Skip to Content

Listen to the Joystiq Podcast (because your ears can't read)
AOL Tech

QuickTime posts

Filed under: Cool tools, How-tos, Tips and tricks

Batch tagging your iTunes videos the easy way

"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet." - William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

If we applied Shakespeare's logic to today's digital age, then it would also mean that watching mis-tagged or untagged videos on your Apple device (be it a Mac, iPhone, iPod or Apple TV) would be just as enjoyable. Okay, you got me, they'd probably be just as good. But this doesn't mean you're excused from tagging your videos appropriately.

First, a bit of background. The vast majority of videos purchased from the iTunes store, as well as "digital copy" (iPod/iPhone pre-formatted videos that are sometimes included on DVDs and Blu-Ray discs), will come pre-tagged. So, the situation for those in this camp (myself included) is peachy, especially when using an Apple TV. Your videos show up on the screen screen with proper titles, season and episode numbers, actors, and descriptions. Just the way Steve likes 'em.

But what if you already own the DVD and want a version for your iTunes library? For those of you with the time and patience to rip an MPEG-4 version (and believe me, this takes some patience, especially if you use H.264 encoding) of your favorite videos, a HandBrake-MetaX martini make tagging your videos a bit more of a pleasurable experience - as if it wasn't fun enough already.

Continue readingBatch tagging your iTunes videos the easy way

Filed under: Freeware, iPhone, App Store, App Review

First Look: Pixelpipe 1.4.1

So you got a shiny new 3GS (no more space!) and are looking for new ways to play with the new videos you've recorded? If the iPhone's built in YouTube uploading functionality isn't quite enough for you, Pixelpipe has stepped in to fill the void and allow you to send that video (or photo) to over 40 services quickly and easily.

I set up the application to send to Twitter and Picasa, and the uploads went exactly as advertised. It should be noted that when sending video to services that don't support direct uploads (such as Twitter), the video is sent to Pixelpipe's servers and linked from your account. On the Pixelpipe site, the video is displayed in its native .mov format, so PC owners may have a hard time viewing the video if they don't have QuickTime installed.

Pixelpipe
(iTunes link) is a free download and supports uploading video to 40 services. Sorry, iPod touch users, this one is an iPhone-only application.

Filed under: Multimedia, Software, Video, Software Update, Snow Leopard

QuickTime X leaps forward in Snow Leopard

Seems like only yesterday that QuickTime was at version 7. Oh wait, that was yesterday. Among the many announcements surrounding Snow Leopard we saw a little more of QuickTime X, Apple's next-generation version of the venerable media player/technology/doohickey. While the interface has been totally overhauled, the changes are more than skin deep.

QuickTime X is a significant update. For consumers, there won't be a Pro version. Any version will allow simple editing, video/audio capture, and allow you to "publish your media to MobileMe or YouTube -- without worrying about codec formats or resolutions." We're not sure if you'll be able to save as a QuickTime movie or source file as before, but the removal of some previous limits will make QuickTime the snappy iMovie substitute it could be. Plus, QuickTime X will allow you to use any web server to stream live video over HTTP. Can't wait to see what people do with that.

In addition to the visible changes, QuickTime X looks like a fundamental rewrite of the application and its underpinnings. Support for Core Audio, Core Video and Core Animation could mean some really interesting things for the future of media playback (not that we weren't promised as much a few years ago, of course). All of this comes wrapped up in Snow Leopard, and takes full advantage of the speed-tuning tech therein.

Continue readingQuickTime X leaps forward in Snow Leopard

Filed under: iTunes, Software Update, iPhone, iPod touch

iTunes 8.2 in Software Update, supports iPhone 3.0; QuickTime & GarageBand also patched

iTunes 8.2 just became available in Software Update. According to the update notes, "iTunes 8.2 now supports iPhone or iPod touch with the iPhone 3.0 Software Update. iTunes 8.2 also includes many accessibility improvements and bug fixes." The update weighs in at 79.3 MB.


