by Brad Smith iQT - QuickTime & Interactivity March 8th, 2001 There is no mainstream technology in today's computing world as misunderstood as QuickTime. Since its inception, QuickTime has gradually become the standard format for delivering video and audio over the Internet and on CD-ROMs. Throughout the years, the quality of the technology and what it is capable of has increased ten-fold. When QuickTime was first created, the maximum video size was about the same size as a postage stamp. As the technology evolved and computers became faster and faster, the maximum video size and the quality of the video increased. Today, users can view very high quality, full screen videos with QuickTime. Unfortunately for QuickTime, the past several years have seen the creation of two competing technologies. Both Real Media (from Real Networks) and Windows Media (from Microsoft) are aiming to overtake QuickTime as the king of video and audio content delivery. Indeed, in terms of market share, this has already occurred. At this time the technology of QuickTime is still more advanced. Real Media and Windows Media, for instance, are lacking something that QuickTime excels in. This area, quite simply, is interactivity. There is a saying that sums up QuickTime in so many ways: "More than just streaming..." No statement could be more true, or convey so much more, than that simple sentence. Apple typically markets QuickTime as a streaming media player. In reality QuickTime is so much more. No company realizes the potential of QuickTime like Totally Hip Software. Totally Hip, the creators of "Hip" software applications like LiveStage Professional, have captured the power of QuickTime in their products and made that power available to the public. Perhaps the best example of the power of QuickTime is a very small 48K file called QuickTime Chat. QuickTime Chat, created by Matthew Peterson, a prominent QuickTime developer, is a QuickTime movie file that acts as a chat application. This chat application allows text entry, interaction with a server through CGIs, and buttons with roll-overs. To truly understand the power of QuickTime, all one has to do is point their Web browser to http://www.matthewpeterson.net/, download QTChat, and start chatting. I guarantee that you will have a new appreciation for QuickTime. The power of QuickTime can also be adapted to the Web. The folks at ici Media truly understand this potential to its fullest and have developed some of the finest examples of interactive QuickTime on the Web. This includes a full-screen QuickTime movie "Web site" they created for musician Kelly Brock. Kelly Brock's Web site is a virtual reality panorama with various links, music, pictures, and video all embedded within this interactive QuickTime presentation. As you can see, QuickTime is an amazing interactive technology. Following in the footsteps of the many other individuals who created iNames for their iThings, I will call this column "iQT." Am I insane? Quite possibly, yet it makes sense. The "i" in "iQT" stands for "interactive" and the "QT" stands for "QuickTime," thus signifying the focus of these writings: Interactive QuickTime. I started this column at MacInterpreter, but it is now being published at The Mac Observer on a weekly basis. In future columns I will examine the how-to's of interactive QuickTime, applications relevant to QuickTime, and issues in the QuickTime development community.  Expect the most detailed tutorials, reviews, and features on interactive QuickTime on the Web. Want to learn how to make your Web site so it looks right without Java? You'll find it here. Want to learn how to create your own controller for VCR controls within QuickTime? You'll find it here. If it's interactive, it'll be here. It should be a wonderful ride. I hope you'll all join me next week as we begin our journey into iQT: Interactive QuickTime. You are encouraged to send me your comments, or to post them below. Most Recent iQT Columns Using Sprite Tracks & LiveStage Pro April 20th Understanding Components In QuickTime March 30th Enhancing The QuickTime Web Experience March 23rd iQT Archives Back to The Mac Observer For More Mac News! Brad Smith is currently attending school in Lincoln, Nebraska, and has used Macintosh computers since 1984. Brad is a member of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals, and an interactive media devotee, by hobby. In middle school, Brad and three other students from Lincoln, NE, were recipients of the ISTE MultiMedia Mania international multi-media contest in the middle school division. You'll typically find Brad going all out on a simple twenty-point school project by making an interactive QuickTime movie in LiveStage Professional. In other words, he has no life! Brad has three brothers and is a big fan of the Dave Matthews Band. His enjoyment for music is evident in the vast collection of CDs he possesses and the fact that music is required to do any sort of work on the computer. He welcomes your comments at brad@macobserver.com.