oh internet

Spyware disguised as a terrible media player

Summary

RealPlayer is an awful media player that infests one's computer with RealPlayer when installed. It was the first media player with the capability to play, or more accurately, buffer, streaming media on the internet. It has occasionally suffered from identity crises, with version 6 being known as G2 (not to be confused with mobile phones or PowerPC chips), and version 9 for some reason referring to itself as RealOne.

RealPlayer boasts an impressive list of features that other media players manage to implement in a much more successful fashion, such as a media browser or visualizations. Imagine, if you will, WinAmp but bloaty and filled with spyware and adware, or perhaps iTunes with a slightly less horrific interface.

RealPlayer and its relatives have been found in the past to contain spyware, phoning home with unique identifiers and information about which songs users were playing. Other complaints include delivering ads directly to one's desktop with no easy way to stop it from doing so, and the volume control affecting all other programs and sounds.

Origins

RealPlayer was released in the spring of 1995 and was then known as RealAudio Player, which had the ability to play and stream RealMedia formats, which sound akin to a stuttering, brain-damaged robot and look like glitchy nightmares wrenched from a drug-addled schizophrenic's mind. Over the years RealNetworks, the American company that makes RealPlayer, shoehorned in other useful features such as "pause" and "always on top", which surely made the software stand out among a sea of other easier-to-use and better-functioning programs.

Current status

Somehow this software is still available and still under development. It is now known to infect Linux computers as well.

Facts

Related Pages

United States

External Links

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