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iPhone 5 web teardown: How Apple compresses video using JPEG, JSON, and canvas

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Re: iPhone 5 web teardown: How Apple compresses video using JPEG, JSON, and canvas

#11

Post by dbloom »

codeka wrote: post #8
daeken wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As noted in the post, iOS devices will only do video tags fullscreen.

I just tried on my friend's iPod and the animation doesn't play there anyway (it just stays on the "lock" image). Maybe the iPod browser is different (my Android doesn't play the animation either) but I'd be surprised if the animation worked on an iPhone but not on an iPod...

It definitely works on iPhone (I've tried on my 4S and on Simulator).

Apple's JS disables the animation for iOS 4.x and below, so maybe that's why it wasn't playing on your friend's iPod.

Re: iPhone 5 web teardown: How Apple compresses video using JPEG, JSON, and canvas

#12

Post by lnanek2 »

fidz wrote: post #4

In short, Apple don't want their demo videos to be easily downloaded and viewed?

Article claims the reason is so that the videos will play on iPhone. If Apple considers people who already own an iPhone most likely to view the page and buy the newer one, it makes sense that they'd go through a lot of work to show them animations they couldn't through the video tag.

Preventing download and viewing doesn't seem very important to me. Anyone could just use one of many screen recording apps to get good enough copies anyway if they wanted them for some reason, and who cares if they do have them.

Re: iPhone 5 web teardown: How Apple compresses video using JPEG, JSON, and canvas

#14

Post by quink »

dangrossman wrote: post #5

> Apple's website needs to work on all major browsers That doesn't seem true. The second-most-prominent links on the iPhone and iPad sites are to videos that only play in Quicktime. If they wanted the site to work everywhere, they'd use a format those browsers can natively play.

The videos linked to from the iPhone and iPad pages, then they're video tags these days. If you're talking about the movie trailers or whatnot, then Apple isn't trying to sell you Quicktime, but it's damn well trying to sell you an iPhone or iPad.

Re: iPhone 5 web teardown: How Apple compresses video using JPEG, JSON, and canvas

#15

Post by [deleted] »

quink wrote: post #14
dangrossman wrote: post #5

> Apple's website needs to work on all major browsers That doesn't seem true. The second-most-prominent links on the iPhone and iPad sites are to videos that only play in Quicktime. If they wanted the site to work everywhere, they'd use a format those browsers can natively play.

The videos linked to from the iPhone and iPad pages, then they're video tags these days. If you're talking about the movie trailers or whatnot, then Apple isn't trying to sell you Quicktime, but it's damn well trying to sell you an iPhone or iPad.

[deleted]

Re: iPhone 5 web teardown: How Apple compresses video using JPEG, JSON, and canvas

#16

Post by dbloom »

dangrossman wrote: post #5

> Apple's website needs to work on all major browsers That doesn't seem true. The second-most-prominent links on the iPhone and iPad sites are to videos that only play in Quicktime. If they wanted the site to work everywhere, they'd use a format those browsers can natively play.

I think Apple's aim with these videos is for them to be a seamless, ambient way for the page to come alive (sorry if that sounds cheesy). Asking the user to install a plugin defeats the purpose here.

The keynote and Johnny Ive video are a little different because it's targeted towards people who are already Apple enthusiasts. They're much more likely to already have Safari or QuickTime installed (or at east be willing to install it).

Still, it does strike me as kind of odd that Apple is working so hard to make one video accessible while being pretty lazy with another one (they don't even bother to make it accessible to Chrome on Windows, which does have h.264 support, unless QuickTime is installed). Maybe those two parts of the site were prepared by different teams.

[EDIT]: Actually, I just tried again in Chome and IE 9 on Windows 7, and it works fine (without QuickTime installed). Maybe Apple fixed it?

Re: iPhone 5 web teardown: How Apple compresses video using JPEG, JSON, and canvas

#17

Post by jonny_eh »

daeken wrote: post #7
codeka wrote: post #6

I'm not sure if I should be impressed by this. From a technical standpoint, it seems quite clever and unique, but it also seems like a lot of work just to avoid using a tag.

As noted in the post, iOS devices will only do video tags fullscreen.

Seems like a lot of work to workaround a drawback in their own browser.

Re: iPhone 5 web teardown: How Apple compresses video using JPEG, JSON, and canvas

#20

Post by spullara »

kevinburke wrote: post #3

Speaking of Apple website updates, I am surprised that they have never offered a responsive design for their apple.com site where you buy iPhones and iPads. Every app they make is designed differently for the phone or the iPad, but not the website.

Since they have an Apple Store App that works better than the website, why would they do that?
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