Launch this!

[Maritan]

Hey there guys,

Some of you may have seen my thread in the Buying forum where I decided that I was going to buy a 1.25 GHz 15 inch PB.

To get myself familiarized with Macs, I have been visiting the computing site at ASU and sitting on the iMacs here. These computers have OS 10.2.6. I tried to access www.launch.com - basically an internet "radio" station. You rate songs, and the higher you rate them, the more often they are played on your personalized "radio" station.

Anyway, while accessing this site, I first tried Safari. I got the error message that the site didn't support Netscape Navigator 6.0 and higher. I then tried IE 5.2, and the error message I got was that the site wouldn't support OS X. It would support only OS 8.5 and higher (but not OS X), and Netscape Navigator 4 or 5 (I don't remember the exact version.)

My question is this:
1. Is there someway around this? Or am I just screwed? The 3000 some songs that I have rated will have to wait till I get to a PC?
2. Is there some similar website to launch.com that will work on a Mac?

Thanks for your answers!

PS: I didn't know which other forum to post this in. Sorry if this is the wrong one.

 

[Mudbug]

try Opera or Camino and see if they work. there's a bunch of other browsers on the market too, like OmniWeb that also may be of interest to you...

hope those help.

 

[7on]

sounds like a problem on launchcast's side. OSX has all the apps now that can play streaming audio, I don't see why not. Try downloading WMP9 for OSX on those computers (if you're an admin), that might fix it.

PS: Running it in VPC is fine, cept that the audio skips when it goes into the background or when the VPC Windows is dragged.

 

[bousozoku]

I tried Firebird but it reports it as Netscape 6. It probably reports everything but Internet Exploder 5.5 or 6.0 as Netscape 6. I got tired of looking for the offending code.

They might need an ActiveX control to take control of your system or use an existing one.

 

[Nermal]

Their excuse for not supporting OS X was that WiMP 7 didn't support embedding videos into the browser. Now that WiMP 9's out, and works with Safari, they've got no excuse.

Edit: Just sent them an email. I'll let you know what happens. But I'd encourage the rest of you to email them and let them know you want a Mac-compatible service.

 

[Maritan]

Thanks for all your responses guys! I definitely appreciate it.

I tried a couple of the browsers Mudbug suggested and here's what happened:

Camino - Launch recognized it as Netscape 6.

Opera - This actually went all the way till "Tuning the station". But that's where it stopped. It never actually loaded a song and played anything.

Still, I would like to just use Safari itself. I don't want to have a hundred different browsers each for just one specific function.

Any other suggestions?

Nermal - thanks especially to you for taking this up and emailing them. I shall do the same today.

 

[dragula53]

debug

turn on debug on safari, and emulate msie for windows.. or whatever.

you can use tinkertool, or can do it via command line.

 

[candan9019]

To turn on debug you can also use Safari Enhancer.
Here

 

[Maritan]

Got a reply...

So, I emailed Yahoo about support for Macs and this is what I got from them:

Hello,

Thanks for writing to LAUNCH, your Yahoo! Music Experience.

Unfortunately, at this time the only browsers which are capable of
supporting LAUNCHcast for the Mac are Netscape versions 4.5-4.79. You
will need to install one of these versions (as well as the Microsoft
Media Player) in order to stream your personalized LAUNCHcast station.

For a free copy of Netscape, please download from:

http://home.netscape.com/download/

To install the Windows Media Player for the Mac, please follow the
directions below.

Please point your browser to:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/en/Download/default.asp

A) Select "Player 7.01 for the Mac (OS 8.1 and Later)" from the
pull-down menu.

B) Click the "Download Now" button. Windows Media Player for Macintosh
will download to the location specified in your browser (the default
location is the desktop). Be aware of the download location, as you will
need to install the software after the download has completed.

C) After downloading, close any open applications, then double-click the
installer icon and follow the instructions for installing the software.

Thank you again for contacting Yahoo! Customer Care.

 

[Maritan]

BTW, I tried that debug thing. I turned it on, and then tried to get Safari to emulate MSIE for Windows, but Launch still said that it didn't recognize Netscape Navigator 6.0.

 

[Nermal]

I got my reply back from Launch this morning. Here's what I originally sent to them:

I have Mac OS X, which you do not support. I have been told that OS X is unsupported because Windows Media Player for Mac doesn't support embedding videos into web pages. However, the latest version (9.0, released a couple of weeks ago) does support it. When can we expect a Mac-compatible service?

Their response:

At this time we do not have a scheduled time frame as to when this service may be available for the OSX system.

But I suppose the more people that email them, the better.