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You are here: MacNN Forums > Our Archives > General Archives > Digital Video & Audio Archives > why is quicktime called quicktime?

 
why is quicktime called quicktime?
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Senior User
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: san fran, ca
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Feb 14, 2002, 01:04 PM
 
and isn't it possible that apple's multimedia platform could benefit from a name change? has such a weird, cryptic, non-user oriented name help back more widespread adoption?

i mean as a longtime mac user, i'm accustomed to the name and i understand what it does. but as apple tries to capture more market share, i could see how newbies would be like, "quick WHAT? what's that for?"

for instance... windows MEDIA PLAYER... leaves zero doubt as to what it does. now i understand that quicktime is much more than its player, but the average user doesn't. nor do they care.

anyone else hear what i'm saying?
     
Senior User
Join Date: Dec 1999
Location: Bar Harbor
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Feb 14, 2002, 01:28 PM
 
It's better than 'Andy Warhol' (the codename for the QuickTime project).

Seriously though, the new idea with QuickTime was time-based media (i.e. movies & sound), and (at the time) it fit in with other Apple technologies (e.g. QuickDraw).
I'm cookoo for Cocoa Apps!
     
Administrator
Join Date: Mar 2000
Location: Land of the Easily Amused
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Feb 14, 2002, 01:55 PM
 
the name doesn't really matter anymore. when i see the word "QuickTime" i think video, plain and simple. i see the little blue Q icon in my head. when others hear the word, i'm sure they think of video, apple, movies, maybe even music. people see it in the trailers hosted on apple (great publicity for Apple, btw), they hear their mac buddies talk about it, and they probably have it installed on their machine, even if they're using windows.

that said, i have no idea why they named it that. Q words are cool? altho i could just be a subset of "moving pictures". time + change = motion. that sort of thing. i like it. "media player" and "internet explorer" always seemed pretty generic to me. i know the app is called Movie Player, but there's no reason the technology has to have a boring name.
     
Posting Junkie
Join Date: Feb 2000
Location: Washington, DC
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Feb 14, 2002, 04:55 PM
 
They do call it the Quicktime Player when it's downloaded... It's a start.

I'm with you, I guess they should have called it the Apple Media Player (AMP) but that time has come and gone...
     
Professional Poster
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Manchester,UK
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Feb 14, 2002, 05:34 PM
 
You have to remember that there wasn't any real sort of 'Media' to 'Play' when QT was originally developed (back when they put it's little rainbow clock sticker on my new Color Classic).
IMO. I wish they had the forethought to develop it's streaming from the start (or at least very early on) on both Windows & and the Mac, thus saving us from the hell that is RealPlayer.
Real is only big now because it was 1st, it sucks on every platform
     
Mac Elite
Join Date: Jan 2001
Status: Offline
Feb 14, 2002, 06:53 PM
 
Have you been living under a rock?

QuickTime 6 is going to destroy Real Player. A year from now, MSFT and Real are gonna be crying 'mama' - well, I hope.
"Last time the French asked for more evidence, it rolled through France with a German flag." - David Letterman
     
Posting Junkie
Join Date: Jun 2000
Location: Union County, NJ
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Feb 15, 2002, 11:33 AM
 
I'll have to check the alpha and beta CDs, but I think QuickTIME is to A/V what QucikDRAW was to static images.

Mike
     
Posting Junkie
Join Date: Feb 2000
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Feb 15, 2002, 12:13 PM
 
Mediaman_12 You are on the mark, Real does suck on every platform. Everything about Real is bad. When I go to a site that has Real I just roll my eyes...
     
Junior Member
Join Date: Dec 2001
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Feb 16, 2002, 08:05 PM
 
Hi all

Time because all types of media are reliant on it (video, music whatever) and Quick because that what Mac's have always been................
Scotty
NZ

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I told my Dad that I wanted to be a musician when I grew up, and he said "Son, you can't have it both ways."
     
Professional Poster
Join Date: May 2001
Location: Santa Clara, CA
Status: Offline
Feb 16, 2002, 09:52 PM
 
Originally posted by mitchell_pgh:
<STRONG>Mediaman_12 You are on the mark, Real does suck on every platform. Everything about Real is bad. When I go to a site that has Real I just roll my eyes...</STRONG>
God, I hate RealPlayer. What a waste of programming time!
World of Warcraft (Whisperwind - Alliance) <The Eternal Spiral>
Go Dogcows!
     
Dedicated MacNNer
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: Boston / Ithaca
Status: Offline
Feb 17, 2002, 07:10 PM
 
Yeah real sucks. Wouldn't it be great if the majority of streaming content on the web was in quicktime? i can't even view realplayer files without going into classic.
     
Mac Elite
Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: Seattle, WA, USA
Status: Offline
Feb 17, 2002, 11:51 PM
 
Originally posted by Mediaman_12:
<STRONG>
Real is only big now because it was 1st, it sucks on every platform</STRONG>
Ditto. On my Win2k PC, it worked fine for awhile. Then one time I went to use it, and it didn't work. Period. I did nothing to it's settings in the intermittent time. In fact, I think the only I was using my PC for at the time was Counterstrike. I've only installed Realplayer on my iBook to use in dire emergencies. I think I've used it twice in the span of a year.
     
Dedicated MacNNer
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Colorado Springs, CO
Status: Offline
Feb 19, 2002, 10:17 PM
 
I'm glad to see so much anger in the world directed at Real. I always thought it was something that I did to make it not work; turns out that RealPlayer flat-out sucks. Not to mention it's more insidious than the AIDS virus....
Plato--what's a "Chickie Run"?
     
Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: usa
Status: Offline
Feb 19, 2002, 11:41 PM
 
At least it isn't called iTime... or iMovie - oh shit, we already have that.

Is it just me or does Apple have a serious problem in coming up with original names sometimes? A couple years ago everything was Quick____, now it is i____ or Power____.

     
Mac Enthusiast
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Portugal/Algarve or Lisbon
Status: Offline
Feb 20, 2002, 11:38 PM
 
Long live to Quicktime! :-)
Moreno | manuel.moreno@netcabo.pt
     
 
   
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