Comments on: Audio in tumblr won't play on iPad - why?

Question: Audio in tumblr won't play on iPad - why?

progosk — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 13:52:25 -0800

An mp3 embedded in a tumblr post; iPhone plays it, iPad doesn't. Why?

The mp3 file uploaded, and tumblr holds all the metadata, OK, cool.

When I look at the post in Safari on my iPhone 4S (iOS 5), I get a little picture of the track's cover, and next to it a big play button with the title of the piece. When pressed, the audio plays fine.
When I look at the same post on my iPad2 (iOS6, but iOS5 did the same), Safari shows me a little mocking "[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]" line, with a link to Adobe's Get Flash site.

So... tumblr doesn't register that it's an iPad calling up the post? Or is there something I'm not getting/doing wrong?

(As an aside: the same post in Firefox on the computer only gets a big black Play bar - why no cover image / title?)

For reference, the post is here.

By: Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish

Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 13:53:55 -0800

Your iPhone sees the mobile version of pages, while the iPad, I believe, gets desktop versions. So my guess is that mobile Tumblr uses HTML5 while desktop Tumblr is serving the file through Flash.

By: elizardbits

elizardbits — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 13:58:03 -0800

I think you have to use the unbearably ghastly mobile version of tumblr for this on an ipad?

tbh this may just be a terrible nightmare i had

By: progosk

progosk — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 14:23:23 -0800

the iPad, I believe, gets desktop versions

that would explain it.

Seems pretty unreasonable that for tumblr the iPad = desktop, I must say.

Anything to be done about this? (I'm pretty new to tumblr, and there doesn't seem to be a useful way to take the issue up with their support.)

Thanks for any suggestion...

By: progosk

progosk — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 15:02:38 -0800

Digging a little, I found this remark, and indeed, deep in the advanced tumblr layout settings I find the option checked to have a special mobile-optimized layout served to phones.

So then, question is: is there a way to either get tumblr to serve this layout to iPads, too (my guess is not), or at least some way to change the user agent on iPad, so that Safari tricks tumblr into thinking it's a phone?

(Can't believe I'm wanting Flash on an iPad...)

By: Quiscale

Quiscale — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 21:30:56 -0800

Atomic Web Browser ($0.99) allows you to change the user agent. I just confirmed that it works on my iPad when I have the browser identify as "mobile - iPhone".