Hulu Working on iPad Support
There's talk that Hulu may be coming to Apple's new iPad.
TechCrunch seems to believe that Hulu could work on Apple's upcoming iPad. Currently Apple's iPhone OS doesn't support Flash, and Hulu doesn't offer videos outside the Flash player. So what gives? How' that going to work? Re-design the entire site using HTML5? That might be costly and time consuming, especially when the 3rd-party advertisements are designed to run under Flash.
Apparently there's a rumor that Hulu is working on an iPad-friendly version, perfect for Steve Job's little portable cherub. CEO Jason Kilar even boasted support about mobility, but refused to confirm or deny future iPad support. As Gizmodo points out, the company reportedly already has an iPhone app in the works, however we have yet to see it.
Although Hulu videos are streamed through a Flash player, they're also encoded in H.264, making the media supported by the QuickTime player and Apple's web browser, Safari. Unfortunately, iPhone and iPod Touch users can't access the videos via Safari --they're merely greeted by a message saying that Hulu requires Flash Player 10.0.22. For compatibility, Hulu would need to create a non-Flash player for all three devices to view the content.
Without confirmation, all this is mere speculation. We can see Hulu and the iPad making a perfect match, but there are a few technical and financial hurdles to overcome to make the magic. It's quite possible that the mystery Apple App is waiting on the iPad's release before going live on the iPhone and iPod Touch. The iPad could have been the culprit behind the delay the entire time.
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Waste of time
Hulu Can stick it where the sun don't shine for not being open on the web.
Yeah, i hate Hulu's "US only" policy
OR APPLE COULD JUST ADD FLASH SUPPORT!
some negative comment
So glad my phone will have flash by the end of the month.
"Although Hulu videos are streamed through a Flash player, they're also encoded in H.264..."
"The entire library would also need to be converted to H.264 standard as well."
A bit hypocritical, no?
HTML5 is the way to go... in a few years! Flash is now, and Apple better their act together. Seriously, how hard can it be. They have $25 billion in their bank account sitting around and they can't put flash on their iPod/iPhone. Bad Apple!
Hmmmm.....TV on a small screen iPad or my large screen plasma TV? No brainer!
How about putting HULU in Canada first?
Granted, I just use a free VPN (Hotspot Shield), but it's annoying.
There's more Canadian's than there will be Macintosh tampon users. =)
So wuts the difference between this and Hulu on a Netop/Tablet/Slate? Oh wait, its the Hulu Apple version - you get to watch Hulu on a menstral device. Yeah, now I am just going to have to buy this for my Wife, Wife's sister, sister, first mistress, second mistress, Wife's best friend (third Mistress).....yeah.
You guys outside the USA really aren't missing that much. The network websites, particularly ABC's, streams high def content MUCH better than Hulu does. Having it connect to the iPad could help it in sales a little bit. But the thing is still too expensive. 30/month for shitty AT&T 3g? Please.
NOOOOO, please don't modify your site to work on the iPad, then you're just helping Apple in remaining a stubborn bully. Companies should stop bending to Apple's restrictive ways and force them to open up and be more of what the people wants.
And people are already complaining about network saturation for those little fruit bars. Imagine if everyone were running around watching last night's TV episodes. Epic Fail?
So Apple doesn't support Flash. So what. If you really need Flash don't buy an Apple product. Stop whining about it.
The entire internet doesn't have to move because of Apple. If Apple chooses not to support Flash for various reasons (stability, performance, battery life, control of their own destiny etc.) but their products are wildly popular anyway, then all of the companies who currently use Flash will have to make a choice. That's a big if. The market will decide which way to go - Apple is just making a bet but they do not control the outcome.
You don't hear anyone complaining about Real Player disappearing do you? Up until a few years ago it was indispensable. Now it is an also-ran. You don't hear anyone complaining their PC doesn't have a floppy - but when Apple omitted it from the first iMac they were laughed at. Turns out you could build a better experience around newer solutions and pretty soon nobody missed it. Flash is the same way - the transition will be sorta painful in the short run but we'll all be better off without it.
Flash is great when you have an x86 CPU, large memory, plenty of watts of power, and a crappy IE6 browser that doesn't support video without a plugin and has shitty Javascript/CSS/DHTML/Ajax support. That is the context in which Flash earned its right to exist. In a small modern mobile device with a webkit browser those assumptions are lost and Flash starts to pretty well suck. It is not at all clear that Flash deserves to exist in the mobile space.
The market will decide.
lame, Hulu currently blocks traffic to skyfire browsers on mobile phones.