QuickTime Live! Conference Report

During the kick-off keynote today at the first-ever QuickTime Live! conference, Apple previewed new QuickTime 4.1 and QuickTime Streaming Server 2 technologies. Apple also announced that more than 20 million copies of its QuickTime 4 software and more than 50,000 copies of its Apple Open Source Streaming Server have been downloaded since April.

"The adoption rates of QuickTime 4 and QuickTime Streaming Server have been phenomenal," said Phil Schiller, Apple's vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. "New e-commerce and ad insertion features that we demonstrated today will set QuickTime even further apart from the pack."

QuickTime 4.1 will feature enhanced functionality, including seamless ad insertion; improved firewall navigation; AppleScript support for easy digital media creation and streaming; and support of synchronized multimedia integrated language (SMIL), the emerging standard for interactive media creation.

QuickTime Streaming Server 2 will feature password protection and a plug-in architecture that will let developers easily and quickly extend the functionality of the QuickTime Streaming Server. QuickTime Streaming Server 2 will also support third-party analysis tools that provide consolidated server reporting.

Additionally, Apple announced it will add six new channels from leading international news and entertainment organizations to the growing lineup of content providers on QuickTime TV (QTV), the Internet's highest-quality network for streaming audio and video.

New channels include CNN.com (see related release), MTV, Nickelodeon, TV Land, Financial Times and tv-radio.com. The tv-radio.com channel alone will feature content from more than 50 radio stations and five TV stations in France. The CNN.com, Nickelodeon and TV Land channels are available immediately; the MTV, Financial Times and tv-radio.com channels premiere on November 15.

Finally, Apple and CNN today announced that CNN.com will begin using QuickTime 4 to stream breaking news and the day's top news reports from CNN to millions of users worldwide. CNN has also launched a new channel on the QuickTime TV (QTV) network that will feature round-the-clock newscasts from CNN Headline News, on-demand daily video reports as well as audio reports from CNNRadio."