Existing users, 
View embedded YouTube content on the iPhone
Posted 14 January 2008 @ 12pm in News, Guides/How-Tos
Although the iPhone can playback H.264-encoded YouTube content through the YouTube application, the device’s Safari browser cannot pick up and display embedded YouTube content. When it encounters embedded YouTube media, MobileSafari simply displays a blue question mark, indicative of unrecognized media. Unlike Google Maps content, which is routed through to the Google Maps application, embedded YouTube content simply cannot be viewed in any fashion (by default) on the iPhone. This is one of the most frustrating aspects of browsing the Web on the iPhone.
A new bookmarklet from Joe Maller changes that. Here’s how it works:
- Drag this link: iTransmogrify! to your Safari bookmarks bar under Mac OS X or Windows.
- Sync Safari’s bookmarks to your iPhone through iTunes (under the ‘Info’ tab)
- On your iPhone, navigate to a page that contains embedded YouTube content (such as Joe Maller’s page). You’ll see the typical blue question mark.
- Now go to MobileSafari’s bookmarks (on your iPhone) and access the “iTransmogry!” bookmark from step 1. Wait a few seconds, and the embedded YouTube content will show up on the page. Tapping it will launch the YouTube player and playback the content as long as it has been encoded with H.264 (try the panda bear clip on Joe’s page)
This mechanism works thanks to the magic of bookmarklets. Essentially, bookmarklets entire sets of HTML and JavaScript in a bookmark by utilizing the data: URL. All page content is thus stored in bookmark data, and can be accessed when no network connection exists — even if the iPhone is in Airplane mode. It can also, as in the case of iTransmogrify, be used to modify, on the fly, Web pages loaded in the MobileSafari browser.
Bookmarklets have also been used to implement a rudimentary Find function in the iPhone’s Safari browser.
Feedback? info@iphoneatlas.com.
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2 Comments
Posted by okeanos
14 January 2008 @ 1pm
This actually reminds me of another missing Safari feature: ability to save a link in a web page as a bookmark. This would make it much simpler to add bookmarklets to the iPhone’s browser. Many bookmarklets are available on the web already and it would be really nice to just add ‘em to the phone directly.
I personally find it annoying to have to sync bookmarks with Safari to get them on the phone. Why? Because I don’t want all my Safari bookmarks on my phone and I want them organized differently on the phone than on my desktop.
Michael
Posted by joemaller1
25 January 2008 @ 11pm
That was probably the best explanation I’ve read and way better than what I wrote, thanks for the link!
I should note however that iTransmogrify won’t work in Airplane Mode, the bookmarklet pulls in an external JavaScript file which does all the actual work. I decided on this model because the primary use sort of infers net access, also I can update the core file and everyone gets the added functionality.
@okeanos
I added a page which lets you install the bookmarklet directly on your iPhone, so there’s no need to sync bookmarks if you don’t want to. Visit the Google Code page for the link