Technology

Windows has entered a new era

The decade—indeed, the century—began with Windows 2000, which I consider the first great version of the operating system. XP was the version that brought widespread success, and people just seem to refuse to upgrade; even today, almost three quarters of the computers on the net are on XP.

Despite the dismal failure of Windows Vista, it too brought change, which was followed by the enhancements of Windows 7. Compare my desktop today to the ugly screens of a decade ago:

Apple deserves an honourable mention for the ground-breaking work they’ve done on the Mac, elevating it to a newly trendy status.

Portable media players have completely changed

A decade ago, CD players and tape-based Walkmans were still the norm for ‘portable’ audio players. The iPod, launched in 2001, entirely changed the game. (I suppose this and the iPhone were the “comeback of the decade”.) It was no longer a device that played removable media. That was followed by thousands of other portable media players, to which the public generally refers inaccurately as “MP3 players”, reflecting the popularity of the 15-year-old MP3 format that has also been notorious for illegal file sharing (see below).

Cell phones and mobile devices have become ubiquitous

These devices used to be ugly, huge and heavy objects. As we move into 2010, cell phones have become more compact (usually this means thinner and lighter) and more powerful.

In China, about 739 million people have cell phones; that’s more than there are Internet users in China (which is about 360 million).

Mobile devices have become truly powerful. The iPhone, purportedly the most popular cell phone of 2009, is one of the biggest platforms for software development. And it has a touch screen. RIM’s BlackBerry, initially launched in 1999, is the most popular smartphone among business users.

Ordinary people begin to embrace ultra-portable netbooks for lightweight computing. The move to mobile is probably the most noticeable trend in end-user gadgetry in this decade.

Illegal file sharing has emerged

I don’t personally think of torrenting itself as a major problem, and it’s difficult to sympathize with big companies when the RIAA is being stupid. At the same time, it’s pretty easy to see how having hundreds of movies, TV shows and music albums distributed through torrents can take away from earnings for content producers. (Some dispute this and argue that those who pirate movies and TV shows are those who will purchase related memorabilia or boxed sets.)

In any case, it is virtually undisputed that new technologies have made distribution of such content much easier. In the previous decade, pretty much everyone was on dial-up Internet and only the students at universities with blazing connections were able to do it (think about the controversial Napster).

The best known site for illegal content

YouTube happened

YouTube and hundreds of other video sites have revolutionized the way we watch video. What used to be distributed on tapes and discs has moved onto the Internet in a way that allows ordinary folks—not videophiles or geeks—to share their multimedia with the world.

YouTube is also the icon of the so-called Web 2.0, which is oriented on user-generated content. (Flickr deserves an honourable mention for high quality pictures, just like Vimeo for high class videos.) It has made it possible for teens with crazy personalities and high-pitched edited voices, artists who post music videos, and crazy dancers who travel the world to reach out to a vast audience. Above all, it’s a legitimate new form of entertainment.

Following the success of online video, major content producers began to license music for online distribution (think Pandora or Last.fm, not to mention Internet radio) as well as movies and TV shows (think Hulu).

Click here to view the embedded video.

Open source projects have become worthy challengers

More than a decade ago, in 1996, the Apache HTTP server became the most popular web server in use; today it has surpassed 100 million web sites served.

Mozilla Firefox, having risen out of the ashes of the Netscape browser, although not the most widely used browser in the world (it’s 2nd), is apparently used by 32% of the market analyzed by StatCounter.

While I still use Microsoft Office, OpenOffice.org is also a notable alternative to the proprietary and dominant office suite, especially on non-Windows operating systems.

And then there are the programs used by geeks, like the Eclipse IDE or Aptana Studio, that are depended upon. (For all of you multimedia geeks, there are open source programs that do the job much better than their closed source counterparts; think about Handbrake, VLC…)

Businesses can now also depend on open source projects like Sugar CRM that build their revenue model around support and premium features.

News has moved onto the Web

My primary news source  now is the Web. Google News is one of my frequently visited sites, as it is a fantastic aggregator of headlines. I subscribe to e-mail summaries from the Toronto Star and breaking news alerts from the New York Times. ArsTechnica and TechCrunch are my sources for technology-related news, and occasionally Mashable and Neowin. Those pesky short links in the tweets of people I follow also make for engaging news articles.

Wikipedia happened

At the beginning of this decade, I was researching in books and print encyclopedias. The conventional wisdom today of “just Google it” didn’t work so well then. And certainly there wasn’t a Wikipedia for the wealth of human knowledge that it now contains.

