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We Have The Technology (4/11/99)
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For those of us who've been waiting for QuickTime 4 for so long we've almost forgotten why, we're finally entering the home stretch-- at least, we think so. The annual National Association of Broadcasters conference is imminent, and most observers expect Apple to take the wraps off of the latest incarnation to draw some welcome attention from all those TV types. Longtime faithful viewers may recall that at last year's event, Steve Jobs' keynote address amounted to little more than an extended commercial for QuickTime 3, which left many in the audience nonplussed due to QuickTime's lack of live streaming technology. But that very feature is version 4's big carrot-on-a-stick, and while demos of live streamed QuickTime have been trotted out at most Apple demos since last May's Worldwide Developers Conference, none of will actually be able to use that oh-so-cool technology until QuickTime 4 officially hits the streets. So we're all keeping our fingers crossed.
In the meantime, QuickTime 4 continues its transformation from a cool hack that shows jerky, grainy video in a tiny computer window into a full-fledged cross-platform multimedia operating system unto itself. According to Apple Insider, lab rats in Cupertino continue to graft new features onto QuickTime's bionic frame, such as native MPEG Layer 3 support. Fans of MP3 rejoice, as QuickTime 4 reportedly not only understands the format and plays the files, but it also plays them well-- QuickTime 4 has a "fuller" sound and sports bass and treble controls and a built-in graphic equalizer to let the user tweak its output for specific conditions. Sounds like Apple expects MP3 to stick around (much to the music industry's chagrin) and Apple wants QuickTime 4 to be the MP3 platform of choice.
But that's not all that's been bolted onto QuickTime 4's ever-more-versatile frame; Apple's also spent some time overhauling its appearance. Remember the cool 3D circular controller that handles DVD video playback in the PowerBook G3 Series? QuickTime 4 now sports a similarly nifty inferface, complete with a brushed metal finish, slide-out drawers, embossed buttons-- the works. Forget the Bionic Man; the new QuickTime looks more like a revamped RoboCop, and it's ready to pound the tar out of all other media systems. Or at least it's almost ready. Any day now. We hope.
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And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors |
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 4/11/99 episode: April 11, 1999: QuickTime 4-- it may never actually get released, but it sure is great hearing about all the new features we can't use yet. Meanwhile, rumors of the Banana and Cherry revolution live on, despite the listing of Tangerine and Strawberry in the iMac 333 SKU numbers, and someone's selling a Weird Mac Thing on eBay-- who could resist?...
Other scenes from that episode: 1456: Yum. And Yum Again. (4/11/99) So here we were, expecting that the whole "Banana and Cherry" series of rumors would have crumbled to dust by now, but they just won't go away. In the past few weeks, several sources reported that Apple was revamping its color palette for the fruit-flavored iMacs to help equalize customer demand... 1457: Here We Go Again (4/11/99) Us: "What the heck is that thing?" You: "What thing?" Us: "Why, that Weird Mac Thing on eBay, of course!" It's a flat grey box that looks like it has the footprint of, say, a VCR. It's got an Apple logo on the front, ventilation holes in the top, and a power switch and a slew of ports in the back-- including semi-typical video stuff like RCA audio and video, S-Video out, RF in and out, and SCART, but also some interfaces you won't find in much TV equipment: SCSI, DIN-8 serial, and network ports...
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