Neowin.net

Ditto

why can't windows have those type of GUI. im sick of complaining how bad it looks on windows while they make it look so nice on a mac. oh wells we can always modify it, but sometimes its annoying. -_-

l00ks pretti mad they should make a skin like that for the windows version

WinAmp 5 looks better.

Nothing except this brings WM9 playback ability, the former version would only play back up to version 7 I think.

read the news properly dude!
"This new version of our player opens the world of Windows Media 9 content to Macintosh users, enabling them to access the best audio and video on the Web," Microsoft said on its Web site.

And? WMA and WMV suck! And despite that, I still play content in these formats when necessary... Unfortunately, 98% of WM content is still 7.1 or earlier. So who cares. No one believes MS's marketing but you dumbass. They don't even buy it.

Microsoft has had a Windows Media Player for the Mac for a number of years now. The new player is not a response to iTunes, it is merely an upgrade whose primary new feature is to allow Mac users to play WM9 series codecs which they could not play on version 7.1

I would think that Mac users who constantly complain about web sites they cannot access and other similar issues would welcome the ability to download and stream the high quality 9 series codecs from the numerous sources they have previously been unable to access.

If Apple really cared about it's customers it would have included the ability to play back WM9 in it's iTunes player. I think it's a great player on the Windows side, but my library of encoded music is not supported, so like many hundreds of thousands if not millions of Windows users I have no use for the iTunes application or for an iPod. At least the WMP allows the inclusion of codec plug ins when they are available and I'm sure we'll see an AAC plug-in in the not too distant future.

QUOTE

#10 Posted by lieb39 on 08 Nov 2003 - 18:32 Sad. iTunes comes onto windows to microsoft tries to fight back, little do they know that consumers (well, nerds ) are STAYING away from Microsoft. Keep the crashes on the PC, stop tring to get to Macs. -lieb39

Seriously man, this is a classic case of THINK BEFORE YOU SPEAK

Windows Media Player has been available for Mac for quite some time.

Its even mentioned in the article.

Sheeeeeeeeesh fool

Yeah.. to be fair, Microsoft have made media player for the mac for some time. They also make loads of their apps for the mac, including a very good version of the Remote Desktop Client.

Its not like its a knee jerk reaction to the release of iTunes for Windows.

Oi Sorrrrrrry

QUOTE (#10.1)

If Apple really cared about it's customers it would have included the ability to play back WM9 in it's iTunes player. I think it's a great player on the Windows side, but my library of encoded music is not supported, so like many hundreds of thousands if not millions of Windows users I have no use for the iTunes application or for an iPod. At least the WMP allows the inclusion of codec plug ins when they are available and I'm sure we'll see an AAC plug-in in the not too distant future.

..Cuz Microsoft's codecs are SOOOO Open Source, eh?

QUOTE (#10.1)

If Apple really cared about it's customers it would have included the ability to play back WM9 in it's iTunes player. I think it's a great player on the Windows side, but my library of encoded music is not supported, so like many hundreds of thousands if not millions of Windows users I have no use for the iTunes application or for an iPod. At least the WMP allows the inclusion of codec plug ins when they are available and I'm sure we'll see an AAC plug-in in the not too distant future.

Are you a customer of Apple's?Did you purchase anything they make?Does iPod play WMA?No! So you must not be what you'd call an "Apple customer" otherwise you wouldn't need WMA. And its WMA, not WM9(?).

By the way, iTunes has plugin support. I've seen them to enable say, another MP3 player to work before (Rio).

Actually I'm referring to Windows Media 9 series codecs. So WM9 would, in fact, be correct in this instance.

As for being a customer.. I can't be a customer because Apple doesn't support my media library. Apple would like me to be a customer as they have provided a free application that's sole purpose is to get people to buy iPods. I think the application is just swell and I think the iPod has many well thought out features. If it supported my media library I would consider purchasing one. Windows Media Codecs have been around longer and are much more widely used than the flavor of AAC that iTunes/iPod uses. It would be nice if Apple chose to expand it base a little and support Windows Media codecs in addition to MP3, AAC, and AVI. I know it's difficult to support everything, but WM codecs are so widely used that I think they should provide playback support for them.

QUOTE (#10.1)

At least the WMP allows the inclusion of codec plug ins when they are available and I'm sure we'll see an AAC plug-in in the not too distant future.

You mean like 3ivx for Windows?

you do realise of course that whether Apple wanted to support WMA or not it would be up to Microsoft to licence them the codec?

I agree.

Looks like a nice skin though.

yeah, well we all know that mac os x has better GUI than windows disregarding the user-friendly part. im use to the right-hand-side buttons and all that... but i like how mac os x have all of their menus/buttons on one side (left), while windows have button on right and menus on the left - sometimes it ****s me.

QUOTE (#14.0)

. MS bailed out apple by giving them 150 millions bucks back in 1997, remember Macworld Boston? Bill talked via satellite to Steve and the crowd. And the agreement was we give you 150million and we make you make our big software titles for mac and you include them in the OS's you ship

Not exactly. Microsoft bought $150m in Apple stock - this is not unusual, microsoft makes billions every year from investing activities. The deal was a two way deal:
Microsoft agreed to make major applications (as you said) for mac os.
Microsoft agreed not to seel the stock for 5 years
Apple agreed to stop shipping Netscape, and start bundling IE for Mac OS as the default browser (in 1997 Netscape was still the dominent browser in terms of users). IIRC this also settled a lawsuit apple and microsoft were fighting out, and had apple back down ogg in the DoJ anti-trust mess (i could be wrong on that).

