X

Odds and Ends: MSNBC video officially Mac incompatible; Graphic Converter and iPhoto

Odds and Ends: MSNBC video officially Mac incompatible; Graphic Converter and iPhoto

CNET staff
2 min read

MSNBC video officially Mac incompatible MacFixIt reader Nate Goldshlag was trying to access a video stream on MSNBC's Web site, had problems, contact MSNBC technical support, and received the following response:

"MSNBC Video now requires Windows 98SE or higher operating system,Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5 or higher, Windows Media Player 9 or later,Macromedia Flash Player 7 or higher, and Microsoft .NET Passport.

"The MSNBC video is unable to support Macintosh or other operating systems. We regret the inconvenience and appreciate your patience."

Despite the warning, some users report success playing the MSNBC video streams under Mac OS X 10.3.1 with Windows Media Player 9.0.

Graphic Converter and iPhoto Mark Byard reports that JPG files modified in version 4.9 of the popular image manipulation tool Graphic Converter cannot be opened properly later with iPhoto. Byard performed the following test:

  1. Found an archived JPG graphic that had not been modified in Graphic Converter 4.9 ("JPG SOURCE")
  2. A copy of "JPG SOURCE" was recognized as a JPG file by iPhoto and loaded into iPhoto with no problems.
  3. Modified a copy of "JPG SOURCE" and saved it as a JPG with Graphic Converter 4.9. The file would then not load into iPhoto.
  4. Re-installed Graphic Converter 4.8 and modified and saved the original "JPG SOURCE" file. It was recognized by iPhoto and loaded into iPhoto. Interim assumption: Graphic Converter 4.9 is doing something to the encoding/file type that makes it unrecognizable by iPhoto.
  5. Opened the file modified by Graphic Converter 4.8 with GC 4.9, modified and saved it with Graphic Converter 4.9. The Graphic Converter 4.9-modified JPG would not load into iPhoto.
  6. Then I opened, modified, and saved the Graphic Converter 4.9 file with Graphic Converter 4.8; modified and saved; the JPG still would not load in iPhoto.

UPDATE: This problem has been fixed in Graphic Converter 4.9.1.

Resources

  • Windows Media Player 9.0
  • Graphic Converter 4.9.1
  • More from Odds and Ends: