__ Just Outta Beta __
__ Hurting for bandwidth? __
Release: Late March
Hurting for bandwidth? FreeLoader Inc. offers Web surfers the next big thing. FreeLoader will download your Web pages while you're sipping lattes in the park and it's free.
FreeLoader Inc.: +1 (202) 6860660, www.freeoader.net.
__ Just Me and My Dad __
Release: Late March
Just Me and My Dad is the first CD-ROM from Big Tuna New Media, children's author Mercer Mayer's new venture. Lots of clickables for the kids and a video of the story round out Little Critter's latest foray into "hyper-cute" interactive entertainment.
GT Interactive Software Corp.: (800) 610 4847, +1 (212) 726 6500, www.gtinteractive.com.
__ Apples and Beans __
Release: May
Sadly, the Mac community has been facing more than the threat of Apple's demise. Though the Mac is popular with Web developers, movement has been slow to provide these websters with a native Java development environment. But now they've got one.
Natural Intelligence Inc.'s Roaster, a Macintosh programming environment for Java applets, currently in developer's release, graduates to commercial release in May, accompanied by the developer's release of Roaster Professional, a full-fledged Java application environment.
Natural Intelligence, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, began without the US$150,000 Java license (though Sun is harboring no ill will). It built Roaster as a "clean room" implementation, using all the publicly available information it could dredge up and filling in the gaps with brain muscle.
Roaster provides the kind of integrated development environment that programmers have come to expect of other computer languages. Besides several project-management tools, Roaster includes its own speedy compiler as well as the freely distributable Sun compiler, allowing developers to choose the one they like best.
Roaster Professional should prove useful to those interested in exploring Java off the Web. The software adds a Java class library for creating stand-alone applications, a visual screen constructor, and compilers that build your apps to byte level (for cross-platform compatibility) or to the machine-code level of several platforms including Macintosh and Windows 95 and NT.
The native code, while less useful on the Net, runs about as fast as C and can easily interface with Java applets downloaded from the Net. This capability of stand-alone Java programs to incorporate Java applets should prove interesting as the future of networked computing evolves. And it might help Java become a ubiquitous computing language in the bargain.
- Tim Barkow *
__ Roaster: US$399. Roaster Professional: price unavailable at press time. Natural Intelligence Inc.: (800) 739 1616, +1 (617) 556 2588, email info@natural.com, on the Web at www.natural.com. __
__ Gearheads! __
Release: Late March
Gearheads is weird. A silly little game of battling wind-up toys, it's surprisingly addictive without resorting to violence or gore.
Philips Media Software: (800) 883 3767, +1 (310) 444 6100.
__ Schoolhouse Rock __
Release: Late March
Here comes Schoolhouse Rocky and Schoolhouse Rock: Math Rock! This CD-ROM even includes original series videos. Imagine showing your grandkids how cool '90s multimedia and '70s TV really were.
Creative Wonders: (800) 543 9778, www.ea.com/crwonders.html.
__ Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail __
Release: April
Hope you've been saving your nickels, 'cause Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail has been shrink-wrapped and shipped. It's packed with plenty of movie clips, something about an action-adventure game, and a moose.
7th Level Inc.: (800) 884 8863, +1 (214) 437 4858, fax +1 (214) 437 2717.
__ Guide to Getting it On! __
Release: April
When the topic strays to sex, help is often hard to find. The Guide to Getting It On! is a comprehensive tome and better for conversation than that copy of PC Week.
The Goofy Foot Press: (800) 310 7529, +1 (310) 659 8430.
__ VRML Browser __
Release: April
Sony's CyberPassage VRML browser will début but this month, hopefully lighting a fire under the underwhelming VRML industry. CyberPassage exploits a Sony-developed extension that allows you to attach movies, sounds, and animations to your VRML files. With support for true-color graphics and GZIP file compression, CyberPassage may just be the next level.
Sony Corp.: www.sonypic.com/vs.
__ Archy the Cockroach and Mehitabel the alley cat __
Release: April
Archy the cockroach and Mehitabel the alley cat ran amok through Don Marquis's newspaper columns of the '20s and '30s. Find them again in archyology: the long lost tales of archy and mehitabel, a collection of tales discovered in an old steamer trunk.
University Press of New England: (800) 421 1561.
