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Mobile video
Once you've made the step to an all-you-can-eat mobile dataplan, the same always-on switch gets flipped as when desktop computers got a permanent internet connection several years ago: suddenly your mobile device becomes 4 times as usefull: IM in your pocket, push mail, mobile blogging ... and offcourse the same urge for everybody's favorite online passtime: streaming video.
I'm surprised to find that mobile streaming video isn't nailed down yet. It still is very troublesome to get a decent mobile video experience. Offcourse there are bandwith restrictions, but bandwidth usually is not the problem: it's the website design and technology that isn't optimized for mobile devices. Even the sites that have a mobile version often get it wrong, and only provide a stripped down crippled version.
e.g. youtube: the mobile version is awfull: only a tiny fragment of video's are available, and all in a tiny blurry 3GP version, while the current generation of mobile devices is perfectly capable of displaying full screen flash or mp4 video.
The worst part is: you can't even acces the full version of youtube: as soon as the site detects you're using a mobile browser, it sends you straight to the mobile page with no way around it.
Other applications do a far better job but even they are lacking in features: Google reader mobile works really well, only ... you can't add subscriptions ... a feature I sorely miss.
Twitter mobile is simple and nice, only you can't add friends you want to follow.
The discussion whether a site should have a mobile version, or if mobile devices should catch up with their big browser-brothers, will never be settled, but in my opinion a mobile version of a site makes perfect sense: a well executed mobile version creates a huge additional value.
In fact, I find myself usng the lightweigt version of a site even on a desktop. The main version of tweakers, for example, loads and renders slowly. the lightweigt version is superfast. If you want a fast overview of all the topic, the KISS approach can't beat.
The state of mobile video sites still is far below par, allthough some clever solutions work around it and stream flash video direct to your device.
One little gem though: http://www.yamgo.tv/ shows that streamng flash video works perfectly on mobile devices: you just have to make sure that the player is backwards compatible with Flash 7 (The latest version for windows mobile). There's nothing more to it: smooth streaming video, right in your mobile browser ... now was that so hard?
And for Symbian based mobiles that don't have flash (Nokia etc ...), there's an ultra light version at http://yamgo.mobi that streams fullsceen realvideo, tailored to your conection speed. There! satisfaction at last ! :-)
I'm surprised to find that mobile streaming video isn't nailed down yet. It still is very troublesome to get a decent mobile video experience. Offcourse there are bandwith restrictions, but bandwidth usually is not the problem: it's the website design and technology that isn't optimized for mobile devices. Even the sites that have a mobile version often get it wrong, and only provide a stripped down crippled version.
e.g. youtube: the mobile version is awfull: only a tiny fragment of video's are available, and all in a tiny blurry 3GP version, while the current generation of mobile devices is perfectly capable of displaying full screen flash or mp4 video.
The worst part is: you can't even acces the full version of youtube: as soon as the site detects you're using a mobile browser, it sends you straight to the mobile page with no way around it.
Other applications do a far better job but even they are lacking in features: Google reader mobile works really well, only ... you can't add subscriptions ... a feature I sorely miss.
Twitter mobile is simple and nice, only you can't add friends you want to follow.
The discussion whether a site should have a mobile version, or if mobile devices should catch up with their big browser-brothers, will never be settled, but in my opinion a mobile version of a site makes perfect sense: a well executed mobile version creates a huge additional value.
In fact, I find myself usng the lightweigt version of a site even on a desktop. The main version of tweakers, for example, loads and renders slowly. the lightweigt version is superfast. If you want a fast overview of all the topic, the KISS approach can't beat.
The state of mobile video sites still is far below par, allthough some clever solutions work around it and stream flash video direct to your device.
One little gem though: http://www.yamgo.tv/ shows that streamng flash video works perfectly on mobile devices: you just have to make sure that the player is backwards compatible with Flash 7 (The latest version for windows mobile). There's nothing more to it: smooth streaming video, right in your mobile browser ... now was that so hard?
And for Symbian based mobiles that don't have flash (Nokia etc ...), there's an ultra light version at http://yamgo.mobi that streams fullsceen realvideo, tailored to your conection speed. There! satisfaction at last ! :-)
