Apple Deprecating Quicktime For Windows, Micro Trends Urges Users To Uninstall (trendmicro.com) 212
harryjohnston writes: Usually when a vendor deprecates a software product and stops releasing security updates, they provide some sort of advance notice that they're intending to do so. The least we would expect is for them to announce an unexpected end-of-life themselves. However, Trend Micro released a security advisory today describing two zero-day vulnerabilities for Quicktime for Windows, and according to them, Apple told Trend Micro -- but apparently nobody else -- that they have deprecated Quicktime for Windows and will not be releasing a patch. The Register has an article on the announcement. Apple did not respond to their request for comment.
Not the first time... (Score:5, Interesting)
Apple simply stopped updating Safari for Windows, no announcement or notice, just quietly stopped releasing updates.
Re:Not the first time... (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh please, oh please, oh pleeeeease.....
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What's next, Flash?
Oh please, pretty please with sugar on top.
Actually, I think there is an underlying philosophic problem there. Content below appearance, and from that perspective I sort of want to give Adobe more credit for at least picking a name for mindless flash that captures its essence. In contrast, Apple's "Quick" could be considered better as a distraction, a misdirection of interest, so to speak. Still evil, but I hate Adobe more precisely because they were more successful in imposing their thre
Re:Not the first time... (Score:4, Interesting)
Flash is being depreciated and Adobe has already given a timeline for the discontinuation of the product so that companies that currently rely on it will be able to migrate to a different product with a minimum of hassle. Of course, many will still wait until after it is discontinued and they get hit by a horrendous attack to try and migrate. I have no sympathy for them.
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Except it's not, and no announcement has been made. In fact, Adobe release a PR for the next version of the Flash Player two days ago.... http://labs.adobe.com/technolo... [adobe.com]
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Technically, Flash was first a Macromedia product. Adobe got Flash when it purchased Macromedia in the early 2000s.
(Possibly few people will care about the distinction -- I worked at Macromedia at the time, and Adobe was considered our singular nemesis, so I ... kinda like to remind people Adobe didn't come up with Flash. Of course Flash being what it is, I'm not sure that's a good thing :) )
Re:Not the first time... (Score:5, Informative)
Technically, Flash - or FutureSplash Animator - was first a FutureWave product.
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Actually, Flash is a contraction of FutureSplash.
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What would be even better would be for Adobe to drop Acrobat Reader, forcing Microsoft to embed PDF support in Windows, just like the Other Guys. Approximately one third of a Windows user's working day seems to be installing Acrobat updates.
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What's next, Flash?
Actually, I think there is an underlying philosophic problem there. Content below appearance, and from that perspective I sort of want to give Adobe more credit for at least picking a name for mindless flash that captures its essence. In contrast, Apple's "Quick" could be considered better as a distraction, a misdirection of interest, so to speak.
What are you talking about? The "Quick" in QuickTime is in parallel to QuickDraw [wikipedia.org], which dates back to the earliest, original Macintosh Toolbox and had concepts from the Lisa. The "Time" (obviously) is from its focus on time metadata in the .mov format. Data over time is the key concept within the original QuickTime API.
And yes, things have moved on, but the container format was deemed flexible enough to be used virtually unchanged in MPEG4. Show some respect.
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Quicktime's been around several years longer than any Microsoft "Direct" family products, which were introduced starting with Windows 95. QuickTime Media Player has been around since 1991.
And don't forget, Microsoft's video standards and players were originally based on STOLEN QuickTime Source Code [roughlydrafted.com].
So in a very real sense, QuickTime for Windows will continue to live on.
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And don't forget, Microsoft's video standards and players were originally based on STOLEN QuickTime Source Code [roughlydrafted.com]
Did you read that website? The claims and timeline are completely totally wrong for DOS; why would you trust it for Quicktime?
From the page:
Course 1: the Desktop OS Monopoly
Microsoft snared CP/M code to sell as DOS, then blocked Digital Research from competing with its own product.
Microsoft partnered with IBM to use it as a vehicle for establishing its purloined MS-DOS as a standard.
