Friday, September 12, 2003

Zeldman points out the risks if the IE plugin patent lawsuit continues the way it has: "Microsoft has again been told to cripple its market-leading browser in compliance with the Eolas patent lawsuit. IE/Windows will no longer be able to seamlessly play Flash, Quicktime, PDF, and other rich media formats. Other browser makers like Netscape and Opera may also be forced to cripple their browsers, making the web look like 1993 all over again. Clumsy, disruptive workarounds that diminish user experience might allow browsers to present rich media files, but site owners would have to pay for development -- and Eolas might sue anyway. The patent ruling will hurt everyone. Patents on the web are always bad, but this one stinks to Heaven. We find ourselves rooting for Microsoft." This obviously has the potential to affect QuickTime authors. Maybe we'll be forced to make every VR playback "fullscreen" (i.e. in the QuickTIme Player). The NY Times article on the subject is here. 7:50:59 AM

Mac OS X 10.3, aka Panther, is rumored to have over 50 new APIs for QuickTime, according to think secret. 7:09:14 AM

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