Holiday Roundup: Silverlight and iPhone, Handbrake, Black Friday Success and Cyber Monday

[MacRumors]

Here are a number of news items that have been circulating over the holiday weekend:

- One story that made headlines was a report that implied that Microsoft had Silverlight working on the iPhone. Silverlight is Microsoft's Flash-competitor. The headline, however, was a bit misleading as the technology demonstrated simply involved Microsoft converting Silverlight video realtime into a format already supported by the iPhone. No actual on-iPhone software actually supported Silverlight.
- Handbrake 0.9.4 - A major update to a popular Mac video encoding application was released. The latest version of Handbrake delivered improvements to H.264 encoding as well as 64-bit support. Detailed discussion of the latest build has been talking place in our forums.
- ComScore released results from Black Friday's online sales and found that online spending was up 11% over the previous year with an estimated $595 Million spent. Apple.com was singled out as one of the top 5 online retailers. Apple reportedly saw traffic growth of 39% year-over-year.
- CyberMonday sales have kicked in and remain summarized in our sales chart. There are still significant discounts on Macs available for today.

Article Link: Holiday Roundup: Silverlight and iPhone, Handbrake, Black Friday Success and Cyber Monday

 

[uaecasher]

Handbreak is the best Mac app for me

 

[GoCubsGo]

Silverlight is used for Netflix and it runs real well. I certainly wouldn't mind seeig this being used as an alternative to Flash.

 

[KonaBlend]

HandBrake even

 

[MorphingDragon]

Silverlight is used for Netflix and it runs real well. I certainly wouldn't mind seeig this being used as an alternative to Flash.

I would still prefer HTML 5 with MP4 H.264 or better yet, .OGG so theres no excuse not to include it.

 

[DARKJ3DI]

Handbrake is awesome. Now thats its 64bit and has a revamped cropping interface, its even better. Silverlight is pointless, i have not encountered it on any websites other than Microsoft.com. Apple, just allow Flash. My iTouch has poor battery life anyway...

 

[hamis92]

Handbrake is misspelled! It should be HandBrake, not Handbreak.

 

[zedsdead]

Handbrake is amazing, and this version is blazing fast!

 

[haravikk]

Silverlight is used for Netflix and it runs real well. I certainly wouldn't mind seeig this being used as an alternative to Flash.

Aren't Silverlight apps for iPhone already possible, or being introduced at the moment? But they require you to fully compile the program, rather than compiling into bytecode and using a VM to execute it.

As far as I'm aware Apple is still very much against any JIT apps with the exception of javascript, which is a perfectly reasonable stance as they can control the VM for javascript in Safari to keep performance on it good enough to avoid the iPhone battery disappearing in a puff of smoke.

 

[IlluminatedSage]

Silverlight is used for Netflix and it runs real well. I certainly wouldn't mind seeig this being used as an alternative to Flash.

I agree with you 100%, i'd like seeing this on my iphone/ipod.

also would actually want flash to work on my iphone finally. tired of trying to look at websites that wont work properly on it.

 

[theLimit]

HandBrake even

Handbrake is misspelled! It should be HandBrake, not Handbreak.

That's the first thing I noticed as well. At least it's spelled correctly in the headline. HandBrake is the best video conversion software created thus far, and it's still free!

 

[ipoppy]

Seriously, I got to buy some Apple shares. Pure profit.

 

[neverbuyapc]

Typo!

Yes silverlight would be lovely on the iPhone since I would be able to use Netflix's watch it now feature. Once again Macrumors, there is a typo. It is "Handbrake" not "Handbreak." Not a big deal. Just wanted to point it out.

 

[themoonisdown09]

I'm really excited about the HandBrake update! I use this application all the time.

I did buy an Apple Magic Mouse on Black Friday from the online store and it was $5 off.

 

[Shodan]

I prefer Silverlight than Flash any day.

Newer & more efficient.

Shame it has the Microboned sticker.

 

[Byrnes3969]

I hope their sales are down.

Here are a number of news items that have been circulating over the holiday weekend:

- ComScore released results from Black Friday's online sales and found that online spending was up 11% over the previous year with an estimated $595 Million spent. Apple.com was singled out as one of the top 5 online retailers. Apple reportedly saw traffic growth of 39% year-over-year.

I'm really curious about how many of these unique visitors actually BOUGHT something.

As Win7 gets better reviews and prices of laptops and systems hover around $350 - $800 I just can't see how Apple will have a great season. Ipods OK, iPhones too are priced OK. But seriously Their laptop line is WAY over priced in this market.

 

[ProvidenceEnt]

Don't Buy From Mac Connection!!!

I tried to take advantage of the Black Friday sale for my mother who's struggling at home with a four year old PowerPC. We asked for two-day shipping. That was Friday, of course.

We got a call today from someone named Tahneed at x33892 who started asking all kinds of questions. She requested two different work emails or they wouldn't ship it ( the first one wouldn't do because it was a .Mac account and they didn't consider .Mac qualified to act as someones work email).

