A few months ago Apple updated their movie trailers site. This update restricts the viewing of Apple Trailers on non-approved systems. Unfortunately, as Linux users, we fall into the category. Thankfully with the use of a FireFox plug-in known as "User Agent Switcher" and a little know how we can still enjoy these trailers and decide what movies we would like to see at the theater.

The plug-in can be found here. After installing it and restarting Firefox you will find a new option under "Tools" in Firefox labeled "Default User Agent". In the sub menu you will find a short list of user agents. Next we need to import one to make the site think that we are really using QuickTime and not something like mplayer or totem. The import is an XML file, the QuickTime User Agent XML file is here. Or, if you prefer you can copy and paste the folowing into a text file and save it as an XML file:

<useragentswitcher>
  <useragent
    description="Quicktime 7.6.2"
    useragent="QuickTime/7.6.2 (qtver=7.6.2;os=Windows NT 5.1Service Pack 3)"
    appcodename=""
    appname=""
    appversion=""
    platform=""
    vendor=""
    vendorsub=""/>
</useragentswitcher>

Once you have the file saved to your computer go to "Tools" > "Default User Agent" > "Edit User Agent" in Firefox. Select "Import" and import the XML file. Click "OK". You should now see "Quicktime 7.6.2" in the list of user agents. However, if you select it and go to a trailer on the Apple site the video will still not play by default. You must click the option button in the player's toolbar and select copy. Paste the address of the video into Firefox's address bar and hit enter. You should now be watching the Trailer in your Firefox browser.