Today, I can near-instantly read up on the history of Wal-Mart or read up on the Beslan school hostage crisis and its media coverage. If I truly need it, Wikipedia connects with Wikisource, the free library and Wikibooks where I can read Anna Karenina online (and I wouldn’t, because Constance Garnett’s translations are really lacking).

It’s truly amazing that the sum of all human knowledge can be collaboratively archived and updated through the likes of Wikipedia. Perhaps they need your support this holiday season!

What do you think? Did I miss out on something big that happened in this decade in the world of tech? Write a comment!

(I did, however, intentionally exclude social networking—i.e. Facebook—because I don’t think it’s been revolutionary in any major way. Sure, it has connected people in new ways, but it’s still relatively fresh and more time is needed to see where it goes. Similarly, I omitted touch because it hasn’t entirely caught on yet; tablet PCs were a dismal failure a few years ago and I haven’t yet seen their widespread success. Furthermore, I omitted cloud computing because it doesn’t directly affect a large number of people. Feel free to disagree with me in the comments.)

Worldly Matters

I think September 11, 2001 marked the start of a new era of warfare and international affairs. The terrorist attacks, inasmuch as they have been abused to justify ill-advised battles, did shock the world.

I recommend you head over to the Big Picture where you’ll be dazzled by splendid photos of this decade, including commentaries on the World Trade Center attacks and war. And dozens of other things like natural disasters (remember Katrina, or the Sichuan earthquake?), the Beijing Olympics, and terrorist attacks in London.

2009 has been a fantastic year. I look forward to the future.

Happy holidays and all the best in 2010!

I am also accustomed to my taskbar being set in “Combine when taskbar is full” mode, which is a compromise between the dock-resembling Windows 7 taskbar and the older taskbar style with which XP and Vista users would be familiar. This looks something like this:

An alternative taskbar look for Windows 7

Today, I decided to see if I could get accustomed to the Windows 7 taskbar look, which involves taking out those labels and showing merely the icons. Screenshot by Paul Thurrott:

The default Windows 7 taskbar style

This is when I discovered something cool yet shocking about my browsers.

Firefox in the taskbar

Mozilla Firefox is a nice browser; that’s why I use it most of the time. Google Chrome is lightweight, fast, and aesthetically pleasing; that’s why it’s my default browser.

But neither of them seem aware of Windows 7. Their browser icons are plainly represented in the taskbar, even when I’ve got multiple tabs open. In the screenshot to the right, Mozilla Firefox only gets one taskbar thumbnail when I mouse over the icon, even though I have 4 tabs open. The icon, too, doesn’t reveal anything about how many tabs are open.

Chrome has the same issue

With Google Chrome, the exact same thing happens. The thumbnail is one of the application, not the individual tabs open, so it would appear that Windows 7 isn’t aware of the individual tabs nor is Chrome taking advantage of the new taskbar.

Internet Explorer has no issue with this; as soon as more than one tab is opened, the taskbar reflects this change. Note: the same change occurs for Chrome and Firefox if multiple WINDOWS are opened.

Windows 7 recognizes tabs in Microsoft's browser

The shocking thing is, Apple’s new browser takes advantage of the taskbar. Perhaps one expects this from a company that focuses on user experience and aesthetics. But this just makes Safari awesome.

The taskbar actually recognizes the individual tabs in Safari 4

You’ll notice that the thumbnails aren’t of the browser, but of the individual pages loaded in tabs. This means that I can click on a thumbnail to go directly to that tab — an excellent convenience, thanks to the Windows 7 taskbar.

I’m very surprised that Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome, two of the most common browsers among people who are on the cutting edge of software technology, aren’t taking advantage of Windows 7′s new taskbar. After all, according to Wakoopa (which tracks software usage), Firefox and Chrome are the 1st and 3rd most used browsers on Windows. Come on, Mozilla developers, make your browser more Aero-aware and taskbar-aware! Even Chrome looks nicer on Aero Glass by default.

Chrome looks really attractive with an Aero Glass interface

Taskbar thumbnails are really useful when the taskbar items don’t have labels and when the icons are combined. It’s no longer necessary to read the labels to determine which item to click on; I can just mouse over, quickly scan over the thumbnails, and click on the one I want. Kudos to the people at Microsoft who came up with this intuitive interface!

