National Geographic, Conde Nast and NPR are using the Akamai HD network to deliver high definition videos to consumers via the iPad platform.

Conde Nast?s GQ and Epicurious magazines will be delivered across the network. Both applications have been optimized for the iPad and feature new functionalities, making the video experience more dynamic and customized for the user.

?Akamai supports delivery of live and on demand content to a variety of devices ? connected and mobile from the Apple products to Sony Playstation to Xbox and many wireless devices,? said Jennifer Donovan, senior PR manager at Akamai, San Mateo, CA. ?The iPad is just another device we support.?

All GQ content is delivered and stored in the cloud minimizing the need for severs and data center dependencies, which allows the publication to reduce costs and provide a faster user experience with greater stability.

National Geographic
Thanks to Akamai, National Geographic is now listed on Apple?s iPad-ready Web site for http://www.nationalgeographic.com.

The media property is relying on the HD network to ensure that viewers have a high quality, high performing video experience online.

NPR
NPR?s iPhone application has developed an iPad-optimized version of http://www.npr.org. NPR has been delivering content to mobile devices, including the iPhone, since August 2009.

Streaming Video
Akamai provides services for powering video, transactions and enterprise applications online to inform, entertain, advertise, interact and collaborate.

Providing the alternative to centralized Web infrastructure, Akamai distributes to tens of thousands of servers with the goal of providing the scale, reliability, insight and performance for business to succeed online.

Akamai?s HD network was further designed to allow content owners to deliver live and on-demand content while leveraging an infrastructure of tens of thousands of HTTP servers deployed globally in ISP networks.

This content will be accessed on millions of mobile devices allowing people to make their Internet experiences more portable.

Akamai will provide customers with HD quality as well as live and on-demand content.

For the iPad, iPhone and iTouch, Akamai supports adaptive bitrate streaming. This means the program automatically adapts to a user?s fluctuating Internet conditions to enable a smoother playback to improve viewing experience.

Whether the network is Edge, WiFi or 3G, as long as the users have adaptive streaming the playback can be optimized to begin at a lower bitrate immediately and then switch to a higher bitrate as conditions allow.

?Akamai?s support for delivery of content and applications to the iPad is just another step in our support for improving consumer?s experience on the Internet whether on the go or connected to their home computers,? Ms. Donovan said.