New Safari for Windows Browsers Will Play ActiveX Media File

The very new Safari 3.0.1 beta browser for Windows will play an
ActiveX only
sound page on the WMP11. Most browsers other than IE do not support
ActiveX, mainly for security reasons. However some people still write
only an ActiveX path in code for sound or video, which results in the
sound
playing only on IE browsers. There are well known methods for
providing a path for other browsers, and in fact this path usually can
be written to work on IE also without resorting to ActiveX.

I examined one such defective page that had an ActiveX path only using
my several browsers. As would be expected, IE browsers played the
sound on an embedded WMP, and Firefox, Opera, and Seamonkey did not.
Then I tried the new Safari for Windows, and nearly fell out of my
chair. It played the sound!

I made a test page at http://www.cwdjr.info/test/AXaudio.html that has
only an ActiveX path. Try it on the new Safari for Windows, if you
have it installed.

I would be very surprised if Apple would support ActiveX. However
there has been a new development underway for a substitute for ActiveX
for media files that are improperly coded with only an ActiveX path.
Perhaps Apple is using this on the new Safari for Windows. So far I
have not seen any official Apple information concerning what is going
on here.