Puffbox

If you think YouTube has transformed television, you ain’t seen nothing yet.

I’ve spent most of today playing with YouTube (and its little-known RSS feeds), for a piece of work to be unveiled next week (er, probably). The plan was to embed the latest handful of videos from a given YouTube account into a site’s homepage: and it proved remarkably easy, with some rudimentary PHP and a bit of lateral thinking. The effect is really, really nice. Don’t be surprised to see more and more sites doing this.

Then there’s news that YouTube is planning higher-quality video streaming. I wasn’t previously aware that YouTube stored the video in whatever format you uploaded it, and converted it to Flash ‘on the fly’; I always assumed it was the other way round. Now YouTube is saying they’re working on ‘a player that detects the speed of the viewer’s Net connection and serves up higher-quality video if viewers want it… high-quality YouTube videos will be available to everyone within three months… all video is stored at the native resolution in which it was sent.’

The web’s political TV channel, 18 Doughty Street has announced that it is to close next week – to relaunch itself with a new name and a new Westminster studio next year. Iain Dale reveals they have a new chief exec on board, and will be bringing a ‘more netty feel’ to their programming. Fair play to them: they’ve already achieved something significant, proving at the very least that ‘it can be done’. Faster and cheaper broadband, a YouTube-literate population, plus a continuing lack of political coverage on proper telly… expect more to come.

I dropped by the Apple Store in Regent Street this afternoon, for my first play with an iPhone / iPod Touch. Basically, the reviews are right: it redefines the mobile internet device. I can easily see where Antony Mayfield is coming from: the iPod Touch is equally cool, and an excellent substitute if you aren’t in the market for a phone. But I can’t help feeling that if I do ultimately buy one, I’ll only end up wondering why I didn’t go the whole hog, and get the iPod-with-built-in-phone. The second device in my pocket will feel twice as heavy. Still v-e-r-y tempting though.

Interestingly, the one aspect of both devices which impressed me most was the YouTube integration. Full screen video playback via what seemed like a stand-alone app. All the fun of YouTube, without the (frankly) ugly-verging-on-unusable website. And if I’m not mistaken, no superimposed YouTube logo on the clips. It really makes YouTube a dream to use… and reinforces its position as the undisputed no1 in online video.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: if you’ve got any video content, get it on YouTube now and ask questions later.

Opera Mini is a revelation: proof that the internet really can work on a tiny screen after all. Opera already has a reputation for great ‘small-screen rendering’, stripping out all the HTML that just wouldn’t work on a mobile phone screen anyway. But the new v4 release of this Java mobile app also includes the ability to see the full web page , and zoom in/out/about as you desire. Not to mention the fact that it reduces your data downloading by about 70% – crucial if you’re paying by the megabyte. It’s absolutely brilliant. It’s a tiny download. And it’s free. Try the demo if you need any further convincing.

Reports in Media Guardian today that David Cameron is signing up to post regularly on Friction.TV – ‘in addition to the video blogs he already posts on his own www.webcameron.co.uk site.’ The company has ‘also approached both the Labour and Liberal Democrat parties about setting up their own channels, but said it has so far not received a response.’

Great move by Sky News to have an iPhone-optimised version of their website ready for iPhone launch day tomorrow. Not rocket science, of course: just a restricted width HTML/CSS layout, and some iPhone-style boxy buttons. Easy enough to knock together in a few hours, for most people in a content management context. But a great move in PR terms nonetheless.

In fact, it’s a really nice way to browse the lead items on their website, whether or not you have an iPhone, and not just because of the lack of adverts. It could easily be repurposed as a desktop sidebar or widget.

Update: Sky’s James Weeks officially announces the new site on Sky’s editors’ blog. But you read it here first, didn’t you. 🙂

A nutshell I picked up from comments on Adrian Monck’s blog, courtesy of Tom Whitwell:

Ed (Gorman) started a F1 blog at Times Online in March, and he’s been astonishing – 60-100 comments on plenty of posts, 30k visitors a day during the peak of the season, getting about 35% + 35% UK and Spanish readers, teaching me a lot about how blogs can work. He’s having a rest until the new season, but the blog is at http://timesonline.typepad.com/formula_one/ Plenty of other good Times bloggers (Ruth Gledhill, Charles Bremner, Danny Finkelstein) but Ed has gone from a standing start to huge success very fast.

Very impressive numbers. But yes, on reflection, Formula One was crying out for the blog treatment. Hardcore fan base, slow-burning weekday stories culminating in weekend global mass-audience events (the races), conspiracy theories a-plenty – but perhaps most importantly, bunches of blokes spending too much time together. The perfect recipe, really.