mobile devices & flash…sigh

Those who know me well enough, know I love new gadgets – I’ve owned all kinds of PDA’s and Smartphones, every incarnation of iPhone (including the 2G not released in Australia), and now the iPad & iPhone 4 too.  I simply dig this type of technology and particularly Apple products – (some would call me an Apple Fanboy – a title I hate, but begrudgingly fit into).  But as you may or may not know, most portable devices (like the iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad) do not support FLASH. This can be problematic for those of us who want to run things like audio and video on our webpages. Times really have changed, once upon a time there were so few website that included audio let alone video – but now, it’s rare not to have this sort of material on a site.  For #VoiceActors it’s even more important to have this stuff on your site to promote yourself – and with the onset of mobile applications like “Talent Please” (mentioned in a post a couple of weeks ago) where prospective employers can find a #VoiceActor via their iPhone, having “working” audio and video players is imperative!

With all this in mind, and in an effort to make my webpage viewable on ANY device – I’ve been researching how to get around the problem. Steve Jobs would say the way around this is “HTML5” – yep that is true – I’m not going to argue with Steve! …but how do I implement HTML5 within this WORDPRESS environment? After some very defined searching, I’ve found there are already a number of Plugins emerging that meet this issue headon. As I just mentioned, I use a WORDPRESS environment for most of my web presences, so which plugins am I using? Let me say this, my primary goal is to have my audio and video play happily on iPhone and iPad, and ALL desktop browsers too – so I’ve tested a bunch of plugins with differing success, but for mp3’s I’m using Degradable HTML5 audio and video & for video I’m using Stream Video Player. For video I’m uploading FLV and MP4, depending on what type of browser you’re visiting from Stream Video Player will either use a flash player or Quicktime player.

I’m not going to say these are perfect, but so far they have done the trick for me and my site.  Gone are the days where I had endless hours available to be writing everything in code and re-uploading a page. That’s why I’m using WordPress, and now with wonderful folks freely developing tools like the afore mentioned plugins – my site is looking neat, tidy and easily viewable on ANY device.

Please feel free to leave comments and thoughts – if you’re having issues viewing anything on my site – please comment with details – I need the feedback 🙂

Standby, next week I’ll start the Microphone review series !

One Response to “mobile devices & flash…sigh”

  • Esp:

    Ah, the old issue of flash vs Apple. I personally feel as if Steve Jobs is having a conversation with the world:

    World: “Sweet work, Steve, will the new devices be able to run flash?”
    Jobs: “Nah, flash is old hat now.”
    World: “…no, no it isn’t. We all use it all the time.”
    Jobs: “Not anymore, you use HTML5 now!”
    World: “…uh, that’s not true, Steve, we use flash a lot for our daily activ-”
    Jobs: “I said you use HTML5 now.”

    I suppose we shall adapt. In the meantime, you’re right. It’s quite an inconvenience.

    R.I.P. Flash

    http://www.funz.eu/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Apple-Killed-Flash-For-Good.jpg

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