After Compaq cloned IBM's hardware, Microsoft dumped IBM to court PC clone makers.
Microsoft used its remaining charms to get IBM to develop OS/2 as its DOS replacement.
After hiring away VMS engineers, Microsoft used that company's technology in NT, and dumped IBM's OS/2.
NeXTSTEP, Solaris/Intel, and BeOS were all prevented from competing through exclusive OEM contracts.
The first point is wrong; the second point occurred before the first AND was the other way around; the third point never happened, the fourth point is the wrong way around; the fifth point has seeds of truth, and the sixth point only has seeds of truth. You can refute all of the above with just two books "Hard Drive" and "Showstopper!".
Parts of Quicktime may have inde
Re: Not the first time... (Score:2)
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Don't throw me into that brier patch!
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What's next, iTunes?
Oh please, oh please, oh pleeeeease.....
They are more aggresive with iTunes. Instead of just not updating it, they are updating it to make it worse. You are still supposed to get the hint though.
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Except there are valid uses for iTunes that you really should use it if you have an iOS device.
Backups - iCloud works, but iTunes backups, especially encrypted ones, are far better and back up more data (encrypted backups will backup authentication information, for example, so you don't have to set up your email. Regular and iCloud backups don't capture that because Apple not only doesn't want that information, Apple doesn't want it to appe
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When an app is removed from the App store, it continues to function where it's installed. (Apple so far has not disabled nor remotely removed any app from anyone's devices). if you sync with iTunes, iTunes will capture the app and save a copy locally.
They removed this functionality. https://imazing.com/why-did-ap... [imazing.com]
Re:Not the first time... (Score:5, Interesting)
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purposefully gimping non apple software on apple devices
Citation, please?
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We can all joke about how pathetic and shitty their win applications are, but let's be realistic, these are created by professionals.
But that's how they design them. Then they can say it works much better on a mac, why don't you buy a ma? C'mon, buy a mac.
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Perhaps it's time to farm out design and coding, and stick to icon design and repackaging other companies' off the shelf components.
You're so full of shit, it's pathetic.
To be sure, just like every other tech company, Apple uses many off-the-shelf components.
However, UNLIKE most other tech companies (e.g. Lenovo, Dell and HP), Apple designs many, many custom components for their products, e.g. sound processors, memory controllers, I/O controllers and much, much more. And that doesn't even touch on their custom cases, power supplies, plus a boatload of custom cables, connectors and adapters; this list goes on and on.
There are many
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No one forces you to use it. What's up with you fucktards who cry about something that you're not forced to use? Is that all you got in your life?
Yep. You must be new here...
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Same with Hypercard. And MacDraw. And CyberDog. And Graphing Calculator.
What, is my beard getting too long?
DUH! (Score:5, Funny)
Neither does the submitter.
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2 companies I've never heard of ? :)
Editors? (Score:3, Insightful)
How do you manage to get the name of the company issuing the advisory wrong in the TITLE? You've got it right in the summary? Where did "Micro Trends" come from?
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People still use Quicktime? (Score:5, Insightful)
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Interestingly yes. Major camera makers still use the Quicktime container to store MP4 video. Major editing vendors still require Quicktime installed to play videos.
As for people using Quicktime to play videos... I don't think this was ever the case.
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Certainly not for more than the five or ten seconds it takes to change the default back to your preferred media player because Quicktime stole the file association again, dammit.
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As for people using Quicktime to play videos... I don't think this was ever the case.
Back in the 90s and early 2000s this was often the case (see also files with the *.mov extension), but as time went on the requirement slowed.
You don't see it as much these days because apps like VLC already have Quicktime decoders built-in to their product, and they just play it as a matter of course.
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ProRes is really quite popular especially in the professional space. What are alternative solutions for decoding ProRes on Windows?
Required for Unity Video Import (Score:2)
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People still use Windows?
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because a lot of games need it to display cut-scenes
Most games definitely do not use quicktime. Typically BinkVideo or some other proprietary codec which can scale with system load and not bog down loading in the background.
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Anyone using Safari on Windows trying to play html5 media in that browser.
Why would anyone on windows use safari?
