General Magic Reveals Next Generation Magic Cap Operating System
SUNNYVALE, Calif. — December 4, 1996 — General Magic, Inc. (NASDAQ:GMGC) today revealed the next generation of the Magic Cap operating system for communicating devices including personal Internet communicators (PICs), smart phones and personal computers. The new Magic Cap software is expected to be faster and more economical and will have integrated Internet access features, using the familiar, engaging Magic Cap user interface.
Code-named "Rosemary," the new software is the central topic for Magic Cap Workbench '96 being held in Santa Clara, California today and tomorrow. This technical briefing is for developers who are beginning the transition to the new release or considering Magic Cap business opportunities.
"With the new Magic Cap software, General Magic is preparing to capitalize on the growing U.S. and Japanese markets for handheld personal communicators, smart phones and personal computers," said Steve Markman, president and CEO of General Magic. "Workbench '96 is the ideal opportunity to reveal Rosemary to our developer community and provide them with the training and tools to begin building the next generation of communicating applications."
The Magic Cap operating system, developer tools and applications programming interfaces (APIs) allow developers to create a new class of communications-centric solutions. Magic Cap is the operating system that helped create the first generation of easy-to-use, portable electronic communicating devices. With Rosemary, developers can create solutions that integrate e-mail, faxing, paging and access to Internet information behind a natural, easy-to-learn, easy-to-customize user interface.
"The Magic Cap operating system addresses the specific needs of people who are unfamiliar with or not interested in using traditional personal computers, or the new Windows CE devices," said Markman. "Magic Cap users want portable communications integrated with personal information management tools. People from health care providers to utility workers comprise a market with needs that are not met by solutions based on PC technologies because of their cost, complexity, lack of portability or other limitations."
Introducing Rosemary
Building on Magic Cap's existing integrated applications and communications capabilities, Rosemary has a greatly expanded feature set, including:
— A graphical Web browser which supports HTML 1.0 and 2.0, as well as the GIF and JPEG graphics formats. Support for these and other standards make possible Internet-ready, Web-enabled, out-of-the-box solutions.
— A universal mail architecture which allows users to consolidate multiple mail accounts into one mailbox.
— Hot Text, which automatically recognizes phrases and uses them as e-mail addresses, personal contact information and links to Web pages.
— A faster, less expensive hardware reference platform using the 32-bit MIPS R3000 RISC chip, which is expected to offer lower cost, lower power requirements and better performance than similar hardware platforms.
— A fully-functional modem implemented completely in software, allowing creation of lower-cost devices.
— A global-ready, international software architecture, using standards including Unicode. General Magic is announcing simultaneously developed versions of Rosemary for the U.S. and Japanese markets.
— Integrated support for TCP/IP, PPP, SMTP, MIME, POP3 and other standards which form the foundations for the Internet and corporate intranets.
"Only Magic Cap offers developers this combination of rich features, high performance and low cost," said Steve Schramm, vice president and general manager of the Communications Products Division of General Magic. "Communications capabilities are at the very core of Magic Cap, not 'added on' to organizer software. In addition, Magic Cap offers one of the most engaging, easy-to-customize, user interfaces available."
Applications for Magic Cap
Rosemary enables a wide range of solutions. Examples include the following:
— Mobile communications using e-mail and fax, over both wired and wireless networks.
— Network-based document distribution and access via Rosemary's built-in Web browser and integrated communications facilities.
— Forms-based entry, retrieval and access of information by locally or remotely connected users via Rosemary's integrated communications features.
— Access to corporate intranets, both locally and remotely, via Rosemary's integrated Web browser and e-mail applications.
— Custom delivery of content from the Internet, the Web, corporate intranets and/or existing information systems, using the engaging Magic Cap interface.
Availability
The Rosemary release of Magic Cap is expected to be delivered to device manufacturers in January, 1997. Development tools for building the next generation of Magic Cap applications are available immediately (see Magic Cap Developer Tools press release, today).
In accordance with U.S. securities law, General Magic notes that this press release contains forward-looking statements. There are risks that may cause actual results to vary materially. These risks include, but are not limited to, reliance on key technical and management personnel, potential schedule changes, difficulties inherent in the development of complex software technologies, and dependence on third party developers. Additional risk factors are detailed in General Magic's 1995 10-K and its third quarter 1996 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
About General Magic
General Magic, Inc. (NASDAQ:GMGC) was founded in 1990 and provides engaging, active Internet software for business professionals, developers, device manufacturers, service providers and enterprises. General Magic is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, with offices in Paris, Tokyo and Columbia, South Carolina. For more information on General Magic and its products, visit the company's web site at http://www.genmagic.com/
Note to Editors: General Magic and Magic Cap are registered trademarks of General Magic, Inc. Windows is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. General Magic acknowledges the rights of the trademark owners for all trademarks referred to herein.
CONTACT:
Marilyn Kilcrease, 415/356-1031
Fleishman-Hillard for General Magic
[email protected]
Sandy Jones, 408/774-4369
[email protected]
http://www.genmagic.com/About/press.html