where apple really messed up with the intel switch

[Willis]

To be fair, you're pointing the finger at Apple, when it isnt Apples problem.

Market share shows that more people have Windows. So the web will be configured for them. Macs have to live in a windows world, which is changing. more and more are getting onto macs. soon web content will be suitable on both formats.

It is a pain, but you have to make do with what you get offered. versiontracker.com has a list of third party software.

Love your mac? get what you can for it.

 

[GoCubsGo]

Sorry to the OP, but out of the box my browsers all worked fine. Actually, I've never had an issue with needing more plugins. Must be user error?

 

[KingYaba]

I don't know how much influence Apple compuer Inc. has on flip4mac. As far as I know flip4mac is an independed if not sponsered by m$. group of programmers trying to make quicktime very versitile. Especially since m$ is dropping support for mac. NO more internet explorer for hte mac, no more windows media for the mac.

Yes there are thousands and thousands of third party software you can find. It's not hard. You can at least ask in this macrumors forums what your needs are, and I bet someone will point out what you can get.

I have learned, but if they want the average switcher, they should have everything working as perfect as possible. Having flip 4 mac as their media player support is poor, real poor.

One would hope that the "average" person would have the intelligence to figure simple stuff out like downloading windows media player, or other "essential" plug-ins.

 

[rxl125]

Sorry to the OP, but out of the box my browsers all worked fine. Actually, I've never had an issue with needing more plugins. Must be user error?

you must not try many web sites that require MS player

 

[sulhaq]

I wish that VLC would make a website plugin! this way we could watch everything in the web browser and we wouldn't have any problems! apart from some WMV formats!

Actually, when I had installed VLC on Windows, it had taken over all internet movie clips. Whenever I would click on a video link, be it QT or WMV, it would open in a bizarre looking player embedded into FireFox taking up the full browser window. I don't know how that would work out of a mac since I haven't tried VLC on my mac.

Flip4Mac works fine for me in most cases. For the few videos that it doesn't I usually skip past, if I absolutely must see it then WMP + Rosetta makes them work in almost all of the cases.

 

[kevin.rivers]

you must not try many web sites that require MS player

What the heck is MS player?

I use Camino, which you can add CamiTools. In CamiTools you can make Camino look like any browser.

This is useful for me as there are tons of Japanese websites that require IE 5.5 to view certain content.

 

[Frisco]

This is exactly what Microsoft wants--to make the Internet only compatiable with Windows. And to a certain extent they are succeeding with IE only websites , not complying with web standards and with Windows Media Player content all over the net.

Microsoft does this deliberately. They want to maintain their monopoly.

I understand the original poster's frustration, although I do agree that it's in no way Apple's fault. Imagine someone who just switched to Mac. Spent $2000 on a beautiful MBP and realizes they can't do their banking online anymore, because the bank's online checking only works with Internet Explorer.

Very frustrating I would imagine when they could easily buy a $300 PC and not have this limitation.

 

[MacAficionado]

Most of the web requires you to use microsoft's media player though...

That's not true. I hardly ever need to use if at all. And the sites I go to have the choice, not always QT but Real or other formats. Microsoft is the Largest sotware producer in the world, (I,think) yet the stink at supporting platforms that or not theirs.

This is ALL Microsofts fault. Quicktime works in Windows and Linux. Quicktime is the responsibility of Apple, Windows Media is the responsibility of Microsoft. And WM sucks, even in Windows.

 

[Bern]

What I find amazing is that some of these sites around the web using WMP, QT, RT or whatever these days could use Flash instead. No doubt there are also a lot of sites designed by "backyard" or "in house" web designers who either are not aware they should or simply do not know how to use Flash and how to code correctly according to W3C standard.

I avoid media players as much as possible and use Flash where ever I can, it's universal and readily available. When I go to a site that is using a media player that could be using Flash I contact the site owner and recommend it to them, often doing the conversion for them (for a fee of course).

 

[aristobrat]

you must not try many web sites that require MS player

Have you noticed that 2 of the biggest video websites (YouTube and Google Videos) don't use MS players? I wouldn't be surprised to see more and more sites using this technology as time goes in.

 

[Yvan256]

What I find amazing is that some of these sites around the web using WMP, QT, RT or whatever these days could use Flash instead. No doubt there are also a lot of sites designed by "backyard" or "in house" web designers who either are not aware they should or simply do not know how to use Flash and how to code correctly according to W3C standard.

I avoid media players as much as possible and use Flash where ever I can, it's universal and readily available. When I go to a site that is using a media player that could be using Flash I contact the site owner and recommend it to them, often doing the conversion for them (for a fee of course).

Sorry, but putting a video inside a Flash wrapper is no better than a Quicktime or AVI file.

And I'm not asking for DivX either, which is MP4 video with MP3 audio inside an AVI wrapper. Too many codecs, version, etc.

