[whatwg] Serving up Theora <video> in the real world

[Maciej Stachowiak]

On Jul 9, 2009, at 2:59 PM, David Gerard wrote:

> The question is what to do for platforms such as the iPhone, which
> doesn't even run Java.
>
> Is there any way to install an additional codec in the iPhone browser?
> Is it (even theoretically) possible to put a free app on the AppStore
> just to play Ogg Theora video for our users? (There are many AppStore
> apps that support Ogg Vorbis, don't know if any support Theora - so
> presumably AppStore stuff doesn't give Apple the feared submarine
> patent exposure.)

Just by way of factual information:

There's no Java in the iPhone version of Safari. There are no browser  
plugins. There is no facility for systemwide codec plugins. There is  
no way to get an App Store app to launch automatically from Web  
content. I don't think there is any obstacle to posting an App Store  
app that does nothing but play videos from WikiPedia, the way the  
YouTube app plays YouTube videos. But I don't think there is a way to  
integrate it with browsing.

Regards,
Maciej