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How about Job's famous "Thoughts on Flash"[1] > we strongly believe that all standards pertaining to the web should be open. Rather than use Flash, Apple has a

by da_n 13y ago

How about Job's famous "Thoughts on Flash"[1] > we strongly believe that all standards pertaining to the web should be open. Rather than use Flash, Apple has adopted HTML5, CSS and JavaScript – all open standards. Not suggesting iOS would need to support it native or in Safari (though they might choose to), they would only need to allow developers permission to have it as a dependency in their app packages (Netflix.app, BBC.app, etc). it could just be a thin layer on top of HTML5 video element, just to support DRM delivery. Why is this less desirable than it being baked into the HTML spec itself, essentially breaking the open web? [1] http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/ http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/

pornel 13y ago
Browsers supporting all relevant W3C specs and all codecs still won't be able to play HTML5-based Netflix. Playback relies on Netflix's proprietary Content Decryption Module that they've given to Google to bake into ChromeOS. Netflix is replacing `<object>` + NPAPI plugin with `<video>` + Netflix CDM plugin. So their HTML5 player is as much standard as their HTML4 player was — it's merely a tag to launch a proprietary binary. Apple would have to license Netflix's CDM plugin and bake it into the iOS in the way that ensures it's usable only in ways approved by Netflix. There is no way to avoid that, and that's the whole point of EME spec that Netflix+Google+Microsoft pushed through W3C.
- da_n 13y ago
  Interesting, thank you for the answers, sounds like it could be a fair compromise in that case.
ZeroGravitas 13y ago
Apple also used to have an open letter on their website supporting the notion that all internet standards should be royalty free. Strangely it seems to have been removed. http://xml.coverpages.org/AppleComputerPatentStatement.html http://xml.coverpages.org/AppleComputerPatentStatement.html

by da_n 13y ago

pornel 13y ago

Browsers supporting all relevant W3C specs and all codecs still won't be able to play HTML5-based Netflix. Playback relies on Netflix's proprietary Content Decryption Module that they've given to Google to bake into ChromeOS. Netflix is replacing `<object>` + NPAPI plugin with `<video>` + Netflix CDM plugin. So their HTML5 player is as much standard as their HTML4 player was — it's merely a tag to launch a proprietary binary. Apple would have to license Netflix's CDM plugin and bake it into the iOS in the way that ensures it's usable only in ways approved by Netflix. There is no way to avoid that, and that's the whole point of EME spec that Netflix+Google+Microsoft pushed through W3C.

da_n 13y ago
Interesting, thank you for the answers, sounds like it could be a fair compromise in that case.

ZeroGravitas 13y ago

Apple also used to have an open letter on their website supporting the notion that all internet standards should be royalty free. Strangely it seems to have been removed. http://xml.coverpages.org/AppleComputerPatentStatement.html http://xml.coverpages.org/AppleComputerPatentStatement.html