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Comment by clamprecht | Hacker News Reader

Does anyone know if there is a technical reason they make this Safari-only?

Uses HTTP adaptive streaming that's built into Quicktime and iOS natively. It's the same technology that MLB/NFL/NHL use to do live-streaming of games to their apps on iOS.

There is a way to get VLC to open the stream, but I haven't had to do it personally.

Apple's new campus is powered by the outrage and impatience of people that won't download VLC or ffplay to watch their two-hour commercials before they're available on YouTube.

Uses HLS

They want you to buy a current gen device so you can watch what you can buy in a couple of weeks.

The other platforms want people to use a more complicated streaming format?

I guess the sarcasm isn't appreciated, but HLS is a simple enough protocol that an intern could implement it. It trades latency for cacheability, which greatly reduces broadcasting costs. The only obvious reasons to not support it are political.

This creates a social class system surrounding Apple products - only those who are privileged enough to be on the Apple ecosystem are allowed to watch Apple events.

While they could definitely make all of their events streamable on a wide variety of devices, this tactic makes everyone not in the ecosystem feel as though they've been let down by the technology which they own.

It also ensures that the audience is more Apple-centric, and the first to hear the conference lectures will already be biased in favor of Apple given that they are already Apple users.

Your reply wasn't a technical one regarding the question, but I think you've been unfairly downvoted as there is actually truth in what you're saying. These are exactly the types of conversations that marketing teams at Apple would have about creating the perception around their brand.

Note: before a fervent product enthusiast thinks about hitting that downvote button, I've typed this comment from my very own MBP.

Thanks - I appreciate that you're sticking up for healthy debates. While I understand that my view might not be universal, I think all too often the average HN'er is feeling that it is ok to downvote someone they disagree with. It's our diversity of opinions that contributes to the growth of our community.

By the way, I do 100% love Apple products - all my electronics are Apple except my work computer. But there is a definitely a good reason behind why they don't let non-Apple users watch the keynote.

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