Sometimes Apple even surprises us, as was the cases with this week's announcement of QuickTime 4.1, the much anticipated upgrade to QuickTime 4, which was code-named Chagall. While Phil Schiller, Apple's Vice President of Product Marketing, talked about a few specifics of the new release, there were a few things left unsaid that we had planned on detailing once the feature-set on the new release was frozen.

Currently, QuickTime 4.1 is in alpha 5 of its development cycle, and is expected to go Beta within a few week's time. At this point its feature-set will be frozen and the development team will focus on stability of the new features.

As reported all the way back in January of this year, Apple had been whetting the appetites of large media corporations such as CNN by providing them with high-end Apple Server Hardware running QuickTime Streaming Server.

In the report it was also noted that these corporations were hesitant to adopt the technology since QuickTime 4.0 lacked the ability to insert and track advertisements in the streaming content. Though sources confirmed that this feature was in the works.

It's now official that one of QuickTime 4.1's enhanced functionalities will be seamless ad insertion. QuickTime 4.1 will also feature improved firewall navigation; AppleScript® support for easy digital media creation and streaming; and support of synchronized multimedia integrated language (SMIL), the emerging standard for interactive media creation.

However, what wasn't made public at this week's QuickTime Conference was Apple's plans to begin incorporating QuickTime into the Mac OS even further with the release of version 4.1 early next year.

According to sources, the new version will feature a QuickTime Setup Assistant, which is very similar to Apple's Internet or Mac OS Setup Assistants. The assistant will take users through the process of configuring QuickTime to their Computer and Internet Connection, and will prompt users to select the content they wish QuickTime to handle.

Furthermore, the new version is currently being seeded with a QuickTime Control Strip Module. The control strip, as can be seen in the screen-shot above, allows the user to launch the three QuickTime specific applications and provides a running list of popular QuickTime streaming media channels that will launch QuickTime Player and begin streaming when a selection is made.

QuickTime 4.1 will also feature a number of bug fixes to the previous release and is expected to debut simultaneously with QuickTime Streaming Server 2.0 sometime early next year. Additional Updates as the release turns Beta.