peterbeninate

Perhaps the most disappointing feature of Apple’s Snow Leopard operating system was QuickTime X. Marketed as a clean and stylish media player, QuickTime Player X lacked most of the advanced functionality of it’s predecessor, the beloved QuickTime 7. 

Experienced content creators could do amazing things with QuickTime 7. It allowed for editing of actual content and limitless options for exporting and encoding.

But the “new” and “improved” QuickTime is regularly berated by media pros. It provides little more than an elegant playback interface. Sure there are some added niceties such as screen recording and direct-to-YouTube exporting, but these are all consumer oriented features, which leave the “pro” users with a feeling of betrayal.

And I agree. Apple’s trend lately has been shifting toward consumer products. Shake, Apple’s digital compositing tool used on major films such as Lord of the Rings and King Kong, has been discontinued. Pro level hardware, such as the Mac Pro, has lost its innovation to consumer oriented devices such as iPhone and iPad.

But we can’t loose sight of the upside created by these changes. Opportunity. It’s time for developers to fill the gap. There is a great need for a QuickTime 7 replacement, and an audience ready to fork over large sums of cash to have it. 

Rather than complaining about change, let’s celebrate opportunity.

After nigh unto 6.5 hours in line, I received (err bought) my iPhone 4. I’ve been mucking about with it for a couple hours now, and here are some initial but brief observations.

Retina Display

Wow. It’s clear. Like wearing glasses for the first time. Phenomenal.

Speed

There are no words for the speed improvement over my original iPhone. No words.

Build and Feel

It’s sturdy. But it doesn’t sit in my hand as nicely as the original did. 

That bottom-left corner problem

Yep. Hold it by the bottom-left corner and the signal drops to naught. WiFi is unaffected.

Multitasking

One word. PANDORA.

Camera

Woops. Haven’t checked it out yet. brb.