Apple’s New Software Merges Video With Sound and Text
SAN FRANCISCO — Apple Computer Inc. rolled out software Monday that can turn a Macintosh personal computer into a mini-Hollywood movie studio, spicing up text with film, video, animation and sound.
The Cupertino, Calif.-based company that took publishing into the electronic age in the 1980s now aims to leap ahead in “multimedia” products in the 1990s with its QuickTime software for desktop movie making.
“This is something that is going to change the way we all look at computers,” said Steve Blank, vice president of marketing at SuperMac Technology, a developer of software that complements Apple’s new product.
The news gave Apple’s shares a boost. The stock closed up $2.25 a share at $49.25 in the NASDAQ over-the-counter market.
The software will enable Macintosh users to splice video, animation, Hollywood-style movies and still photographs into letters, reports and text.
The computer could take video feeds from videocassette recorders and video cameras, sprucing up a report for the boss or a letter to a sweetheart.
Apple’s developers say the process is revolutionary yet easy to use. The Apple computer digitizes normal analog feeds and then compresses the data for the user so it can be moved, cut and rearranged as simply as words can be moved around in word processing programs.
