Watching Apple contains summaries of news from Apple Computer, Inc. For complete information on each topic, see the URLs given. This month's topics are:
 
Apple Products Win Awards from BYTE Magazine
 
Apple On-Line Store Orders Top 12 Million Dollars
 
Apple and Roland Team Up To Improve Internet Music
 
 
Apple Products Win Awards from BYTE Magazine
On 19 December 1997, Apple Computer, Inc. announced that BYTE Magazine had awarded Apple its 1997 Editors' Choice Award of Distinction for MacOS 8, the latest version of the Macintosh operating system, and the PowerBook 3400/240, one of the world's fastest mobile computers. BYTE also honored the Apple PowerBook 2400, the lightest system running the MacOS today, with an Award of Merit.
"Apple wants nothing less than to be the world's best provider of
personal computing technology. We are delivering hot new products, like
the PowerBook 3400/240 and PowerBook G3 that demonstrate Apple's re-emergence to the forefront of personal computing," said Philip Schiller, vice president of Hardware Product Marketing at Apple Computer, Inc. "Apple is proud to receive this great recognition from BYTE magazine for our Macintosh PowerBook line of portable computers."
Jim Gable, vice president of Platform and Software Marketing at Apple said, "This award validates Apple's continued commitment to advancing the MacOS and providing customers with the industry's most compelling technologies."
MacOS 8
MacOS 8 debuted in July as the most significant upgrade to the MacOS since 1984. MacOS 8 includes a multitude of features and technologies offering customers an improved user experience with increased productivity and efficiency, greatly simplified Internet access and leading-edge tools, state-of-the-art multimedia capabilities, and enhanced performance and stability.
PowerBook 3400/240
The PowerBook 3400/240 debuted as the world's fastest notebook computer and is now second only to Apple's latest PowerBook G3. The PowerBook 3400/240 targets the needs of Macintosh customers in business, higher education and design settings who require advanced performance, multimedia, and communications from a notebook computer.
PowerBook 2400
The PowerBook 2400 targets the needs of mobile professionals who require lightweight, yet powerful portable computing solutions. The smallest, lightest system running the MacOS today, the PowerBook 2400c weighs just 4.4 pounds, yet offers a powerful 180MHz PowerPC processor and a full range of built-in ports for easy network connectivity.
 
 
Apple On-Line Store Orders Top 12 Million Dollars
On 10 December 1997, Apple Computer, Inc. reported that The Apple Store, its new online store at http://www.apple.com/store/ , received over $12 million dollars in orders in its first 30 days of operation. The Apple Store opened its e-doors on 10 November 1997.
"The Apple Store is now one of the top e-commerce sites on the Internet," said Steve Jobs, Apple's interim CEO. "We are thrilled by the customer acceptance of both the store and our new build-to-order program."
The Apple Store was created using WebObjects, Apple's award winning web development software which has become a market share leader. Apple recently announced WebObjects version 3.5, featuring improved Java support and greater ease of use through its Direct-to-Web technology. WebObjects is transforming the way many companies approach the development of web commerce applications.
The Apple Store is one element of Apple's new distribution strategy, which also includes a broad new relationship with CompUSA, one of the nation's largest computer resellers. CompUSA is opening an Apple "store within a store" in every one of their over-140 stores in the US. Each "store within a store" features the complete Apple computer line, a large selection of accessories, and over 200 Macintosh software titles; all in a single Apple-branded location within the store.
 
 
Apple and Roland Team Up To Improve Internet Music
Apple Computer, Inc. announced on 18 December 1997 that it has licensed Roland Corporation's Sound Canvas sound set and GS Format extensions for inclusion in QuickTime 3.0. The new QuickTime 3.0 musical capabilities promise expanded creative control for music and multimedia content publishers and a better sounding musical experience for consumers. An updated developer preview release of QuickTime 3.0 and the new music instrument sound set are available for immediate download from the World Wide Web at http://www.quicktime.apple.com/ .
The Roland sound set to be included with QuickTime 3.0 consists of 128 General MIDI-compatible instruments plus more than 100 additional sounds from a variety of instrument categories including keyboards, woodwinds, strings, brass, percussion, and sound effects.
Roland's GS Format extends the General MIDI specification by defining additional music performance controls that provide greater accuracy, consistency, and expressiveness for MIDI-based interactive audio. QuickTime's support for this popular music format will enable high-fidelity playback of existing GS-format MIDI content and will provide music publishers enhanced creative control.
"Roland Corporation firmly believes that the key to the success of interactive audio using MIDI is the accurate playback of varied music content," said Ikutaro Kakehashi, Chairman and CEO of Roland Corporation. "We are proud that Apple has chosen Roland's Sound Canvas sound set and GS Format for QuickTime 3.0. This will provide an improvement in the quality of interactive audio worldwide, as well as enhance the compatibility and expand the use of MIDI."
"For music and multimedia content publishers, the Roland technologies combined with QuickTime 3.0's advanced music architecture represent a significant milestone in the development of interactive audio," said Avie Tevanian, senior vice president of Software Engineering at Apple Computer, Inc. "For the first time, it is now possible to create high-quality MIDI music that can be reliably and faithfully reproduced on the consumer's computer."
QuickTime 3.0 combined with Roland's sound set provides a wonderfully rich library of built-in instruments. In addition, QuickTime features the ability to utilize custom-designed instruments that can replace or augment the pre-defined instrument set. The combination of MIDI's small file sizes and QuickTime's powerful built-in music synthesizer features creates a truly compelling alternative for low bit-rate, high-quality Internet audio.
QuickTime's music features are just one piece of its comprehensive media integration architecture. Utilizing QuickTime's extensive text, video, graphics, animation, and sound features, along with QuickTime's sophisticated webpage authoring features, content creators are able to easily author and publish stunning, synchronized, mixed-media presentations ideally suited for today's Internet.
