UPDATA
The Power of Play (and Those Kansas Toasters)
Just as our article on the desktop-video futurists at NewTek Inc. went to press, the company split down the middle. Along with most of the original Toaster software team, NewTek's head finagler, Paul Montgomery, left founder Tim Jenison for pastures farther west. Jenison and his second-generation team remained camped in Topeka while the Kansas emigres headed for San Francisco. There they joined forces with Digital Creations and Progressive Image Technology (both Amiga and PC desktop-video developers) to form a new entity: Play Inc. All parties, apparently, are the better for the split, with products shipping and desktop-video studios on the way from both NewTek and Play.
NewTek recently unbundled LightWave, its popular 3-D animation package, from the Emmy-winning Toaster system. Benefiting from relationships with morph masters Elastic Reality and Xaos Tools, LightWave now incorporates some of Elastic Reality's file-format magic and Xaos's Pennello. Xaos is also selling the 3-D component on the SGI market. Proving its versatility, LightWave supports NTSC and PAL, and runs on Windows, Windows NT, DEC Alpha, and MIPS platforms.
NewTek's eagerly anticipated next-generation Video Toaster is a platform-independent, digital nonlinear (tapeless) editing system in a box, priced at US$7,995. Shipping for the platforms listed above, the new Toaster will potentially work with any box that has a SCSI port and a hard drive. The deluxe version, going for $9,995, ships with an LCD video display and front control panel, allowing the Toaster to perform as a digital recording and playback device. The unit will even do low-level, cuts-only editing directly from the front panel.
Meanwhile, the folks at Play have followed the original NewTek business model to a T. Their first shipped product, the Snappy Video Snapshot, is an inexpensive, high-resolution, still-image digitizer developed for the PC. With a combination of high quality and good value (the parallel port frame grabber, bundled with Fauve Matisse SE and Gryphon Morph 2.5, sells for a reasonable $199.95), Snappy has been flying off the shelves and has even sold well on cable's QVC channel.
Play's full-scale desktop-video postproduction product, Trinity, is a slick hybrid system that offers some features and upgradability not offered by the new Toaster. This entry-level editing system lists for $5,995 while upgrades to the system include both a Preditor nonlinear editing package ($4,995) and a 3D Warp Engine real-time digital effects system ($7,995). Mighty nifty indeed.
While the pre-release hardware from both companies has shown promise, the proof, of course, will be in the shipping systems. The good news for the desktop-video industry is that the aggressive innovation shown by both NewTek and Play will assure the market's evolution - and will keep prices competitive for years to come. - Stephen Jacobs
[Original story in Wired 2.05, page 60.]
InterNic Security
Network Solutions Inc., the entity responsible for assigning Internet domain names for InterNic, has laid down new policy in an act of self-preservation. Given the absence of laws regarding domain names and trademarks, there are sure to be a plethora of conflicts as the Internet pursues its commercial course.
InterNic will continue its policy of registering domain names on a first-come, first-served basis, yet domain holders must now agree to indemnify InterNic from any lawsuits that might arise. In addition, should a domain-name dispute erupt, neither party will be permitted to use the questionable moniker until a resolution has been reached. However, InterNic will allow the domain holder to select a new name and use both for 90 days, ensuring a smooth transition should the offending label be revoked.
Check out ftp://rs .internic.net/policy/internic.domain.policy.
[Original story in Wired 2.10, page 50.]
Web Law
When US Supreme Court justices returned to the bench in October, they found that Stanford University securities law professor Joseph A. Grundfest had exposed a brief in the case of Montgomery Securities and PaineWebber Inc. v. Dannenberg. Located at www.stanford.edu/group/law/reckless/, the document is the first-ever hypertexted High Court brief available on the Web. Now, a click of the mouse instantly does what would normally take a clerk hours to accomplish in a firm's law library.
Although Grundfest's brief bypasses the cash-guzzling online database monopolies, West Publishing generously agreed to provide HTML versions of the many cases and statutes cited in the brief. Another Web first that no doubt will have many clamoring for seconds.
[Original story in Wired 2.05, page 98.]
Info Atoms
Proving that nanotechnology is much more than vaporware, the US Department of Defense recently awarded the Center for Nanoscale Materials and Processing US$6.65 million for research in this innovative field. The center - a multidisciplinary research group composed of teams from such institutions as the University of Southern California, Cornell, and North Carolina State - is developing a device that will ultimately store information at the molecular level.
The team, led by USC chemists Larry Dalton and Nobel laureate George Olah, is designing a nanosystem that will model human hemoglobin, the component of red blood cells responsible for carrying and transferring oxygen. Nanomolecules will carry and transfer information in a similar fashion. Built in onionlike layers, these molecules will function via representational "binary code" as a massively parallel system capable of storing vast amounts of information. Representing a $30 billion-a-year market, nanosystems will offer superior efficiency as well as low failure and low defect rates.
"In 20 years, our lives won't be recognizable," claims Dalton. "What we're doing is defining the technology of the 21st century."
