Yahoo! Music LaunchCast not compatible with Macs or Firefox on Windows
By Jonathan Schlaffer
You may remember that way back in 1999 there was LaunchMedia which created the Launchcast online music service among which included streaming radio. LaunchMedia and all related entities were acquired by Yahoo! in 2001. This is just to show that the service has been around for a while.
One would think that a service having been around for around nine years would be compatible with the world’s most popular “alternative” browser which is currently Firefox.
LaunchCast is only fully compatible with Internet Explorer but some features do not work in Firefox, the Radio Guide, for example. This makes it impossible to use the service effectively in Firefox.
When attempting to access a station through the Radio Guide in Firefox, an error message is displayed stating that the browser is not supported.
What makes things even worse is that Macs are not supported at all and the only browser that works on Windows is IE6 or higher.
Browser Requirements
Yahoo! LAUNCHcast is currently compatible only with Internet Explorer 6.0 or higher for Windows.
Currently, we do not support LAUNCHcast Radio for Macintosh or Firefox on Windows. If you are experiencing difficulties utilizing our service with any other browser application, we recommend trying the above versions to correct the issue.
Yahoo! should know better than this, the service has been around for nine years and the only platform it works with is Winodws with IE6/IE7. It’s almost like Yahoo! is living back in 1999.
Fortunately for us, there are other options like Pandora. As for Yahoo, maybe at some point in the next year or two will realize that it needs to join the rest of us in the 21st century.
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Entry was posted
on Sunday, January 20th, 2008 at 9:05 am
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Read more entries by Jonathan Schlaffer.
Stumble It!
December 6th, 2008
Yeah right … from the Pandora website:
“We are deeply, deeply sorry to say that due to licensing constraints, we can no longer allow access to Pandora for listeners located outside of the U.S.”
So … Yahoo still doesn’t support Firefox on mac/linux, and Pandora doesn’t allow us to listen anymore … seems like a lose/lose situation.
December 11th, 2008
I agree, I personally have listened to Yahoo Music for more than five years so when I started using FF I loved it. I missed the IE Tab add on it suck that it’s not compatible for the newest FF3. I would start using Pandora but it took three years of listening and rating music to get my radio station the way I like it. I suppose it’s because FireFox is alleged with Google and Yahoo and Google are competitors so. BLAH! T_T
January 19th, 2009
…better stick with AOL Radio… works with all platforms. (not the same as launchcast of course but works great)
bleh!
April 21st, 2009
Both AOL radio and Yahoo! Launchcast are now powered by CBS radio and are compatible with Firefox. Even though I used to share the annoyance of Yahoo ostracizing Linux users (yeah, there’s no IE tab trick there, you’re just screwed), I have to admit I’m glad they finally made the switch. Yahoo music is working for Linux users! Finally!