Microsoft Offers 'Picante' Multimedia E-Mail Option To Millions Of Outlook Users

EDP Weekly's IT Monitor, Sept 20, 1999

Following a successful quality assurance test by Microsoft, Picante, an enriched e-mail enhancement, is now available to more than 3 million e- mail users and will soon be available to millions more.

Through a distribution agreement between Picante Communications Corp. and Microsoft, registrants of Microsoft's Office Update Vendor Program can access a free download of Picante for Outlook at http://www.officeupdate.microsoft.com/2000/downloadDetails/Pic4out.htm. The offer is expected to be extended to the more than 60 million Outlook users in coming weeks. Picante versions for other e-mail products will also be available soon, says the product's maker.

Picante for Outlook is a new add-on that allows simple multimedia e-mail enhancement. Users can add pictures, sounds, video clips, banners and color labels to e-mails without purchasing separate multimedia software. With a click on the Picante icon within Outlook, multimedia elements, along with Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations and Word documents, are embedded live into a single multimedia page -- not as separate attachments.