Podcast Academy

The Apple Developer Connection site is one of the most extensive data resources available to anyone interested in application development for the Mac. Apple just posted what I believe will become a very important resource: Web Development for iPhone. Currently there are seven general categories including: Design Practices, Interaction, and my favorite - Ensure a Great Audio and Video Experience. Needless to say the media specification will be a hot topic for producers who seek to perfect audio and video distribution copies for the iPhone.

In fact this afternoon I spent some time working with standard NTSC video, analyzing the results of various sets of encoding parameters for the iPhone. Since the display sports a proprietary 480×320 aspect ratio that is not true 16:9, a bit of ingenuity is necessary in order to properly scale standard definition video for the landscape [horizontal] view using what Apple refers to as a Theatrical Aspect Ratio. Personally I prefer a distribution aspect ratio of 480×270 for standard Dv. This format will cause a slight loss in resolution that in my opinion is unnoticeable when viewing on the iPhone. The key is the videographer needs to pay close attention to framing when shooting. It’s important to leave a bit of play in the video composition frame in order to properly scale the image prior to encoding. More on this as testing progresses …

And so it begins. I’m looking forward to what will surface in terms of applications when independently developed widgets are added to the mix. I have a feeling this is not too far off.

I think it’s time to fire up Dashcode …