“Microsoft has acquired iView Multimedia, developer of MediaPro,” Jonny Evans reports for Macworld UK. “Confirming the news, the smaller developer promised that Mac support in its digital asset-management products would continue. MediaPro is available for Mac OS X and certain versions of Windows.”
“‘Microsoft will fully support the existing Mac products, will continue to sell Mac versions of the current iView product line and will offer upgrade pricing to all Mac users of future products that may be available based on the iView products,’ said iView founder, Yan Calotychos,” Evans reports.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Note: MediaPro is a digital asset management application for importing, annotating, organizing, archiving, searching and distributing digital files.
Open letter from Yan Calotychos, founder of iView Multimedia:
Tuesday June 27, 2006
Today marks an exciting new chapter for iView and its relationship with our customers. We’re announcing that iView has been acquired and is now part of the Microsoft Corporation. With Microsoft’s purchase of iView, we are in a position to enhance our industry-leading product, whilst strengthening our customer service and support.
As digital asset management has become an essential requirement for all creative professionals, many of you have told us that iView MediaPro is a critical component of your business. We take that responsibility very seriously.
In my view, this Microsoft acquisition affords us an unprecedented opportunity to be even more responsive to a thriving market and ensure that iView MediaPro continues to perform to its full potential. Our engineering and marketing team here at iView are energized and excited to be joining the Microsoft team, and I personally will continue to be involved in the evolution of the product for years to come.
What this acquisition will mean for you, our customers, is that together we face a bigger and brighter future in managing your creative workflow. The product that was born on the Mac will remain on the Mac as well as on the Windows operating system. All iView products will continue to be sold on the iView website and through our partners and channel. Bottom line: You all can continue to use and buy iView products knowing that they will be fully supported as Microsoft evolves the products in the future on both the Windows and Mac platforms.
Your feedback and suggestions have been integral to the development and tuning of our software, and as always we welcome your comments and questions. We have provided an FAQ regarding this announcement and we will keep you informed through regular newsletters and blog postings as appropriate.
Thank you again for your support, and we look forward to sharing with you the evolution of iView MediaPro — the industry’s true standard for digital asset management.
Sincerely,
Yan and the iView Team
More info here.
MacDailyNews Take: “The product that was born on the Mac will remain on the Mac?” Yeah, okay. Call us cynical if you will, but why do we feel like the rest of the sentence was omitted? You know, something like: “…as a hobbled second-class application that goes without updating forever until we just cancel the Mac version.” Hope springs eternal; maybe Microsoft will do a fine job – there’s a first time for everything. What do you think?
Advertisements:
• Introducing the super-fast, blogging, podcasting, do-everything-out-of-the-box MacBook. Starting at just $1099.
• Get the new iMac with Intel Core Duo for as low as $31 A MONTH with Free shipping!
• Get the MacBook Pro with Intel Core Duo for as low as $47 A MONTH with Free Shipping!
• Apple’s new Mac mini. Intel Core, up to 4 times faster. Starting at just $599. Free shipping.
• iPod. 15,000 songs. 25,000 photos. 150 hours of video. The new iPod. 30GB and 60GB models start at just $299. Free shipping.
• Connect iPod to your television set with the iPod AV Cable. Just $19.
• iPod Radio Remote. Listen to FM radio on your iPod and control everything with a convenient wired remote. Just $49.
Related articles:
Mac users should not buy Microsoft software (or hardware) – May 16, 2003
It’ll be another Internet Explorer.
By the way, did I mention Virtual PC?
We are the Borg. You will be assimilated.
That was a very nice letter written by Yan Calotychos. I liked the part where he says “this Microsoft acquisition affords us an unprecedented opportunity to be even more responsive to a thriving market and ensure that iView MediaPro continues to perform to its full potential.” What he really meant was, “This Microsoft acquisition means that I don’t have to fight to make ends meet anymore. Microsoft told me that if I didn’t sell, they would run my product out of business like they did Netscape.”
Not holding breat as of…now.
There won’t be a Mac version, plus Microsoft is about to release a digital asset management software package along with a “pro” web designer software package called Microsoft Web Expression Designer that’s Windows only. It seems they are trying to gear up and compete against Adobe Dreamweaver in that space. It also seems as though that they want to have a product like Adobe Bridge.
It’s like a mugger asking to borrow your phone whilst holding a knife to your throat… says ones thing but means another.
Microsoft finally geta an “i” app. How happy are they? Fresh towels for everyone! Huzzah!
Microsoft will be discontinuing the Mac version of iView Multimedia this year.
crap! I just bought iview media last week.
Wonder if I can get my money back
Well, that’s one way for Microsoft to catch up with Apple’s OS X and the iLife suite…If you can’t innovate or even copy, purchase! Of course, iView MediaPro has been around a long time, and I believe it probably pre-dates iPhoto.
