CBS.com Work on Site Updates to Support iPad

Colum ODwyer from The Other Mac Blog stumbled onto something different on CBS’ website yesterday. As he went to the site to watch his shows, he discovered a couple of “iPad – test” video links. Currently videos on CBS.com uses Flash and we all know support for this format still eludes the iPad. So what gives?

MacRumors dug a little further. They went to the site, clicked on the links, only to find the very same Flash videos the ODwyer did. So instead, they found a workaround. By using the iPad SDK Simulator, they made the site believe that they were browsing the page using an iPad and were directed to a hidden version of the video.

Although the video discovered cannot be played, they believe this version to be HTML5 based, which will work on the iPad. In fact, they reported the “fullscreen mode” already works with the simulator.

CBS.com is the first major television network reportedly working on an iPad solution. We can only hope the rest of the networks will take note and follow suit.

UPDATE: Looks like the folks over at 9to5Mac were able to play some of the videos. They reported on their site that they had used some URL manipulation to watch a full episode of Star Trek. This is great news indeed!

[MacRumors]