John Duhring/Brian McDonnell, SuperMac Software (415) 964-8884
(NASDAQ/NMS-SMSI)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SUPERMAC SHIPS ACKNOWLEDGE ™
COMMUNICATIONS TOOLKIT FOR THE MACINTOSH
Mountain View -- (July 18, 1988) -- SuperMac Software, a division of Scientific Micro Systems, Inc. (SMS), is now shipping Acknowledge™, the Apple® Macintosh™ software toolkit that opens up remote computer services to Macintosh users. Acknowledge provides the tools to create powerful solutions for communicating with mainframes, minicomputers, and personal computer networks. Acknowledge gives Macintosh users the benefits of peer-to-peer communications without requiring modifications to host systems. With Acknowledge, Apple's vision of seamless communications is available today.
"Acknowledge is to communications as dBASE is to database," said John Duhring, Business Development Manager at SuperMac Software. "When businesses invest in Macintosh technology, tying those Macs into an organization-wide information system becomes an important consideration, but the cost of developing an AppleLink or Navigator is prohibitive for most user organizations. In addition, customized network applications must be modified as the organization's needs change. For developers, consultants, and end-user organizations, Acknowledge is the best choice to integrate Macintoshes into an existing information network or to create an organization's information system from scratch."
SuperMac's Acknowledge provides an easy to use platform to create applications, known as Connections, that can tie the Macintosh into virtually any telecommunications environment. Using Acknowledge, developers can build Connections complete with icons, pull-down menus and dialog boxes to create a Macintosh interface to their network application. The Connection shields the user from the confusing command structures common to host systems and allows information to flow freely between systems. With an Acknowledge Connection, the Macintosh user has a transparent,
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easy to use and time-saving interface that simplifies sending and receiving information while automatically navigating through the telecommunications network.
"Acknowledge makes communications simple becuase it is more than a simple communications product. It provides a platform to fully integrate remote systems into the Macintosh environment," said Ray Vizzone, President of LAMIR, Inc., the product's developer. "Historically, the complexity of telecommunications sessions has intimidated even experienced Macintosh users. We designed Acknowledge to control computer-to-computer communications while presenting the Macintosh interface to the user, thereby reducing the costs associated with applications development, end-user training, system use, and system maintenance."
Acknowledge's programming language, TAL (Telecommunication Access Language) allows developers to build Connections for easy information access while retaining complete security. Using TAL Connections, Acknowledge automatically activates a modem, finds an available carrier and locates the appropriate network to call up the appropriate remote service. Without leaving their Macintosh environment, users are transparently connected to an entire suite of predefined services. With Acknowledge, the Macintosh is the strategic resource for communications networking.
"To illustrate what network applications can look like, we include a wealth of example applications in the box," said Brian McDonnell, Acknowledge Product Manager. "AirMail lets you send and retrieve mail from MCI, CompuServe, GEnie, Delphi, and The Source without disrupting your work style. We include TAL source code to AirMail and our other sample applications so developers can easily modify them for their customers. For example, a developer could make a multi-user AirMail Server station to service an entire TOPs or AppleShare network from a single modem."
Developers can use Acknowledge in conjunction with high speed modems, digital switches, and virtually any dial-up network to access information on remote host systems.
Acknowledge adds to the spectrum of products and services available to SuperMac customers and underscores its commitment to being the leading third party vendor for the Macintosh market. It is
now available, for a suggested retail price of $495. Included in the package are Acknowledge (for developing Connections), AckEdit (for adding custom dialog boxes to Connections), Acknowledge Run-Time (for testing and running finished Connections), AirMail, File Express (for sending
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binary files from one Macintosh to another), Time of Day (sets the Macintosh system clock by the National Bureau of Standards), BBS (lets the Macintosh serve as a host bulletin board service), Terminal (TTY, VT100 terminal emulator), On-line Services (Easy access to Digital's Electronic Store, Dow Jones News Retrieval, MCI Mail, Telemail, CompuServe, Delphi, GEnie, The Source, Portal, and the SuperMac BBS). Run-Time modules are available exclusively through Certified Acknowledge Developers in conjuction with their products and services.
The SuperMac Software division of Scientific Micro Systems, Inc. develops and markets high-quality utility and applications software products that enhance SuperMac's hardware products for the Macintosh line of personal computers.
Scientific Micro Systems, Inc. is listed on the National Over-the-Counter Market System under the symbol "SMSI". Headquartered in Mountain View, California, the company designs, manufactures and markets a range of proprietary ASICs, data storage devices and a range of computer enhancements for the APPLE, IBM, and DEC marketplaces.
For further information about Acknowledge or becoming a Certified Acknowledge Developer, or for editorial review copies of Acknowledge, contact Brian McDonnell, SuperMac Software, 295 N. Bernardo Avenue, Mountain View, CA 94043 (415) 964-8884.
