QuickTime 5 has been released! You can get it from Apple's QuickTime downloads page, or just use your QuickTime Updater application. For more information on both QuickTime 5 and QuickTime Streaming Server 3 (which will be available in May), read a 4/23 Apple press release, "Apple Announces QuickTime 5 and QuickTime Streaming Server 3".
For some commentary regarding what the QuickTime 5 release means in terms of the video streaming market, read a cnet article, "Apple looks to new QuickTime for video spark".
The one thing that you may notice is missing from the released version of QuickTime 5 is the Sorenson Video 3 codec. You can read a bit about this in Tuesday's MacInTouch news listing.
Sorenson announced the Windows version of Sorenson Broadcaster, which will be available this summer. It will allow you to stream live video from a Windows computer; previously you could only do so from a Mac. Read a Sorenson 4/23 press release, "Sorenson Media Announces Sorenson Broadcaster for Windows", for details.
If you're still trying to figure out what's going on with MPEG-4 including information about an upcoming MPEG-4 codec for QuickTime, read a DV.comspecial report, "The Many Faces of MPEG-4", by Ben Waggoner.
And, if you're impressed with how well Ben Waggoner explains things, you may be interested in compression workshops he's teaching in May and June; check out the Stanford Academy for New Media Presents page.
Other workshops of interest include those being offered by ici Media on "LiveStage Professional" and "Creating & Deploying Interactive Video". You'll find information about these at ici Media's Training page.
Still more opportunities for learning will be in June at the QT Boot Camp conference in Cologne Germany. This is the first QuickTime authoring conference in Europe. Details are at the QT Boot Camp web site.
Another 4/23 Apple press release, "Digital camera makers latch onto QuickTime", talks about all the digital cameras that integrate QuickTime technology into their products, including 25 of which can actually capture audio and video in the QuickTime format.
There's a new QuickTime editing application. MediaEdit is an inexpensive (currently $30 for beta 14) tool that lets you add transitions, paint on movies (rotoscope), and more. Check it out at the Mien Network Media Edit page.
A MacCentral article, "NAB: Stitcher for Mac OS X previewed" covers the first Mac OS X application for stitching together images to create QuickTime VR panoramas.
There's a Streaming Media Market Report at MacInTouch which provides information on the usage of the three major media architectures (QuickTime, Real, and Windows Media), MPEG-4, and how Apple can build market share for QuickTime.
If you're trying to make sense of MPEG-4 (including its relationship to QuickTime) and what it can do for you today, you'll want to listen to this week's Streamingmedia.com talk show. You can also check out an article at PC Magazine, "Will MPEG-4 Fly?".
Last week, Media 100 laid off much of the Terran team (the folks who developed Cleaner). Sparse details are in a MacCentral article, "Some Terran employees given pink slips". There is a new independent (i.e. not run by Media 100) Terran Cleaner Mail list that you can subscribe to.
You'll find a summary of the different types of QuickTime tracks as well as a few comments about QuickTime 5 in Mac OS X in the March 30th iQT column.
If you're interested in QuickTime 5 and MacOS X, you may also be interested in a seminar Apple is sponsoring at the Seybold Boston conference. Go to Apple's QuickTime 5 and Mac OS X Seminar page for details and registration information.
A MacCentral Online article, "iMovie, QuickTime focus of higher ed seminar" reports on a how a college professor uses QuickTime to improve student learning.
Channel Storm released version 1.0.2 of Live Channel, software that serves as both a broadcaster and QuickTime Streaming server, It's also capable of mixing video coming from different cameras and adding effects , all live. In other words, it's like a TV studio in one software application. (It runs on FireWire-equipped Macs.) Check out the Channel Storm web site and download Live Channel for free.
There's a review of VRWorx in the April issue of Macworld. (VRWorx is a tool for creating QuickTime VR movies.)
Also in Macworld is an interesting article,"Homemade Mac: Not Just Any Vacation Photo, Part Three", documenting the use of PhotoVista (low cost VR software) to create QuickTime VR panoramas.
You can now download a beta of the next version of PuppetTime Producer, a 3D character animation program that you can use to create QuickTime-based digital stories. (There are both Mac and Windows versions.) Go to the PuppetTime home page for more information and links to the download.
We won't be publishing the Little QuickTime page for the next few weeks, due to the upcoming Spring holidays and the need to finish our QuickTime 5 book. We'll be back on April 23rd. (Hopefully, QuickTime 5 will have shipped by then!)