QuickTime 7.6.2 and GarageBand Update 5.0.2 also became available at the same time. In keeping with Apple's policy of full disclosure, there's not much information for users about what's in either of the updates, although subscribers to Apple's security notification list got an email with a list of 10 fixed vulnerabilities in the QT update (soon to be posted at Apple's security site and reproduced in the second half of this post).

The GarageBand update "addresses general compatibility issues, improves overall stability, and fixes a number of other minor issues [including] Improved purchasing experience for Artist Lessons in the GarageBand Lesson Store [&] Accessing installed Jam Packs in the loop browser." The update is required if you are purchasing lessons from the Lesson Store.

The iTunes update is one more clear sign that iPhone 3.0 is just around the corner. Be sure to stay tuned to our coverage of the Apple Worldwide Developer Conference next week for all your iPhone news!

Continue readingiTunes 8.2 in Software Update, supports iPhone 3.0; QuickTime & GarageBand also patched

Filed under: Software, Features, Productivity, Friday Favorite

Friday Favorite: Transcriva

If you have a photographic memory, you may recall an article I wrote for TUAW about a year ago describing how to use AppleScript to make it easier to transcribe QuickTime movies and audio. In the comments for that piece, a program was pointed out to me (thanks imnotjesus) which has become a valuable tool in my toolbox. Transcriva is a single-purpose program for transcribing video and audio clips with a rich set of features certain to make your life easier. If you're doing professional transcription, recording audio notes in a class or a meeting for later reference, preparing sub-titles for a movie, or anything which involves copying what's being said or shown into text form, Transcriva has tools to fit, and pricing I find very reasonable.

The main window of Transcriva offers a library view of your transcriptions, a media playback bar and your current transcription. With user-configurable keyboard shortcuts, it's possible to comfortably operate during a transcription without your hands ever needing to leave the keyboard. It even works with a foot pedal, if you're set up with one. You can control playback speed and set it to match your typing speed, as well automatically jump back a configurable number of seconds when you pause and resume playback.

Of all of the features available, Follow-Along is my favorite. It allows you to play back your audio after you've transcribed it, and highlights the appropriate sections of the transcription as the playback head moves through them. More importantly, clicking on an area of the transcription jumps to its related point in the playback, allowing you to quickly review the audio associated with a note or transcription. This is important because that's exactly how I use Transcriva, taking notes from audio recordings or even during a recording when I'm using the built-in record features. Then I can review my hastily typed notes and immediately hear the audio that was happening at the time I took the note.

It's great for recording meetings and annotating recorded Skype conversations. I imagine it would be an amazing tool in class, if you were in a situation where recording and typing were allowed. I haven't been to school for a while. The functionality is similar to Pear Note, but at $29.99US, Transcriva comes in $10US cheaper and packs more features.

Transcriva can handle just about any type of audio or video you can play on your Mac. It uses QuickTime, and with Flip4Mac and Perian installed, you can extend the possibilities to include WMV, AVI, DIVX, FLV and more. When you're done with a transcription, you can export it to RTF or Word formats for sharing, publishing or continuing editing externally. I use Transcriva to recap interviews I do over Skype, and take my notes in an "outline" format which I can, with a little finagling, turn into a mind map or outline for an article.

Transcriva has made my life exponentially easier and is a tool I'd gladly recommend to anyone with similar needs. My direct experience with the developer has also been great, with quick response times and a single bug report resulting in a new build within a couple of days. Transcriva is free to try, $29.99US to buy. You can download the trial at the Bartas Technologies site. If you hurry, it's even discounted to $19.99US in the MacUpdate Promo today.

Filed under: WWDC, Snow Leopard

Schiller and team to deliver WWDC keynote, Snow Leopard developer preview June 8

Apple issued a press release this morning, saying that Worldwide Marketing VP Phil Schiller would lead a "team of Apple executives" to deliver the Worldwide Developer Conference keynote June 8 at 10:00 a.m. Pacific (1 p.m. Eastern).

According to the press release, attendees will receive a developer preview of Snow Leopard, the next major version of Mac OS X. The developer preview is designed to show off a new version of QuickTime, QuickTime X, multi-core and GPU processor support, and accessibility enhancements.