The net should be platform-agnostic. Videos should be in .mpg (MPEG-1 with Layer 2 audio) or .mp4 format (MPEG-4 or H.264 with AAC audio).

 

[danny_w]

While I agree that it is not Apple's fault that their browsers and plugins cannot play prorpietary MS media content, it is certainly going to have that appearance to the average switcher. I switched about a year and a half ago and have been mostly satisfied, but find the occasional site that for whatever reason does not work in the browser that I am using at the time (be it Safari, FireFox, Camino, IE for Mac, or whatever). Occasionaly I will have to try 3 or more browsers before I find one that will work for me, and sometimes I never find one and end up going to my wife's Windows machine and IE. This can be very frustrating and can happen regardless of the OS you are running, but the fact is that it occurs much more often on Mac than on Windows. And that, fair or not, is going to seem like Apple's fault to the average user, particularly a switcher. So for that reason if for no other it should be in Apple's interest to make things as smooth as possible.

 

[daveL]

??

Maybe I'm missing something, but what's wrong with this:

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/video/windowsmediaplayerformacosx.html

I know M$ has stopped development, but the latest release works fine for me for the rare times I'm have no choice but to use WMP.

 

[poppe]

Maybe I'm missing something, but what's wrong with this:

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/video/windowsmediaplayerformacosx.html

I know M$ has stopped development, but the latest release works fine for me for the rare times I'm have no choice but to use WMP.

It isn't universal is it? It's working fine under rosetta I thought.

 

[kevin.rivers]

There are users who can't figure out how to get flash and acrobat reader. Apple hardly messed up.

 

[daveL]

It isn't universal is it? It's working fine under rosetta I thought.

You're right, of course. I'm still on PPC, so I often forget the Intel bit. Sorry. That will change when I retire my TiBook and get a Core 2 Duo MBP in a couple months.

 

[poppe]

You're right, of course. I'm still on PPC, so I often forget the Intel bit. Sorry. That will change when I retire my TiBook and get a Core 2 Duo MBP in a couple months.

Hey me too. Go Core 2 Dou MBP!

 

[madog]

Especially since m$ is dropping support for mac. NO more internet explorer for hte mac, no more windows media for the mac.

For me, that day couldn't come sooner.

Basically, I see this 'problem' as a perfectly good reason to pirate Windows for your Intel Mac! Down with the man! Why pay for their OS when all you need is to view their propietary video formats? They want you to do this.




Muahahahaha.

 

[nitynate]

Apple: Quicktime
Windows: Windows Media




You are the one who bought the mac, get it straight, son.

 

[Willis]

http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/index.cfm?home&NewsID=15383

"It's a significant release because Microsoft isn't developing Windows Media Player for Macs any more. It now has a deal with Flip4Mac to provide software to make unprotected files work on a Mac.

Flip4Mac WMV Components lets Mac users play Windows Media files using QuickTime and view Windows Media content on the internet using Safari. However, the software doesn't allow for playback of right-protected Windows Media files."

..need I say more?

 

[generik]

For me, that day couldn't come sooner.

Basically, I see this 'problem' as a perfectly good reason to pirate Windows for your Intel Mac! Down with the man! Why pay for their OS when all you need is to view their propietary video formats? They want you to do this.




Muahahahaha.

If I flip your logic around I have an even better alternative. "Windows sucks? MacOS looks cool? Why buy their computers to use their stupid OS, just use some h4x on it and get it to work on your Dell dude!"

Don't want to pay for it? Don't use their video formats.

 

[aristobrat]

Apple: Quicktime
Windows: Windows Media]

It does kinda suck that QT runs well on both Windows and OS X where as Windows Media only runs well on Windows. OS X support is hit and miss.

 

[madog]

If I flip your logic around I have an even better alternative. "Windows sucks? MacOS looks cool? Why buy their computers to use their stupid OS, just use some h4x on it and get it to work on your Dell dude!"

Don't want to pay for it? Don't use their video formats.

"Damn you, logic!"

True. I just can't fathom the idea that people actually want to use Dell's.

 

[LoveMacMini]

I know Apple wanted to keep their switch to Intel a secret, but they should have told their big big big third party software makers about it atleast a year in advance so they can start porting.

i know personally i'm waiting for Office, and i can't even begin to count the number of people who want photoshop as a universal.

you would think if intel can keep an nda, so can microsoft and adobe.

that's what i think is the biggest mistake

 

[rxl125]

don't even get me started on office... it opens up like I have a 486 intel...

I know Apple wanted to keep their switch to Intel a secret, but they should have told their big big big third party software makers about it atleast a year in advance so they can start porting.

i know personally i'm waiting for Office, and i can't even begin to count the number of people who want photoshop as a universal.

you would think if intel can keep an nda, so can microsoft and adobe.

that's what i think is the biggest mistake