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For more information, contact: A&R Partners for Be, Incorporated Elena Frigeri, 650/762-2837 lauslen@arpartners.com In Europe: Be Incorporated Marie-Francoise Lelong-Weinberg, +33 (0)1 55 91 77 36 efrigeri@arpartners.com Bob Thomas Bitstream Inc. bthomas@bitstream.com (617) 520-8376 Be Utilizes Bitstream Asian Font Technology in the BeIA Client Platform MENLO PARK, Calif. & CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Jan. 23, 2001 -- Be to integrate world's smallest, most comprehensive stroke-based Chinese, Japanese, Korean font in the client software platform component of BeIA: The Complete IA Solution Be Inc. (Nasdaq: BEOS) and Bitstream Inc. (Nasdaq: BITS) today announced that they have entered into a long-term, global agreement to license Bitstream's unified, stroke-based CJK (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) font. By integrating this font into the BeIA Client Platform, Be solves a significant problem facing manufacturers of Internet appliances bound for Asian markets by providing complete, high-quality Asian font support without using a large amount of memory. Be is the first licensee of Bitstream's unified, stroke-based font. The unified font takes up less than 1MB of memory and uses standard Unicode encoding. It includes over 32,000 Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Japanese (Kanji), and Korean characters. The stroke-based fonts take advantage of the power of Bitstream's Font Fusion, a unified font rendering engine that is a key module of the BeIA Client Platform. Font Fusion is the convergence of Bitstream's T2K® and TrueDoc® technology in an advanced, object-oriented architecture. ``Providing Internet appliance developers with complete Asian font support is challenging,'' said Lamar Potts, Vice President, Sales and Marketing at Be. ``Up to this point it has not been possible to incorporate CJK fonts without using a large amount of memory. Internet appliances must run with minimal amounts of memory to reduce the cost of the device, both for manufacturers and consumers. By incorporating Bitstream's technology into the BeIA Client Platform we meet the memory requirements of IA devices, and the quality and usability requirements of the end-user.'' ``Bitstream's Font Fusion and stroke-based fonts offer the quality, speed, and compactness that are so important in memory-constrained devices, such as Internet appliances,'' said Anna Chagnon, president of Bitstream. ``We specifically designed our stroke-based fonts to be as compact as possible while still maintaining the quality and readability of these fonts. Our new, unified, stroke-based, CJK font allows companies like Be to use a single font that contains all the CJK Unicode characters--while taking up very little storage space for this purpose.'' Each unified, stroke-based font is tailored for Chinese, Japanese, or Korean applications and environments. In a standard Unicode CJK font, there are frequently Chinese, Japanese, and Korean characters in the same Unicode position, and these characters may have subtle or pronounced design differences. For these situations, Bitstream created a unified, stroke-based font that prioritizes which language to use as first choice for characters at each Unicode position. About Font Fusion Font Fusion provides developers with full font fidelity and high-quality typographic output at any resolution on any device, while maintaining the integrity of the original character shapes. In addition, Font Fusion performs well in memory-constrained environments. For example, a complete traditional Chinese TrueType font with over 13,500 characters can occupy as much as 8MB. With Font Fusion, the same characters occupy less than 0.5MB, representing considerable savings in memory costs. Font Fusion is designed for operating systems, software applications, Web applications, low-resolution screen devices, multimedia servers, high-definition television screens (HDTVs), set-top boxes, continuous tone printers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and other embedded systems and Internet and wireless appliances. About BeIA: the Complete IA Solution BeIA is comprised of the BeIA Client Platform, Integration Services and the BeIA Management and Administration Platform (MAP). This integrated package of small footprint client-side software, development, customization and device management tools and services, and key third party services and technology delivers a complete Internet appliance solution to device and service providers, including consumer electronics companies. About Bitstream, the Internet Font Technology Company Bitstream Inc. (Nasdaq:BITS - news) is the leading developer of font technology, digital fonts, and custom font designs for a wide variety of markets. Setting the standard for excellence in font technology, Bitstream holds numerous key patents that cover the creation of portable fonts for the Internet. Bitstream licenses its award-winning TrueDoc®, WebFont(TM), and Font Fusion(TM) technologies to Web and application developers, and to manufacturers of Internet appliances, wireless devices, set-top boxes, embedded systems, printers, and personal digital assistants. Founded in 1981, Bitstream is the first digital font foundry. In 1999, Bitstream created MyFonts.com, Inc. (http://www.myfonts.com), the Web site for finding, trying, and buying fonts on line. Bitstream is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Find out more about Bitstream at http://www.bitstream.com. About Be Founded in 1990, Be Incorporated creates software solutions that enable rich media and Web experiences on personal computers and Internet appliances. Be's headquarters are in Menlo Park, California, and its European office is in Paris, France. It is publicly traded on the Nasdaq National Market under the symbol BEOS. Be can be found on the Web at http://www.be.com. Be Forward-Looking Statements The statements contained in this Press Release that are not historical facts are ``forward-looking statements'' including without limitation plans for product development and release, future product performance, and the benefit of such products to customers, appliance manufacturers and developers. Actual events or results may differ materially as a result of risks facing Be Incorporated or actual results differing from the assumptions underlying such statements. Such risks and assumptions include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties related to product development, our ability to establish and maintain strategic relationships, the competition and market acceptance of BeIA, and our ability to meet customer and developer demands. All forward-looking statements are expressly qualified in their entirety by the ``Risk Factors'' and other cautionary statements included in Be Incorporated's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 1999, and other public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Be Trademarks Be, BeIA and the Be Logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Be Incorporated in the U.S. and other countries. All rights reserved. Bitstream Trademarks Bitstream and TrueDoc are registered trademarks, and Font Fusion and WebFont are trademarks of Bitstream Inc. T2K is a registered trademark of Type Solutions, Inc., a Bitstream company. Other technologies and brand names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

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