Mobile Tech Minutes Gets a Facelift
WordPress Video Player
Our daily “Mobile Tech Minutes” video feature has truly been a treat for us. We started these very short segments last week and we’re thrilled with the community response. You can’t keep everyone happy all of the time, but we strive for keeping most people happy as much as we can. The vast majority of responses and e-mails have been positive and for that we thank you.
So we’re going to continue with the daily feature and try to bring you a unique and brief mobile tech tidbit to see every weekday. Tomorrow however, we’re going to try a change in the way we deliver the content.
We’ve been testing a native WordPress player so tomorrow’s video won’t be on YouTube. It will be embedded right here on the site. The above screencap gives you a preview. No don’t click it, it’s just a static image. 
We’re doing this mainly for two reasons. First, our testing has shown that the native player will offer you much better video quality, either in HD or in a standard view. When we have our camera settings correct, the HD videos even look great in full screen; something we’re not seeing in YouTube. In fact, in the last test video, which was the Moblin hands-on, you could easily read every bit of text on the screen in the HD version running in full screen!
The second reason impacts our community even more directly. Since our videos are currently viewable here and on our YouTube channel, we’re effectively trying to manage conversations in two places. Frankly, that’s not optimal for anyone. Ideally, we want all viewers to participate in one conversation and by embedding our videos here, we can see that goal realized.
Thanks for following along our “Mobile Tech Minutes”. We’ll continue to tweak and improve things along the way and we’re appreciative that you’ve come along for the ride. If you’ve got a specific topic that you want to see on the show, just click our cartoon heads to send us a note!
So I guess that means no more watching the videos on my iPhone then?
Same thing on the G1 until adobe release it’s flash player.
Oliver and Nicolas, these are great points as many phones have dedicated Youtube Apps, including HTC models.
James/Kevin, what about still uploading to youtube and link to it in the post?
Keep the WordPress embedded copy but link to the alternative on YouTube I meant.
Thanks for the feedback and comments; I definitely understand where you’re coming from. Don’t forget, I use an iPhone too.
As I said, we’re going to try this new player; keyword = try. In the meantime, I say we all petition the smartphone makers and Adobe to get Flash on the handsets!
I wish I knew how many YouTube viewers were on the iPhone and other handsets for our videos… all I can say for sure is how many iPhone views there are here on the site. In the last month it was barely over 1% of all views.
Kevin, I read your site on my iPhone (via RSS feed) every day, multiple times. And if I want to check comments or leave one myself, I drill into the actual post via iPhone Safari (easier than trying to remember to do it later on a “real” computer).
So maybe use all the leverage you have with Steve Jobs to get Flash on the iPhone — I am sure you’d gain lots of new fans.