Hey Dan, ever heard of a staging area to do your testing? Apparently not judging by the screenshot above. MacRumors took that "iPad - test - dan config - 3" content from the CBS.com homepage for a spin and discovered what appears to be HTML5 (not Flash) video. A bit more sleuthing reveals several "webkit" (the foundation of the iPad's and iPhone's mobile Safari browser) calls after peeling open the CSS. This suggests that CBS is preparing to serve up parallel HTML5 content with the launch of the notoriously Flash-less iPad -- take that Hulu -- becoming yet another high-profile company swayed into providing video and other content in an Apple friendly format. Then again, maybe CBS is just testing a "what if" scenario with no intention of moving this into production any time soon. US netizens can try it themselves by setting your browser to spoof the iPad's user agent and hitting the source below (for as long as it lasts) but you'll need the iPad SDK Simulator to view the actual HTML5 videos.

CBS testing HTML5 iPad video out in the open, sorry Flash originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 25 Mar 2010 05:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Apple iPad is landing in just over a week on April 3. We hear that CBS.com are currently working on bringing their video content to the iPad in the form of HTML5. This would mean that the normal flash videos that can be viewed on the CBS site through a regular browser will actually be converted to the HTML5 format allowing content to still be played on the Apple [AAPL] device.

The information arrives after the CBS site was spotted to include a couple of “iPad – test” video links. MacRumors decided to run a test to see if they functioned as the name suggested and found that they were just redirected to the normal flash videos. They did however note that when either using the iPad SDK simulator, or by spoofing the browser agent on a PC/Mac to make it look like you were viewing the content on an iPad, that a different version of the video was displayed (image smaller above and larger below).

Although the video didn’t play when tested as an iPad browser or on the SDK, further investigations revealed that the CSS files related to the page actually made mention of HTML5 and had a number of webkit calls (meaning they are related to the iPad Safari browser). The videos didn’t load on the page, but it is strongly believed that the videos are being converted in to an alternative format so the HTML5 video versions can also be played when needed.

It’s good to see a major network is looking at switching to HTML5. Perhaps others will follow making the pain of not having flash more bearable.

Via: The Other Mac Blog

CBS.com Getting Ready for HTML5 Video on the Apple iPad