Surprise! Apple will stream its iPhone event live to Windows 10 users

Apple always live streams its launch events, but only users of its products can tune in as the company restricts the streams to Apple TV and Apple devices running Safari. It’s a little odd, preaching to the converted, but as much of the company’s new hardware sales go to existing users of Apple products it’s clearly an approach that works well.

Windows and Linux users can get around this restriction by using VLC Media Player to stream the event, but getting things set up is a bit of a pain. This year however, Apple is inviting a new audience to view the live stream -- Windows 10 users.

As my colleague Mark Wilson notes when discussing what Apple’s 9 September event has in store, the holding page for the live stream of the event includes Microsoft Edge on Windows 10 as one of the ways the stream can be viewed.

This is a huge surprise, and raises the question -- why Edge? If Apple is opening up the stream to another browser, on another operating system, why not make it available to watch on Chrome and Firefox too?

The reason is that Apple uses the HLS (HTTP Live Streaming) protocol for its streams -- which it invented -- and Microsoft has implemented this in its new browser. Chrome supports HLS, but only mobile versions.

So if you’re a Windows 10 user and fancy watching Tim Cook reveal the next generation of Apple iPhones you’ll be able to do so on 9 September, and tune into all future live Apple streams too.

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