Max/Msp from cycling74 has been around for about 20 years now, and yes – the company already had the name back then, when not everyone had a name+number to compete with guys like 37signals etc.
Max is a graphical development environment for music and video, though “Max users do not think of themselves as working with sound, or images, or controllers. Instead, they see themselves as working with ideas.”
Max 5 will be released in the first quarter of 2008. Quoting David Zicarelli: “For current users, I would describe Max 5 as analogous to Apple’s transition from Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X. “
The biggest change seems to be the visual representation. I have to admit that i liked the OS9 look of the application. But still all those new features and enhancements look very promising – although a lot of those new (visual) ideas seem to come from Ableton Live. Maybe that’s nothing special, but I expected more from the strategic partnership between cycling74 and ableton – maybe both products get interwired or more connected with Max 5 and Ableton Live 7?