Apple QuickTime VR Version 2.0 to Bring Programmability, Motion and Sound
to Leading Web and CD-ROM Virtual Reality Technology

New Release Slated to Ship in August with Programmer's API; Motion, Sound,
and Web URL Support; New Features for Objects

WWDC, SAN JOSE, California--May 13, 1996--Apple Computer, Inc. today
announced a breakthrough in the creation of virtual reality environments
with the upcoming availability of the next major release of QuickTime VR.
The new release, to be called QuickTime VR Version 2.0, is expected to
include the following features:

* Programmer's API for controlling playback and functionality of
  QuickTime VR panoramas and objects
* Compositing of still images, QuickTime movies, and 3D sprites
  into QuickTime VR panoramas
* Support for sound, including speech and directional sound
* Full support for Internet URL hot spots on panoramas and objects
* Upgraded support for objects including zooming and hot spots
  leading to panoramas, objects, and Internet URLs
* Tool improvements in QuickTime VR Authoring Tools Suite to
  support new features
* Continued playback of QuickTime VR 1.0 files
* Improved support for 32-bit Windows 95 and Windows NT playback

With these features, QuickTime VR scenes will come to life with sound and
motion. QuickTime VR developers will be able to create flexible, highly
interactive virtual worlds on the Internet, in organizational Intranets,
in CD-ROM titles, and in kiosks and other delivery media. QuickTime
VR-based Web sites will become seamless virtual environments that
interface to information spaces, education, entertainment and more. More
authoring tools will be able to integrate QuickTime VR content. And games
developers will be able to easily include QuickTime VR in the fast-moving,
intensely interactive experiences they create.

"QuickTime VR technology is accelerating the commercial viability of the
Internet by transforming the content landscape from Web sites based on
static text to Web sites based on interactive virtual environments," said
Carlos Montalvo, director of Apple's interactive media group. "QuickTime
VR technology drives media-rich content that increases customer hits per
site and extends browse times per visit, increasing the value of the Web
site."

This week at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), the QuickTime
VR team will host two sessions demonstrating new and existing features and
functionality of QuickTime VR. QuickTime VR hardware, software, and
content developers are also exhibiting at WWDC. Next week, Apple will ship
the first developer release of the programmer's API, and will host
developers at a "kitchen" for use of and feedback on the new API. This
will be the first opportunity for developers to begin to integrate the new
capabilities of QuickTime VR into their Web sites, CD-ROM titles, and
other deliverables.

QuickTime VR 2.0 Becomes a Flexible Virtual Reality Development Platform
With the release of QuickTime VR 2.0 and its programmer's API, QuickTime
VR will become a much more flexible platform for the creation and delivery
of virtual reality content. QuickTime VR is already in use in hundreds of
Web sites*, including leading sites from BMW, Tower Records, and other
Internet leaders, and in dozens of shipping and soon-to-ship CD-ROM
titles. Now QuickTime VR can be smoothly integrated into any multimedia
Web site or CD-ROM title and easily extended to support new
functionality.

"The extended functionality of the QuickTime VR 2.0 platform will greatly
enhance our ability to serve our commercial client base," says David
Falstrup, president of eVox Productions, a dedicated QuickTime VR
production facility located in Long Beach, California. "We believe that
the new release will have a tremendous impact on the rate of acceptance of
virtual reality in our marketplace."

QUICKTIME VR 2.0 TECHNICAL DETAILS

The following are some of the technical details of the 2.0 release of
QuickTime VR: Programmer's API--The programmer's API lets multimedia title
developers incorporate QuickTime VR functionality into their applications.
Using the API, developers will be able to:

 -- Display and manipulate panoramas and objects;
 -- Composite still images into panoramas;
 -- Composite QuickTime movies into panoramas;
 -- Composite QuickDraw 3D objects into panoramas;
 -- Incorporate directional sound and speech input;
 -- Incorporate specialized transition behavior between panoramas;
 -- Override QuickTime VR's default behavior relative to event
    handling, cursors, and hot spots;
 -- Incorporate specialized hot spot information unique to the
    application; and
 -- Manipulate QuickTime VR's memory usage.

URL HOT SPOT SUPPORT--QuickTime VR hot spots can now include URL
information. Users who click on a hot spot in a panorama or on an object
can now transition to any document located on the Internet. For example, a
user can now click on a painting inside a panorama of a museum. The
application can then display an HTML page or frame that describes the
painting's history. Likewise, a user who clicks on a car door in a
QuickTime VR object movie of a car can be transitioned, by the
application, to a QuickTime VR panorama of the car's interior.

OBJECT SUPPORT--With QuickTime VR 2.0, QuickTime VR objects will have zoom
and translation capabilities. Users will be able to zoom in and out and
shift the image up, down, left and right while zooming. This lets the user
take a closer look at a particular area of a QuickTime VR object. Objects
will also have hot spots, including URLs and any other kind of hot spot.
By clicking on a hot spot a user can transition to a panorama, to another
object, to another part of the same object, or to any application-specific
information.

TOOL IMPROVEMENTS--The QuickTime VR tools will support the new features
listed above. For instance, the QuickTime VR Scene Editor now supports
adding hot spots to objects, as well as panoramas, and the use of URLs as
hot spot destinations, so panoramas and objects can be combined with other
information into an online virtual reality world. The stitcher will use
considerably less memory for non-interactive stitching of images into a
panorama. Reliability has been improved.

ABOUT QUICKTIME VR

QuickTime VR is a leading virtual reality delivery platform for the Web and
CD-ROM and is used to deliver both photographic and computer-generated
virtual reality objects and scenes. It can be used with cameras ranging
from a $10 disposable camera, through mid-priced systems with 20 mm and
other popular lens types, on up to one-shot panoramic cameras. Special
tripod heads for improved panorama capture and object rigs for automating
the process of object capture are already available. Free tools for the
creation of QuickTime VR content; information about ordering the current
QuickTime VR Authoring Tools Suite 1.0; samples; and other information
about QuickTime VR can be obtained from the QuickTime VR Web site at
http://qtvr.quicktime.apple.com/.

To purchase the QuickTime VR Authoring Tools Suite 1.0, contact the Apple
Developer Catalog. The Web address is http://www.devcatalog.apple.com/.
For phone orders, call:

 U.S 1-800-282-2732
 Canada 1-800-637-0029
 International (716) 871-6555
 Fax (716) 871-6511

Upgrades to the 2.0 version of the QuickTime VR Authoring Tools Suite will
be available at a minimal cost.

Apple Computer, Inc., a recognized innovator in the information industry
and leader in multimedia technologies, creates powerful solutions based on
easy-to-use personal computers, servers, peripherals, software, personal
digital assistants and Internet content. Headquartered in Cupertino,
California, Apple develops, manufactures, licenses and markets solutions,
products, technologies and services for business, education, consumer,
entertainment, scientific and engineering and government customers in more
than 140 countries.

* Source: AttaVista Web Index Search

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 (415) 598-4329 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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