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You're not really testing Safari if you're testing the deceased Windows version of it. It's not the version that any users are using.
I hope there is a misunderstanding (Score:5, Insightful)
QuickTime does power a lot of professional video workload, perhaps Apple tried to say that they are dropping the browser plugin via removing it in an update which is seriously overdue. Apple wasted a great technology but whatever, days of plugins are long gone.
If there is no misunderstanding, that should be a final wakeup call to creative professionals.
Re:I hope there is a misunderstanding (Score:5, Informative)
Regarding browser plug-ins, this article [apple.com] on Apple's website tells you how to remove QuickTime 7 for Windows. The article states,
Uninstalling QuickTime 7 also removes the legacy QuickTime 7 web plug-in, if present. Websites increasingly use the HTML5 web standard for a better video-playback experience across a wide range of browsers and devices, without additional software or plug-ins. Removing legacy browser plug-ins enhances the security of your PC.
Re:I hope there is a misunderstanding (Score:5, Informative)
There is. The summary and the story is completely freaking wrong.
It's the browser plugin only that is discontinued. Quicktime is still supported as it is a big part of video editing on both platforms. Hell my latest canon 4K pro camera writes video in MOV format natively.
Re:I hope there is a misunderstanding (Score:5, Informative)
When your computer "plays" a container file, it first demuxes (de-multiplexes, or separates out) the individual files, then uses the appropriate codec to play each one. That's why sometimes one MOV or AVI file will play fine while another does not - you are probably missing a required codec for the latter file, or your codec is out of date. "Support" for a container format is trivial, as it just amounts to what types of files are supported, what order you're putting the actual files in the container, and what kind of padding and indexing is added. Some containers add more features though, which is where you start getting into trouble with vulnerabilities. If you give your container format the ability to change the kitchen sink, then a browser extension which supports your container will allow a website to change the user's kitchen sink.
A long, long time ago, back in the RealPlayer days, Quicktime was an actual video format. But it's long since been superseded (it was rolled into MPEG4).
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QuickTime does power a lot of professional video workload
Yeah, and they want to power that on the Mac. What do they gain if other video editing software is built on their backs and they don't get a dime?
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QuickTime does power a lot of professional video workload, perhaps Apple tried to say that they are dropping the browser plugin via removing it in an update which is seriously overdue. Apple wasted a great technology but whatever, days of plugins are long gone.
If there is no misunderstanding, that should be a final wakeup call to creative professionals.
I just got a QuickTime for Windows Update for my Win 7 laptop offered to me by Apple's Software Update Service like less than a month ago; so it's not dead yet.
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My recollection of the dialup era is that the codecs that Apple bundled with Quicktime (Sorenson?) gave it an edge initially over AVI and MPEG.
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DaVinci Resolve installs Quicktime as part of the installer. Its main purpose is not an NLE, but it's a pretty major piece of software.
It's only been recently that Quicktime wasn't installed by default with Adobe Premiere Pro.
And what about ProRes?
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Lightroom whines that I don't have Quicktime installed if I try to import a folder from my camera that has MOV files in it.
Micro Trends, Trend Micro, same thing, right? (Score:5, Funny)
Apple Deprecating Quicktime For Windows, Micro Trends Urges Users To Uninstall
However, Trend Micro released a security advisory today describing two zero-day vulnerabilities for Quicktime for Windows
Is Slashdot now running on one of those "not always right" chips? Micro Trends, Trend Micro, close enough.
Fasttime for Windoes deprecated by Pear.
Re:Micro Trends, Trend Micro, same thing, right? (Score:5, Interesting)
Is it really any different from when CmdrTaco ran Slashdot?
There were always plenty of dupes. Stories were full of misspellings and awful grammar. Some of the summaries had significant problems with them. Taco wrote a rant and posted it as a story [slashdot.org] one time saying that he wanted Slashdot to be that way. He defended the story selection [slashdot.org] in another rant.
