Before the internet, Early Adopter meant that you had to read page 74 of obscure trade magazines and go to lame gatherings to see the latest and greatest technologies. In other words, you either were a major enthusiast or you stood in line with the rest of the world and got it when it came to the store.
But not anymore. Now we have access to the greatest distribution channel known to mankind and technology is being transformed. I can get the latest news on a daily basis from C/Net and get the latest shareware and software updates virtually the day that they are finished. It’s an Early Adopters’ dream come true. God Bless the Web!
OK, enough evangelizing. There is new stuff out and even more new stuff coming out.
Finally a competitor to Gif Construction Set from Alchemy Mindworks. Not to say GifCon isn’t a good program, but it was the only horse in town. Until now. Check out Gif Animator from Ulead. I like the product alot, especially the logical ease of use in the interface.
Another new early adopter event falls on Macintosh ears. The PowerPC may have an option for Operating Systems come next year.Be the company that developed the BeBox is porting their highly acclaimed operating system to run on the PowerPC.
This means that the Mac may have more changes than expected. BeOs is considered by many to be a superior choice to the aging MacOs 7.5.4. One of the problems that has always plagued the Mac image has been the lack of alternatives in hardware and software. Now with Power Computing selling 225 mhtz Macs at discount prices and BeOs developing alternative Operating Systems for the front end, it seems like the Mac is gaining momentum.
I expect the Mac to have a banner year if news like this continues. I’m eager to see the BeBox and make a first hand decision whether it’s worth the hype or not. You can check out some Be simulators at the Be homesite.
In other early adopter news, Hayes and Moterola both announced that 56k modems will be released by next year. My feeling is that this is too little, too late. Cable Modems and ADSL are going to revolutionize the web and come out in the same time frame. 56k can kiss my big bandwidth butt.
I heard today that Progressive Networks, RealAudio is coming out with a 3.0 version of their streaming audio software. Recently I had a chance to listen to Macromedia‘s streaming audio/multimedia tool, Shockwave. Not only can you get fantastic multimedia animations and special effects but the streaming audio quality was outstanding.
RealAudio 3.0 supposedely matches the sound quality and adds some simple animation abilities. Ive heard that it is truly impressive but it lacks the multimedia scripting that makes shocked sites so engaging. I haven’t heard so I can’t make a decision yet, but I am eagerly awaiting the first beta of 3.0 as we speak.
To become part of the growing early adopter program check out the following sites every day with baited breath:
- For Mac Users:
- For Win 3.1 Users:
- For Win 95/NT Users:
Whatya think?