Should we watch for more media hub acquisitions? They already are supposed to have an “iTunes killer” in the works. What else?
Yawn. Another app, down the crapper.
Reading between the lines, emphasis mine…
“Microsoft will fully support the EXISTING Mac products, will continue to sell Mac versions of the CURRENT iView product line and will offer upgrade pricing to all Mac users of future products that MAY be available based on the iView products.”
I wouldn’t exactly put my faith in that weasel speak, especially coming from Microsoft. MS bought this company to compete with Apple, not help it along. And the previous owners no longer control it’s direction, despite their assurances of a bright future for Mac development. Besides, Apple has already given them a perfect reason to cancel Mac development, BootCamp.
A shame.
they said it would remain on the mac, but they didn’t say the mac os. they compared mac to windows in the sentence which is a nonparallel construction, but they might have done that on purpose.
Awww GREAT….love this application. I work with very high-res images and this thing is fast.
Now…its going to turn to crap. Bleah. >:P
This absolutely sucks. I use the Pro version daily and have invested a lot of time with the gallery output templates. I’m sure it won’t be long until it’s gone, or full of bugs. Lame.
Cya iVMMPro, we hardly knew ya…
I guess here’s hoping that Aperture really comes together!
I might not be getting something but could this replace the nearly dissapeared WinFS?
They probably had Redmond dead-to-rights in a patent situation, and M$ only way out was to acquire–as usual. So long to that one.
While MS gives iView major updates for Windows (read Vista only), the Mac version will be stuck with minor updates, if any.
Eventually, they’ll be completely different products and MS will likely incorporate something proprietary that isn’t compatible with Mac like DRM’d Windows Media streaming video.
After all, they’ve tried pushing a replacement for jpg.
Microsoft hates open standards.
I might not be getting something but could this replace the nearly dissapeared WinFS?
No.
iView Media Pro was a nice app with a long history that predates iPhoto. Guess we can write it off for the Mac platform. Too bad. 🙁
THE SKY IS FALLING! THE SKY IS FALLING!
Has no one noticed that Microsoft sells Mac software (a little-known suite called Office)? They also JUST brought out a keyboard and mouse specifically for Macs. Yeah, this sounds like a company that wants to kill anything Apple-related.
Take off your blinders and see that not everything MS does is to compete with Apple. I guarantee they spend a lot more time thinking about Google than Apple, except maybe in the WMA division.
Oh, I won’t be surprised if iView for Mac gets cut, because even people who love the product will stop buying it now that MS owns it. It’s called a self-fulfilling prophecy.
This is bad news. iView is much better than iPhoto. Ugh, why didn’t Apple buy them first??
Maybe now that MS owns it, they will lower the price. That would be one possible good outcome. Assuming, of course, that they continue to develop it. My gut feeling is that they will churn out 1 or 2 more upgrades, but at some point in the future the Mac version will die. This will probably happen when integration with Windows-based corporate IT technology trumps Mac compatibility.
Of course, sometimes if a company can’t make a go of something, they will sell or spin it off to someone who can. How many times have various former MetaCreations apps changed hands? But somehow I can’t think of any examples of MS doing this.
I used to use iView, but gave up on it about 18 months ago. It’s Aperture for me thanks.
The days of any Mac software from this company are numbered. Buyer be ware!
They’ll probabaly roll it together with (or completely replace) Microsoft’s Photo Gallery product in Vista. This will probably account for another six month delay in Vista development and for Mac users, a long hiatus before any further releases for OS X are seen. Oh, and of course, abandoning the QuickTime engine in favor of their own.
Mark my words…
Microsoft Asset Manager
Microsoft is considering developing a new digital asset management software application for professional Web designers, photographers and other creative professionals who work collaboratively on larger projects and have a need for sharing & tracking creative assets throughout the production process.
Microsoft Asset Manager would enable users to create a customized, centralized and searchable repository through which they could manage a wide variety and high volume of digital files, and would support more than 100 different file formats including images, audio, video, fonts, illustrations, DTP, PDF, HTML and digital camera RAW files.
The product, which is still under development, would be available for both Windows and Macintosh computers, and would contain the following features:
Information Management and Batch Processing
Intuitive Archiving and Retrieval. Microsoft Asset Manager would enable users to create compact visual databases (catalogs) with previews & annotations of all their media files that can be browsed and searched, even when the originals are offline. Catalogs can be kept up-to-date with a “Folder Watching” feature that synchronizes the content of a catalog with the physical hierarchy of the files on their storage media. In addition, the product would contain advanced search technology to enable users to locate their valuable assets quickly and efficiently.
Full Annotation Control. Microsoft Asset Manager would provide users with drag and drop meta-tagging support using industry standards (including full IPTC/XMP Core & EXIF compliance). Users would be able to embed annotations into original files and synchronize annotations between files and the catalog.