If you’re still on Windows XP — noting that it is nearly 8 years old — or on Vista, Windows 7 is a major step up in terms of the user interface. It might take a bit of adjusting, but in the end, I am certain you’ll like it.

Click here to view the embedded video.

High definition trailers may be found on Apple’s Web site (requires QuickTime).

The thing with fonts is that they contribute greatly to the overall feel of any production, whether it’s a logo or corporate identity, a book, a newspaper/magazine, an essay, or an advertisement. Choosing the right typeface for a particular purpose is like an art, and typography itself is an art. Unfortunately, most average Joes lack awareness and skill in this area.

To test your ability, see if you recognize the fonts below; click on the image to see the answers. (Windows users should have no problem with these.)

You know these fonts

Chances are, you are able to name them; if you can’t do that, the fonts above should still look familiar. After all, they are default fonts for a lot of things on Windows: pre-2007 Office applications used Arial and Times New Roman, Courier New was the default monospace font (primarily for coders), and Verdana was, or is, common on the Web. (I personally have issues with all of these fonts.)

If you know and use a few of the newer defaults fonts, you might recognize these; they are new since Office 2007 or Vista:

Stylish Office '07 fonts

I’ll admit that I like these a lot more than the old generation, but they’re still not professional typefaces for professional documents like books and magazines.

Now we get to some more professional typefaces. See if you know these; they are some of the more recognizable ones.

Recognizable pro fonts

Now we’re talking. These are hugely popular professional typefaces, the first popular in corporate identity and logos (and at Apple), the second used by Apple in products like Front Row, and the third a commercial and artistic success from Switzerland, 1957.

But here an average user might stumble. When we get to more obscure yet professional typefaces, we encounter fonts that the average user might only have seen in a book, or in a magazine. These aren’t necessarily fonts that the average person uses on a daily basis, or for that matter, the average user probably doesn’t use them at all.

More obscure pro fonts

You might pause to ask me, why would any sane person produce essays and letters and memos in these fonts? Aside from a consideration that I might be a bit too obsessive when it comes to fonts, I do believe that choosing the right font contributes to a desired appearance. For example, the second font of the Caslon family is used extensively in book publishing, and is highly readable; great works of literature look great in that font. The third font, Univers, is used on some Apple keyboards, and the individual letters contribute to the stylistic appearance of those keys. And I have seen at least two magazines use the first font in their publications for things like headings.

I’m sorry, but a memo using Calibri or Times New Roman give the appearance of a person who is untrained with their productivity software. Similarly, I would immediately despise reading any book or magazine set in Times New Roman — it isn’t as visually pleasing as some of my favourite fonts (below).

Now that you know you should choose professional fonts for professional documents, or playful fonts for humorous things, here are my favourite fonts.

My favourite fonts

Have any comments? Please share your thoughts. Or, go view a humorous video about the personality of fonts.

Technological Expectations for 2009

Things we hope to be released in 2009:

Kindle 2.0 (from Amazon)

The Amazon Kindle is a wireless reading device from Amazon that many people in the United States are already enjoying as an alternative to physical newspapers, novels, and documents. Amazon is expected to deliver a new version of the device, possibly in a smaller/more compact form factor. Additionally, there have been many complaints about the keyboard and the page navigation keys, all of which may be addressed if a Kindle 2.0 is designed. There’s also been discussion about a textbook edition that could be exactly what students need to avoid lugging around huge, cumbersome, heavy textbooks. I would certainly appreciate e-textbooks; wouldn’t you?

An improved consumer Mac desktop (Apple)

Though the iPod (and iPod Nano), iPhone, and Macbook series have all seen massive improvements, Apple has not changed the iMac significantly except for faster processor speeds and more memory. What about changes that the consumer can see, feel, or save? As of now, their top-of-the-line 24-inch iMac at 3.06 GHz costs a whopping $2,299 CAD. Cheaper prices would help as much as product improvements.

Windows 7 (Microsoft)

Admittedly, its release date could be any time between mid-2009 to 2010, but we’re hoping for it as early as possible, because the earlier it gets out, the better the PC experience will be, and the more competition there is for the consumer desktop. New features like touch, improved user-friendly interface for all the applications (even WordPad and Calculator), and sensors are sure to distinguish this Windows version from any previous one. Perhaps it will even match Mac OS X in terms of aesthetics and usability in day-to-day tasks (the fun ones, like making movies and managing photos, not the productivity/business things). The SuperSite for Windows has more to read about Windows 7.

