QuickTime 7 - Thumbs Up or Down?

Apple have released the next version of their famous media player, QuickTime. I personally depend on this player more than Windows Media Player and, besides Apple Trailers, is the only thing Apple are good at - nevermind operating systems, QuickTime is where they excel.

Their next version, QuickTime 7 is available now in preview format on their website and I have a review on it. The new version supports H-igh D-efinition movies and has had a sleak new makeover, including a new, lighter, shiny logo. The new version, as always, comes in two options: free and Pro. This, I think is a downfall of Apple as some features only available in the Pro version are simple features that used to be available in the free version, QuickTime version 6 - as I'll say later. I think Apple are taking the RealPlayer approach. And, actully, this is where Microsoft beat Apple isn the media player market. So, here's my review...

Once you've installed the new player a desktop item appears and, it's a new shiny logo (of course, it's 20x better when placed ontop of Dasani wallpaper):

Its new design still holds reminence to the Mac interface but encompasses a Windows Media Player polish-type finish; a step in the right direction. It's navigation bar (bottom) resembles the default Flash video player found in Macromedia Flash MX and it's GUI is compact and grey.

I haven't explored the program fully and I have got the US version and so the content is local to the US, but the content isn't too localised so it didn't really matter. The player loaded a welcome page that gave me the latest film trailers - something interesting to me - but it seemed to push the advertising of its products a little too far, to be honest.

As i said earlier, they have left some simple features available free in version 6 out of the free version of this version, version 7. This may well be changed on the final release, as this is only a preview release. In this release, simple features such as "New Player", "Save" and "Save as..." are only available if you pay for the damn thing. I personally think this is just generally quite annoying and will not go down too well. It seems a little mad.

Another thing I noticed is that they haven't updated the QuickTime PictureViewer. I don't use this program at all, to be honest, but I would have thought they would have updated it with the program. It's a nifty program, but sadly one that's out-of-date.


And finally, the image you've all been waiting for. Well, not just yet. In my opinion QuickTime is a great player that is widely used, but lacks in some areas. I don't see why it can't be completely free when Microsoft, supposedly the devil of the computing world, offers a more feature-packed player for free. It's new support for HD technology is great, but that technology is not widely used - maybe this will change that. QuickTime and the .mpeg, .mpg and .mov file formats offer better quality movies, both streaming and downloaded, than .wmv and .avi but the lack of features marks it down. But the shiny new logo brings the marks back up...

Sunny

Lights... Sabers... Code! 2

Two entries ago, I posted some development screenshots of 'Project Saber'. I've had a few emails saying those screenshots are not what the new generation of programmers / developers want so I've got some more, more interesting, development screenshots for the developer of the new generation.






Hope you like; you know who you are :).

Sunny

Happy Camping

I just couldn't find the strength to write this post earlier, but after 2 bottles of genuine Coca-Cola (none of that Dutch crap) and an ice-cream, I'm ready to write. As you know, I just got back from another camping trip in the New Forest and am pretty tired, if I'm honest.

On Saturday, I used my laptop wisely and continued to code and plan Project 'Saber'. It's coming along nicely and I loved the challenge of sorting out the errors I got. For one parse error I had to solve, all I needed to do was add a '.' (fullstop) somewhere. It's quite frustrating sometimes when you can't find the problem, but when you solve it you feel like you want to party (of course, no under-age unsupervised drinking would occur; obviously). I learn new stuff on every project I do, and this is no exception.

Okay, on a down note, school starts again tomorrow. I don't know about you but I've got this feeling you get (or I) when it's the night before your first day back of a new year. You don't want to go back because you've got used to playing Wolfenstein all day... or the like. Anyway, can't do anything about it, so might as well not talk about it.

Erm. What to talk about next? Oh yes. The next mission to Mars has been given the go-ahead by NASA. The Phoenix lander will use technology used on missions that failed in 1999 and 2001. It will land in the polar region and be one of the most advanced landers yet. And in good news, the rover that was stuck in the sand on Mars has now broken free of the slippery grip (an oxymoron there for you) of the martian sand.

Well, campers, good night. Oh, one more thing. Just North of Winchester on the A34, there's a village called Egypt and North of Lyndhurst is a village called Canada. Just a few general knowledge facts.

Sunny

Lights... Sabers... Code!

Welcome again to another installment of my blog; entitled "Sunny Boy's Blog" for obvious reasons. Just to say that I won't be here from Friday afternoon till Sunday afternoon because of another lovely trip to the New Forest and 2 nights in a wonderful Hilton-esque tent. Besides that good news, I wanted to report up on a project I'm doing and just provide some friendly banter for all you readers (yes, it is meant to be plural).

Project Saber
Project Saber? No, it's not the sequel prequel to the latest movie, although that is rumoured to be in development. Project Saber is a CMS for a small website that I'm indirectly involved with. This is my 3rd 'big' project and one I actually intend to complete. I can release that this CMS will enable a logged in user to edit webpages, add and edit to a community notepad and much more. It's at about 20-25% complete at this moment in time and here are some development screenshots - enjoy fellow coders:





Banter. Ahem.
Besides my enlightening news, I must move on to some general news that accounts for the banter I promised in my first paragraph. A new super-computer has been unvieled at Nottingham University. It'll give students a chance to do 1 years conventional research in just 48 hours which means even more time to booze, party and court. Also, if you didn't notice my MSN name, I won* £78 on the National Lottery 2 weeks ago. Of course, I haven't spent it all - I can still buy 100 penny sweets with my leftovers.

As some of you may know, I've had a few problems with my desktop PC and the graphics card (I think) playing up. Since about a week ago, it's been jolting frames after about 20 seconds of play of Wolfenstein, WMP Visulisations or anything with requires overlay display. I've upgraded the drivers, reverted back to ones released in 1996 but still no luck. If anyone has the golden answer, please please e-mail me here ASAP. Thanks.

Well, that's your lot lads. Oh, and grab a copy of Wolfenstein while you have the chance. If you have a problem with the PunkBuster, go to here: here... no. HERE!

Sunny
* I, of course, did not buy the ticket but it was bought on behalf of me by a legal adult.