Apple Pushes The Boundaries Of Personal Computing With AVTechnologies

New Macintosh Models Combine State-of the Art Telecommunications, Video and
Speech Capabilities for Mainstream Business and Education Use

MACWORLD, BOSTON -- July 29,1993 -- Redefining the boundaries of personal
computing once again, Apple Computer, Inc. today announced two new
Macintosh computers that feature a unique combination of communications
and computing capabilities. The Macintosh Quadra 840AV and Macintosh
Centris 660AV bring together telecommunications, video and speech
technologies on a desktop computer for the first time, offering users new
and enhanced ways to communicate.

Apple refers collectively to the set of technologies that distinguish the
new models as "AV Technologies". With AV Technologies, Apple adds a new
dimension to personal computing. For example, with these new systems,
customers can

* access voice mail, electronic mail and faxes from the
  convenience of a single location on their desktop;
* use the computer as a hands-free speaker phone and answering
  machine;
* communicate using desktop videoconferencing capabilities 
  with greater ease and at a new price point;
* use speech for command, control and navigation.

"No other personal computer on the market today can provide all of these
capabilities in one integrated system," said Ian Diery, executive vice
president of Apple's Personal Computer Division. "With AV Technologies, we
are extending the Macintosh platform, and providing countless new
communications possibilities for our customers and developers. Once again,
Apple is raising the industry standard in personal computing."

Powerful CPUs 

Powered by the Motorola 68040 microprocessor and an AT&T 3210 Digital
Signal Processor (DSP), the new Macintosh Quadra 840AV and Centris 660AV
computers are powerful personal computers that extend the capabilities of
the Macintosh family with new levels of performance and functionality.

While the Motorola 68040 microprocessor does general-purpose computing
work, the DSP handles specialized tasks and real-time data--including
speech, audio, modem, telephone and fax signal to provide customers with
advanced performance. Third-party developers also can tap into the power
of the DSP to provide performance enhancements, such as "plug-in filters"
for the popular publishing program PhotoShop by Adobe.

With AV Technologies, Apple is laying a foundation for future Macintosh
systems. Apple intends to begin integrating these technologies as
appropriate into its next generation Macintosh products based on the
PowerPC RISC chip.

AV TECHNOLOGIES 

AV Technologies include the following technology components:

Telecommunications 

The GeoPort telecommunications architecture featured in the Quadra 840AV
and Centris 660AV is a plug-and-play access system for telecommunications
that integrates data, fax and voice telephony. Unlike a traditional modem,
the GeoPort architecture is a software-based telecommunications
architecture. With the GeoPort Telecom Adapter and associated software,
users can immediately connect to telephone services and support phone
calling and answering, as well as send and receive data and fax.

The GeoPort Telecom Adapter will be sold separately. At introduction, the
adapter will support analog services at 9600 bits per second (bps). Apple
is also working with third parties to offer additional GeoPort adapters
for PBX and ISDN services in the future.

Digital Video 

The new Macintosh AV models feature a rich video and graphics architecture,
permitting seamless display of full-motion video from sources such as
VCRs, camcorders and laserdiscs, plus the digitization and capture of
single frames as pictures or video sequences. For video-in, all major
standards are supported--NTSC, PAL and SECAM--and composite and S-video
ports are provided.

The Macintosh AV series' video-out capabilities make it possible to connect
to a regular television, which allows users greater access to inexpensive
large screen TV for presentations--without the cost and complexity of
additional hardware circuitry and equipment to support the connection. At
the same time, business and education users will find it easy to create
inexpensive presentation materials by simply connecting their VCR and
using their Macintosh to print a presentation to videotape.

The sophisticated video capabilities of the new Macintosh AV models, when
combined with GeoPort and built-in Ethernet networking capabilities,
enable a new class of collaborative applications for document sharing and
local area network (LAN)-based videoconference capabilities. As ISDN
becomes more pervasive, Apple believes these built-in video and
telecommunications capabilities will open more cost-effective ways to
communicate with electronic desktop videoconferencing over wide area
networks (WANs).

Speech 

Equipped with Apple's PlainTalk speech technology, the Quadra 840AV and
Centris 660AV are the first mainstream personal computers to offer both
speech recognition and text-to-speech capabilities as a standard user
interface extension, complementing today's keyboard and mouse. The first
release of PlainTalk supports North American English only.

The PlainTalk speech recognition system offers a robust
speaker-independent, continuous speech system for voice commands. Users
can manipulate standard Macintosh menu commands, and streamline computing
tasks with applications that take advantage of PlainTalk. Or they can
create their own speech-activated commands, using either AppleScript or
QuickKeys as a scripting engine. Both technologies come bundled with the
new systems. The latter is licensed from CE Software.

