The Good Steve Giveth, and the Good Steve Taketh Away…
[NOTE to multi-platform users... YES, I know this is exactly what Microsoft has done ... over and over ... with Windows Media Player. But just because 90 percent of the planet uses Satan's software, doesn't make Hellish behavior acceptable.]
If you’ve been with us a while, you know I’m already pissy about all the things Apple has:
- evangelized
- based their platform marketing on
- established legions of foaming-at-the-mouth followers because of
- encouraged millions of customers and developers to create workflows around
- – and then taken away
This time, it’s the front-end for Apple’s media engine, QuickTime.
If you were a QuickTime user, nay, aficionado, who had paid to upgrade to the ‘Pro’ version just so you could cut/copy/paste/export/etc. (features that used to exist in the free version of Apple’s player), then you are getting screwed again with Snow Leopard.
If you buy a new machine (or say, roll out a handful to staff at your day-job), there is nothing to warn you that any tools, serial numbers, plugins, or AppleScript code WILL NOT WORK with the version of ‘QuickTime X’ that comes preinstalled on Snow Leopard.
Apple’s knowledgebase notes that:
“Note: If you double-click any media that requires QuickTime Player 7 for playback and it is not already installed, you will be asked if you want to download it from Apple.”
BUT, they’re wrong. Tripping across a media file that requires 7 only triggers a popup dialog that says, “You need QuickTime Player to view this file.” Not QuickTime Player 7, just QuickTime Player. Which, by the way, is what you are already running at the moment (they just don’t bother to differentiate between versions when they’re informing you that you need software that you already have, and no, I’m not going to play that file for you.
And, there is no link or button to take you where you can get the version that you need.
There is an installer for a special version of QuickTime 7 on the boot DVD that comes with your Snow Leopard system — but if you are already out in the field, as I am today, and are in need of converting from one filetype to another for a customer, as I am, you will find that not only can you not do that in the new ‘QuickTime X’; but none of your third-party plugins will work with it either.
Nor can you insert the serial number (that you paid $29.95 for) to upgrade to the ‘Pro’ version that allows cut/copy/paste/export/etc.
So, you need to install QuickTime 7. From your boot disk, remember?
The installer they provide online (at Apple.com/QuickTime) will download but not install — that QuickTime 7 is only for pre-Snow Leopard installations.
So, if you are out an about with your portable computer, be sure to take your install disk with you wherever you go for the next few months — because who knows what other pieces have been castrated from your otherwise ‘advanced’ upgraded OS.
—–
Does anybody know when Adobe is planning to come out with a Linux-compatible version of Illustrator, so that I can change my domain name and … ’switch’?
Related Reading:
Snow Leopard: QuickTime X (MacWorld.com)
