Last week I wieldÂed the mighty powÂer of TwitÂter to say this:
If you use an iPhone I feel a bit sorÂry for you, because you’re missÂing out on the realÂly innoÂvÂaÂtive stuff hapÂpenÂing in mobile browsers.
A few peoÂple asked me what I meant by that, perÂhaps thinkÂing that I was critÂiÂcisÂing iPhones in genÂerÂal (I wasn’t[1]), so I want to take a moment to elabÂoÂrate on my stateÂment. To do that, I’ll begin with a story.
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I find it fasÂciÂnatÂing to see the variÂance in browsÂer use in the diverse regions of the world, and nowhere is that variÂance more apparÂent than in mobile web browsers. While in the West we may be used to Chrome and Safari being more or less the only game in town, elseÂwhere in the world the stoÂry is quite difÂferÂent. In this artiÂcle I’m going to take a look at a few charts which illusÂtrate that difference.
The stats used here are colÂlectÂed from the 30 days priÂor to 25th August, takÂen from StatCounter.com. They come with the usuÂal disÂclaimer about the imposÂsiÂbilÂiÂty of getÂting comÂpleteÂly accuÂrate data, and don’t always include feaÂture phone browsers, so should thereÂfore be treatÂed as indicaÂtive rather than conÂcluÂsive. With the caveats out of the way, let’s begin.
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Last week on TwitÂter I shared some browsÂer and OS staÂtisÂtics from a site I manÂage. These turned out to be quite popÂuÂlar, so I’ve decidÂed to expand on them a litÂtle furÂther, and also add the stats from anothÂer site I manÂage, to broadÂen the base numÂbers a litÂtle. I’m not tryÂing to make any point here, just sharÂing a litÂtle bit of anaÂlytÂics data. If there’s any interÂest in my doing so, I’ll proÂvide furÂther updates in the future; leave a comÂment if there’s anyÂthing in parÂticÂuÂlar you’d like to know.
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I’m not a blind Microsoft-bashÂer, neiÂther am I an MS fanÂboy (in fact, I think the whole idea of alignÂing yourÂself with any sinÂgle techÂnolÂoÂgy or brand is pretÂty narÂrow-mindÂed). I think MS do some things well, and some things poorÂly. I am going to have a bit of a pop at them at the end of this artiÂcle, but I’m going to start by defendÂing them.
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In my preÂviÂous post, MakÂing HTML5 Video work on Android phones, I said that you have to encode your videos as .m4v
in order for them to work in Android. This isn’t actuÂalÂly corÂrect. The sufÂfix can be either .mp4
or .m4v
, what matÂters is the way the video is encoded.
Now, there are loads of blog and forum posts which give difÂferÂing advice on preÂsets and paraÂmeÂters, and I’m no expert — so what I’ll do is just show you two quick ways that worked for me (I have a SamÂsung Galaxy S).
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I recentÂly became the ownÂer of an Android phone* and found that, despite it being listÂed as a feaÂture of the browsÂer, the HTML5 video
eleÂment didÂn’t work for almost all of the examÂples I tried. I’ve just done some experÂiÂmenÂtaÂtion with this and think I’ve found a soluÂtion, so this post is offered in the hope that it helps anyÂone who may be tearÂing their hair out over the same problem.
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