Thursday, January 12, 2006

Goodbye, WMP for Mac OS X


Goodbye, WMP for Mac OS X:
Yesterday, we wrote about the extraordinary generosity that Microsoft displayed by distributing the Flip4Mac player available for free. Flip4Mac is a tool that allows you to play WMV files with Quicktime. Before you get a warm fuzzy for Microsoft, check this out: They've suspended development of Windows Media Player for Mac OS X. No big loss, of course, especially now that we have an alternative.

(Via The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW).)


The approach that Microsoft seems to be taking towards Mac software seems like a really good one to me. They have stopped working on applications that already exist for the Macsuch as Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player for the Mac. There are already have good default applications available to replace Microsoft offerings such as Safari and the Quick Time Player. It would make a lot of sense for Microsoft to instead offer just the wmv codec. It is all that is requireed for playing the Windows Media on a Mac. This way Microsoft can work on software for the Mac that matters. Like MSOffice.

Here is Robert Scoble wondering how to react to this. I think this is good!

Mozilla and hypocrisy

Right, but what about the experiences that Mozilla chooses to default for users like switching to  Yahoo and making that the default upon ...