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Palo Alto, Calif., October 13, 1997 -- Stagecast Software, Inc., a K-12 software company, announced today that it will develop commercial products based on Apple Computer Inc.'s Cocoa technology. Due to recent changes at Apple, the computer company discontinued commercial development of Cocoa. Members of the original Apple development team formed Stagecast to further their dream of creating a product line that takes advantage of the simple graphical programming technology first demonstrated in Cocoa.

David Smith and Allen Cypher, two of Stagecast's founders, were key Cocoa researchers and inventors while at Apple. "We designed Cocoa to be as much fun as a video game, but with challenges that develop thinking and communication skills," said Smith. "Our products will exercise kids' minds, not their thumbs." Cypher alluded to studies indicating that children are spending less time in front of the television and more working with computers. "Our goal is to develop products that replace watching time with thinking time," he said.

"A child having fun with Cocoa is exercising skills that will be useful in school, life, and career," said Larry Tesler, president of Stagecast and former chief scientist of Apple. "Stagecast will develop cross-platform products that strike a balance between the fun factor required by children and the skill development factor desired by parents and teachers."

Mike Lorion, vice president of education, Apple Computer, Inc., said, "Apple has demonstrated Cocoa research prototypes to many educators and the response was enthusiastic. By working with Stagecast to bring Cocoa technology to market we are delivering a great tool for educators and are confident that Stagecast will fully realize the great promise of this technology."

Cocoa is an authoring tool and player for desktop and web-based children's software. Apple Computer currently distributes a research prototype of the software tool. Apple's latest design release of Cocoa for the MacOS, version DR2, has been available as a free, unsupported prototype from Apple's website since July 1997. Version DR2 is now available for free download from Stagecast's website at http://www.stagecast.com and from Apple's website at http://cocoa.apple.com.

Stagecast Software, Inc., headquartered in Palo Alto, California, develops and markets software for K-12 learning activities.

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