Apple Announced QuickTime 6 at QuickTime Live

during Phil Schiller's keynote address. Here is the press release. QuickTime 6 provides a fully scalable, ISO compliant MPEG-4 solution for streaming media to the widest range of devices. Key features of QuickTime 6 include:

* Apple-developed video codec for encoding and decoding MPEG-4 video content;
* support for Advanced Audio Coding (AAC), the next generation audio format;
* support for CELP, the MPEG-4 speech codec for reproduction of natural speech;
* adherence to the Internet Streaming Media Alliance (ISMA) 1.0 specification;
* MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 playback, ideal for content creators who wish to preview and share work throughout the production process;
* Flash 5 support;
* DVC Pro (PAL) support;
* updated user interface with a new, easy-to-use “Favorites” interface and easier access to QuickTime content; and
* skip protection enhancements.

QT6 is ready to ship but Apple has not accepted the MPEG-LA license which asks for fees for use as well as for the included Apple CODEC. MacCentral has photos of the keynote which include many of the slides used in the presentation.