Do you remember only a few years ago, as a Mac user, and often times a Windows user, what a pain video on the internet could be? I certainly do, it was a total crap shoot, unless the video file was quicktime, chances were I would get audio only, or nothing at all. Worse, if *I* could see the video, emailing a link or file to a PC friend always proved challenging.

Thanks to youtube.com those days are long gone. Shoving a video inside a Flash wrapper was the most genius aspect of their business model. It is also one that seems to go without mention. Most people think youtube is great for the content, I on the other hand think it is great for the compatibility of it all. I even think those of you who cater to using the penguin are covered as well.

The amusing part of it these days, I now cringe when I hit a quicktime video, as I know it could be one I will not be able to share with a friend for compatibility reasons. Sure, Quicktime is pretty ubiquitous, but not flash ubiquitous. Yes, quality is not that great, these days, who cares, no ones attention span is great enough to care about quality. When I want quality, I go hit up Apple Trailers, otherwise, I really dont mind a little bit of the jaggies.

There is a chance Apple could jump on the youtube bandwagon, with a emphasis on quality, which would be a neat idea. However, these days I have little faith in Apple doing anything more with Quicktime Player than the bare minimum. It’s been near 6 months since I reported, as a bug, that Quicktime does not remember the last set volume level, and its been 6 months in which they still stand on that not being a bug. You can ask my girlfriend at 6AM when it wakes her up, I assure you, she will agree with me, it is indeed a bug.

Pay for full screen, more granular volume control, when will they get it, freedom inspires ubiquity, limits just make people thing the software sucks.