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Acknowledge is a trademark of LAMIR, Inc.
Apple is a registered trademark, and Macintosh and AppleShare are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc.
Digital's Electronic Store is a sales mark of Digital Equipment Corporation.
Ed Spiegel (Developer: 415-321-7959): "Acknowledge will do for telecommunications what the Macintosh has done for Personal Computers."
"Acknowledge is a revolutionary product. No other single product has all of the features of Acknowledge. It opens up the entire world of telecommunications to Macintosh users by providing an easy to use interface to navigate through any communications network. It effectively shields the user from communications problems and the confusing command structure common to host systems."
Tony Oppenheim (Developer: 212-645-3577): "Acknowledge is the first product since 4th Dimension that provides developers with a uniquely powerful, flexible and rich development environment . It opens up myriads of possibilities by providing a platform for developers to fully integrate telecommunications in the Macintosh enviroment. Since Acknowledge is always running in the background, it is one of the best ways to automate the interchange of data between remote data bases."
Alan Warshaw (Developer: 818-991-1855): "Acknowledge is the first communications product to provide just the right combination of powerful communications functions. It's integrated environment allows for ease of developing business applications on the Macintosh."
Steve Painter (Marketing Manager, Digital's Electronic Store, Digital Equipment Corporation: 617-250-7426): "Acknowledge is a powerful tool that opens up Digital computers and services to Macintosh users."
Jon Gilbert (Marketing Manager, Delphi: 617-491-3393): "Acknowledge is an exciting product because it provides Macintosh users with the Macintosh interface for online services. By using Acknowledge, Macintosh remote system subscribers can obtain the best use from their network services. "
Sharon Baker (Software Marketing Manager, CompuServe: 614-457-8600): "Acknowledge provides an easy to use development environment which gives end users the the ability to customize their network applications interface. Acknowledge will be successful because it fully integrates communications for Macintosh users to remote services and different systems."
Greg Gerdy (Software Product Manager, Dow Jones & Co: 609-520-4393): "Acknowledge is an important step forward in the area of information retrieval from remote data sources. We hope that it makes a contribution to the growth of the online industry, and, of course, that users will create innovative and useful scripts for accessing Dow Jones News/Retrieval."
Steve Layne (Manager of PC Support Services, Telenet: 703-689-5476): "Acknowledge creates a very user friendly way to connect to the Telenet E-mail service. It's power should yield some very interesting and creative integrations of applications and distributed information.
Ronald Raffensperger (Director of Product Marketing, Telebit Corporation: 415-969-3800): "With the introduction of Acknowledge, SuperMac Software has developed the first communications toolkit for creating applications that take advantage of the Macintosh interface while providing the flexibility and functionality that power users demand. SuperMac will unleash the communications potential of the Macintosh when developers combine the power of Acknowledge with the high speed of the TrailBlazer Plus modem."
Trends in Online Services
by Phil Sih
Portal Communications Company
Cupertino, California
(408) 973-9111
Summary
The online industry has been held back by its inability to present personal computer users with a powerful and familiar way to use its services. While companies such as Portal Communications have known this and made design decisions to allow for the development of such interfaces, there has been limited progress to date. Supermac Software fortunately anticipated this trend toward intelligent "user agents" for online services and introduced Acknowledge™, a communications program capable of acting as a fully-customized user agent. The existence of a service like Portal and a product like Acknowledge indicate a key trend in the online services market and demonstrate the potential of the next level of popularity of both computing and communications.
The Start
Online services have for many years provided useful and powerful tools for people to communicate and get information. Services such as electronic mail, computer conferencing and databases have already gained some popularity with many businesses and consumers. Unfortunately, these tools have been almost the exclusive domain of the highly trained or techically sophisticated because two key components to greater market development were missing.
In 1984 when Portal first started work on The Portal System™, most online services were accessed through dialup connections at the now slow speeds of either 300 or 1200 bits per second (bps). The standard interface was something that resembled a telet ype (TTY) or terminal, often restricted to displaying information a line at a time and each line limited to only 40 characters.
Furthermore, most online services had been conceived as secondary businesses of the timesharing services started in the 60's and 70's. Their interface and design were based on the assumption that all users were connected to central mainframe computers with a TTY or terminal device. The idea of a personal computer which could support a separate program to act as an intellingent user agent did not exist then.
The founders of Portal, having had personal computer experience, saw both the need and potential for personal computer-based, intelligent user interfaces. It was clear to them that personal computer users were going to require familiar interfaces and both higher performance and ease of use before they would widely accept and use online services. The Portal System™ was designed from the start to support intellingent, personal computer-based user agents so that the full potential of the online communications medium could be realized.
