NewTeeVee reports that Apple is developing the capability to offer “in-stream ads” for video content on its iOS devices, looking to entice content owners to take advantage of the monetization possibilities and bring their videos to the platform.
Many publishers have been slow to bring their videos to the iPhone and iPad, due in part to the lack of mature tools available for monetizing content on those devices. Because iOS devices don’t support Adobe Flash, publishers need to do additional work to make their current ad-serving systems work with the HTML5 video delivery required for the iPhone and iPad. That’s caused many publishers to think twice before delivering video to those devices.
Sources indicate that Apple’s video ad product would work with both QuickTime and HTML5 video and offer a similar experience to the ads inserted in Flash video clips today.
The ad product would not only enable video publishers to serve their own ads against videos on the iPhone or iPad, but it would give Apple the ability to act as a video ad network for those that don’t wish to sell their own inventory. The in-stream ad system is also expected to have some targeting capabilities built-in, with mobile location data and anonymous user behavior data to help deliver targeted ads to consumers.
Apple could introduce the new ad service in the first or second quarter of next year, initially targeting the iPad and iPhone, but looking toward the Apple TV as another platform for ad-supported video content.
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One of the most anticipated features in iOS 4.2 is the introduction of AirPlay for Apple TV. AirPlay will allow you to stream audio and video from your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad directly to your Apple TV.
With AirPlay, you can stream it all from your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, too. So if you feel like watching a movie you have on one of your devices, you don’t need to rent or buy it again. Just tap to start playing content on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, then tap again to instantly stream whatever youre watching — or listening to — directly to Apple TV.
The just released 4.2 beta has some early support for AirPlay built in — enough to generate some excitement about the possibilities.
Every standard iOS audio/video playback interface in Beta 4.2 now shows an AirPlay button that allows you to stream audio to an AirPlay enabled device. Forum user spimp31 successfully (audio) streamed the following apps from his iPad to his Airport Express:
- Safari (videos embedded from YT and Vimeo, audio files)
- YouTube
- Netflix
- Videos
- iPod
- BBC News
- MLB
As there are no shipping 2nd generation Apple TVs yet, no one has been able to confirm video playback from 3rd party apps yet. In theory, any streams that can play in the standard iOS video player should be able to be streamed/played to the new Apple TV (which also runs iOS). What’s not so clear, however, is how protected content works such as Hulu. In additional, Hulu has been notoriously stubborn about allowing their content to be played anywhere other than their intended devices, so we expect they will limit this functionality if at all possible.
Also, since this is beta software, things could change drastically between now and release. One customer even emailed Steve Jobs if AirPlay will work for every video playback or just stuff from the iTunes library. Jobs simply replied “everything played in the Videos app.”
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AppAdvice has been able to get its hands on the application and has posted an overview and a brief video showing it in action.
It performs very well, and all your DivX and Xvid files will play smoothly and normally, displaying all their original quality. It also supports a bunch of other formats, and it’s extremely simple to use. As for the interface, it’s nice and polished.
However, there are certain limitations, as less popular formats and high definition videos don’t play as well. I’m confident there is still some room to improve the codecs, but since your videos are decoded at the software level, we’re probably limited by the iPad’s raw power. Also, it won’t read Windows media files if anybody still uses them.
File management is handled directly via iTunes, and video libraries are displayed as thumbnails sitting on “shelves”, offering a smooth browsing experience. The app’s developers are hopeful that it could appear in the App Store as soon as next week, although it is of course subject to Apple’s sometimes-unpredictable review process.
Update: Wired‘s Charlie Sorrel has also posted a hands-on review of VLC for iPad, noting a few performance and compatibility issues but overall finding it to be “way more polished than any other video app [he has] yet seen on the tablet”.
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LAPTOP has been evaluating the performance of Adobe’s Flash Player 10.1 on a number of different mobile devices, specifically focusing on how the multimedia player handles various content sources on the new Droid 2. With Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ open letter published in late April claiming that Adobe had yet to deliver a Flash Player running well on a mobile platform, there has been considerable interest now that Adobe’s much-hyped Flash Player 10.1 is finally making its way to platforms such as Google’s Android. Based on LAPTOP‘s experience on the Droid 2, however, much still seems to be lacking.
I’m the last person on earth who wanted to believe Steve Jobs when he told Walt Mossberg at D8 that “Flash has had its day.” I took it as nothing more than showmanship when Jobs shared his thoughts on Flash and wrote that “Flash is closed and proprietary, has major technical drawbacks, and doesn’t support touch based devices.” After spending time playing with Flash Player 10.1 on the new Droid 2, the first Android 2.2 phone to come with the player pre-installed, I’m sad to admit that Steve Jobs was right. Adobe’s offering seems like it’s too little, too late.