They made some more inquiries, found out my mother was traveling to Australia, she's a dual citizen and spends part of her time here visiting her children and grand children, part there, and she wanted to make sure the three year warranty worked overseas in case something happened and they immediately canceled the order because at some point the mac was "leaving the country".

This was paid for via a US Bank, drawn on US funds, and shipped to a US address, where she lives several times a year, and they canceled the order.

Too late to get the Black Friday deal from Apple because, guess what? Black Friday is over!!!!

My company used to buy exclusively from Mac Connection even though I preferred Apple because I thought Mac Connection was shady and because it cannibalized our business numbers with Apple ( the more you buy the bigger the discounts down the road).

So guess what!?! We're not buying form them anymore! Ever!

I would suggest you read this and think twice before wasting your time with them.

The worst part is, because of all the issues my mother's had with her G5 (out of warranty - and yes I've tried to explain that computers don't last forever), and this episode, she's getting a PC.

And guess who has to help her with that when the time comes...

Thanks Mac Connection!

I hope these rough times hit you especially hard.

 

[MacFly123]

I am having problems with the DVDs I rip and my Apple TV now! The files look fine when I play them in QuickTime or any player on my MacBook Pro, but after I store them on my Time Capsule and sync them to my Apple TV (3.0.1) they have SERIOUS macroblocking and artifacting... they look horrible. What is going on? Anyone have a clue, or having the same problem??? I tried restarting my Apple TV and deleting and resyncing the files and once again, they look perfectly fine on my computer, but crap once synced. Is it likely a compatibility issue with Apple TV 3.0.1 and the new Handbrake 0.9.4? Everything was fine until I updated to 0.9.4.

This sucks! I'm right in the middle of ripping my whole DVD library!

P.S. Can Handbrake rip Bluray discs now? If so, how?

 

[minik]

I'm really curious about how many of these unique visitors actually BOUGHT something.

In the past, I never bought anything on Black Friday. However, this year I bought a MacBook Pro (13.3/2.53/SSD) as a gift on apple.com. I know I know, the MacBook Pro is about to get an update, but my sister needs it. Along with the MBP, I got myself 1 more year of MobileMe.

 

[trip1ex]

I swear a movie used to take ~2 hours to encode to H.264 with the Apple universal preset.

Now it takes about an hour with HB 0.94. It's like I bought an i7 iMac or something.

I hope quality is the same. I haven't tested that much.

 

[seashellz]

Here are a number of news items that have been circulating over the holiday weekend:

- ComScore released results from Black Friday's online sales and found that online spending was up 11% over the previous year with an estimated $595 Million spent. Apple.com was singled out as one of the top 5 online retailers. Apple reportedly saw traffic growth of 39% year-over-year.

I'm really curious about how many of these unique visitors actually BOUGHT something.

As Win7 gets better reviews and prices of laptops and systems hover around $350 - $800 I just can't see how Apple will have a great season. Ipods OK, iPhones too are priced OK. But seriously Their laptop line is WAY over priced in this market.

you really dont have a clue do you?
please dont troll
they record sales -not how any billions may have accidently clicked on apple.com
no doubt a W7 user-oops- XP v.3 user-and tickled pink by it






Windows is an antiquated OS that is irrelevant in todays fast paced, fast changing IT world

 

[happydude]

i'm pretty excited for a new version of HandBreak! it saves my commute when i can watch movies on the bus on my nano every day. love it!

 

[Byrnes3969]

you really dont have a clue do you?
please dont troll
they record sales -not how any billions may have accidently clicked on apple.com
no doubt a W7 user-oops- XP v.3 user-and tickled pink by it

Windows is an antiquated OS that is irrelevant in todays fast paced, fast changing IT world

I don't think Apple released their sales figures from Friday. The article implies that Apple got more "Unique Visitors" over last year. It doesn't say how much they made.

“Much attention has focused on Amazon and Walmart this season, and both retailers performed particularly well online on Black Friday in terms of attracting visitors,” added Mr. Fulgoni. “We will be watching closely to see how these retailers perform during these next critical weeks of the season.”

Don't talk to me about trolling either. I'm entitled to my opinions even if they don't always agree with everything Apple does.

And yes I do use XP. Its on 21,000 computers in our hospital system. Kinda hard NOT to use Windows, if you work for a living.

 

[twoodcc]

nice. i love handbrake. nice to see people bought more stuff this year also

 

[RyanR.]

I swear a movie used to take ~2 hours to encode to H.264 with the Apple universal preset.

Now it takes about an hour with HB 0.94. It's like I bought an i7 iMac or something.

I hope quality is the same. I haven't tested that much.

I just downloaded the newest HandBrake and now it won't work.
I pop up says," VLC is not 64 bit. try anyway-download 64 bit VLC- cancel"
VLC 1.0.3 is not 64 bit- and try anyway doesn't work. what am I doing wrong here.