Windows Live Wave 3 (Microsoft)

This entails a new version of the Windows Live apps — Messenger, Mail, Photo Gallery, Writer, and newer additions such as Movie Maker. Windows Live Wave 3 also involves improvements to Microsoft’s online services (such as Spaces, Windows Live Mail, and FolderShare) that are already beginning to take place. Also, don’t forget that Microsoft announced plans to have Office in the cloud — Word-like, Excel-like, and PowerPoint-like applications that run inside a browser. Add that to their existing Office Live Workspace and certain business solutions, and we see Microsoft adopting the Cloud. Add Azure as a platform initiative, and we see Microsoft trying to lead the way again in terms of platforms. Once again, Paul Thurrott’s SuperSite for Windows has more to read.

Mac OS X Snow Leopard (Apple)

Snow Leopard is just a bit of an improvement on Leopard, and will add enhanced 64-bit support and other backend changes. Though it’s not particularly exciting, I’m sure it has many Apple fans hyped up.

Taking a little bit of a break from the content, you can subscribe to this blog by e-mail for free to get updates whenever a new post of interest is published:

Technological Hopes for 2009

How about the things we imagine, or hope to have (but probably won’t have)?

A consumer-affordable OLED television (Sony)

Just because OLED technology is in active development doesn’t mean that this will necessarily happen in 2009. As of the current year, an OLED TV from Sony costs over $2000, which makes it an unlikely choice for the average consumer, particularly given the recent economic crises.

A netbook from Apple

The Asus Eee PC that I have is ‘nice’, but I’m sure Apple could do a better job. As it stands, netbooks lack usability, given their tiny keyboards, tiny trackpads, small screens (and relatively miniature screen resolutions), limited processing power, and limited memory. If Apple decides to enter this field, they would face the same challenges, but could certainly design a better keyboard, a more usable trackpad (based on the one used on the new Macbooks), and invariably a better operating system than the customized Linux distribution or Windows XP.

For all we know, this concept is in the works.

Virtual Reality: Gaming and more

This was actually brought up by an acquaintance recently, who noted that video games are already becoming increasingly realistic, and that a large proportion of teens don’t distinguish between the unreal and the real anyhow. Virtual reality would make things seem even more realistic, but then we face the combined dilemma of: (a) limited computing power — only the newest computers have even a chance at a virtual simulation with a good resolution and frame rate, and virtual reality would be extremely difficult to implement in an affordable gaming console; (b) more time spent gaming; (c) some gamers would not distinguish between life and virtual reality — what if they practice killing in virtual reality and take that to real life?; (d) how would injury be simulated? — in a sniper game, for instance, how would a game provide physical feedback that you’ve just been shot?

Faster Internet connections in Canada!

This is just wishful thinking. While Japan and Northern Europe enjoy some of the fastest connections in the world (measured in gigabits per second), we in North America (more so in Canada than the United States) have to live with 5–20 Mbps connections over cable or DSL. At least large population centres in the U.S. can get FiOS; we don’t even have that.

What we need is competition. If Rogers Communications loses its (almost) monopoly over cable Internet, and if Bell Canada didn’t dominate telephone and DSL so much, maybe we’d see impressive improvements each year. What I want is affordable, 50+ Mbps connections — and I hope to avoid DSL.

3D holography

We’re still a long way from the interactive, life-like holodecks of Star Trek… but that doesn’t mean we can’t try. Projection-style holography is still very much possible today, and if technology moves forward the way we’d like it to, we’ll hopefully have three-dimensional images soon.

Practical applications of consumer-oriented holography, and that means outside the business or Pentagon or military, include the luxury of changing decorations in a split second, to have a ridiculously advanced visualizer for iTunes (or whatever media player you happen to be using), or maybe some futuristic gaming machine.

Is it too early to ask for a transporter or a replicator? (As far as I know, neither of those are likely within the next 50 years.)

Widespread hybrid/hydrogen automobiles

While hybrids are already becoming popular, the truly efficient and pollution-less automobiles, the hydrogen car, is still out of reach in most of the world. The hydrogen infrastructure just isn’t there; there are nearly no hydrogen fueling stations in most of the United States and probably none in Canada. I would like to see this technology mature.

Societal Changes in 2009

What’s going to shift in our society?

