

Apple pulls an Adobe, requires Apple Quicktime player but won't support it - rjsteinert
http://rjsteinert.com/node/45
Today in my RSS reader I saw a link to the iPhone 4.0 official video and I thought, "Oh boy eye candy!" What I got was a big fat "Download Quicktime to view this video" message. My heart sank. Not because I wasn't going to be able to watch the video on my unsupported Linux platform, but because it was suddenly clear that Steve Job's rejection of proprietary video standards (Flash) was a total load of shit! Who is he to criticize Adobe for promoting a proprietary web video standard and then shove his own proprietary video standard down consumers' throats?
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alanh
I got the same thing in Chrome on OS X (however, I have all plug-ins disabled
due to the current Flash vulnerability).

I can’t imagine this is anything more than an oversight that will soon enough
be corrected. The copy on that page is a bit rough, too:

> Apple engineers designed the A4 chip to be a _remarkably_ powerful yet
> _remarkably_ power-efficient mobile processor. (emphasis mine)

I think the page was a rush job, somehow neglected and not up to the usual
Apple marketing standard of quality.

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russss
This video is working fine for me with Chrome on Linux.

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mhw
Hmm; Linux in 'video just works' shock!

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ugh
It’s not quite as simple as that – that becomes plainly obvious pretty fast in
this related discussion: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1411779>

They seem to use the video-tag in some cases (Safari, maybe Chrome) but not in
others. We don’t yet know how exactly they decide whether to use the video-tag
or QuickTime.

The mystery isn’t yet solved so if anyone wants to help …

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papachito
> They seem to use the video-tag in some cases (Safari, maybe Chrome) but not
> in others

Not chrome, only Safari. So yes, this is basically the same thing as forcing
flash as you either have to change the browser, get a new OS if you're on
linux, install a plugin, download the file manually or cheat your user agent.
Not very "standard" friendly to say the least.

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ugh
Some reported that video worked in Chrome without QuickTime. I couldn’t
reproduce that myself.

– edit: Ah, I saw your response to my other comment. Thanks! That’s idiotic of
Apple, then. I have to say, though, that I would care a lot more if Apple were
YouTube or the New York Times. As is I don’t plan on consuming a whole lot of
content on their website.

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pronoiac
This is a rant about Apple using Quicktime for video on their site.

I can view Quicktime on Firefox on Linux - while Flash only has one halfway
decent player, Quicktime files are supported by many different tools &
players.

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papachito
I'm on Linux too, I can't view Quicktime unless I install illegal codecs.

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usaar333
Exactly. Flash might be proprietary as well, but at least Adobe takes the time
to write a binary plugin for Linux.

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jorgecastillo
And what about alternative platforms tha don't have an Adobe flash plugin. Do
you honestly believe that there only exist three OSes (Windows/Mac OS
X/Linux)? At least I can download the .mov file just looking for it on the
html source, I can't say the same for flash video.

P.S. I use OpenBSD as my desktop OS.

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GrandMasterBirt
I have no respect for companies who don't use their own crap. If Jobs wants
anti-flash, use html5 like he said, if it is not viable, then stfu. However
maybe flash on the IPHONE makes no sense, but then say that, not that flash
sucks because html5 is open and flash is not.

At least adobe uses flash on their stuff. Actually I wish they didn't but it
shows they are confident with their product.

