Apple Computer Corp. Tuesday offered onlookers previews of the latest
version of its popular streaming audio and video Internet content software.
The perennial computer specialist unveiled its QuickTime 5® and
QuickTime Streaming Server 3® tools at the second-annual QuickTime
Live! conference in Los Angeles.
QuickTime 5’s new features include an updated media player with a new
QuickTime TV network channel display and new audio controls; a new
component downloader for adding plug-ins on the fly; and support for new Web
codecs including Macromedia Flash 4, Cubic VR and Shoutcast.
Working with open-source QuickTime Streaming Server 3, QuickTime 5 offers
“skip protection,” as well.
The public preview of QuickTime 5 for Windows will be available by the end
of the year. QuickTime 5 and QuickTime Streaming Server 3 will be available
in early 2001.
Considered a standard streaming audio and video application, QuickTime has grown increasingly popular with a variety of the larger Internet companies, including Inktomi Corp., which featured it on its content delivery solution last year, RealNetworks Inc., for its RealServer 8 app and Akamai Technologies, which teamed with Apple to create a QuickTime TV solution.
Apple’s new products come in conjunction with the firm’s announcement that
its popular QuickTime 4 has reached an unprecedented 100 million Mac and
Windows users worldwide, and that RollingStone.com is launching a special
concert series site where music performances from top musical acts will be
streamed exclusively in the QuickTime format.
The concert series, for which dates were not yet provided to the public,
will feature diverse musical acts such as 311, Sebadoh, Blondie, Ween and
B.B. King, performing at various venues around the world.
Apple’s positive news comes two weeks after the giant said it was disappointed with sales for the third quarter: Several other firms,
including non-PC makers, expressed similar sentiments the following week.
But despite Apple’s favorable outlook, the stock was
hardly affected by Tuesday’s news, closing down 4 percent to 20 7/8.