YouTube HTML5 Bug and Workaround

Some of you have been frustrated when trying to watch the YouTube videos embedded in Pocketnow articles on a mobile device. We’ve been investigating this problem and it turns out that it only happens with YouTube videos that have revenue sharing turned on. YouTube’s iFrame embed code is supposed to be able to detect the user’s browser and feed them a video in an appropriate format. On Windows Phone 7 and iOS 5, YouTube’s code doesn’t send the correct type of video. We’ve talked to the IE mobile for Windows Phone team and they’ve found that YouTube’s embed code tries to send a Flash-based video with advertisements anyway even though it should be simple to detect that the user has a device that does not support Flash. Interestingly, YouTube has programmed their iFrame embed code to recognize the Android browser and feed a playable video to those pages without ads. The work around for you as a user is pretty simple. Zoom in a bit on the video and instead of tapping the play button on the video graphic, tap the title of the video on the top edge. On Windows Phone 7, this will open the video’s HTML5-based YouTube page (if you have your browser set to “mobile” view mode) which does correctly load an HTML5 video that plays perfectly in Windows Phone. On Apple iOS devices, you can do the same thing… just tap the title instead of the video’s play button and it will ask if you want to open the video in the YouTube app which will subsequently play the video perfectly.

Unlocked iPhone 4S now available, mobile Flash is dead, Siri on a 3GS, and more!

This Week on TiP (Nov 6-12): Apple is now selling the iPhone 4S unlocked through its US online store, Adobe announced that it will kill off mobile Flash in favor of HTML5, Siri was successfully ported to an iPhone 3GS, and more! – iPhone 5 prototype seen & held: tinyurl.com – Unlocked iPhone 4S now available: tinyurl.com – iOS 5.0.1 out now: tinyurl.com – Poor battery life persists after iOS 5 update: tinyurl.com – Apple aware of further battery issues: tinyurl.com – How to improve battery life on 4S: tinyurl.com – Improve battery life 2: tinyurl.com – Mobile Flash is dead: tinyurl.com – Enable panoramic camera mode: tinyurl.com – Siri on a 3GS: tinyurl.com – Apple confirms Siri is 4S-only: tinyurl.com – iPhone 4S modified proximity sensor: tinyurl.com – Follow me on Twitter: tinyurl.com – TiP on Google+: tinyurl.com – Like Today’s iPhone on Facebook! facebook.com