Microsoft WinNews Electronic Newsletter, Vol. 1, #1, July 13, 1994 **************************************** Welcome to the first edition of the Microsoft WinNews Electronic Newsletter. Despite the fact that this is the first edition, you've probably already noticed something has changed -- the name of our newsletter. We've renamed POSNEWS to WINNEWS to stay consistent with all of our other Windows news sources on Compuserve, the internet, AOL, and other places. DON'T PANIC - you don't have to do anything. Our friends at NorthWestNet have taken care of the behind the scenes details of making sure that everyone who subscribed to WinNews is transferred. This issue covers five topics: 1. Special Invitation to 'Windows "Chicago" and the IS Manager' 2. News Release: Microsoft Selects DSP Group's TrueSpeech for Windows Chicago 3. News Release: Industry Rallies Around OLE 4. Using the WinNews List Server 5. Where to get more information We hope you find the information useful, and presented in an easy to read format.By the time you receive your next issue there should be a feedback mailbox in place for you to send us your comments. Enjoy! P.S. Check the date on the TrueSpeech press release... can't get more up to the minute than that, can you? ************************************************************ Microsoft Corporation invites you to join us for an in-depth look at Windows "Chicago's" features and benefits for the IS manager. See how Chicago can help reduce end user support burden, increase IS control over the desktop, and increase end user productivity. Demonstrations will also showcase Chicago's new user interface, multi-tasking capabilities, great application support and critical features designed to make life easier for the IS manager. Windows "Chicago" and the IS Manager Brad Chase, General Manager Personal Operating Systems Division Microsoft Corporation Wednesday, July 27, 1994 9:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Arie Crown Theatre at McCormick Place 2301 South Lake Shore Drive Chicago, Illinois Advanced registration for this special event is not necessary. We encourage you to arrive early as space is limited and seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. ************************************************************ Editors' Note: This news release is issued jointly by Microsoft Corp. and DSP Group, Inc. MICROSOFT SELECTS DSP GROUP'S TRUESPEECH FOR Windows "CHICAGO" Enables Quality Speech Compression in Next Generation Personal Computers Redmond, Wash. and SANTA CLARA, CALIF. -- July 14, 1994 -- DSP Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:DSPG) and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) today announced that Microsoft will use DSP Group's TrueSpeech(r) speech compression technology in its upcoming Windows 'Chicago' release. Quality speech compression is a key to the successful convergence of computers and telephony. TrueSpeech enables high quality and efficient processing and transmission of speech essential for business and consumer applications. Quality speech compression is important for any personal computer or personal communication device using digitally compressed speech. The importance is apparent in applications such as collaborative computing, voice mail, PC-based training and development. "Incorporating TrueSpeech into Chicago is evidence of Microsoft's commitment to using leading edge technologies to make Chicago the highest quality multimedia system for developers and end-users," said Rogers Weed, Microsoft's Windows product manager." TrueSpeech speech compression greatly simplifies sharing digitally processed speech between computing devices. A single standard for speech compression means computer systems can share digitally processed speech. Without a single standard, it is like people speaking many languages without any common ground. Davidi Gilo, chairman of DSP Group, explained, "We realized a few years ago that end-users would benefit greatly from a digital speech compression technology which is a standard. We are quite pleased with Microsoft's acknowledgment of our technology. It takes us well along toward the goal we envisioned." TrueSpeech compression is a technology based on complex mathematical algorithms which are derived from the way airflow from our lungs is shaped by the throat, mouth, and tongue when we speak. This shaping is what our ear finally hears. TrueSpeech is 5 to 15 times more efficient and effective than other methods of digital speech compression. For example, a one minute long speech file which uses other PC audio technology