[whatwg] autobuffer on "new Audio" objects

[Michael Kozakewich]

From: "Ian Hickson" <ian at hixie.ch>
Sent: Thursday, July 30, 2009 7:26 PM
> On Mon, 20 Jul 2009, David Wilson wrote:
>> It's easy to see how some naively implemented JS audio widget could
>> fetch 200mb over an expensive 3G connection, simply by navigating to
>> some site in a background tab (say, by creating an array of elements to
>> represent their playlist - something I'd have thought was perfectly
>> valid behaviour).
>
> A mobile phone would not autobuffer in a background tab.

3G is becoming more common for computers or laptops, as well as natively in 
some netbooks. 200MB would cost me a couple dollars, when I expect most 
sites to be almost free. (I've actually had this problem when friends post 
The Daily Show's embedded player, which autobuffers -- unlike YouTube 
videos.)

3G is easier to carry around, and I see it becoming far more common in the 
future (especially after 4G comes), which would suggest keeping large 
transfers as opt-in as possible.