2.0 of
Apple Media Tool is the company's easy-to-use, object-based, cross-
platform multimedia authoring tool enabling users to create interactive
titles without programming or scripting. Once created on the Apple
Macintosh platform, Apple Media Tool projects can be converted to run in
Macintosh, Power Macintosh and Windows-based environments at the click of
a button.

The new version of Apple Media Tool allows for the creation of projects
that will run fully native on Apple Power Macintosh computers and
incorporates many new features such as support for QuickTime VR, custom
color palettes, AppleScript, HyperText links and more. The new version of
the Apple Media Tool Programming Environment is a programming language and
framework that enables programmers to customize Apple Media Tool features
and optimize projects created with Apple Media Tool, while providing a
powerful object-oriented development environment for the programmer who is
interested in interactive media.

Apple Media Tool is designed for a wide range of users with ease- of-use in
mind, including creative designers, producers, educators and business
communications professionals. Apple Media Tool is a visual authoring
environment where users can create interactive multimedia projects without
scripting or programming. Developers are using Apple Media Tool and the
Apple Media Tool Programming Environment to produce highly innovative
multimedia projects, including interactive multimedia catalogs, rock music
titles, some of the first interactive on-line advertising, and among the
most sophisticated networked kiosks.

The Apple Media Tool Programming Environment is designed for programmers
who are seeking to break into object-oriented multimedia programming.
Version 2.0 of the Apple Media Tool Programming Environment includes the
required subset of MPW (Macintosh Programmer's Workbench software) bundled
at no additional charge. The Apple Media Tool Programming Environment
works in conjunction with the MPW Shell for debugging multimedia projects,
allowing programmers, for example, to inspect objects, step through code
and set breakpoints while a project is running.

"In the past, multimedia production has been a black art, practiced by the
digirati," said Ralph Rogers, product line manager, interactive media
tools at Apple. "Apple Media Tool 2.0 opens up the multimedia production
process, providing a canvas for the creative community and a production
tool for professional communicators. With the powerful capabilities of the
Apple Media Tool Programming Environment, software engineers are able to
become major participants in interactive media creation efforts. Together,
these tools deliver Apple's leading multimedia technologies to their
respective users allowing them to become creative contributors in the
burgeoning interactive media age."

"The visual compositional metaphor of Apple Media Tool appeals to both the
novice and sophisticated producer," said Michael Moon, director, executive
programs at Gistics, Inc., a multimedia research firm known for its ground
breaking research of multimedia producers and cognitive models for
interactive applications. "Ease of use and a straight forward visual
metaphor for linking graphical objects make it easy for novices to produce
something with very little effort."

Features

Fully Power Macintosh native, Apple Media Tool 2.0 is the first product to
ever offer direct manipulation interface for integrating QuickTime VR
movies into multimedia projects. Apple Media Tool 2.0 also fully supports
AppleScript, and is customizable via the Apple Media Tool Programming
Environment. Using the Apple Media Tool Programming Environment,
customized runtime engines can be designed to deploy Apple Media Tool
generated titles on the Internet or ITV as well as develop hooks into
media asset databases.

Other new features include: a new improved user interface browser;
pervasive drag & drop of media elements from anywhere on the desktop;
feature extensibility; custom color palettes; continuous cross screen
sound; Rich Text Formats (RTF); HyperText linking; flipbook animation; and
cross-platform runtimes for the Mac OS and Windows. Version 2.0 of Apple
Media Tool now includes support for

QuickTime 2.1, which makes it possible for developers to create multimedia
projects with much higher quality video and animation, and makes it easier
to create, edit, synchronize music with video, and playback music on
computers without understanding MIDI technology, providing more
sophisticated control of QuickTime Movies.

Apple Media Tool and the Apple Media Tool Programming Environment have
received many awards including the MacUser "Eddy" Editor's Choice Award
for "Best New Multimedia Product of 1993," and was a finalist again in
1994. Apple Media Tool and the Apple Media Tool Programming Environment
were also given four stars out of five in both MacWeek and MacUser
magazine reviews in 1994.

Distribution, Support and Pricing

The price for Apple Media Tool 2.0 is U.S. $495. To purchase Version 2.0 of
Apple Media Tool or other Apple brand software sold by Claris, call
1-800-950-5382. Claris will also be selling Version 2.0 of Apple Media
Tool through the ClarisPLUS volume licensing program. ClarisPLUS serves
two main customer segments--corporations and education sites- -and is
designed to address how enterprise customers want to buy and use Apple and
Claris software. ClarisPLUS offers aggressive pricing, flexible volume
licensing programs and maintenance.

The Apple Media Tool Programming Environment and the Apple Media Tool 2.0
bundle, which includes Apple Media Tool and the Apple Media Tool
Programming Environment are available through APDA, Apple's source for
developer tools, by calling 1-800-282-2732 (U.S.), 1-800- 637-0029
(Canada), or (716) 871-6555 (International). The Apple Media Tool 2.0
bundle is U.S. $1195. Individual copies of Apple Media Tool and the Apple
Media Tool Programming Environment are available through APDA for U.S.
$495 for Apple Media Tool, and U.S. $995 for the Apple Media Tool
Programming Environment.

