Newsletter archive | MultiMedia Soft

Issue #11 (January, 2009)

Table of Contents for this Issue:
- New major versions for 3D controls
- Ribbon Bar Icons - Multimedia Edition
- Discounts still available for upgrading to version 2008 of our audio related products
- 10% discount available for .NET components developed by Perpetuum Software LLC
- Clarification on licensing for MultiMedia Soft products
- Advertise your products for free

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* New major versions for 3D controls *
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On January 8, 2009 we have released the new major version of the following components:
- 3D Control Magic for .NET 3.0 (.NET component)
- 3D Active Button Magic 9.3 (ActiveX control)
- 3D Button API 4.0 (SDK library)
- 3D Button Visual Editor 5.0 (WYSIWYG application)

Here follows a summary of the new features:
- Added new rendering surfaces:
* Gel shaped
* Vista's Aero style
* Office 2003 style
* Office 2007 style
- Added new shapes for the spotlight
- Added support for reflectivity of the picture displayed on the button
- Added the possibility to obtain the bitmap of the 3D button in various situations
- Cells can now be sized and positioned in both percentage and pixels
- Added the following new styles with several dedicated rendering options
* Progress Bar: allows creating fancy and configurable progress bars; they can be horizontal, vertical and radial
* Split Button: allows creating split buttons as seen inside Microsoft Office products

Just look at the new screenshots available inside our web site in order to see some of the new features:
http://www.multimediasoft.com/3dabm/screenshots.html

Further information about this new version, with a detailed "What's new", can be found at the following links:
- 3D Control Magic for .NET 3.0 (.NET component)
http://www.multimediasoft.com/3dcm
- 3D Active Button Magic 9.3 (ActiveX control)
http://www.multimediasoft.com/3dabm
- 3D Button API 4.0 (SDK library)
http://www.multimediasoft.com/3dbapi
- 3D Button Visual Editor 5.0 (WYSIWYG application)
http://www.multimediasoft.com/3dbve

Customers of previous versions can get the new version benefiting of a big discount over the street price: ask our sales team for quotes.

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* Ribbon Bar Icons - Multimedia Edition *
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Ribbon Bar Icons is an ultimate collection of professionally designed icons for multimedia oriented applications and websites. All icons are optimized for Ribbon Toolbar and drawn in Vista style. The icon set comes in all standard sizes, including 16x16, 24x24, 32x32, 48x48, 64x64, 128x128 and 256x256. The icons come in True Color with semi-transparency. The following file formats are supported: PNG and ICO. Distribution of icons inside your applications is royalty-free.

See details about this collection on our web site:
http://www.multimediasoft.com/mmicons
and the full list of available icons on the page below:
http://www.multimediasoft.com/mmicons/screenshots.html

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* Discounts still available for upgrading *
* to version 2008 of our audio related products *
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Current versions of our audio related products are the following:
- Active DJ Studio 4.2 (ActiveX control)
- Active Sound Recorder 3.0 (ActiveX control)
- Active Sound Editor 1.0 (ActiveX control)
- Audio DJ Studio 3.3 (.NET component)
- Audio Sound Recorder 3.1 (.NET component)
- Audio Sound Editor 1.0 (.NET component)

All of the mentioned products are available inside the following suites:
- Active Sound Suite 2008 (ActiveX controls)
- Audio Sound Suite 2008 for .NET (.NET components)

If you should be still using older versions, don't forget that discounts are always available: if you should be interested in upgrading, simply ask our sales team for quotes.

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* 10% discount available for .NET components *
* developed by Perpetuum Software LLC *
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As already announced in our previous newsletter, in order to extend the availability of professional .NET components to our customers we have started a commercial and technical partnership with Perpetuum Software LLC; a 10% discount over the street price is available when purchasing their .NET components from our store:
http://www.multimediasoft.com/purchase/

Below the list of available .NET components and their related links:

