Skip to main content

Amazon Cloud Player doesn’t play well with Mobile Safari for iOS

mobile safari iconThe clouds are rolling in. Amazon unveiled three new cloud-based products late last night, beating expected future competitors Apple and Google to the market. Cloud computing is a model that allows for the sharing of software, data and resources across a vast network, with all centrally located content made accessible remotely to users in the “cloud.” Amazon’s launch introduces three services: Cloud Drive, for general data storage, Cloud Player for Web, which people can use to access purchased media, and an Android-powered offshoot of the Cloud Player.

Eagle-eyed Apple enthusiasts might have noted in the above paragraph that there’s no mention of the iPhone or any other iOS-powered mobile device. That’s not an oversight. The new Amazon service seems to not work with with Apple’s sub-laptop products. More than that, it doesn’t even seem to be an issue relating to the absence of Flash support on iDevices; TechCrunch notes that the Cloud Player worked fine on a MacBook Air without Flash installed.

It appears that Amazon might be straight-up blocking access to the service for Apple’s Mobile Safari web browser. Navigating to the Cloud Player page — Cloud Drive is Flash-powered — results in a “Your browser is not supported” error message. You can then get into the player, but nothing happens when “Play” is clicked. One TC commenter noted that Mobile Safari users can access the download option to load the content directly onto their devices as a workaround. I also tested Cloud Player for Web on my own iPad and iPhone using the Atomic Web Browser app — which allows you to set your browser to be identified as something other than Mobile Safari — and it worked fine there as well.

There is a strong indication that Apple will be announcing its own cloud service plans at WWDC in June, with a “music locker” being worked in as part of MobileMe. With Amazon now the first to market with cloud storage features, it will certainly be interesting to see how Steve Jobs and company respond.

Adam Rosenberg
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Previously, Adam worked in the games press as a freelance writer and critic for a range of outlets, including Digital Trends…
It took me 8 months to try out this fantastic iOS 17 feature
The iPhone 15 Pro Max with Standby mode on the Anker MagGo Wireless Charging Station.

It has taken me quite a while, but I’ve recently had a chance to try out a feature in iOS 17 that, until now, I had forgotten even existed. I’m talking about StandBy mode, and I feel a bit silly for having passed it by for so long, as it’s really good.

Why haven’t I used it until now? It turns out I just needed the right piece of hardware to come along.
What is StandBy mode?

Read more
Here are the 7 new emoji coming to your iPhone with iOS 18
2024 emoji.

It's that time of year again! The Unicode Consortium has released a preview of new emoji that will likely be included in a version of iOS 18 later this year or early next year. It will be up to Apple to officially add them to the next iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, macOS, and visionOS versions.

The new emoji announced today include ones for a sleepy face, fingerprint, leafless tree, vegetable root, harp, shovel, and splatter. The emoji examples provided by Unicode serve as starting points for Apple designers to create finished designs and are not the final images Apple will use. Google and other platform users will also work with these emoji as a starting point.

Read more
iOS 17.5 just launched with a huge security feature for your iPhone
Apple iPhone 15 Plus and Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max seen from the back.

Apple iPhone 15 Plus (left) and Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

Apple has just released the iOS 17.5 update for iPhones, which brings a host of new features. For European Union residents, it enables Web Distribution, which means you can sideload apps from the internet and won’t be limited to the App Store.

Read more