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May The 4rce Be With You (5/4/99)
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It's no secret that we think Apple's doing a pretty bang-up job of riding the Star Wars: Episode I coattails of hype. With over ten million downloads of the QuickTime-only trailer, including over a million downloads of the enhanced QuickTime 4 version, all of this swelling expectation and impatience for Episode I is really raising Apple's visibility on the Internet. In particular, we have no doubt that lots and lots of people, PC users included, are downloading and installing QuickTime just to watch the trailers and commercials. Thank goodness for exclusive distribution rights...
Once QuickTime 4 surfaced in its current "preview" incarnation, though, we expected Apple to use the whole Star Wars hypefest to promote it hard. To a certain extent, they made some effort; the trailer and the new commercials are available in separate QuickTime 4-only versions that feature better sound and video. Still, the Big Feature™ of QuickTime 4 isn't crisper video and stereo sound in a smaller file, though that's nice and all. The Big Feature™ is streaming video, which finally makes QuickTime a viable competitor to other live streaming video technologies from Microsoft and Real Networks. So we were a little surprised that Apple didn't showcase QuickTime Streaming with some of the new Episode I stuff.
Of course, that was before we noticed the new Phantom Menace music video posted to Apple's web site. The clip, which features music by the ever-lovin' John Williams played over yet more scenes from the film (we're starting to feel like we've already seen the whole movie-- just not played in the right order), is streamed as video-on-demand from Apple's servers, meaning it's QuickTime 4-only. It's a nice demonstration of QuickTime Streaming's capabilities, but we'd really like them to showcase a live feed. Perhaps live video of the poor souls camped out on the street for tickets already?
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SceneLink (1503)
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And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors |
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 5/4/99 episode: May 4, 1999: Nothing says "I Love You, Mom" like a sparkling new iMac in her favorite flavor. Meanwhile, Apple finally turns some of the Star Wars spotlight on QuickTime 4's new streaming ability, and speech technologies on the Mac may get a double boost from Apple and IBM...
Other scenes from that episode: 1502: Maternal Payback Time (5/4/99) Are you the type of ungrateful offspring that perennially forgets Mother's Day? Shame on you! That poor, courageous woman raised you, fed you, cleaned up unspeakable messes for you, and you can't even remember to send her a card once a year?... 1504: Speaking Of Speech (5/4/99) Speaking of science fiction movies (chalk up another kick-ass segue for the AtAT team! Woo-hoo!), ever since Scotty tried to control an original Mac by speaking into its mouse in 1986's Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, voice interaction with Macs has been a Holy Grail for some of the more forward-thinking users out there...
Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast... | |  |
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