- Instrumentation ModelKit: a revolutionary solution in the field of instrumentation and graphic components for .NET. A full-featured graphics editor allows the creation of new visual components, combining both unique appearance and functionality, with only a few mouse clicks. It provides both common controls such as Meters, Dials, Sliders, Gauges, and Switches as well as specialized elements for your industry: Manipulators, Special-purpose Devices, etc. A library of ready-made components featuring more than 130 controls is available.
http://www.multimediasoft.com/products/impe.htm

- Instrumentation Widgets: a library of meters, indicators, scales, sliders, gauges, knobs, buttons, dials, thermometers, switches, matrixes, LEDs, and other .NET instrumentation controls that emulate hardware devices. The product contains only 100% native .NET managed components written in C#. All controls use double buffering to produce smooth animation and avoid flickering. The instrumentation controls are fully scalable and customizable. Moreover, the package supports a data binding feature.
http://www.multimediasoft.com/products/iwpe.htm

- .NET Dashboard Suite: a pack of .NET components designed for the creation of complicated and intelligent digital dashboards. The package includes Instrumentation ModelKit™ and Chart ModelKit™. These products provide an interconnected framework with unified design time and runtime customization facilities, common data management and appearance customization methods. .NET Dashboard Suite™ package components feature identical designers, unique architecture, intuitive interface and a rich library of ready-made gauge and chart elements. The products are compatible with .NET and easily integrate into MS Visual Studio.
http://www.multimediasoft.com/products/nds.htm

- NET ModelKit Suite: the suite contains high-quality data analysis, visualization, and processing components expressly designed for .NET Framework. The package includes OLAP ModelKit™ and Report Sharp-Shooter™ (the use-proven BI components intended for intelligent data handling and presentation), Instrumentation ModelKit™ (a perfect tool for creating digital dashboards and KPI), and Chart ModelKit™ designed for creating effective charts and graphs. The components included in the suite minimize the coding required and provide full design-time customization.
http://www.multimediasoft.com/products/nms.htm

- Chart ModelKit: .NET component for graphical data representation. A built-in WYSIWYG designer makes the process of graphs and charts construction intuitive. The product is remarkable for an advanced data binding model, unique object architecture, a rich library of standard elements and a set of available series types. It is possible to build fully customizable and non-standard chart elements and series. Chart ModelKit™ is included in the .NET ModelKit Suite™ and is easily integrated into all components included in the package.
http://www.multimediasoft.com/products/cmw.htm

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Clarification on licensing for *
MultiMedia Soft products *
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Very often our customers have doubts about licensing of our .NET and ActiveX components so we think that it could be worth clarifying a couple of points:
- All of our components are royalty-free so, once you have purchased these components, you have the right to redistribute them with your applications without further costs.
- The license for the "Commercial edition" of our components is "per developer": this means that one license needs to be purchased for each developer that will install the component's package on a development machine inside your Company.
- Again for the "Commercial edition", if a single developer will have to install the component's package on more PCs and he will be the unique user for those PCs, only one single license will be needed.
- Licensing rules for the "Personal edition":
1. Can be purchased by individuals only for developing software applications whose commercial price will be under 50 US$.
2. Cannot be purchased by companies.
3. Cannot be purchased by individuals working in team with other individuals.
4. Cannot be purchased by individuals working under contract with another company.
5. Cannot be purchased by individuals or companies on behalf of an individual developer hired for developing a portion of the software application.
6. The license is "per installation" and not "per developer": if you need to install it on 2 machines you have to purchase 2 licenses (volume discounts available starting from the second license).
7. Can be transferred to another PC, belonging to the same developer, only after uninstalling the existing installation.
8. Cannot be transferred to other developers

If you should have any doubt about licensing of our components, please, feel free to ask our sales team for further information.

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* Advertise your products for free *
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Are you aware of the fact that if you have developed a product containing one of our controls, you have the possibility to advertise it for free inside the "Customers" section of our web site?
Simply fill the form you find here:
http://www.multimediasoft.com/form.htm
and your product will be listed here:
http://www.multimediasoft.com/customers/customersproducts.html

If in the past you have already submitted your product, and now you have an updated version, feel free to submit it again so we will be able to keep the advertised products up-to-date.

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* IMPORTANT LINKS *
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Latest builds and patches for our products:
http://www.multimediasoft.com/support