would consume as much as 960 kilobytes. With TrueSpeech, the same file would be just over 60 kilobytes. This reserves more valuable computing capability for additional functions. According to Will Strauss, president of Forward Concepts (Tempe, Ariz.), a leading market research firm specializing in multimedia technology: "Speech compression is a driving force for the converging applications of personal computers and telephony. However, having a speech compression standard is critical to being able to use speech easily and interchangeably. This move by Microsoft goes a long way toward establishing TrueSpeech as the de facto standard." TrueSpeech evolved from years of work by DSP Group on low cost, high quality speech compression for the digital answering machine market. Since DSP Group pioneered and is a leading supplier of digital speech chips for answering machines, many of today's digital answering machines use this same technology for storing and playing back speech. "As next generation Windows operating systems and TrueSpeech become widespread in the market, the benefit of standard speech compression will become a given," commented DSP Group's Gilo. "Microsoft has the opporunity to include TrueSpeech in future versions of Windows." Today, there are over 50 million personal computers using Microsoft Windows and over 2 million new machines shipping with Microsoft Windows each month. In addition to today's announcement regarding Microsoft operating systems, TrueSpeech is being included in product development by a variety of personal computer and semiconductor companies including Analog Devices, Compaq, Intel, Motorola, Silicon Systems, VLSI Technology, and others. Founded in 1975, Microsoft is the worldwide leader in software for personal computers. The company offers a wide range of products and services for business and personal use, each designed with the mission of making it easier and more enjoyable for people to take advantage of the full power of personal computing every day. DSP Group, Inc. develops and markets enabling digital signal processing and digital speech technologies and products for the PC, multimedia, and communications markets. Headquartered in Santa Clara, California, the company offers digital speech and video algorithms, DSP core technology, and integrated DSP-based solutions. DSP Group's technologies and products have been adopted or endorsed by industry leaders including Microsoft, Motorola, Intel, VLSI Technology, Sony, Sharp, Panasonic, Philips, Siemens, GEC Plessey, Matra, Alcatel, British Telecom, France Telecom, Spain Telefonica, and others. ### TrueSpeech is a registered trademark of DSP Group, Inc. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are those of their respective companies. ************************************************************ Industry Rallies Around OLE Lotus, WordPerfect, Borland, Micrografx and 150 Other ISVs Will Support OLE in Their Applications; 75 Companies in Open Market Data Council Adopt OLE-Based Standards; New Windows Platforms to Add 32-Bit OLE Capabilities REDMOND, Wash. -- July 11, 1994 -- Microsoftr OLE technology is gaining momentum as top software vendors announce OLE support for their products and corporations embrace OLE for enterprisewide applications. "OLE is an important technology for Borland. We're developing significant tools to help customers migrate their existing applications to the OLE world," said Paul Gross, vice president and general manager, languages, Borland International, Inc. WordPerfect Corporation has also announced it will be the first to offer OLE 2.0 functionality in five suite applications in its PerfectOffice suite of products. In the securities industry, the Open Market Data Council, consisting of more than 75 leading vendors of information technology, has developed a set of OLE-based standards for supplying and accessing real-time data for applications based on the Microsoft Windows(tm) operating system. Called Windows(tm) Open Services Architecture Extensions for Real-Time Market Data (WOSA/XRT), the standard provides a mechanism for seamless exchange of information between market data feeds and applications that support OLE. OLE Delivers Component Software "OLE is a cornerstone of our overall systems strategy and delivers the benefits of component software to users today," said Jim Allchin, vice president of advanced systems at Microsoft. Component software provides a standard means of defining what a software component is and how components can interact in a synergistic manner -- without the developer having to know anything about how the individual components work. Allchin added, "OLE can lower the cost of computing by giving users and developers more software choices and greater flexibility. Today's OLE applications will run unchanged and work even better with our next generation of Windows platforms, as a result of new levels of integration between the applications and the system." New Windows Platforms Offer 32-Bit OLE The next release of the Windows NT(tm) operating system, code-named "Daytona," will be released this summer with the first implementation of 32-bit OLE, including support for multithreaded applications. "Graphics-intensive software requires the horsepower that 'Daytona' and 32-bit OLE provides," said Tom Steele, president of Intergraph Software Solutions. "Thirty-two-bit OLE will enable us to innovate in ways that really differentiate our products in the CAD marketplace." The beta version of Windows "Chicago" shipped last month with the same 32-bit OLE as "Daytona." "We've been using the latest Microsoft Windows 'Chicago' beta, and it is proving to be a fantastic enabling platform for our professional graphics applications, Micrografx Picture Publisher and Micrografx Designer," said Paul Grayson, vice president of development for Micrografx, Inc. "OLE is a key enabling technology for our entire suite of graphics applications. Without OLE, features that are crucial to our success would not be possible. One of our applications, ABC Toolkit, is going to blow people's minds with its implementation of OLE Automation." Both Windows "Chicago" and "Daytona" support 16- and 32-bit OLE application interoperability. More OLE Applications Each Month Microsoft released a new version of the OLE applications catalog, which lists more than 300 products that take advantage of OLE, including word processing, spreadsheet, graphics, database, multimedia and decision- support applications as well as a variety of programming tools to make OLE development easy. CorelDRAW is one of the catalog entries. "In 1992, CorelDRAW3 was one of the first applications to fully embrace OLE technology," said Eid Eid, director of CorelDRAW engineering at Corel Systems Corporation. "Our early success with OLE encouraged us to extend its benefits to all our key graphics applications. Corel VENTURA5, scheduled to ship in late July 1994, will be the first professional publishing program to support Visual Editing. We feel OLE has given us competitive advantage and enhanced features that are important to the success of our product." The catalog also contains more than 20 OLE Custom Controls add-in products. OLE Custom Controls is an architecture that migrates the popular VBX architecture to OLE technology, allowing applications to be built from reusable components. Windows "Chicago" Logo Means OLE Compatibility To qualify for the Windows "Chicago"-compatible logo, products must be OLE-enabled, which ensures consistency and compatibility among applications and the operating system. "The benefit to our end users is that when they obtain new Windows-based 'Chicago' applications, they will automatically know these applications will work together and act alike," said Doug Henrich, director of developer relations at Microsoft. "Consistency and compatibility are what customers want, and OLE is the means to provide them. OLE is here today, being used by ISVs, corporate developers and users." Founded in 1975, Microsoft (NASDAQ "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in software for personal computers. The company offers a wide range of products and services for business and personal use, each designed with the mission of making it easier and more enjoyable for people to take advantage of the full power of personal computing every day. ######### Microsoft and Microsoft Press are registered trademarks and Windows and Windows NT are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Macintosh and Apple are registered trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc. Micrografx is a registered trademark and Micrografx Design is a trademark of Micrografx, Inc. Other product and company names may be the trademarks and/or the registered trademarks of their respective companies. Editor's Note: Windows NT is a trademarked product name. Please do not abbreviate in any way. OLE FAST FACTS * At the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference (December 1993), 4,850 of 5,000 attendees produced an OLE- enabled version of their products to run on Microsoftr Windows(tm) Chicago." * More than 25,000 "Inside OLE2" books have sold, placing the series on the Microsoft Pressr best-sellers' list. * More than 60,000 developers have the OLE SDK (includes 32- bit OLE). * More than 2,500 beta copies of the version of OLE 2.0 for the Macintoshr were released at the Appler Worldwide Developers Conference in May 1994 (including 1,000 that went out in three hours). * Microsoft Works for the Macintosh and Microsoft Excel for the Macintosh, which include the version of OLE 2.0 for the Macintosh are shipping today. * More than 100 applications are shipping today with support for OLE 2.0, and more than 200 are committed before Fall COMDEX, representing more than 150 companies. * A new version of the OLE applications catalog is produced monthly; an average of 50 new applications are included with each update. * More than 10 million applications have shipped with support for OLE. A copy of Word 6.0 is shipped every four seconds. Word includes five OLE objects -- that's one OLE object shipped every .8 seconds! * More objects in use today are based on OLE than on any other object technology. * OLE Custom Controls recently won the "Most Significant New Technology" award at the Spring COMDEX in Atlanta. In addition, OLE 2.0 has won numerous industry awards, including the 1993 PC Magazine Technical Excellence Award, the MVP: Software Innovation Award from PC/Computing, and the Technology Award for Excellence from BYTE magazine. ************************************************************ Using WinNews and the MajorDomo Listserver This newsletter is hosted on the Majordomo listserver program. It's more than just an electronic newsletter, however. It's also a respository of files that you can access. Here's how: You can send majordomo a number of different commands by sending mail to enews@microsoft.nwnet.com. The commands majordomo understands are: subscribe WinNews [ADDRESS] Subscribe yourself (or ADDRESS if specified) to WinNews. unsubscribe WinNews [ADDRESS] Unsubscribe yourself (or ADDRESS if specified) from WinNews. get WinNews FILE Mail the FILE related to WinNews back to you at your email address. index WinNews Mail an index of the files you can get from WinNews to your email address. info LIST Retrieve general introductory information on WinNews. help Retrieve the list of user commands that majordomo understands. A command may be split across multiple lines if all of the lines in the command except the last end with a backslash "". The files currently available on WinNews are: welcome.txt - the welcome message you receive when you first subscribe faq.txt - frequently asked questions about this newsletter bigpic7.asc - which API's are implemented where? Win32 on Chicago and Daytona vs. Win16 on Windows 3.1 msdnart.asc - a reprint of an MSDN article on writing Win32 apps. winnews.idx - this index inetqna.asc - a short Q&A on Chicago and the Internet game2pr.asc - press release on WinG, the new Windows GAMES API oleqa.asc - a Q&A on OLE under Chicago pr-agent.asc - press release on the backup agent incorporated into Chicago shivapr.asc - press release announcing collaboration between Microsoft and Shiva Corp wad11094.asc - Windows at Deadline - January 1994 wad426pr.asc - Windows at Deadline - April 1994 wfw394pr.asc - Windows at Deadline - March 1994 ch50mlpr.asc - Spring COMDEX 1994 announcement that Windows sales have now passed 50 million units wnhcpr.asc - press release about the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference in Feb 1994 chpnppr.asc - plug and play press release from Spring Windows World creatpr.asc - announcement that Microsoft and Creative Labs will work together hppr.asc - Microsoft and HP announcement on the Laserjet 4 pionpr.asc - Pioneers Awards given out at Spring Windows World. atwserpr.asc - Leading telephony vendors support TAPI cutestpr.asc - announcement of first Chicago Beta shipments dsppr.asc - announcement of Chicago DSP Resource Manager Interface pirac6pr.asc - massive police raids net pirates winrelpr.asc - announcing WinNews! lehman.asc - Gates speech to Lehman Bros. Industry futures, visions gatcmx93.asc - Gates keynote address at fall COMDEX bill_ema.asc - Gates keynote address to the EMA tapiqna.asc - Q&A on Windows Telephony tcpipqna.asc - Q&A on TCP/IP support in Chicago ************************************************************ Where can I get the latest information on Chicago, directly from Microsoft? Microsoft has established a number of easily accessible electronic distribution points for new whitepapers, press releases and other pertinent documentation. Use the following electronic addresses to access further information: On the Worldwide Web (mosaic) http://www.microsoft.com On the Internet ftp.microsoft.com/peropsys/win_news On Compuserve GO WINNEWS On Genie WINDOWS ROUNDTABLE, FILE AREA 24 On America Online Keyword WINNEWS Here is a list of the files that are currently available on the WinNews sites listed above. Each ZIP file contains three versions of each of the content files -- one in Word for Windows 2.0 format (.DOC), one in straight text (.ASC) and one in postscript (.PS). Note that all of the files were originally created in Word for Windows 6.0 format, so there may be some formatting infelicitudes created by the conversion. CHICOQA4 ZIP 51,086 06-29-94 2:52p Chicoqa4.zip The May 1994 Chicago Q&A. Answers most basic questions about the Chicago project, including networking, memory management and others. CHIC_MGT ZIP 133,422 06-29-94 4:34p Chic_mgt.zip A whitepaper detailing Microsoft's strategy for making Chicago a more manageable and easier to administer client in corporate networks. Specifically talks about Chicago and the Desktop Management Interface (DMI) spec, among other things. CHIC_NET ZIP 248,600 06-29-94 3:04p Chic_net.zip A whitepaper detailing how Chicago supports networks,including details of the Client Service for Netware. INETQ&A ZIP 6,306 06-29-94 2:17p Inetq&a.zip A short Q&A on Microsoft and the internet. MMEDIA ZIP 434,399 06-29-94 2:45p Mmedia.zip A collection of files on developing multi-media apps for Windows 3.1 and Chicago. Includes backgrounders on what multi-media is, information on writing games using the new WinG gaming libraries, and screen shots from ID Software's upcoming version of the popular DOOM for Windows. OLE ZIP 543,038 06-29-94 3:21p Ole.zip 3 files on Microsoft's Object Strategy, OLE 2, and questions and answers about OLE 2, especially as it relates to SOM and DSOM. PNP ZIP 160,007 06-29-94 3:27p Pnp.zip A backgrounder document on plug and play. PR ZIP 251,115 06-29-94 4:26p Pr.zip A collection of Chicago related press releases from late December of 1993 until now. SPEECH ZIP 183,840 06-29-94 2:12p Speech.zip Three speeches by Bill Gates on his vision of the computer industry and where Chicago fits in. TAPI ZIP 102,911 06-29-94 4:38p Tapi.zip Background information on Windows new Telephone API (TAPI) and how this fits into Chicago. TCPIP ZIP 7,573 06-29-94 10:45p Tcpip.zip A short Q&A on Chicago and TCP/IP networking. WIN32 ZIP 153,761 06-29-94 5:08p Win32.zip 4 documents on writing Win32 apps, including the Win32 API comparison chart. REVGUID3 ZIP 2,242,789 06-30-94 2:19p Revguid3.zip The Chicago Beta 1 reviewers guide. A 300 page document detailing all features of Beta 1. REVWW6 ZIP 1,042,321 06-30-94 2:27p Revww6.zip The Chicago Beta 1 reviewers guide in its original Word for Windows 6 format. PR-AGENT ZIP 12,709 06-30-94 2:40p PR-AGENT.ZIP Microsoft / Arcada press release on how Arcada's backup technology is being integrated into Chicago. RESKIT ZIP 816,378 07-12-94 11:36a RESKIT.ZIP The Chicago Beta-1 Resource Kit. Contains implementation information on setting up Chicago on networks, installing Chicago over existing Windows installations, Chicago security features and more. ************************************************************ If you know someone who might be interested in WinNews, feel free to forward this document, provided you forward it in it's entirety, as per the copyright notice below. If you wish to stop receiving WinNews, send mail to enews@microsoft.nwnet.com with the text UNSUBSCRIBE WINNEWS in the body of your message. ************************************************************ This document is provided for informational purposes only. The information contained in this document represents the current view of Microsoft Corporation on the issues discussed as of the date of publication. Because Microsoft must respond to change in market conditions, it should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Microsoft and Microsoft cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information presented after the date of publication. INFORMATION PROVIDED IN THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND FREEDOM FROM INFRINGEMENT. The user assumes the entire risk as to the accuracy and the use of this document. This document may be copied and distributed subject to the following conditions: 1) All text must be copied without modification and all pages must be included; 2) All copies must contain Microsoft's copyright notice and any other notices provided therein; and 3) This document may not be distributed for profit. Copyright c Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved.