Video streaming apps on the iPhone in the U.S. have always had to contend with the limitations of AT&T’s data network. For a long time, video streaming apps were not allowed in the App Store. And when they did finally get approved, at first they could only stream videos via WiFi.
As AT&T slowly beefs up its data network, iPhone apps can now deliver streams over 3G. But network availability is still an issue, so much so that Apple is now requiring that video watching apps support multiple streaming bitrates before it will approve an app. At least that was the case for Justin.tv’s iPhone video app, which hit the App Store earlier this week. During the approval process, Justin.tv was asked to incorporate both high-quality (200 kbps) and low-quality (64 kbps) streams. The video switches to a low-quality when the 3G network is overloaded or only the slower EDGE network is available (which renders any video painful to watch no matter what the bitrate).
“We were a bit confused by this request at the time, as none of the other live video applications in the App Store had that feature,” reports Justin.tv marketing VP Evan Solomon. “Apple was very adamant that we add it—they wouldn’t approve our app without it,” he adds.
Apple is increasingly encouraging developers of video apps to include adaptive bitrates which vary based on the user’s connection. Currently Apple requires all long-form video (which includes live streams and anything over 10 minutes) to support low and high quality streams. But eventually Apple will likely start to enforce this policy for all videos and video apps, no matter what the length. Already at least one online video platform, Brightcove, dynamically adjusts the streaming rates when it detects a video request from an iPhone app. So it is becoming more of an industry practice. Now it looks like Apple is starting to reinforce that practice through the App Store approval process as well.
The iPhone 3GS, announced at WWDC on June 8, 2009, is a faster iPhone featuring a 3.0 megapixel camera with autofocus, video recording capabilities with editing, and increased (3X) processing speed. The 3GS is available in 16GB and 32GB, for $199 and $299, respectively. Other new features include: Digital Compass Cut, Copy, and Paste MMS (release delayed in the US) WiFi tethering (release delayed in the US) Voice Control Landscape Keyboard Spotlight Search Voice Memos
Founded in October 2006, Justin.tv is the largest online community for people to broadcast, watch and interact around live video. Using only a laptop, you can share your event, class, party or thoughts, live, to anyone in over 250 countries while they chat in real-time with you and with other viewers. With more than 41 million unique visitors per month and 428,000 channels broadcasting live video, Justin.tv is the leading live video site on the Web, enabling users to...
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