The report notes that some Flash content, particularly sites featured in Adobe’s Flash showcase for mobile devices such as the Sony Pictures movie trailers site, does perform very well. But many others, including ABC.com and FOX.com, deliver jerky video and severe system lag and unresponsiveness.
The difference between the smooth Flash trailers on Sony.com, the jerky episode of CSI, and the system-stalling Flash video on Fox.com is that the smoother ones were optimized specifically for phone playback. But if content providers have to go back and optimize their videos for mobile platforms, one of the key benefits of mobile Flash – backward compatibility with millions of existing videos – is lost. If you’re modifying your videos anyway, why not go the full monty and use an HTML 5 player instead of Flash?
When it comes to Flash-based games, LAPTOP found that many of the games are still designed for non-touch input, requiring keyboard presses and other actions that are simply not possible in the Flash Player mobile experience as currently implemented. Furthermore, simply attempting to load websites with Flash content resulted in slower loading speeds and even hangs that would make high-profile sites like The New York Times refuse to load.
Over three years after the launch of the original iPhone, it appears that Adobe has yet to find a way to deliver a quality Flash experience on mobile platforms. While the partial functionality Flash Player is currently capable of offering might be of use to some, the numerous performance issues and incompatibilities are certainly unlikely to convince Apple to embrace the technology. And it seems reasonable to assume that the longer it takes Adobe to develop a smoothly-functioning Flash Player for mobile, the more sites will make the transition to HTML5 and other accessible standards, reducing demand for the player.
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YouTube has announced that it has revamped its mobile YouTube site to support a complete YouTube browsing experience on modern mobile phones, including the iPhone. Of the changes to http://m.youtube.com, YouTube notes:
- It’s really fast.
- The user interface incorporates larger, more touch-friendly elements, making it easier to access videos on the go.
- It incorporates the features and functionality youve come to expect from the .com site, like search query suggestions, the options to create playlists, the ability to designate favorite, like or unlike videos directly from your device.
- As we make improvements to Youtube.com, youll see them quickly follow on our mobile site, unlike native apps which are not updated as frequently.
In many ways the new mobile site now makes the native iPhone YouTube app obsolete. Like the native app, the mobile YouTube serves iPhone-friendly h.264 video that can be played right in mobile Safari. Every since 2007, YouTube has been encoding their videos in both Flash format as well as h.264 (for AppleTV and iPhone).
One of the key features of iPhone 4 is its ability to record high-definition video in 720p. Users have found, however, that getting the HD video off of the device requires connecting it to a computer for download. While Apple offers users simple options for sharing videos directly from the iPhone via email or MMS, or by uploading the videos to MobileMe or YouTube, those mechanisms result in compression of the files, losing significantly quality in the process.
MacDailyNews reports that one of its readers emailed Apple CEO Steve Jobs to ask about this issue and express disappointment at the inability to directly upload HD content to the web while on the go. In an email reply, Jobs notes that the ability to upload HD content over the air is coming “in the future”.
You can upload them via a Mac or PC today. Over the air in the future.
Sent from my iPhone
While Jobs gives no timeframe for when we might see such a feature, it does give users looking for this capability some hope for the future. HD video uploads via 3G would obviously place a greater strain on carriers’ networks and also eat further into customers’ data limits. For that reason it might make sense for Apple to either roll out the feature as a Wi-Fi-only at first, and perhaps offering it via 3G further down the road with user-selectable options for varying export quality.
Regent Street, London, Photo by Rob Smith
France, Germany, and the UK were the next to launch the iPhone 4 and just followed by the U.S. East coast. The lines have been reported to be very long at many of the locations we’ve heard from. Our own local Apple Store (Richmond, VA) reports their longest lines for any iPhone launch.
Helpful iPhone 4 Resources
Join our iPhone forums to share your experiences or get help with your new device. We’ve started a few threads for people to get started:
- First Impressions to iPhone 4
- Examples of Photos Taken with iPhone 4
- Examples of Videos Taken with iPhone 4
There’s a great example in the Photo thread of how powerful the iPhone 4′s camera flash is.
AppShopper is a useful site to find new apps and price drops existing apps. Apple has let loose an enormous number of app updates have been released in the past 24 hours to offer support for iOS multitasking as well as support for the iPhone 4′s retina display and gyroscope.
The are over 220,000 apps available, but here are a couple of guides to get you started:
- AppShopper: Essential Apps: Getting Started with iPhone 4
- TouchArcade: So You Just Got an iPhone 4 – An App Store Gaming Guide