Flip4Mac
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Flip4Mac WMV tool launches public beta of v3
Mac owners who work in a Windows environment know how difficult it can be to play a Windows Media file on their laptop. One popular solution that lets customers play and edit a WMV/WMA file is Flip4Mac, a QuickTime component that is developed by Telestream and supported and hosted by Microsoft. The latest release is Version 3, which customers can now download as a public beta. This newest version includes support for 64-bit Core Audio in OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion. The package is now signed with a digital certificate that meets Gatekeeper's security requirements. Besides some changes for Mountain Lion, this release also includes a new Flip Player application. Flip player is a free, standalone media player that complements Flip4Mac's system-wide QuickTime integration. Customers who want more than a player can purchase an upgrade to a Pro (US$29), Studio ($49) or Studio Pro HD ($179) version. In addition to playback, these paid versions can edit and transcode WMV and WMA files.
Ask TUAW: Canceling Mobile Me, iPhone backups, playing Windows media files and more
Welcome back to another edition of our weekly Q & A column Ask TUAW. Each week this column will appear with questions and answers. If you have questions for the following week's column, drop them in the comments, and I will do my best to get to them. I won't be able to answer them all every time, so please, be patient. When asking a question, please include which machine you're using and what version of Mac OS X is installed on it (we'll assume you're running Snow Leopard on an Intel Mac if you don't specify). If you're asking an iPhone, iPod touch or iPad question, be sure to note which model and version of iOS you have. For this week we've got a new batch of questions about how to cancel Mobile Me, getting Windows Media files to play on a Mac, backing up an iPhone and more. Rusty Cantor asks How do I cancel Mobile Me? I can't seem to figure it out. I'm 83 and this tech life is driving me nuts.
iMovie, other non-Apple QuickTime components updated
Hot on the heels of yesterday's Aperture 3.0.2 update, Apple has released iMovie 8.0.6. The update improves reliability when working with videos from Aperture and requires Mac OS X 10.5.6 or later and iLife '09. The update weighs in at 35.84 MB and is available via the download link above or Software Update. In other movie software update news, Flip4Mac WMV has updated its free player to version 2.3.2. Flip4Mac is a QuickTime plugin that lets you watch WMV files in QuickTime Player. The new update fixes problems playing back files and streams with MP3 content and corrects problems launching QuickTime Player under Snow Leopard. Finally, Perian has been updated to 1.2.1. Perian is a QuickTime plugin that allows you to play virtually any kind of media through QuickTime Player. This update adds Indeo 5 decoding and fixes several bugs. Both Perian and Flip4Mac require 10.4 or higher.
Giving or getting a Mac for the holidays? 10 apps every new Mac user needs
All new Macs come with great bundled software. Between the iLife suite, Safari, iTunes, and TextEdit, plus the ability to access and use cloud applications for free, almost all of the most basic modern computing needs get met for most users. That said, having used four different Macs over the past seven years, there are several applications that don't come with OS X that I find myself immediately loading onto a new Mac. Most of these are big-name apps that you've probably already heard of, but it's still pretty amazing how much extra functionality you can eke out of a Mac with only ten additional programs, and all of them (save the last one) are free. Whether you're buying a new Mac for a relative this holiday season or getting a new one for yourself, these are ten applications you should download as soon as that shiny new machine loads the desktop for the first time.
Flip4Mac 2.1.1.70 adds Windows Media 9 Advanced playback
The essential QuickTime plugin for playing Windows Media files, Flip4Mac, has been updated. In addition to bug fixes, etc., the new beta version 2.1.1.70 adds the significant improvement of support for Windows Media 9 Advanced playback. If you've been running into incompatibilities with a favorite site that uses that codec check out this latest version.[Via MacVolPlace]
Get 35% off Flip4Mac
Ok, so for whatever reason you just need to have the ability to encode darling little WMVs on your Mac, Flip4Mac is probably the way you'll want to go, and macZOT! makes the encoding software more appealing with a nice 35% off discount. The full-fledged Flip4Mac WMV Studio package typically runs $49, but with this offer (good for today only) the price gets knocked down to just under $32. As a side note, you don't need to spend any money to play Windows Media files: simply grab the free plugin. The software requires OS X 10.3.9, and QuickTime 6.5 or later. (Don't shoot the messenger!)
Feral Interactive product update (Macworld Expo)
U.K.-based publisher, Feral Interactive made the trip to this year's Macworld Expo, eager to sell its product to Mac gamers. The company's booth holds many kiosks showing Feral's latest -- or in-progress -- ports, including Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy, The Movies, and Imperial Glory.Feral head, David Stephen updated us on the status of its games; Lego Star Wars, Colin McRae Rally, and Fable: The Lost Chapters will ship this Spring. (A few technical glitches that delayed the latter two titles have recently been fixed.)Stephen is also excited about the newly shipped The Movies because of updates Feral was able to make to the PC version. For example, Mac gamers have more format options when exporting completed movies. Also, because Feral wanted Mac gamers to be able to share videos on the PC-game's Windows Media site, the Mac version includes a copy of Flip4Mac's WMV Studio -- normally a $50 utility -- to render in that Windows codec.
Telestream releases "Episode"
Telestream (aka the "Flip4Mac" people) announced the 4.2 release of its "Episode" compression software for Mac. Episode provides compression solutions for both the desktop (from $395) and for workgroups (from $6500) for media distribution on the web, podcasts, and DVD. Version 4.2 adds VC-1 HDV and 5.1 surround sound support, WMA Pro Audio and (on the proper machines) real-time HD encoding. The higher-end solutions offer field-order control plus multi-server job queuing and reprioritizing.
Universal Flip4Mac coming soon (Today!)
People who want to play Windows Media files on their Intel Macs can rejoice, eventually. That's right, Telestream, the makers of the very cool Flip4Mac which enables Quicktime to play Windows Media files, have posted a note on their website. It basically says that they are working on a Universal Binary and they hope to release it within the next few weeks.Update: The real story here is that the Universal version of Flip4Mac (2.1) is available from Microsoft right now. Go forth and download. Thanks, Andy!
Flip4Mac begins beta testing Universal Binary WMV QuickTime components
For Intel Mac users who either love or hate WMV but have to deal with it one way or another, Flip4Mac has just begun beta testing the long-awaited Universal Binary version of their WMV QuickTime components. Announced in their forums today, it is more or less an invite-yourself program, as I had to contact them weeks ago to get on their email announcement list.After briefly testing on my MacBook Pro, it seems like everything is working just fine. I'm able to play embedded WMV files with no problem, but I unfortunately don't have any locally saved WMV's to try at the moment. So far, the beta seems like a success, and while I hate the WMV format just as much as the next Mac user, it's nice to no longer receive that 'plug-in not found' error.
Flip4Mac breaks QuickTime export?
Some users, myself included, are reporting that the 3rd party Flip4Mac plugin Microsoft recently purchased and offered for free seems to break QuickTime Pro's ability to export movie files. This morning I was trying to compress and export to H.264 some AVI files I shot with my Canon digicam over the weekend, but was met with relentless "error -2126" messages. Some research revealed a few articles and Apple Support threads, like this one, that have found this and various other buggy issues with the WMV plugin, but most of them pointed to this Flip4Mac support topic on the grubby process of uninstalling and/or Flip4Mac. A future release of the plugin promises a true, automated uninstaller option, but for now: if you're having QuickTime issues like this after installing Flip4Mac, try going through their uninstallation process to reclaim the software's abilities.
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 What Do I Know]