Trend Influence Factors
Progress in the presentation quality of the entire personal computer products market has been the biggest factor in driving the trend toward user agents like Acknowledge and supporting systems like Portal. Since 1984 the personal computer market has made major improvements in the area of user interfaces. High resolution monitors, color, and mice are now commonplace. Products such as Lotus and DBase as well as factors like the standardized "look and feel" of the Macintosh computer have created a very high level of user expectation for product presentation. Computer users have become accustomed to their own specific "language" for using their computers making them even less amenable to adopting the TTY or terminal-like presentation and performance characteristics of online services. The personal computer world with its icons, buttons, and menu bars is far ahead of the online world which still relies on extensive typing and use of commands.
Personal computers have also become far more intelligent and are now capable of performing unattended tasks based on time of day or in the "background". Users expect to get their electronic mail or exchange computer files while they are doing other work on the computer or during off-hours when rates for services like telephone calls are lower. Online services need to be able to support intelligent user agents that will perform these tasks for users.
Personal computer users also expect performance. Personal computers are several times faster now then they were in 1984. Compare a now archaic PC/XT with the latest 386 clones. Datacommunications gear has also been doing its part in increasing speeds (the de facto speed of dialup modems has increased from 300 and 1200 bps to 2400 bps), but users are now demanding even higher speeds such as 9600 and 19,200 bps. All this is like saying that the top speed of your average sedan is now 140mph and the speed limit has been raised to 110 but there are no roads between cities where the design of the roads let you go faster than 55.
Higher speed computers and dialup equipment put pressure on the online services to adopt user agents because user agents are currently the best way for online services to increase their overall performance for users.
Finally, computer users are used to another trend which is also pushing the online industry: low cost. As users gain more influence, the prices they are willing to pay for online time declines.
The Current Industry Convention
The online industry recognizes the personal computer user is where the next opportunity for market growth lies and that the user is not going to settle for outdated interfaces. Examples of existing systems which have service-specific user interfaces include AppleLink from GEISCO, Prodigy from Trintex, Navigator from CompuServe, and MacNet from Connect.
The existence of these service-specific interfaces shows the realization of the trend toward user agents but lacks the full vision of user agents and services which can be configured by the user to be job specific and make the use of online communications transparent.
Portal and Acknowledge represent the emergence of the next generation of cooperation and integration of function between software vendors and online services.
Why Portal and Acknowledge Are Important
Portal and Acknowledge now make it possible for a user to have a low cost, fast, job specific solution to wide area communications that makes the online communications service appear to be an extension of the user's computer. A user can now run a customized program on a Macintosh that operates just like other familiar Macintosh programs, and gets a specific job done without requiring any knowledge of the online system.
An example would be an application that field sales reps would use to send orders, receive confirmations, share sales tips and browse daily factory announcements without ever having to leave the Macintosh environment.
The distinctions of Portal are its low cost, speed, and architecture. At $10/month all you can use, Portal is the online bargain of the industry. Portal also has the lowest costs and the fastest ability for setting up support for user applications. Portal is fast because it permits a user agent to bypass the transmission of unnecessary data. The Portal architecture separates information transmission from presentation and makes it possible for progams like Acknowledge to handle all of the functions of presentation at personal computer speeds, while still getting the information from the network.
Another unique contribution of Portal, a service already popular among users familiar with wide area, interconnected networks, is it opens up this world to the Macintosh community. Macintosh users can now reach users on many wide area networks including Usenet, UUCP, Bitnet, and ARPA, while still using their familiar interface.
Acknowledge gives Portal a user agent for the Macintosh community immediately. Not just a "scripting terminal emulator", Acknowledge essentially provides the functions Portal intended to implement in a "remote front end" user agent since the system was originally designed in 1984.
This remote front end was to have performed many of the tasks now done by the Portal System itself, including all user interaction, session handling, parsing, and error checking. Additionally, this extension of the system would have been able to operate unattended, automatically sending and receiving messages on behalf of the user, and be able to maintain locally and automatically keep current some system information to speed performance.
What Next?
With Acknowledge, availability of a Portal user agent is well ahead of plan. Portal Communications and Supermac are currently working to define an even more efficient protocol-based method of interaction between the Portal System and Acknowledge. When this is complete it will make the Portal-Acknowledge pair the highest performance, most closely coupled online service and user agent combination available.
In the long term, users are going to continue to demand more performance and more advanced features all for a lower price. For the online service industry to do this there will be a migration to an overall architecture that supports local, personal computer-based presentation via user agents and efficient computer-to-computer data transfer, mediated on the user side by the user agent. Online systems will provide more generalized facilities to support the functions of sophisticated user agents and the user agent will be configured to specific user tasks.
In short, a "mass market" for online communications, called by any number of other names such as videotext, will emerge only when on-line service vendors first provide true value to the consumer. The Portal System and Acknowledge are the tools and the technology from which such value can be created in the online industry.
The Portal System is a trademark of Portal Communications Company.
