Quicktime has always been a pain point for me, and yet I come back to it. Time after time, player after player. It’s the default player for Mac OS X and not only it looks good, it works well most of the times. But like the famous .mac membership, Qucktime isn’t free. It requires user to cough up fair amount of money before the user can enjoy full screen and host of other features legitimately. VLC and mPlayer on the other hand provide almost the same, if not better, functionality free (free as in beer) of cost. Keeping the feature Vs Cost debate to the minimum, I launched my software update application and was shocked to see this:
QuickTime 7.1.5 delivers numerous bug fixes and addresses critical security issues. This update is recommended for all QuickTime 7 users.
Important Notice to QuickTime Pro Users
QuickTime 7 will disable the QuickTime Pro functionality in prior versions of QuickTime, such as QuickTime 5 or QuickTime 6. If you proceed with this installation, you must purchase a new QuickTime 7 Pro key to regain QuickTime Pro functionality. After installation, visit www.apple.com/quicktime to purchase a QuickTime 7 Pro key
This is plain ridiculous. I cannot understand why don’t they offer a free upgrade ever? It’s almost like Windows: you launch a software, convince million people to buy it, declare it unsafe, launch a new software and charge for license for newer software.
It somehow feels too unhealthy to be Apple.
I am Sumeet,an information security enthusiast, crazy about Coffee, iPod, everything mac, travelling, consuming rss and eating. I work for a large consulting firm where I usually rant about security best practices.
Indeed, it is, as you put it, unhealthy. .Mac and QuickTime Pro are two of Apple’s products I don’t use, and ones that leave a bad taste in my mouth.
Instead, I use VLC with the lovely make-over kit by MacRabbit.
And .Mac is too slow and unreliable for me to even consider over Google’s services. Heck, Apple isn’t even talking about .Mac e-mail support on the iPhone, even though it will obviously work thanks to the phone’s IMAP capability. Surprisingly, they’re giving away free Yahoo! Mail Premium accounts, which have IMAP support.
Thanks for the link for VLC make over kit mate ! It’s certainly worth trying out. Most of the new themes that you apply through ShapeShifter also have custom themes for VLC. VLC is finally making it’s mark..
Oh, definitely. VLC is the one app every Mac user must download. Not just because it lets you sidestep QuickTime’s (non-Pro) limitations, but it also plays back almost every video format. Everything but RealMedia files…