With PlainTalk's text-to-speech system, Apple delivers a standard way for
applications to synthesize a human voice. Today, this capability is
particularly useful in applications such as language instruction and
proofreading. In the future, with third-party applications, users also
will be capable of accessing electronic mail or faxes from a remote
location over their voice mail and have the text of messages read to
them.

"Although it represents the first generation of speech technology,
PlainTalk is a robust speech engine that will grow in richness," said Dr.
Kai-Fu Lee, Apple's chief speech technology scientist. "We hope to learn
from real users' experience as they explore the benefits of speech in
mainstream settings and provide valuable feedback on future speech product
enhancements and development."

Product Specifications 

Based on a 40 MHz Motorola 68040 microprocessor, as well as a 66MHz AT&T
3210 Digital Signal Processor (DSP), the Macintosh Quadra 840AV becomes
the highest performance Macintosh in the line. With a balanced mix of high
performance and expandability, the Quadra 840AV is well suited to
designers, publishers and media authors, engineers, scientists and power
users. Expandable from 8MB of DRAM to 128MB, the Quadra 840AV features
four standard expansion bays for internal storage, including two 3.5-inch
bays for hard drives or removable media, and two 5.25-inch bays for
removable devices. Offering up to 2MB of VRAM, the Quadra 840AV supports
24-bit color on displays up to 16 inches and 16-bit color on 21-inch
displays.

The Macintosh Centris 660AV is the highest performance offering in Apple's
midrange line and is an ideal system for educator, trainers, business
professionals and telecommuters. Powered by a 25 MHz Motorola 68040
microprocessor, as well as a 55 MHz AT&T 3210 DSP, the Macintosh Centris
660AV is expandable from 8MB of RAM to 68MB. For internal storage, the
Centris 660AV provides one 5.25-inch bay for removable devices. The
Centris 660AV offers up to 1MB of VRAM for supporting 16-bit color on
displays up to 16 inches and 8-bit color on 21-inch displays.

Both systems come standard with Ethernet and feature the fastest
implementation of NuBus ever, NuBus 90. NuBus 90 transfers data up to four
times faster than the existing Macintosh NuBus implementations. The Quadra
840AV comes equipped with three high-speed, 13-inch NuBus slots and the
Centris 660AV supports one 7-inch NuBus slot via an optional NuBus
adapter. In addition, both models support a Digital Audio Video (DAV)
connector that provides a high-speed path to and from the raw digitized
video and audio data produced by the computer. The DAV slot can be used
for real-time audio and video hardware compression cards such as JPEG,
MPEG, DVI and H.261.

The new systems also support 16-bit stereo audio input and audio output at
various sample rates including 44.1kHz and 48kHz for outstanding quality
audio.

Accessories and Applications 

The Apple PlainTalk Microphone and software that supports North American
English voice recognition and text-to-speech will be shipped standard
along with the new AV Macintosh computers in the United States. Outside
the United States, the Apple PlainTalk Software Kit and Apple PlainTalk
Microphone can be purchased separately. The GeoPort Telecom Adapter is
sold separately, with a U.S. suggested retail price (SRP) of $129.

For an introductory period in the United States, Apple is bundling a number
of applications on the hard drive of the new systems, to make the new AV
Technologies useful out of the box. These include: Apple Phone, a
screen-based phone application developed by Apple; ExperFax by
ExperVision, a fax-to-text conversion application; FusionRecorder by
VideoFusion, an application that provides users with the capability to
record video and high-quality 16-bit audio; and ES-F2F, a LAN-based
videoconferencing application by The Electronic Studio.

Pricing and Availability 

The Macintosh Centris 660AV will be offered worldwide through authorized
Apple resellers beginning Aug. 3, 1993. The Macintosh Quadra 840AV will be
available worldwide beginning Aug. 25, 1993. Pricing and availability will
vary outside of the United States.

Apple plans to make logic board upgrades available for Macintosh Centris
610 customers to the Macintosh Centris 660AV and for Macintosh Quadra 800
customers to the Macintosh Quadra 840AV later this year. Both new
Macintosh computers will support upgrades to PowerPC in the future.

Headquartered in Cupertino, Calif., Apple Computer, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL)
develops, manufactures and markets computer systems for use in business,
education, the home, science, engineering, and government. A recognized
pioneer and innovator in the personal computer industry, Apple does
business in more than 120 countries. Apple's Macintosh computers and
LaserWriter printers were ranked highest in user satisfaction among
business users in recent studies by J.D. Power and Associates.

Apple Computer Inc, 20525 Mariana Ave, Cupertino, CA 95014
408-996-1010

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