Upgrade Policy and Availability

Existing customers interested in upgrading to version 2.0 of Apple Media
Tool can do so through Claris or APDA for U.S. $149. Upgrades to version
2.0 of the Apple Media Tool Programming Environment and the Apple Media
Tool 2.0 bundle can be purchased for U.S. $195 and $295 respectively by
contacting APDA at 1-800- 282-2732, or sending e-mail to:
APDA@applelink.apple.com.

Licensing

Apple currently provides a special license for free distribution of titles
created with Apple Media Tool. There is no charge for the license or for
distribution rights on the Apple software it covers. The Apple Media Tool
product includes a business reply card that users fill out and send to
Apple Software Licensing to receive the license package. For questions,
call Apple Software Licensing at (512) 919-2645 or contact them via e-mail
at sw.license@applelink.apple.com.

Apple Computer, Inc., a recognized pioneer and innovator in the information
industry, creates powerful solutions based on easy to use personal
computers, servers, peripherals, software, online services, and personal
digital assistants. Headquartered in Cupertino, California, Apple
(NASDAQ:AAPL) develops, manufactures, licenses and markets products,
technologies and services for the business, education, consumer,
scientific & engineering and government markets in over 140 countries.

If you are considering the purchase of an Apple product and would like to
have product information faxed to you, please call 1-800- 462-4396 in the
U.S. or 1-800-263- 3394 in Canada. If you do not have a fax machine or
would like to locate an Apple authorized reseller near you, please call
1-800-538-9696. Customers outside the U.S. should contact their local
Apple representatives for information.

Apple's home page on the World Wide Web: http://www.apple.com/

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Addendum: Examples of Projects Developed Using Apple Media Tool and the
Apple Media Tool Programming Environment

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY (MIT)
The Edgerton Project
Multimedia Producer Lynne Bolduc

Students and researchers working on the Edgerton Project at MIT's Center
for Educational Computing Initiatives (CECI) needed a multimedia
development tool that would be easy enough for non- technical designers to
develop rapid prototypes, yet powerful enough that programmers could
efficiently add sophisticated features. The ease with which early
prototypes can be created, the availability of a powerful, object-oriented
scripting language, and the ability to create a sophisticated yet
changeable multimedia solution made Apple Media Tool and the Apple Media
Tool Programming Environment an appropriate choice for CECI.

ROCHESTER INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY (RIT)
School of Photographic Arts and Sciences
Professor Douglas Rea

When Douglas Rea and his students decided it was time to augment the highly
acclaimed print magazine E.s.p.r.i.t. with its first interactive
multimedia CD-ROM component, CD-ESPRIT, they chose Apple Media Tool and
the Apple Media Tool Programming Environment to make it happen. With very
little programming experience, but a plethora of creative individuals,
producers of CD-ESPRIT needed an authoring tool that would be very easy to
learn and use, but would enable students to create subtle, sophisticated
multimedia effects and interactivity for playback on both Macintosh and
Windows platforms.

INTERACTIVE EDUCATIONAL CD-ROM
Pilgrim New Media
Chip Canty
Cambridge, Massachusetts

Pilgrim's first product, Her Heritage: A Biographical Encyclopedia of
Famous American Women, lets users interactively explore the lives of more
than 1,000 famous women. The CD-ROM has already earned favorable reviews,
recently receiving four stars in a PC Magazine article. Pilgrim New Media
needed a cross-platform multimedia authoring tool that would save valuable
development time by enabling team members to work in parallel. Because the
project had to incorporate thousands of screens, Pilgrim also needed to be
able to display content--re- purposed text, photos and film clips--in real
time from a custom database. Apple Media Tool and the Apple Media Tool
Programming Environment met Pilgrim's needs.

ON-LINE INTERACTIVE ADVERTISING
Diosa Corporation
Bruce Mewhinney

Diosa Corporation needed an easy-to-use multimedia development tool to
create interactive on-line advertising and editorials for a new yachting
forum on Apple's eWorld on-line service. The Apple Media Tool and Apple
Media Tool Programming Environment provides a sophisticated,
object-oriented tool that enabled Diosa to simultaneously create ads for
both Macintosh computers and Windows-based PCs.

INTERACTIVE MULTIMEDIA BUYER'S GUIDE
Residential Design Corporation (RDC) Interactive Media
Terry Beaubois
Palo Alto, California

In developing an interactive multimedia catalog for home building products,
RDC Interactive Media needed a cross-platform multimedia development tool
that would minimize development time and maximize the use of space on a
CD-ROM--one that would enable RDC to easily build links to a large
database. The Apple Media Tool and Programming Environment provided the
solution.
 
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