Denied again?! Sometimes we really have to doubt Apple's commitment to the whole streaming media thing. First QuickTime 4 took many more months to surface than anyone thought was healthy, giving rivals Real Networks and Microsoft plenty of time to improve their own competing architectures. Then the company occasionally declined to webcast certain key events, such as the Tokyo Expo keynote (at which Steve introduced the new PowerBooks and iBooks) and the Worldwide Developer Conference keynote (which had always been webcast in the past). And now the ugly trend continues; according to AppleInsider, when Steve takes the stage at Seybold next week, if you're not sitting in the audience, you won't be basking in Steve's glory. "No webcast for you!"

Now, we consider this particularly worrisome because Seybold is a professional publishing show-- an event at which a live showcase of QuickTime's broadcasting capabilities would be right on the money. Instead, it was at last month's Expo (a far more consumer-oriented affair) that Steve made a big deal about his keynote webcast being the biggest broadband streaming video delivery ever. That was very interesting and all, but we doubt many consumers were impressed enough to run out and host their vacation videos on QuickTime Streaming Server. Come to think of it, last month also featured another announcement that would have been far better suited to Seybold: the dual-processor Power Mac G4. For one thing, until Mac OS X ships, that second processor doesn't mean squat to anyone who doesn't eat, sleep, and breathe Photoshop, and for another, what average shmoe is going to get all pumped up about onboard gigabit Ethernet? But we digress. (Like that's new.)

Of course, we fully admit that the real reason we're miffed isn't because Apple may be fumbling the ball when it comes to pitching QuickTime to the publishing profession; it's because we won't be at Seybold, and now we won't even get to watch a smeary, pixellated, digital approximation of Steve say "one more thing." Okay, fine, so maybe the Mac OS X beta won't be released at Seybold. Perhaps Steve doesn't plan to introduce new iBooks and/or PowerBooks at the event. That's still no reason to keep those of us who are Seybold-challenged from tuning in over the web. What's the good of streaming technology if Apple doesn't even use it for its own major events? We want our SteveTV!