And people always complained about Slashdot sucking and said it used to be better. They hated user accounts, moderation, Slash 2.0, the friends/foes system, D2, and so many other things. Most of the comments in any JonKatz story were complaining about JonKatz. They complained the quality of comments had declined. One person in particular, Bruce Perens, threw a huge fit saying that there were too many user IDs with names similar to his, which is why Slashdot shows the user ID numbers in comments to this day.
There have been some changes to how stories get posted. For one, there haven't been any Forbes links posted in a long time. This seems to be an editorial policy in response to the demands of users.
The single biggest issue I have is that Slashdot's CMS should be open source like it used to be. I firmly believe the new management could do that right now if they desired it. As a show of good faith, release the source and put it back on Sourceforge. That's the one thing that really irks me.
Otherwise, I think most of the complaints are BS. If you don't like the stories being posted, vote them down in Firehose and submit better ones. Fix the grammar and resubmit the story to Firehose before it gets posted. Grow some stones and do something instead of bitching about stuff that actually is in your power to change.
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Slashdot USED to have a lot of celebrity and A list tech people here, but the trolls making countless accounts with the names insanely similar to their posting crap is what drove them off. The troll problem here has always been horrible and very little done to try and fix it. and whenever any fix came out, People whined and bitched.
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> Well slashdot has always been a nicer 4chan.
I'm guessing you mean that in the sense of what 4chan represents as an internet culture not literally. Given that /. was launched in 1997 and 4chan in 2003.
But I do agree with your underlying point as all online forums face similar issues. And this is even bigger than a online issue rather an issue with human nature. I personally think that keeping AC around is a good thing because it gives the opportunity for people who would otherwise not want to be able
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I think Taco deservers a lot more credit than he generally gets, although I'm sure others had some influence too. He created what is a nearly perfect comment and moderation system. For all the complaints about it, it's by far the best anywhere on the internet. People have been trying for years to game the system, with only limited success.
The only outstanding flaw seems to be that newly created accounts are more likely to mod points. Thus people keep creating new accounts, doing a few posts and some meta mo
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Quite possibly it's full of crufty security flaws they'd rather not make easier to find.
Deprecated (Score:2)
Oh come on... Windows users have deprecated Quicktime ages ago!
Good (Score:2)
And nothing of value was lost (Score:2)
Who the fuck was still using Quicktime in 2016?!?
Off with their heads!
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Someone who never bothered removing it from their browser perhaps? I actually had it installed on my music workstation because so many music-related sites used it for their antiquated music sample players, etc, but that was years ago. I just now went and purged it all from my system.
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iTunes and Quicktime (Score:3)
If Apple really have deprecated Quicktime then it would be nice if, in their next iTunes update, they remove the nag screen that keeps popping up telling you to install Quicktime.
I ended up installing it to stop the damn thing appearing.
Deprecating on Mac, too? (Score:3)
It seems like people don't really use Quicktime any more. Thankfully, I haven't actually seen a mov file in literally years. Are they going to stop pushing their stupid proprietary video format on their own platform as well? It seems like not bothering with the Windows software can only be part of recognizing that no one uses it, and that it's dead. If your format isn't cross-platform, nobody should care about it...
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My Nikon SLR camera produces mov files for videos, but fortunately they're playable by pretty much everything, so it's not really a big issue.
If the mov files have MPEG-4 video and audio inside, you can rename them to mp4 and they'll still work. The MPEG-4 container is compatible with the QuickTime container.
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They got their container adopted as an ISO standard [wikipedia.org], albeit with a different filename (mp4). I wouldn't say it's dead. It's just so widely supported that the Quicktime Player itself isn't usually needed.
Knife the Baby (Score:4, Interesting)
According to Tevanian, Apple executive Peter Hoddie asked Microsoft officials, "'Are you asking us to kill playback? Are you asking us to knife the baby?'" He said Microsoft official Christopher Phillips responded, "'Yes, we want you to knife the baby.' It was very clear."
http://www.businessweek.com/mi... [businessweek.com]
So the baby has finally been knifed, some 18 years later.
Remember to Donate. (Score:2)
While I don't use Quicktime anymore, this just reminds me to donate more to the products that I DO use and rely on, like VLC.
and nothing of value was lost (Score:2)
good riddance.
