In a QuickTime update yesterday, not only did Apple close off a number of security holes in the media player but they also – more interestingly – gave it the ability to create videos perfectly sized for the iPhone. In fact, there are two new export options: iPhone and iPhone (cellular), with the former ideal for posting handset-compatible video on the web and the latter for direct transfer to the device itself.

iPhone Central ran an 8.47MB 640×480 QuickTime test movie through the software, which spat out a 1.2MB 480×360 H.264/AAC encoded video that was easily embedded into a webpage. While Safari on the iPhone struggled a little watching it, apparently when copied direct to the phone it “played back smoothly and gorgeously.”

Exporting in iPhone (Cellular) format produces a .3GP file, in their test case compressing the video down to 176×132 H.264/AAC encoded video playing at 15fps and an EDGE-friendly 96kb in size. Quality, unsurprisingly, was visibly worse than the larger file.

Of course, H.264 and .3GP are not just good for the iPhone, there are a growing number of mobile devices that take advantage of the formats’ low file size and reasonable quality. Being able to quickly output them using free software is a handy tool

Demo video for iPhone

[quicktime]http://www.myitablet.com/media/iday-final.m4v[/quicktime]