It's now possible and easy for you to upgrade your podcast website to support an HTML5 audio/video player, but not leave Flash Player behind.
Adobe Flash Player solved many problems
Websites and media are maturing faster than web browsers and web standards. So in order to support the vast amount of media appearing online, sites had to rely on third-party technologies like Adobe Flash Player or Microsoft Silverlight. Without these plugins, the web browsers wouldn't be able to directly (or “natively”) play these media files. But this was mostly all right because Adobe Flash Player was almost ubiquitous on all computers.
A “new” problem: iPhones, iPod Touches, and iPads (iOS)
Because Apple mobile devices (based on iOS) do not run Adobe Flash Player, this meant that the “whole Internet” that Apple wanted you to experience did not include all of the prominent interactive and media-rich content. Apple's mobile devices (iPhones, iPod Touches, and iPads) do not support Flash, so any website media, such as audio or video, would not play on these devices.
The popular solution: HTML5
Although not a set standard yet, Apple has embraced HTML5 and has been pushing (or maybe even forcing) others to conform—in fact, they prefer their own proprietary standards (H.264 and AAC).
However, HTML5 presents wonderful opportunities in that it presents a media-rich experience without requiring website visitors to install plugins to make it work.
To better understand HTML5, in simple terms, I recommend reading “What is HTML5, and Why Should You Care?” or the HTML5 entry on Wikipedia.
Blubrry PowerPress 2.0 supports Flash and HTML5!
I've previously praised Blubrry PowerPress and version 2.0 brings a load of new features. Most notable is that you can now select an HTML audio and video player, which will fallback to FlowPlayer Classic for Flash on browsers that don't support HTML5 media.
Read the PowerPress 2.0 announcement for more information.
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Disclosure
This post may contain links to products or services with which I have an affiliate relationship and may receive compensation from your actions through such links. However, I don't let that corrupt my perspective and I don't recommend only affiliates.
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Daniel,
Thanks for calling me a Genius but it’s undeserved. Angelo is the sole developer of powerpress. I’m lead Tech Support guy so as to keep Todd and Angelo from having to answer a lot of the same questions. I do help test it and give suggestions where I can.
Thank you so much for your recommendation of Powerpress. We are pretty proud of it. If you are ever in need of help or have a suggestion, of course you know Angelo and Todd, but feel free to contact me also. mike@rawvoice.com
God bless!
-Mike Dell
Thanks, Mike! You guys do great work!
I thought you did a great job explaining HTML5 considering it is a "boring" topic.
Thank you, Jeremy! Next time I have to cover such a boring topic, I'll bring some pompoms. But then again, maybe I'll make up for it with this next, really fun episode. 😉
Daniel, I'm in the process of catching up on all of your old podcasts. This one is a classic that I wished I listened to back in March 🙂
The information is great for bloggers as well as podcasters and I feel like I just put on a "thinking cap". THANK YOU!!
btw – did you get my request for show art?
Thanks, Ileane! I have a "starting points" page in mind. You remind me that this would be a good thing to include on it.
Yes, I replied to your podcast cover art request. I look forward to working together.