AudioFile was a software company that was founded in Massachusetts in 1990. It was founded under Venture Capital Investment by the Massachusetts Technology Development Corporation. [1]
Their early product was AudioFile Business Audio, a suite of applications that included AudioRecorder, a program to embed audio into email and documents, and AudioEditor, a program to edit audio and apply various effects to the audio. The software included Audio timescale-pitch modification, the ability to change the speed of audio without changing the pitch, and a codec to compress audio to approximately 36 times smaller than uncompressed audio to save disk space and reduce bandwidth when sending via email. AudioFile Business Audio evolved into TalkWorks, a program designed to allow computers equipped with an appropriate fax-modem to act as a software-based telephone answering machine, for receiving voice mail as well as faxes, and a virtual telephone/speaker phone with speed dial and other buttons. [1]
AudioFile was bought by Delrina in October 1994, [1] and its technology was bundled into WinFax as part of CommSuite 95. Delrina was subsequently bought out in 1995 by Symantec, and continued its development. Its voice mail capabilities were options available to WinFax PRO 7.0, 7.5 and 8.0. Symantec later sold TalkWorks as separate products named TalkWorks PRO 2.0 (August 1998) and TalkWorks PRO 3.0 (August 1999). The last version of WinFax, version 10, did not include any TalkWorks functionality.
Fax, sometimes called telecopying or telefax, is the telephonic transmission of scanned printed material, normally to a telephone number connected to a printer or other output device. The original document is scanned with a fax machine, which processes the contents as a single fixed graphic image, converting it into a bitmap, and then transmitting it through the telephone system in the form of audio-frequency tones. The receiving fax machine interprets the tones and reconstructs the image, printing a paper copy. Early systems used direct conversions of image darkness to audio tone in a continuous or analog manner. Since the 1980s, most machines transmit an audio-encoded digital representation of the page, using data compression to more quickly transmit areas that are all-white or all-black.
Lotus Software was an American software company based in Massachusetts; it was "offloaded" to India's HCL Technologies in 2018.
Ghost is a disk cloning and backup tool originally developed by Murray Haszard in 1995 for Binary Research. The technology was acquired in 1998 by Symantec.
Asterisk is a software implementation of a private branch exchange (PBX). In conjunction with suitable telephony hardware interfaces and network applications, Asterisk is used to establish and control telephone calls between telecommunication endpoints, such as customary telephone sets, destinations on the public switched telephone network (PSTN), and devices or services on voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) networks. Its name comes from the asterisk (*) symbol for a signal used in dual-tone multi-frequency (DTMF) dialing.
Norton AntiVirus is an anti-virus or anti-malware software product founded by Peter Norton, developed and distributed by Symantec since 1990 as part of its Norton family of computer security products. It uses signatures and heuristics to identify viruses. Other features included in it are e-mail spam filtering and phishing protection.
Norton Utilities is a utility software suite designed to help analyze, configure, optimize and maintain a computer. The latest version of the original series of Norton Utilities is Norton Utilities 16 for Windows XP/Vista/7/8 was released 26 October 2012.
Norton Internet Security, developed by Symantec Corporation, is a discontinued computer program that provides malware protection and removal during a subscription period. It uses signatures and heuristics to identify viruses. Other features include a personal firewall, email spam filtering, and phishing protection. With the release of the 2015 line in summer 2014, Symantec officially retired Norton Internet Security after 14 years as the chief Norton product. It was superseded by Norton Security, a rechristened adaptation of the Norton 360 security suite.
Delrina Corporation was an electronic form company in Canada that was acquired by the American software firm Symantec in 1995. The company was best known for WinFax, a software package which enabled computers equipped with fax modems to transmit copies of documents to standalone fax machines or other similarly equipped computers. It also sold PerForm and FormFlow.
PC Tools is a collection of software utilities for DOS developed by Central Point Software.
WinFax is a discontinued Microsoft Windows-based software product designed to let computers equipped with fax-modems communicate directly to stand-alone fax machines, or other similarly equipped computers.
Cyberjack was a Web browser application created by Delrina in 1995. It was sold as a stand-alone product, and was also bundled as part of Delrina's CommSuite 95 offering.
WinComm was a terminal emulator program for Windows that was offered by Delrina in the mid-1990s.
CommSuite 95 is a communications software suite launched in 1995 by Canadian software company Delrina.
Hilgraeve is a software firm based in Monroe, Michigan, and is best known for its HyperTerminal Private Edition and HyperACCESS programs. In earlier years, HyperTerminal had been licensed for use by Microsoft in versions of Windows ranging from Windows 95 to Windows XP.
Norton SystemWorks is a discontinued utility software suite by Symantec Corp. It integrates three of Symantec's most popular products – Norton Utilities, Norton CrashGuard and Norton AntiVirus – into one program designed to simplify solving common PC issues. Backup software was added later to high-end editions. SystemWorks was innovative in that it combined several applications into an all-in-one software for managing computer health, thus saving significant costs and time often spent on using different unrelated programs. SystemWorks, which was introduced in 1998 has since inspired a host of competitors such as iolo System Mechanic, McAfee Nuts And Bolts, Badosoft First Aid and many others.
Canada Remote Systems, or simply CRS, was a major commercial bulletin board system located in the Toronto area. It was one of the earliest commercial systems outside the "big iron" companies such as CompuServe or The Source, and survived into the 1990s before being overwhelmed by the Internet and closing down.
Adobe LiveCycle Designer was a forms authoring tool published by Adobe Systems, intended as a one-stop design tool to render XML forms as PDF or HTML files.
Internet fax, e-fax, or online fax is the use of the internet and internet protocols to send a fax (facsimile), rather than using a standard telephone connection and a fax machine. A distinguishing feature of Internet fax, compared to other Internet communications such as email, is the ability to exchange fax messages with traditional telephone-based fax machines.
A fax modem enables a computer to transmit and receive documents as faxes on a telephone line. A fax modem is like a data modem but is designed to transmit and receive documents to and from a fax machine or another fax modem. Some, but not all, fax modems do double duty as data modems. As with other modems, fax modems can be internal or external. Internal fax modems are often called fax boards.
Norton, formerly known as Norton by Symantec, is a brand of Gen Digital based in Tempe, Arizona. Since being acquired by the Symantec Corporation in 1990, Norton offers a variety of products and services related to digital security, identity protection, and online privacy. In 2014, Norton's parent company Symantec separated their business into two units. One was focused on security and the other was focused on information management; Norton was placed in the unit focused on security. The company originally provided utility software for DOS.