Ken Morrill

The Ustream iPhone viewing application is finally available for download on the App Store. I downloaded it and started using it right away. Much about the interface is good. Three buttons below: Live, Upcoming, Archived. Within Live, top tabs are: Top Live, Featured, All Live. Within Upcoming: Featured, All Events. Archived: Featured, Most Viewed.

Chris Pirillo Live

I can’t find a refresh button yet. I don’t see a section for the Ustream app in iPhone settings. The big problem right now is the frequent buffering that stops everything. Watching shows, everything pauses about twice a minute. This even on WiFi. I expect that they will make some kind of adjustment soon, and that we’ll see a follow-up release. One gets the feeling that the long wait was because of this buffering issue, and that it went out last night to be in time for the inauguration today, such a huge press opportunity.

Ustream for iPhone, vertical

The first show I watched was the Q Morning Show Live. The picture was good as was the sound. Then I turned to Chris Pirillo Live. I was able to walk around the house with Chris Pirillo in my hand! Unfortunately, the lag was there, the constant buffering, and eventually, it all went dark. I haven’t been able to connect for the past five minutes. I think I’ll reset my iPhone to see if that helps.

Interface for the new iPhone app from Ustream.tv

Journal

Here is an initial overview that I’ll fill in with specifics. So far I’ve applied it to an HTML site on an Apache web server and a MediaWiki wiki (PHP). I have yet to apply it to this blog (WordPress). For each that I do, I plan to give specific code examples.

1) For your platform, learn how to do a conditional include, where the condition is that when the browser is iPhone, that something will be shown, while for everything else, another thing. First do this in a part of the page that is visible.

If iPhone
YIP
Else
NIP
Endif

2) Make a copy of your style sheet, naming it something like style-i.css.

3) Use the conditional logic in the HEAD of the HTML to use style-i.css when it is iPhone, otherwise the regular one.

4) Use the same conditional logic wherever tables or cells are fixed width - with the iPhone version take away the width measurement. For instance, if a TD is defined with a width of 600 pixels, make it just a TD without the width for the iPhone. That way the page content will fill the width, whether vertical or horizontal.

5) In the style sheet for the iPhone, define fonts with em’s and make them a lot bigger than usual. 2, 3, or 4 em. Everything seems to get so small on the iPhone, so it is important to boost the fonts.

6) In the iPhone style sheet, add a special definition for img - making them go 100% in width and auto in height.

Technology css, html, iphone, tweak

I was thrilled to learn today that a SHOUTcast Radio client is now available on App Store - free from AOL - 25,000 streaming stations - wow - now on my iPhone (but also for the iPod touch).

The interface is fantastic, with easy to touch buttons. It has a good search and an easy-to-access history feature. The sound quality is superb. When I learned about it through a Twitter search for shoutcast, I was listening to Shoutcast through the Winamp client on my multimedia PC connected to my home stereo system. As soon as it was downloaded, I stopped the Winamp and searched to find the station on the new iPhone client. Immediately, there it was! I plugged in my earphones, and there was the full quality.

I am currently connected over Wi-Fi. The description says it will work with both 3G and Edge. I’ll soon have an opportunity to test those out.

On one of the App Store reviews, someone complained that it was ad-supported. So what! The music keeps playing when the iPhone is locked and in one’s pocket. Stations themselves may have ads, but not much for the ones I’ve listened to.

From vocal trance to classical guitar to any kind of talk, thousands and thousands of streaming radio stations from around the world, regardless of local reception, without a monthly fee. It sounds too good to be true, but it is here!

The search to do on the iTunes App Store is: shoutcast. There is currently one result: shoutcast radio. The download is quick!

Technology app store, iphone, ipod, itunes, radio, shoutcast, touch