ReadWriteWeb
Latest
Video: Surface intro and iPad intro compared
Microsoft introduced its Surface tablet earlier this week and the comparisons to the iPad are only beginning. As pointed out by John Gruber of Daring Fireball, one clever side-by-side is this one from ReadWriteWeb that looks at the unveiling of the Surface tablet and compares it to Steve Jobs's introduction of the iPad. [Via Daring Fireball]
Did you catch that? Event livestream is Mac and iOS only
Most of you noticed something a bit... oddly specific about Apple's streaming announcement for the 9/1 event: Apple® will broadcast its September 1 event online using Apple's industry-leading HTTP Live Streaming, which is based on open standards. Viewing requires either a Mac® running Safari® on Mac OS® X version 10.6 Snow Leopard®, an iPhone® or iPod touch® running iOS 3.0 or higher, or an iPad™. The live broadcast will begin at 10:00 a.m. PDT on September 1, 2010 at www.apple.com. What's missing from this picture? About nine-tenths of the Internet; specifically, anyone using a Windows PC. As pointed out on ReadWriteWeb, there is no QuickTime X for Windows yet and no client supporting HTTP Live Streaming. I'm not sure why RWW's Adrianne Jeffries is convinced that it's up to Microsoft to implement QuickTime X (hint: it's not), but Apple's engineering team is still working to flesh out the new QuickTime stack on the Mac -- no surprise that the Windows version is lagging behind. Yes, HTTP live streaming is an open standard, but that doesn't help much without a working implementation (as Adobe's John Nack is pointing out). Having a fallback stream of plain old RTSP wouldn't just be a nice gesture for the rest of the world -- it'd also be welcomed by the millions of PowerPC Mac users who won't be able to watch the stream, either. Yep, that requirement specifies Safari on Mac OS X 10.6 -- no Intel, no joy. Of course, even if you can't tune in for the video goodness, you can still come here for our lively and informative liveblog. Update: MacRumors points to this test stream and also suggests that VLC may be able to watch the stream, at least in fits and starts.
