The 2009 Apple Year in Review

We started looking back at everything that happened in 2009, and we were three pages deep into what would've been a novel-sized blog post. So instead, we thought, "hey, we're a video channel, why not do a video instead?" So below in a tidy seven minutes is a look back at the high points and low points of the world of Apple in 2009:

Let us know in the comments what you thought were the biggest items of Apple news this year.

What Tech Company Had All the Buzz This Year? Microsoft, Apparently

They say the numbers don't lie, but I have to take this one with a grain of salt. According to a post from Ad Week, the most talked about company in 2009, AND the most positively talked about company, was none other than Microsoft. What?

The study, conducted for Brandweek, is crediting those Laptop Hunters ads (funny, we haven't been seeing those lately) as part of an increased promotional campaign that helped Microsoft land the number one spot. A great quote from the post:

Bloggers often used terms such as 'easy,' 'efficient,' and 'better' in their online discussions about Microsoft, Said Zeta Interactive CEO Al DiGuido.

I'm blaming this farce on research bots; if I say, "Oh yeah, go try using Windows, it's real easy to use," then this post will probably be marked as being positive, although you can probably infer that it's anything but... Dang numbers...

TDL Live 12/14/09

We're into the middle of December, which means tech news starts to slow to a trickle. Other than competing press releases trumpeting sales figures, don't expect anything too groundbreaking between now and the end of the year. Of course, for us, that means more time to talk about Spiderman, Tiger Woods, and a Cougar Cruise.

Have a look:

The New Apps Layout in iTunes

While saving some money on pizzas, (it'll make sense in our next post) we noticed the re-formatting of the individual app pages within the app store. While most of the changes are minor, like a larger icon for the app, and a changed placement of contact and support info to the top, the least aesthetically pleasing change to these eyes is the revamped screenshot area.

Previously, each screenshot was presented individually, with a click to move left or right through four screenshots. Now those screenshots appear with a scroll bar, generally with a picture and a half shown by default. Half a picture on screen isn't the kind of design decision we're used to from Apple. Also worth noting the whole thing feels more webpage-like. Is that a coincidence given talk of iTunes going to the web?

Have thoughts on the new layout? Let us know in the comments.

Is The QuickTime Plugin Still Relevant Online?

Seen this lately?We all know that love it, or hate it, Flash is the video format of choice for video sharing sites like YouTube. Of course, that's not entirely accurate since more and more files are really h.264 or MPEG-4, wrapped in flash. So when we say flash is the "format" of choice, we really mean flash is the required player of choice.

What about Quicktime as the player of choice? Five or ten years ago, it looked like QuickTime, Real Player, and Windows Media would slug it out for online dominance. Now, for better or worse, we've all more or less agreed that h.264 is the codec du jour, and if you want to allow users to put annoying captions over it, or need to pay the bills with video ads, then you'll wrap in something requiring a flash player.

When's the last time you encountered a site that had content designed to play back in the browser through the QuickTime plugin? There are three places where this still seems to happen: 1. The Apple Website (although this is now more html 5, embedded video-driven), education sites (usually neglected ones), and motion graphics / video editors demo reels, generally to showcase the quality of their product.

Is anyone out there embedding video for QuickTime playback exclusively? Have third party players/hosting sites made the concept of hosting your own video obsolete?