I just got a computer and sometimes play the Winnmedia music. Whenever I click on that icon, I get a request (command?) to update. I’ve always kindly declined, but yesterday I decided to continue with the process to see the charges. When I finally got to where they showed the price, around $20, I decided to decline and tried to delete the program. This froze the computer and I pressed control-alt-delete to get out. The computer then flashed me a warning to the effect that if I do that again, poisonous gases will be emitted from the back of the computer, so I better fork over the $20.
My question is: is this something that was programmed into the computer. I mean, did the Winnmedia people (if people they be) design the computer so that once I decided to go ahead with the update I couldn’t back out?
I’m sure this was a glitch in your computer and not some diabolical programming forcing you to hand over $20.
That said these automatic ‘reminder’ drive me nuts. Quicktime likes to do it but my biggest complaint is of Real Player. This thing tries to insinuate itself all OVER your computer. Nevertheless it appears in my Startup bar (after I specifically told it not to) and had to manually get rid of it. And, to the OP, the incessant whining about an update from Realplayer drives me nuts!
I’m not a big one for government intervention but I almost wish there were a law against this (and yes, I know such a law could never really exist…just wishing).
Nope. Apple (the company that makes the Macintosh) is responsible for QuickTime, a multimedia protocol for Mac and Windows platforms (and also Unix? not sure…). On the Mac, playback is usually performed via MoviePlayer (bundled by Apple with the OS) but you can use 3rd party apps instead. Mac users with the free version of QuickTime do indeed get irritating, annoying invitations to upgrade to the QuickTime Pro version which costs money.
I think Windows users who have QuickTime can use the built-in Microsoft Windows Media Player application–the same one they use to play back AVI and MPG movie files–to play QuickTime movies. It is possible that Apple has the same irritating message appear on Windows users’ screens if they are using a freebie version of QT and a commercial upgrade is available.
RealPlayer, on the other hand, is not (to my knowledge) capable of playing back QuickTime multimedia files on any platform. RealMedia is a competing standard and their player is even more annoying. Their annoyingness is entirely cross-platform; you have to click “Remind me Later” or “Tell me More” when it invites you to upgrade to the commercial version, which it does every time you try to use it. (There is, unfortunately, no “fuck off” button).
RealMedia files cannot be played back on any software other than RealMedia’s proprietary and feature-deprived RealPlayer.
WinMedia gives the same cross-platform. Good choice of words. Makes me as cross as Hell. Moreover, when you type a website beginning with http://www. the first name it automatically shows is the WinMedia site.