Re: NEWS: iPad pitch to the Wall Street Journal laid bare

> Apple's Jobs Says Flash Crashes Macs; No Flash for iPad, iPhone Planned
I can understand a particular program that implements the Flash protocol
might be buggy and crash, but that merely needs a better implementation.

Dennis Ferguson wrote:
> On 2010-02-22, (E-Mail Removed) <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>>> Apple's Jobs Says Flash Crashes Macs; No Flash for iPad, iPhone Planned
>> I can understand a particular program that implements the Flash protocol
>> might be buggy and crash, but that merely needs a better implementation.
>
> That's easier said than done. The Flash protocol is not fully
> public (Adobe doesn't publish RTMPE specs, and has sent at least
> one DMCA letter to the author of a reverse engineered implementation)
> and the terms for doing an implementation of what they have published
> (allowing Adobe to violate your patents in any of their products) are
> a bit onerous for a lot of companies. It is very hard not to depend
> on the software Adobe writes if you want Flash support.
>
> One can see why they'd want to find something more openly specified
> and freely implementable to replace Flash.

I'm rooting for Apple on this one. If the iPad becomes as popular as the
iPhone, there will be a lot of pressure on web developers to detect the
platform and serve up content with alternatives to Flash. Then there
will be ways to spoof the browser so you can get Flash-free content
served up to you even if your platform is able to do Flash.

[Cingular no longer exists. Please remove alt.cellular.cingular from
follow-ups. The proper group to use is alt.cellular.attws]

On Wed, 24 Feb 2010 11:29:33 -0800, SMS wrote:

> Dennis Ferguson wrote:

>> One can see why they'd want to find something more openly specified and
>> freely implementable to replace Flash.

> I'm rooting for Apple on this one. If the iPad becomes as popular as the
> iPhone, there will be a lot of pressure on web developers to detect the
> platform and serve up content with alternatives to Flash.

Let's hope HTML5 gets some traction and eliminates the need for Flash,
Silverlight, &c.

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<http://ale.cx/> (AIM:troffasky) ((E-Mail Removed))
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In article <hm47md$h2t$(E-Mail Removed)>,
alexd <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> Let's hope HTML5 gets some traction and eliminates the need for Flash,
> Silverlight, &c.

So you'd happily move to h264, which isn't free either? Flash isn't
going away soon, just because iSteve doesn't like it.
--
Very old woody beets will never cook tender.
-- Fannie Farmer

Warren Oates wrote:
> In article <hm47md$h2t$(E-Mail Removed)>,
> alexd <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>> Let's hope HTML5 gets some traction and eliminates the need for Flash,
>> Silverlight, &c.
>
> So you'd happily move to h264, which isn't free either? Flash isn't
> going away soon, just because iSteve doesn't like it.

Flash won't go away, but with the market share of the iPhone/iPod Touch,
and the expected success of the iPad, it would be rather foolish for web
developers to not deploy sites that will use Flash alternatives.

Flash uses a lot of processing power, which affects performance and
power consumption, something that you have to really be careful about on
platforms like the iPhone and the iPad. There are good reasons why Apple
is wary about Flash support on those devices.

Whatever you do, don't eat at iRestaurant near the Apple campus. It's
terrible.

"http://www.yelp.com/biz/i-restaurant-cupertino"

In article <4b86bfd3$0$1586$(E-Mail Removed)>, SMS
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> Flash uses a lot of processing power, which affects performance and
> power consumption, something that you have to really be careful about on
> platforms like the iPhone and the iPad. There are good reasons why Apple
> is wary about Flash support on those devices.

there's a video of flash on the google nexus one, and you can see the
battery level indicator drop from one-half to one-quarter in 6 minutes.

In article <bvzhn.143797$(E-Mail Removed)>, Todd Allcock
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> > there's a video of flash on the google nexus one, and you can see the
> > battery level indicator drop from one-half to one-quarter in 6 minutes.
>
> While I don't doubt flash can have a significant effect on battery life,
> just how damning is that anecdotal drop on a device with a course 4-segment
> battery display? For all you know, it only dropped 1 percentage point from
> whatever the display considers "one-half" to "one-quarter;" e.g. from 38% to
> 37% (assuming the display uses 100, 75, 50, and 25 percent as center points
> for the segments' range.)

true, it's not an exact guide, but it was nevertheless, fast.

judge for yourself. about 40 seconds into the video, the phone shows
3:59 pm and the battery level is at 1/2. it drops to 1/4 at 4:06 pm.

everything they showed could better be done as a native app, and
wouldn't need the internet to play either.

<http://vimeo.com/9596010>

In article <8fChn.3630$(E-Mail Removed)>, Todd Allcock
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> If I want to
> watch, say, the last episode of "Lost" on Hulu, I need flash, at least
> until Hulu decides to roll out an App For That(tm).

and they're reportedly doing just that

> I'm not a fan of
> flash- I just want content. If that content is wrapped in flash, I need
> flash, at least until that content is offered in an alternative form.

transitions sometimes are tough.

On Thu, 25 Feb 2010 08:32:49 -0500, Warren Oates wrote:

> In article <hm47md$h2t$(E-Mail Removed)>,
> alexd <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>> Let's hope HTML5 gets some traction and eliminates the need for Flash,
>> Silverlight, &c.
>
> So you'd happily move to h264,

I hadn't even thought about video, TBH. You say 'move to', but Youtube's
Flash videos [the only Flash video I watch] already use H.264.

I was more interested in the vector graphics capabilities of HTML5. I
know SVG covers that, eg:

http://www.carto.net/papers/svg/samples/

but so long as it requires a significant proportion of users to fanny
about installing plugins, it won't be considered by web developers [AKA
chicken and egg]. Hopefully HTML5 will be sensibly implemented by most
browsers, however I can imagine Microsoft's support for things that
compete with Silverlight might not be 100%.

> which isn't free either?

Maybe not in your country. Anyway, going from one non-free solution to a
better non-free one is still a win in my book.

> Flash isn't going away soon, just because iSteve doesn't like it.

I don't particularly care if Flash goes away or not; the one machine I
have with the Flash plugin installed also has Flashblock. I would just
like web developers to have consideration for those who don't have Flash.
If a much hyped^W^W popular range of devices won't ever have Flash, then
that increases the likelihood of a web developer providing a non-Flash
alternative.

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In article <250220101327159530%(E-Mail Removed)>,
nospam <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> there's a video of flash on the google nexus one, and you can see the
> battery level indicator drop from one-half to one-quarter in 6 minutes.

Mmm hmm. Just like our MacBook Pro with Photoshop.
--
Very old woody beets will never cook tender.
-- Fannie Farmer