GOLD DISK INC. SHIPS ASTOUND 2.0 FOR MACINTOSH WITH NATIVE POWER MACINTOSH
SUPPORT

SANTA CLARA, CA., August 28, 1995- Gold Disk Inc. publishers of leading
multimedia presentation technology and consumer productivity software
today announced that the company will ship a new version of its
award-winning multimedia presentation software package, Astound 2.0 for
Macintosh with native Power Macintosh support.

Astound is the recipient of numerous editorial accolades and industry
awards. A sampling of awards include: New Media Magazine's Awesome Award,
Home Office Computing's Editors' Pick Award, MacUser Editors' Choice Award
(EDDY), AV Video Magazine's Platinum Award, Presentation Magazine's
Standing Ovation Award, and PC Magazine's Best Multimedia Software, 1994.

"By taking advantage of the Power Macintosh speed and performance, Astound
paves the way for business presenters, educators and developers to be more
effective and dynamic in their communication efforts," said Kailash
Ambwani, CEO and president of Santa Clara-based Gold Disk.

Astound currently leads the presentation software market as the only
product that has successfully bridged the gap that once existed between
traditional presentation software and multimedia presentation software.
Astound accomplished this with a fully functional slide sorter and outline
view, speaker's notes, and a full array of drawing tools. Astound also
incorporates a powerful template architecture, supporting any number of
master slides that include full animation effects for placed text or
graphics. The user completes templates by simply clicking inside the
desired placeholder and entering the desired text or other data. Any
preassigned formatting, attributes or animation effects are added
automatically. Astound can also accept graphics from a wide array of
sources, including PICT, GIF, TIFF, EPS, PCX and Photo CD.

New Features

New features added to Astound 2.0 for Macintosh include:

 Full Power Macintosh native mode support, enabling unprecedented
 performance

 Interface Enhancements:

   * Document colors palette to select and maintain a common color
     scheme throughout the presentation
   * New Outliner
   * Floating toolbar brings some of the most used menu items to
     the main screen

 Multimedia/Interactivity Enhancements:

   * Tweening transition transforms one object into another
   * Interactive functions to trigger other objects' timeline
   * Slide markers create flexible pauses or jump points to or from
     any point midway through a slide's duration
   * Sounds now capable of spanning multiple slides

 Graphics Enhancements:

   * Automatic texture fills for generating backgrounds and object
     fills like sky, fire, marble, etc.
   * Extrude function adds 3D appearance to any object

 Other Enhancements:

   * Playback control panel for VCR-like control during presentations
   * Macintosh Double Byte character support
   * QuickTime 2.0 support

Shipping, Pricing and Availability

Astound 2.0 for Macintosh retails for $249.95. It will be sold through
national distributors including Ingram Micro, Merisel, TechData, and will
be available through all major retailers. Current Astound for the
Macintosh users may upgrade to the new version for $79.95.

Company Background

Gold Disk Inc. is a U.S. company with Research and Development,
Manufacturing, and Support operations headquartered in Mississauga,
Ontario, and Executive, Sales and Marketing management operating from
Santa Clara, California. The company develops and publishes Astound for
Macintosh and Windows, award-winning software that enables the creation
(authoring) and presentation (playback) of high-impact multimedia
presentations on Windows-based PCs and Apple Macintosh computers. The
company also publishes VideoDirector, a family of best-selling consumer
software for camcorder users to easily edit their home camcorder tapes
onto VCR tapes with the use of their home Windows or Macintosh computers.
Gold Disk Inc. is a privately-held company.
 
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