Oracle Card -- THE TRUTH!

Here are some excerpts from a recent letter from the Vice President responsible for the development of Oracle Card. I hope this will help clarify some messages posted recently to this forum. In particular:

• Oracle Card is *NOT* dead
• An upgrade, called Oracle Media Objects, will be available this summer

Here are the excerpts:

"The Oracle Card software is being evolved into a new product called Oracle
Media Objects. Oracle Media Objects, announced publicly on February 15 at a worldwide press event, is part of Oracle Corporation's suite of software for building the information highway. It is a portable authoring tool for the development and deployment of interactive multimedia applications. The initial release of Oracle Media Objects will be for the interactive television, or
"set-top box", environment, where it will run as a front end to the Oracle
Media Server for such applications as video-on-demand, personalized on-line news, and home shopping.  

"While this shift in product direction may be somewhat radical, it does not
imply an end to future upgrades for Oracle Card applications. An enterprise version of Oracle Media Objects is planned for release by the end of Q1 FY95 (August 1994). This product will be the ideal tool for stack developers who want to build interactive, desktop front ends to databases, electronic mail, and palm-top organizers; it will include all of the new functionality of Oracle Card 2.0, as well as enhanced multimedia capabilities. Furthermore, it will open, convert, and run Oracle Card 1.1 stacks, thus providing an upgrade path for current Oracle Card users. Although the enterprise version of Oracle Media Objects is a new product, supported Oracle Card 1.1 customers will receive an upgrade free of charge.  

"We realize that it may be frustrating to discover that a product in such a
late stage as beta testing will not be released, and we apologize for this sudden change in plans. However, we hope that the significant increases in the software's quality and functionality resulting from this delay will at least partly offset the inconvenience it may cause.  

"Regards,
"Farzad Dibachi
"Vice President, New Media Division"

I hope this helps. Thanks,

• Dennis Moore, my own opinions, etcetcetc