"At WWDC, we will be giving our developers a final Developer Preview release so they can see the incredible progress we've made on Snow Leopard and work with us as we move toward its final release," said Bertrand Serlet, senior VP of Software Engineering.

During the conference, iPhone developers can also attend over 100 technical sessions and meet with more than a thousand Apple engineers about iPhone OS 3.0, the release says.

WWDC runs from June 8 to June 12 at Moscone West in San Francisco. The conference is sold out.

Filed under: Other Events, Developer, iPhone

Apple posts iPhone event video

As the day is slowly drawing to a close (quite literally for iPhone developers who are downloading the SDK), Apple has finally put up the video from the iPhone 3.0 event today. You can watch Greg, Scott, Phil, and others as they discuss Apple's plans for the new iPhone OS and SDK. Be sure to check out our coverage of the event, and our roundup of all the new iPhone OS features.

You can watch the QuickTime stream here.

Filed under: Multimedia, OS, Software

Rumor: Snow Leopard to include QuickTime Pro

At long last, Apple will (allegedly) stop charging customers for the "Pro" features of QuickTime by building them into Snow Leopard. Finally.

You'll recall that Apple has been gradually increasing the options available to the free version of QuickTime, like full screen playback mode. Other features of the Pro version -- like simple editing and export options -- were unlocked with in a recent developer's build of Snow Leopard.

Of course, this may be a way to let developers test all aspects of QuickTime, but we're hoping that's not the case. With the popularity of Apple's video editing software like iMovie and Final Cut, it seems that simple cut-and-paste should be free with QuickTime. Launching one of those apps just to complete a simple edit is overkill. Kind of like swatting a fly with a Buick.

We've got our fingers crossed.

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Internet Tools, Developer

CSS Animation to replace need for Flash in MobileSafari? Not likely

New nightly builds of Safari's bleeding-edge doppelgänger, WebKit, are getting some new support for CSS animations -- support that's already available in MobileSafari.

The animations, which include a falling leaves effect, a way to simply animate objects sliding across the screen, and a "pulse" effect (described as "the new <blink>") are all supported by WebKit. The WebKit blog shows code examples about how to use these behaviors in your own sites.

MacRumors's Arnold Kim suggests that Apple may be looking to obviate the need for Flash on the iPhone and iPod touch through the implementation of web tools like CSS Animation. I would argue that while CSS is powerful, getting Flash on the iPhone is about one thing and one thing only: Games.

Continue readingCSS Animation to replace need for Flash in MobileSafari? Not likely

Filed under: Multimedia, Software Update, Security

QuickTime 7.6 addresses security issues

QuickTime 7.6 is in the wild. Released today via Software Update and on Apple's support site, the new version "includes changes that increase reliability, improve compatibility and enhance security." It also makes your whites whiter and your brights brighter while helping you avoid embarrassing social situations.

More details via the update page:

Video: Improves single-pass H.264 encoding quality; Increases the playback reliability of Motion JPEG media

Audio: Improves AAC encoding fidelity; Audio tracks from MPEG video files now export consistently

Application Support: Improves compatibility with iChat and Photo Booth

As far as the security updates are concerned, the word from Ryan Naraine at ZDnet is that this patch closes several potentially serious holes that could have been exploited by malicious URLs or custom-payload movie files to execute code on target machines. Four of the seven issues addressed in this update were reported to Apple via the Zero Day Initiative, which encourages responsible disclosure of vulnerabilities by providing cash bounties for the researchers involved.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in.

Filed under: Macworld

2009 Macworld Keynote video available

As usual, Apple has released a Quicktime video of the keynote address from this year's Macworld Expo. This one's rather historic, as well all know. It's simultaneously Phil Schiller's first and Apple's last.

Right now it's available as a stream from Apple's website, but it typically shows up in the iTunes Store as a free download shortly thereafter. Be sure to grab a copy and "own a piece of history" as they say. Whoever "they" are.

So, what did you think of this year's presentation? We think Phil did a great job and was greeted warmly by the crowd. Sure, a little bit of fanfare would have been nice, but that was Tony Bennet's role, right?

