Totally Hip's Sizzler ActiveX Control Included with the Microsoft Internet Explorer Starter Kit

Business Wire, Oct 15, 1996

VANCOUVER, British Columbia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 15, 1996--

Sizzler ActiveX control also part of Internet Explorer Starter

Kit included in retail versions of Microsoft Windows 95.

Totally Hip Software Inc. (Alberta Stock Exchange: THW) today announced that Microsoft Corp. is including the Sizzler ActiveX(TM) control 1.0 in the Microsoft(R) Internet Explorer Starter Kit. This includes the standalone retail version of the Internet Explorer Starter Kit 3.0, scheduled to be available in stores today for approximately $24.95.

Microsoft is also including the Internet Explorer Starter Kit 3.0 with new retail versions of the Microsoft Windows(R) 95 operating system for a limited time starting today.

The Microsoft Internet Explorer Starter Kit contains everything to empower new Web users, allowing them to start surfing the Web right away. As users' knowledge and experiences of the Web grow, the Internet Explorer Kit will grow with them.

The Internet Explorer Starter Kit comes complete with Internet Explorer 3.0, the Sizzler ActiveX(TM) control and an ActiveX Gallery of 37 other premium ActiveX Controls, each with sample Web pages demonstrating unique features and benefits of each control. Also included is a CD-ROM portfolio of cached Internet sites to let users experience the Internet without connecting.

"We are excited to include the Sizzler ActiveX control in the Internet Explorer Starter Kit," said David Fester, Internet Explorer product manager in the Internet platform and tools division at Microsoft Corp. "It is a great example of the power and flexibility of the open architecture and of the controls included in Internet Explorer 3.0."

"We are committed to ActiveX and the cutting-edge technology within Internet Explorer 3.0, because it enables us to focus on delivering an end user solution, rather than overcoming limitations of a plug-in architecture," said Rajiv Aggarwal, president and chief technology officer for Totally Hip Software.

"The Internet Explorer 3.0 ActiveX Control architecture has allowed us to develop Sizzler to overcome the biggest hurdle that Web designers and users face today-the delay of waiting for an animation to download and play. By including an ActiveX-based export feature within WebPainter 1.0, our new Web animation creation software, Web designers can use the Sizzler ActiveX(TM) control to create fast, streaming animation sprites for their Web sites."

P/2 Microsoft Includes Sizzler ActiveX(TM) control with Internet Explorer Starter Kit 3.0

Sizzler ActiveX control

The Sizzler ActiveX control allows users to create and play stream-based animation for the Web. It takes full advantage of the ActiveX architecture, enabling the creation of multiple animation with sound clips for use on a single Web page. Sizzler ActiveX(TM) control brings advantages to Web surfers and Web page designers alike. The control and flexibility of ActiveX allows Web page designers to focus on creativity, allowing them to produce more dynamic, interactive Web sites than ever before.

Because ActiveX Controls allow users to easily design dynamically controlled Web pages using the Visual Basic(TM) Programming System, Scripting Edition (VBScript) and Java(TM), it brings users closer to realizing true multimedia on the Web. In addition, Sizzler is a stream-based Web animation file format. Unlike "store, forward and play" technologies that force users to wait for the entire file to download before it plays, Sizzler allows users to view animation and hear the sounds as it downloads.

Sizzler is a cross platform solution, allowing web browsers for the Windows(R) and Macintosh(R) operating systems to experience streaming animation on the Web.

WebPainter 1.0 and ActiveX

WebPainter 1.0 and Sizzler software provide Web designers and novice users, a fast and easy-to-use solution for creating and playing interactive animation on the Web, as it is very complementary to web page authoring tools such as Microsoft FrontPage(TM).

With WebPainter 1.0 for Windows or Macintosh, users can easily create animated content and export it to the Sizzler ActiveX control, as well as build animated GIFs for Internet Web pages or corporate Intranets. As a result, Web designers are able to quickly build sites that contain graphically rich, animated content, which is automatically streamed with the HTML Web page document for dynamic viewing in Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0.

Sizzler and WebPainter Pricing and Availability

The Sizzler ActiveX control 1.0 is included with all retail versions of the Internet Explorer Starter Kit and is available for free download from Totally Hip's Web site: (http//www.totallyhip.com/sizzler/actxsizz.html ). The control is also featured in WebPainter 1.0 for Windows 95 and Macintosh. WebPainter 1.0 has an SRP of $99.95 US/$138.95 CDN and will have an introductory three-month, on-line, price of $49.95 US/$69.95 CDN.

WebPainter 1.0 for Macintosh is now shipping through on-line stores, popular resellers, mail-order and distributors. A beta version of WebPainter 1.0 for Windows 95 and a "Try Out" version of WebPainter 1.0 for Macintosh are available for free download from Totally Hip's Web site at: ( http://www.totallyhip.com ).