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Apple previews QuickTime 6
Apple previewed QuickTime 6, the next version of its multimedia technology, at the QuickTime Live! Conference in Beverly Hills yesterday.
Among QuickTime 6's key features are full support for MPEG-4, the emerging standard for streaming high quality video over the Internet. There is also support for Advanced Audio Coding (AAC), the next-generation audio format, support for CELP, the MPEG-4 speech codec for reproduction of natural speech, and adherence to the Internet Streaming Media Alliance (ISMA) 1.0 specification. QuickTime 6 will be able to play back MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 content, and will support Flash 5. It will feature an updated user interface with what Apple said was a new, easy-to-use Favourites interface and easier access to QuickTime content.
However, Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, said the release of QuickTime 6 had been put on hold while Apple attempts to resolve licensing issues with MPEG-LA, the body that represents MPEG-4 patent holders
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