February 06, 2008

RealPlayer up to it's shifty tactics again it seems

Just reading an article on yahoo about RealPlayer once again pissing off the public with invasive software and not notifying users as to what exactly their software is doing. Here is a good quote that sums them up:

A widely used alternative to Apple's QuickTime and Microsoft's Windows Media Player, RealPlayer has a history of making invasive changes to users' computers. The Message Center software has come under fire in the past, and in 1999 computer security consultant Richard Smith discovered that the software was quietly sending information to RealNetworks servers.

This along with that it gets in the way of FLV playback due to snagging the stream before it reaches the SWF file (or something like that)... honestly, it would be nice if the RealPlayer just fell into the abyss and was never seen again.

Here's that article.

Posted by Graeme at February 6, 2008 08:05 AM
　



Comments

People still use RealPlayer? Who are these people? They deserve what they get.

Posted by: Steven at February 6, 2008 10:20 AM

Unfortunately I still have to use realplayer.

I am on a Mac and the only way I can watch the news reports or listen to the radio shows on the BBC website is via Real Player. As it stands it does a far better job than its alternative:
Windows Media Player & Flip4Mac (and I have the full version)

try and see what options you get when you choose to watch live:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/

it is a shame that they have not switched over to Flash as used with the iPlayer application

Posted by: George at February 6, 2008 09:05 PM