Well crap (Score:2)
I stopped a long time ago (Score:2)
Seems fine to me (Score:2)
If you spit in a swamp, are you really obligated to put up a sign saying it might have germs?
I'll stick with VLC (Score:2)
I'm kind of sick of these billion dollar software vendors dropping support for stuff at the drop of a hat. There are plenty of community driven options, and frequently packages like VLC have far better support for legacy formats than the new whizbang stuff from Apple or Microsoft.
(why would I need to play a legacy video format? probably because that's what I had available when I took videos of my childhood pets)
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A number of video editing solutions require it for functionality, though. Which was lazy of them to begin with, I'd agree, but it is what it is.
On the other hand, I don't see much reason to panic. Avoid the browser plug-in, use a different player for any video files, and I don't see what attack vectors might remain.
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A number of video editing solutions require it for functionality, though. Which was lazy of them to begin with, I'd agree, but it is what it is.
True, but it only gets installed because it has to be for codecs or whatever reason it is then it never gets used. Ever. It's worse than the real media player used to be.
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VLC actually "plays" QuickTime (well, mostly MP4 these days?) files just fine.
The problem is creating the file. I work in a video game industry, and for things like trailers, sometimes clients/partners requires use of certain settings which assumes QuickTime is in use. I have tried some alternative software to do this task, but I have often observed them often creates non-satisfactory result, especially when it deals with non-PC consoles.
Having said that recently, software like blender, start to be able to
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I am on a Mac and rarely find myself using Quicktime. It had its day, but the MPEG4 container has for the most-part taken its place. The Quicktime player is even less used. Its a shame clients/partners haven't made the shift.
There are indeed edge cases, like when Apple uses an atom that the MPEG4 specification doesn't yet support, such as TimedMetadata.
BTW For the most part, converting a recent .mov to an .mp4 is as simple as specifying ffmpeg with 'copy' for vcodec and acodec, since it has the benefit of s
Re: What Else To Use? (Score:2)
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converting a recent .mov to an .mp4 is as simple as specifying ffmpeg with 'copy' for vcodec and acodec,
You could just rename .mov to .mp4. Quicktime's container was adopted [wikipedia.org] relatively unchanged for MPEG-4. It should be close enough to let it open.
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Of course, I haven't installed quicktime on a computer in a very very long time. I always find something else to play it if I have to.
Re:Drop Apple (Score:5, Insightful)
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Nitpick:
Linux is just a kernel, nothing more - and certainly not this nebulous ecosystem thingy you describe. Yes, just a kernel - and not even a whole OS, let alone a group of them. It's up to the distro makers (e.g. RedHat, Novell/SuSE, Debian, etc) to take that kernel and make a whole operating system around it.
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The both of them engaged in play acting. The FBI wanted to oblige Apple to respond to thousands (or tens of thousands) of FISA requests a year. Also, Apple was happy to have a PR image of being secure while the FBI was happy if dumb criminals thought the iPhones were safe to store incriminating information on.
Citation, please, or STFU.
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pedantically referred to as gnu/Linux
FTFY. Typically, it's referred to as Linux.
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The judge ruled Tuesday that the Cupertino-based company had to provide "reasonable technical assistance" to the government in recovering data from the iPhone 5c, including bypassing the auto-erase function and allowing investigators to submit an unlimited number of passwords in their attempts to unlock the phone. Apple has five days to respond to the court if it believes that compliance would be "unreasonably burdensome."
Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/san-bernardino-shooting/judge-forces-apple-help-unlock-san-bernardino-shooter-iphone-n519701 [nbcnews.com]
"Reasonable technical assistance" somehow got spun into "creating a permanent backdoor". I'll let you figure out who was doing the spinning.
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I am a Linux proselytizer and I have to call bullshit on you. Apple is very good about fixing updates that bork devices, and they support devices for a very long time (although it'd be nice if they were more clear about which ones are EOL...). And how exactly are they "deliberately protecting the communication of known terrorists" any more than anybody who uses the Internet?
Someone please mod this up!
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Don't you know how to Google? It's the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt [wikipedia.org]. I don't know what this has to do with metrology, though.
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