Increasingly-radical Christianity

In the past few years, we’ve always been talking about “radical Islam”, but a developing trend is “radical Christianity”. I’m making the most of my freedom of expression to note the increasing extremism of many denominations on social issues such as gay rights, abortion, immigration, war, trade, marijuana, and — believe it or not — health care. During the recent American presidential elections, we have seen church groups involving themselves in campaigning for or against certain candidates; we’ve seen endorsements from some, such as Reverend Wright, and condemnations from others. We’ve seen Catholic churches adamantly oppose birth control of any sort, evangelical Christians fighting for “the sanctity of life” and “the traditional family”, and all-in-all, an increasingly alarming involvement of the church in daily life and politics.

Let’s talk about one issue, perhaps one of the biggest issues, of recent months.

California’s Proposition 8 sought to ban all gay marriages in the state, and was affirmed by 52% of the voters. Religious organizations on both sides added to the conflict. My problem with Proposition 8 and the faulty logic used by religious proponents (“we’re protecting our religious rights and values”) is that a ban, by definition, restricts rights, as Lawrence Lessig will tell you. If a church doesn’t want to marry gay couples, they don’t have to; it’s not like the lack of a ban forces them to carry out such an action, whereas the ban would force other religious organizations to turn away gay couples.

Religious groups are abusing the role of religion in people’s lives. I will openly admit to being atheist, but to attack my reasoning based on atheism would be an illogical, ad hominem attack. This argument comes not from my atheism, but rather my atheism comes from it.

Inevitable gay rights movement

We cannot deny that this is a huge issue that will be campaigned for and against. Given the attention dedicated to such matters in 2008, I believe it will continue to be a large problem in 2009, and may perhaps be addressed (either favourably and unfavourably) by certain judicial bodies.

Liberalization of the U.S. Supreme Court

Barack Obama’s successful bid for president places him in the powerful position of appointing Supreme Court justices. If he can appoint a sufficient number to swing the court to the left, we may see the court overturning previous rulings on abortion, and perhaps further precedents.

Continuing rise of Asia

Asian nations, specifically China and India, are poised in positions of massive economic influence. Whether they can continue that influence and dominate trade is a matter for their governments and businesses to decide. China, on one hand, may begin to loosen rules on privatization and employment, while India’s government may take action to improve conditions and the quality of life throughout their territories. The United States’ weak economy makes it doubly vulnerable to the lure of cheaper business with China and India.

An eye on space

Already India has sent an object to the moon. The development of the International Space Station is progressing nicely. Space shuttles are to be sold off. Satellites are being launched and destroyed.

Would it be too far-fetched to say that space is at least a concern for every developed nation’s government and people?

Personal Expectations for 2009

Now we move from the general into the specific; from the societal to the individual. In 2009, I hope to improve my relationships with others, to exemplify the best characteristics of humanity, and in doing so, to live by the dictates of philosophy. I make it my New Year’s Resolution(s) to be a better person: to care more about the lives and feelings of friends and acquaintances… to treat strangers as friends… to open myself to influences… to help others lead more meaningful lives… and to combat societal issues that threaten to destroy the peaceful ways of life we enjoy.

In 2009, I also hope to gain a wider and more active readership on this blog. You can help, by commenting on this post, by subscribing to the blog via e-mail or RSS, and by sharing my posts with your friends.

Contribute to Frederick or Frederick’s Timelog

It’s nearly the end of 2008, which means 10 months of content that has evolved to support a community of readers. You can contribute to me or the operation of this blog in many ways:

• giving me feedback and discussion by commenting
• sponsoring a post on this blog (see below)

You could purchase a sponsored post on the blog, either directly (by contacting me) or through PayPerPost. These sponsored posts could be made about your business, product or service, and would deliver you link juice, publicity, as well as traffic. Sponsored posts recover more than half of this site’s operating costs.

Thank you for your continued readership!

Now they’ve released a new set of commercials that do promote Windows, and they are a bit more effective.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The only thing I’m confused about is: if Windows is the product that is being promoted (as one can tell from the logo shown at the end of each commercial) why are they promoting “PC’s” as opposed to Windows? I can understand why Apple would promote the Mac over the PC (as they produce hardware & software and it’s the combination that is being marketed), but not why Microsoft is using the term PC, which is not a Microsoft product nor a Microsoft innovation. Perhaps it’s just because Microsoft doesn’t perceive Linux and other PC operating systems as a threat.

Anyhow, I invite you to vote on this poll. Choose “Yes” or “No”, and also choose the reason closest to yours.

