Popular video site Vimeo (think a more artsy YouTube) has changed its code to be completely HTML5 compatible, which means you can now browse the site completely on the iPhone or the iPad. I just pulled the site up on my iPhone, and I have to say, I think it’s a smoother browsing experience than the browser itself — you just get a list of videos, and clicking on whichever one you want (like, for example, the great Dennis Liu music video above) opens it right up in Quicktime. Good deal. Vimeo’s been flirting with HTML5 for the better part of this year, but this switchover means everything (including embeds when seen from an iPhone or iPad) is in HTML5 from the start — bye bye Flash.
The new update also adds a “Watch Later” feature to accounts on the site, so you can save videos and pull them back up on the device of your choice, even if you’re not using something that works well. Eventually, the Watch Later feature will be added in to the Vimeo API, and there’s also a new Vimeo channel available on Roku set-top boxes if you’ve got one of those.
But the HTML5 change is the biggest one — one more site leaves the Flash fold and becomes extremely accessible to Apple’s platform.
TUAWVimeo now on iPad, iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 17 Aug 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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