Batch Processing Support. Microsoft Asset Manager would have numerous batch processing features, including the ability to annotate, rename and convert large numbers of files quickly and easily, the ability to apply multiple annotations, and the ability to merge annotations. The product would also provide users with full scripting support, including Visual Basic or JavaScript on Windows, and Applescript on Macintosh.
Color Management & Image Editing
Advanced color profile management. Microsoft Asset Manager would support ICC color profiles for image files, in the JPEG, TIFF, PICT, PDF and Adobe Photoshop formats. The product would provide users with color accurate display in all views – List, Thumbnail, Media and Slide Shows – using the operating system’s color management technology (ICM on Windows; ColorSync on the Mac). Finally, the product would give users visual previews of color profiles before embedding them in the original file, giving the user greater flexibility in testing a range of color profiles to find the best match before saving to the original.
Numerous Editing Tools and Filters. Microsoft Asset Manager would offer users a full suite of image editing and calibration tools that can be used in both single image and batch processing mode, including: one-click auto-enhancement, crop, precision rotation, accurate red-eye removal, transform shape and perspective, and color balance and levels adjustment, among others. Further, the product would enable users to see a full preview of the intended change to make sure they are completely satisfied before executing a command. Finally, in addition to supporting multiple undos, the product would preserve the original of the file, providing users with a non-destructive editing environment.
Image Review and Selection Features
Web page publishing. Microsoft Asset Manager would allow users to easily create professional HTML galleries from their asset catalogs. The program would automatically generate the entire Web gallery with index pages and associated media pages using the media and annotations from the asset catalog. Users could create their own layout styles or themes, or use several professionally designed themes that come with the product. Finally, users would be able to add visible watermarking on all Web gallery media images
Image Selection & Review. Microsoft Asset Manager would allow users to compare and contrast images side-by-side in full screen view, without any desktop clutter-similar to a digital “photographer’s lightbox”, allowing users to zoom and scroll to the same point on multiple images simultaneously or individually for detailed analysis to aid making selections and rating of individual images.
Ha, yeah right! “The product that was born on the Mac will remain on the Mac…”
Gee, remember what happened with Bungie and Halo? Microsoft bought them out and guess what? Crappy second-cousin conversion of Halo, forever doomed to be many versions behind the Windows one!
Where did you find the info on the M$ Microsoft Asset Manager?
iDive is an excellent app for importing/cataloging/annotating video footage. Maybe it’s time for the iView users to move over to iDive.
Check them out at
http://www.aquafadas.com/idive-digital-video/index.php
“Today marks an exciting new chapter for iView and its relationship with our customers.”
What he means by that is “Today marks a dark era for iView and its relationship with our customers.”
It’ll give the Mac team at Microsoft something to do, they killed most of their other products.
Yes Microsoft has killed Mac products before, but Apple is guilty of doing the same thing in reverse.
iView is not a bad product. If Microsoft says they will continue to support the Mac, good for them.
Good for them but bad for us.
We use it daily but will pay for NO MORE upgrades.
Crap.
Hope you (iView) got cash not stock options
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”wink” style=”border:0;” />
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?t=5y&s=MSFT&l=on&z=m&q=l&c=aapl&c=^IXIC
And how does M$ ‘win’
http://www.evergreenpolitics.com/ep/2006/01/how_preston_gat.html
Rise up people, don’t put up with this shat.
“MDN Magic Word” Control – ha ha, FU azzhole
M$ strategy
Acquires ALL the Mac related softwares, and stop producing them later.
Did someone mention virtual pc?
Brilliant marketing huh?
“This is bad news. iView is much better than iPhoto. Ugh, why didn’t Apple buy them first??”
i was disappointed with the initial version of iPhoto. on the apple forums, someone wrote that iView was better; it was & i’ve used it since then.
so i agree. this is bad news.
Writing organizations perform nice essay writing help referring to this post and the very interesting data about contacts, some students should have with no money!
complete that you has finally developed a self empowerment policy that is endlessly elegant and, yet, simple, fun, and available. They will take custom papers support
Do you acknowledge that the writing service can finish really good technology essays, so do not waste your opportunity, purchase customized paper.
Some people want to find the thesis samples just about this good post. When they know about your superb outcome, they would plausibly order the thesis writing.
I really loved the post. Although personally I think authority is respectable . As long as it does not force me to do any one thing. Nevertheless, we advice to look for college research paper.
Good basis of stuff about this good post some people would have searching for freelance writers .
Students’ life time seems to be really interesting thing and very often people would select one only stuff at one time, then you have not a long time to do some else action. Sometimes, you should opt for between work and wars essays paper completing. In such case, we offer to notice the experienced custom essay papers writing service to purchase the homework help connected with this topic in.
Thesis writing service and dissertation service should be fit for people. And you write very hot dissertation contents page connecting with this post.