It is the flagship format of Apple QuickTime and also used by large studios on many Blu-ray releases. Virtually all of the modern personal computers in use at this time support the format or are capable of supporting it:

• Adobe Flash Player 9 is capable of playing H.264 content
• the free QuickTime Player media software supports it
• QuickTime Pro supports exporting to H.264, thus iMovie HD and other QuickTime-based products can use it
• professional video editing software like Adobe Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro support exporting to H.264
• the open source FFmpeg project supports H.264
• open source media players such as VLC Media Player and mplayer support H.264

Unfortunately, Microsoft does not support it at this time, favouring — instead — their own non-open VC-1 codec for HD content and Silverlight.

High Quality Internet Video Settings

H.264 is a great codec to use for streaming video, which is why Adobe Flash Player 9 supports it and YouTube has begun to use the MPEG-4/AVC standard for high quality content. I recommend the following settings for the MOV container, and the settings make use of AAC, which is part of the MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 standards and was designed as the successor to MP3.

(The following screenshots show the interface used by QuickTime Pro, which will be seen when exporting with expert settings in iMovie HD. I will show — in the future — how to do so with the free and open source MediaCoder.)

Video and Sound should be checked. Click “Settings…” for each of them to customize according to the screenshots below. Since the output is to be streamable by a standard HTTP server like Apache, “Prepare for Internet Streaming” should be checked and “Fast Start” is fine.

If the native resolution of the source clip is small or if it’s the resolution you want to use, choose “Size…” and set “Current” as the dimensions. Otherwise, standard Internet videos are likely to be 640×480, 640×320 (widescreen), or possibly 720×480 4:3.

As you can see, I recommend choosing an automatic key frame interval and disabling frame reordering (it could mess up the motion in some instances). I also recommend keeping the current frame rate for the full experience, but 24 fps (film) and 15 fps are good options that will reduce your file size and improve the streaming experience.

Restrict the bit rate to about 800 kbps, but the lowest you can go while preserving a high quality is probably about 500 kbps. (Remember that full 1080p Blu-ray bit rates using H.264 is in the 20 to 80 Mbps range.) If the bit rate is 800 kbps, the video will stream over below-typical connections (1.5 Mbps).

I strongly recommend multi-pass encoding as long as you have a recent multi-core processor; older computers and non-multi-core computers will benefit from using the single-pass encoding option, as it saves time and reduces processing.

I recommend using AAC with a sample rate of “Recommended” or “44.100 kHz”. Choose a “Normal” or “Better” quality, and choose a target bit rate of 128 kbps. This can be lowered to 96 kbps for movie files with sparse or simple audio, while orchestral music might deserve a 160 kbps bit rate. Anyhow, increasing the bit rate above 128 kbps won’t significantly impact the perceived quality (particularly given the poor speakers or headphones most people use).

High Quality Video Settings

If you want to use H.264 for high quality preserval of existing video at (often) smaller file sizes, I recommend the following video encoding settings. Don’t use these settings if you’re going to send the file over the Internet, because it will likely be too large.

As you can see, I recommend leaving the frame rate at the “current” frame rate of the source video, while the key frame interval is best left at automatic. The bit rate should also be automatic so that the compressor can optimize the result for quality. You can set the slider for quality between high and best (though best is close to lossless and thus results in huge files).

Once again, I recommend multi-pass if possible, but for a quicker encoding process, choose single-pass.

If you’re an audiophile, you might also like to set the audio bit rate at 320 kbps for AAC, or choose a lossless codec (for instance, Apple Lossless). Don’t use uncompressed audio because that gets HUGE.

Example

This isn’t a comparison. Just see how a 769 kbps (video + audio) H.264+AAC file at 15 fps looks — and it’s only about 17 megabytes. Or, the same video at 2.12 mbps (H.264+AAC) file at 24 fps and 720p high definition, with a file size of 47.4 MB.

Final Words

Choose H.264 when it comes to high quality video. Choose the MPEG-4 standards (AVC and AAC, and perhaps the MPEG-4 container) rather than closed formats. You’ll end up with great looking and great sounding multimedia clips, while being future-proof and maintaining compatibility.

Still, it’s not hard to believe that this amazing machine was such an important milestone.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Can you believe Bill Gates claimed credit for inventing the Personal Computer?

If you like this, you should rate the post/video (thumbs up), leave a comment, bookmark this post, and/or check out the Apple iMac 20-inch 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo.