FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 15, 1999
PANIC AND PROTERON ANNOUNCE THE NEXT GENERATION OF MP3 TOOLS!
Don’t Pull Our Your Wallets Just Yet — Panic and Proteron Temporarily
Break Top-Secrecy and Announce the Next Generation of MP3 Tools!
Omaha, NE & Portland, OR (July 15, 1999): Proteron, LLC and Panic Inc
today jointly announced their plans to release next generation MP3
solutions for the Mac OS. Targeted towards a broad scope of users
from iMac beginners to gear-head audiophiles, the products to be
available later in the 3rd quarter of this year are expected to
revolutionize how MP3 audio is encoded and played on the Macintosh.
Both products are so shrouded in secrecy — and so revolutionary —
that even their names cannot yet be revealed. Regardless, both
companies felt that consumers needed to be aware that something
unique is quickly showing up on the MP3 horizon.
“Creating an MP3 from a CD should be simple on the Mac OS,” said
Samuel Caughron, President of Proteron who is developing the encoder,
“All of the currently available products make it unduly complicated.
We are going to change that in a radical way.”
The MP3 encoder being developed by Proteron will feature a
surprisingly simple interface without compromising power. It will
include support for variable bit rates (VBR), ID3v2 tags and CDDB
integration. Additionally, the product will support Play As You
Encode technology, taking some of the sting out of MP3 encoding,
which can be a lengthy process.
Panic’s contribution to the plans, a state of the art MP3 player,
will be no less cutting edge. Known for a style which is unmatched in
the Macintosh industry, Panic has developed a player which meets and
exceeds the company’s own standards for flare. “Our MP3 player will
be like the cool Beatnik Uncle of the existing MP3 players: it’ll be
a lot smoother, a lot leaner, and have a whole lot more attractive
personality. And really, that’s about all I can say right now,” noted
Cabel Sasser, Panic co-founder, with a grin.
MP3 is a technology which allows users to compress audio to about a
tenth of its original size, small enough to be stored on personal
computers and transferred over the internet. The close integration of
Proteron’s encoder and Panic’s MP3 player will turn any Macintosh,
including the iMac, into a flexible stereo component. The products
will be fully compatible with all existing MP3 content including that
received from popular internet sites such as MP3.com (MPPP),
Amazon.com (AMZN), and ShoutCast.
While other MP3 products are currently available, Proteron and Panic
urge consumers to take advantage of demo features and wait to
evaluate all of their options before buying. “Although for legal
reasons we cannot currently show our existing product, it will be
like no MP3 encoder ever seen,” said Neill Mollard, Executive Vice
President of Proteron, LLC. It is even possible that Casady &
Greene’s Executive Vice President, Donald Beirdneau, a self-confessed
“great believer in personal choice”, will wait to evaluate his
options.
Details of the product are not currently available on the companies’
web sites, but will be forthcoming. Users are encouraged to monitor
both company sites for more news.
Proteron and Panic are small, privately owned companies who develop
quality, affordable software for the Apple (AAPL) Mac OS. Panic
received wide recognition with its release of Transmit, the most
advanced FTP client for the Mac OS. Proteron launched itself into the
limelight of the Mac community with the development of GoMac, a
Windows style task bar for the Mac OS. Both companies are well
recognized and highly acclaimed for their quality, functional
software.
Press Contacts
Proteron, LLC
Mathew Caughron
Director of Marketing
(617) 905-8484
mat@proteron.com
Panic Inc.
Cabel Sasser
Co-Founder
(503) 296-2185
cabel@panic.com