Mac

Windows

New shareware version

Audiograbber allows you to make digital rather than analog copies of music from a CD-ROM drive. Audio is normally routed via your sound card, thus undergoing a digital-analog-digital conversion. Audiograbber can be configured to test the quality of its recording; can automatically normalise the music; delete silence from the start and/or end of tracks; encode straight to MP3 format via internal MP3 or WMA (MS Audio 4.0) codecs, or send an extracted WAV file to an external MP3 encoder. Audiograbber also supports the downloading of CD track listings over the Internet via CDDB.

Note: In order to extract audio directly to MP3 or WMA format without an intermediate WAV file, your CD-ROM drive must support digital audio extraction. Some older drives do not support this technology. With older drives, you may need to extract to WAV format via the analog method.

This shareware version is restricted to ripping only half the tracks from a CD at once.

Web link: www.audiograbber.com

New Freeware version

This is a universal tool to view VRML scenes on the Internet. Cortona supports: OpenGL and Direct3D, Java language, External Authoring Interface (EAI) and 2nd EAI for Internet Explorer, Splines and NURBS, RealVideo and RealAudio. New features in version 2.1 include transparent incremental installation based on CABs technology, and use of Macromedia Flash animations as source for VRML MovieTexture.

Optimised for Intel's Pentium III processor, the Cortona client features fast software rendering tools providing high rate and image rate and quality for PC's without 3D accelerators.

Web link: www.parallelgraphics.com/htm/en/

Expires after 30 days

ISA is a VRML authoring tool that facilitates the creation of interactive and dynamic 3D scenes for the Web. You can choose animated or static objects from the extensive ISA galleries, or use any other VRML file as an object, and animate them with ISA. The scenes you create can be published on the Web and viewed in all major VRML browsers.

Requires Internet Explorer 4 or higher.

Web link: www.parallelgraphics.com/htm/en/

QDesign's MVP is a QuickTime-based music application that plays your CD audio, MP3, WAV, AIFF, and QDesign Music files. MVP can also record directly from CD to MP3 and QDesign Music formats. Online search and download of digital music is also possible using MVP's direct interface to the Internet. MVP even plays back music videos produced in QuickTime and AVI formats. MVP integrates with CD online databases and supports variable bit rate playback and Streamlink streaming audio.

The unregistered version of MVP can only encode MP3s for 30 days but allows unlimited encoding capabilities in the QDesign file format.

Web link: www.mvpsite.com

Trial version

All in one MP3 player, ripper, encoder, decoder, database. Includes sound editing/enhancement functions.

Web link: www.e-soft.co.uk

New FREE version

Winamp is a MP2, MP3, WAV, MIDI, MOD, and CD audio player. The stylish interface gives you a ten-band graphic equalizer, spectrum analyzer, user-definable presets, shuffle and playlist editor. Winamp's plug-in architecture lets you choose from a varity of 'designer' interfaces. You'll need a powerful PC and a decent Internet connection to get the best streaming audio quality.

Version 2.6.1 features a new SuperPiMP installation that is cleaner and has more options, and new bookmark playlists and Shoutcast streams. There is also added support for WSZ and ZIP files in your skins directory.

Winamp now features Windows Media Technology 4.0 input/output support, the industry standard Fraunhofer MP3 decoder, and much more. To enable MS Audio 4 support, you may need to install WMT4 – click here to install... Visit the Winamp Web site to see the wide selection of plug-ins available.

Web link: www.winamp.com

ShockwaveFlash Player
(W3.x)

Macromedia's free ShockwaveFlash plug-in now plays Director and Flash media in your Web browser (for pre-v4.5 Netscape and pre-v4 Internet Explorer – the Flash plug-in is included in later versions of these as well as Windows 98).

New: The W9x version here is now the full installation.

The complete installation of the free version of the new RealPlayer 7 has over 100 live radio stations built-in, includes RealJukebox Basic and provides improved audio and video playback.

NOTE: Netscape 4.7 includes RealPlayer G2, but this separate version 7 is more recent.

The SSEYO Koan Plugin v6.1 is a free, fast interactive MP3 plugin for the Internet: it has support for powerful MP3 sample sequencing, amazing generative music, MIDI composition and allows the music to drive Flash Web animations. the plugin includes LiveConnect and ActiveX components.

Web link: www.sseyo.com

Mac OS

NOTE: The Mac programs on this CD are mostly in archived 'HQX' (BinHex) files – they can be extracted with several applications, including Stuffit Expander (which is on the CD...). Clicking on the links below should set the process in motion. You may receive a message that the file cannot be loaded into Simple Text — if so, start Stuffit and then open the HQX file you want from within Stuffit.

QDesign's MVP is a QuickTime-based music application that plays your CD audio, MP3, WAV, AIFF, and QDesign Music files. MVP can also record directly from CD to MP3 and QDesign Music formats. Online search and download of digital music is also possible using MVP's direct interface to the Internet. MVP even plays back music videos produced in QuickTime and AVI formats. MVP integrates with CD online databases and supports variable bit rate playback and Streamlink streaming audio.

The unregistered version of MVP can only encode MP3s for 30 days but allows unlimited encoding capabilities in the QDesign file format.

Web link: www.mvpsite.com

New version

RealPlayer allows you to enjoy streaming audio and video on networks and the Internet. Along with improved performance, RealPlayer 7 now includes more than 100 radio stations, the Take 5 entertainment programming showcase, and more. Take 5 brings you latest headlines, features, music, comedy and original entertainment from more than 100 media providers.

Requires a minimum of OS 8.1, and IE4.01 or Netscape 4.05.

ShockWave Flash Plugin
(68k)

Shockwave Flash uses a very compact vector-based format to deliver interactive buttons, drawings, and animations on the Web.

New: The PPC version here is now the full installation.

Web link: www.macromedia.com

20-day trial – updated version

MacTuner uses a comprehensive database of Internet broadcasts to help bring you Internet-based radio, television, and multimedia programming. Choose content geographically, browse through regional directories, or utilise the built-in search engine to find stations based on your search criteria. Requires RealPlayer v5 or G2.

This maintenance release fixes a problem that caused station links not to work.

Web link: www.trexar.net

Recently updated

There are plenty of Web animation applications around now — why not give them all a try until you decide which suits you best. VSE Animation Maker is a shareware GIF animation tool that has many features for creating animations for Internet sites. It supports GIF, AM Set, PICS, and PICT files and it has direct support for Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer colour palettes.

Web link: http://vse-online.com/AM.html

Limited 15-day trial

NEW (previously MacAMP Lite) Macast Lite is an MP3 and audio CD player. MP3 audio compression makes it possible to compress large audio files to just ten percent of their original size, with no significant loss of quality. Macast Lite's simple interface, which resembles the Mac OS control strip, allows you to access its pop-up menu from the desktop at any time. When you start Macast Lite you'll see its window thumb in the top right corner of the screen, which can be dragged to any location on the edge of your desktop. To create playlists, simply drag and drop sound files onto the floating window. Version 2.000 supports streaming Shoutcast and Icecast audio, improves the playlist, adds HTTP proxy support, fixes bugs, and makes minor improvements to the interface. The unregistered version of this program has a 15-song playlist limitation and is a 15-day trial.

Web link: www.at-soft.net