Five years later Microsoft unloaded the apple stock (which had gone up, split, and gone up again) for a nice profit, Apple continued bundling IE with Mac OS (it's on my panther install disks as an "additional application" but not as the default browser. Microsoft still makes office for os x, and has promised one more version (for better or worse) in the future - most likely to make use of the new Office 2003 document paranoia/control/security features.

and the only reason Microsoft "invested" it was to keep from getting sued in a 1.2 billion dollar lawsuit over patent infringement

scarcasm? Its hard to tell when you put M$ and good in the same sentence

That reminds me. Windows + ill!

...I've recieved 17 viruses this week I enjoyed each and everyone of them!

lol no really, they did a fine job. i'm really glad they didn't port the whole WMP9 over, they probably know no one is gonna use it anyway. well done Microsoft!

Why the hostility toward a successful company that did nothing wrong to you?

Actually, I wish they did port the whole thing over, i rather like the way I can organize my media using Window Media Player on XP. I like the functionality better than i tunes and find it easier to use and control my media: storage, playlists, etc). An example would be the left pane navigation: it's far better in WMP. I can click on an album, and have artist info as well as album info come into view. I like being able to store my cds as albums (ie: folder name::artist-album title), and when viewed as thumnails, i can see the album cover. I'm sure I can manually do this on my mac... I just liked the ease of that on XP.

Eh? *slaps Mac15* and < points @ Cube >

I'm just pointing out, you want a mac muhahaha

wounldn't be surprised if it was released within this year. it will be a huge marketing ground-gain to them, knowing that they will have WMP in all of the major OSs.

QUOTE

Microsot sells the encoders for wm9 to companies.

Erhm... I think you can download it for free Windows Media 9 Encoder

QUOTE

Simply put Microsoft release the ability to play wm9 on the mac to increase the size of the target audience. Windows media player for the mac was never ment as Media player per say like iTunes/Quicktime. it's only really intended job is alawing wm9 content to a braoder audience

Urh... don't you realise it's the same reason why Apple ports Quicktime to Windows? (And Apple DOESNT offer free codecs for Quicktime) And obviously, they ported iTunes to Windows to have a "bigger size of the target audience" (as you correctly call it) for iTunes Music Store.

Anyway, it's logical and very understandable that both companies do so. After all, it's their business and they don't want to lose it, i wouldn't either.

The file format that it plays is called Windows Media, therefore it is Windows Media Player.

Should it be called Windows Quick Time?

now at last macs can have playlists

Err, we've had playlists for years.

When did anyone say anything like that in these comments?

threads #10 and #15 for example

The previous version of media player for the mac crashed all the time didn't decode anything properly...

Hopefully, this one is better....

It does crash though, and it's so freakin' slow. Same happens with MSN Messenger.

Spectre, i REALLY think Microsoft did a good job. it wasn't sarcasm smartypants.

I think he means the comments responding to your thread were dumb. Which they were.

The Mac Player doesn't yet support all versions of DRM but MS is working on it. This is from the Windows Media Talk Discussion Group:

>>>Don is correct. We are hard at work adding later DRM, but the work is not trivial. We hear the asks LOUD and clear.



Thanks!

Kevin




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: WMTalk [mailto:WMTalk@DISCUSS.MICROSOFT.COM] On Behalf Of Don Michels
Sent: Friday, November 07, 2003 12:06 PM
To: WMTalk@DISCUSS.MICROSOFT.COM
Subject: Re: Coming today! Windows Media Player 9 for Mac OS X



v1.3.

dm

Don Michels
The FeedRoom, Inc.

from the faq:

Content providers can protect Windows Media files from unauthorized playback by using a technology called digital rights management (DRM). A Windows Media file that has been assigned digital rights is called a "protected file."
To play a protected file, you must obtain a license (a kind of electronic key) from the content provider. In many cases, the Player can acquire a license for you automatically when you attempt to play the file. In other cases, the content provider may not issue you a license until you pay a fee or provide additional information.
Content providers can issue several different versions of DRM licenses; however, Windows Media Player 9 Series for Mac OS X only supports version 1 licenses. This means that you might be able to play some protected files, but not others.
We have informed our content partners about this issue so that they can decide whether to offer version 1 licenses to their customers who use Macintosh computers. <<<

Well I for one would like them to add it. I would like another choice for online music on my mac, even if it isnt Apple's. Sometimes Apple doesn't carry artists I like (Sevendust, Linkin Park, Razed in Black, even though the last isn't very mainstream.)

I'm not stupid, but it's just a file, it shouldn't be OS dependent, and Windows Media Player should be able to play it.

It's not just a file. It's a file with Digital Rights Management embedded in it. Coding all flavors of the Digital Rights Management systems that Microsoft's customers are enabling for the Mac will take some time. The new Mac WMP9 supports a couple of versions of DRM thus far, but not the version that Napster is using, nor the version that Artisan is using on thier HD DVD releases.

I actually quite like Windows Media Player 9 on Windows XP. It is feature packed, integrated and easy on the eye. I know most people will not agree with me but that doesn't bother me
--- i agree with you completely.

but it does the job fine. i just want to it play all my wmv.

That can also be said of Quicktime on the windows platform. On a Mac, it doesn't crash, plays fast and neatly.

well, the windows version of media player is really good... and yes quicktime really sucks on windows but roks in mac os x

Those freeware players will not play back the WM 9 series video codecs.