Filed under: Multimedia, Software, Freeware

Perian 1.1.3 now available, provides lots of fixes

On Monday, Perian 1.1.3 was released. Perian is a Preference Pane that provides QuickTime with a ton of extra codec support, including: AVI, DivX, and FLV. Version 1.1.3 updates the following aspects of Perian:
  • Enabled Indeo 2/3 decodecs
  • Added external idx/sub (VobSub) support
  • Added support for H.264 and H.263 in FLV containers
  • Apple's decoder now handles Baseline/Main Profile H.264
  • Fix inconsistent importing for multi-channel audio
  • Reduced memory usage for packed streams
  • Added sanity checks on all preferences
  • Enabled hack to show subtitles in Front Row
  • Fixed negative values in SSA \frz tag
  • Fixed VSFilter bug-compatibility for \an
You can learn more about Perian, and download the new update, by visiting the Perian.org website.

Filed under: Multimedia, Software Update, Macbook Pro, MacBook

Apple releases QuickTime 7.5.7, fixes HDCP issues

Apple just updated QuickTime to version 7.5.7. This update is big news for users of the MacBook and MacBook Pro unibody computers because it fixes the problem where some users were unable to play protected movie files from iTunes on external displays. This is a problem that TUAW noted last week.

Here's what Software Update has to say about this update: This update is recommended for owners of MacBook, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro with Mini DisplayPort. The update addresses an issue where some standard definition purchases from the iTunes Store do not play on some external displays.

We're sure that this update will make many MacBook and MacBook Pro users happy when it comes to video playback on external displays. You can download this update by opening Software Update (Apple menu > Software Update), or by visiting the Apple Support Download Website. Continue reading to see a screenshot of Software Update.

Update: Please note that this update does not allow the playback of HD (High-Definition) content on external displays, you will only be able to view SD (Standard-Definition) content.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

Continue readingApple releases QuickTime 7.5.7, fixes HDCP issues

Filed under: Software Update

QuickTime H.264 Compatibility Update is out

Apple just released a software update for QuickTime. The update titled "H.264 Compatibility Update" claims to improve QuickTime compatibility with iChat.

You can download this update by opening Software Update (Apple menu > Software Update), or by downloading the installer package directly from the Apple website (it should appear there shortly).

Thanks to Tony, and others who sent in this tip!

Filed under: Multimedia, Software, Video, Freeware

Perian 1.1.2 released, fixes updating

Last night, Perian was updated to version 1.1.2. If you need to extend the capabilities of QuickTime, the free Perian plugin allows QuickTime to play back all kinds of popular video formats (.AVI, .MKV, .FLV and more). It's a handy utility for anyone who watches a lot of video on their Mac.

Here's a list of the bug fixes/improvements in 1.1.2:
  • Fixed update checker never running - this version requires a manual install
  • Enabled frame-dropping on AppleTV
  • Fixed some frames being lost in AVCHD/.mp4 with newer versions of QuickTime
  • Fixed another ffmpeg crash on G3s
You can download the update to Perian from the project's website. You can also see the version history list on their support website.


Thanks for the tip, Chris!

Tip of the Day

Holding the Command key (aka the Apple key) and pressing Tab will cycle through your open applications. It's easier to Cmd-Tab if you are Copy (Cmd-C) and Pasting (Cmd-V) to and from various applications.


Follow us on Twitter!
TUAW [Cafepress]

Sponsored Links

Featured Galleries

DNC Macs
Macworld 2008 Keynote
Macworld 2008 Build-up
Google Earth for iPhone
Podcaster
AT&T Navigator Road Test
Bento for iPhone 1.0
Scrabble for iPhone
Tom Bihn Checkpoint Flyer Briefcase
Apple Vanity Plates
Apple booth Macworld 07
WorldVoice Radio
Quickoffice for iPhone 1.1.1
Daylite 3.9 Review
DiscPainter
Mariner Calc for iPhone
2009CupertinoBus
Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D
MLB.com At Bat 2009
Macworld Expo 2007 show floor
Apple Texas Hold 'Em

 

More Apple Analysis

AOL Radio TUAW on Stitcher