October 10, 2000
Untitled
Oh my good golly. Not only did Apple announce the availability of a public preview version of QuickTime 5 today at the QuickTime Live! conference, but I think they may have actually listened to the people who use the software. Among the requisite new hoosits and whatsits like built-in streaming MPEG-1 and Shoutcast support (apparently not a functioning feature in this particular release) and a walk on wild side of faux environmental immersion called Cubic VR, the interface is slightly better to boot. Gone (hopefully forever) are the counter-intuitive controls like the moronic volume wheel and the item tray. Well, the tray is still there, but now it’s accessible by clicking a “TV” button and integrated as an alternate view mode into the normal player window. You still can’t windowshade the app, but interface has been Aqua-cized, and is now reportedly skinnable (it’s not readily apparent how the heck this works either). Perhaps one of the odder changes to the interface is the way you access the tone and balance controls. In version 4, these controls were hidden in another sliding tray which wasn’t the best solution but seemed to work all the same. Now you click on the microscopic audio spectrum analyzer in the status display area to make these controls appear. Of course, there’s no obvious keyboard command or menu item to trigger this display, so you need to resort to the hunt and peck method of functional discovery. 
I am keeping in mind that this is only a preview release and that not all of the promised goodies are available right away. In fact, there isn’t even a Windows version yet. My initial opinion? Most of the major annoyances have been vanquished, but a few new ones have cropped up. Thanks for listening Apple. Just keep you ears peeled as we move on.
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