OTTAWA, Ontario — (BUSINESS WIRE) — Espial, a leading provider of embedded Java technology, today announced the availability of Escape 4.0 Professional edition, the first embedded device browser to deliver an Internet browsing experience equivalent to the PC desktop in less than an 800 kilobyte footprint. Escape 4.0 is targeted for Internet-enabled consumer products such as digital TV set-top boxes, networked game consoles, automotive computing, Internet screenphones, and wireless handhelds.

According to a recent report from International Data Corporation (IDC), the market for Internet appliances is positioned to explode, over the next several years. The future is much brighter than most have anticipated and will grow to become an annual 55 million unit market and $15 billion market by the year 2001, the report says.

“Escape 4.0 sets the new standard in web browsing technology for the smart device industry. Our browser will revolutionize the web-enabled device market by unlocking access to the entire Internet and the hottest e-commerce sites for the first time to consumer products ranging from digital TV to wireless smartphones and automobiles to intelligent kitchen appliances,” said Mal Raddalgoda, senior director strategic of marketing for Espial. “With support for multimedia, security and the hottest website technologies, Escape becomes the only choice for consumer products offering a media-rich experience with limited computing resources. We expect Escape 4.0 will become an infrastructure technology for next the wave of Internet growth — pervasive computing devices offering e-commerce and web services for anyone, from anywhere at anytime using any device.”

“Espial is taking the leadership role in enabling powerful new applications for Java enabled consumer devices,” says Reed Hornberger, Senior Director, Sun Microsystems, Sun Products and Platforms Division. “With an Internet browsing experience that is equivalent to desktop browsers in only 800 kilobytes of memory, Espial's Escape Java browser makes Java a very credible platform solution for consumer and embedded devices in the automotive, digital TV and wireless device markets.”

The Ultimate Web Browser for Smart Devices

As a Java-based web browser offering “write once, run anywhere” capability, the Escape 4.0 browser is uniquely positioned as the only smart device browser that can deliver desktop browsing experiences to any smart device using any embedded operating system. This includes Linux, as well as other leading desktop and embedded operating systems.

Escape 4.0 provides the ultimate browsing environment for smart devices. The new Espial Escape 4.0 Professional Edition architecture provides support of advanced features such as HTML 4.0, forms, frames, tables, applets, images, JavaScript 1.4, SSL v.2.0/3.0, DHTML, DOM, CSS, all in less than a 800kb footprint.

Escape 4.0 offers the most extensible plugin capability of any browser available on the market with support of OS native, applet and JMF browser plugins. Popular multimedia browser plugins, such as Real Networks G2 media player, Macromedia Flash, MP3, QuickTime, and MIDI can be supported by the Escape browser. Escape 4.0 integrates support for Sun Microsystems' JMF (Java Media Framework) for playing audio or visual media. In addition, the multimedia capabilities of the Escape 4.0 browser can be further extended through Java applets or Escape 4.0 plugins, thus enabling smart devices to be enhanced and extended on an ongoing basis in the field with upgrading to the operating system.

Extensive branding features and a full customization API allows OEM device manufacturers the ability to retain full control of the look and feel of the browser within the embedded device. Escape 4.0 delivers an advanced level of robustness and flexibility, offering organizations developing web-enabled Information appliances an immediate edge over their competition.

Pricing and Availability

A free download of the desktop version of the Escape 4.0 browser is available from the Espial website at www.espial.com. The embedded version of Escape 4.0 Professional Edition for smart device OEMs is currently available. Contact Espial sales for OEM pricing.

About Espial

Espial develops enabling technologies for consumer devices and information appliances. A tightly coupled user interface and software development process ensures the delivery of superb and easy-to-use solutions. This singular vision has propelled Espial since its incorporation in 1997. Espial's products include Espial Espresso, the industry's only lightweight GUI toolkit for embedded Java applications; Espial Architect, a RAD tool for embedded Java; a personal application suite that includes a full-featured Java Web browser, e-mail client and a personal information manager; and Espial DeviceTop, an electronic device desktop.

 
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