Apple Thoughts - News & Reviews on all things Apple

"I'm the last person on earth who wanted to believe Steve Jobs when he told Walt Mossberg at D8 that 'Flash has had its day.' I took it as nothing more than showmanship when Jobs shared his thoughts on Flash and wrote that 'Flash is closed and proprietary, has major technical drawbacks, and doesn't support touch based devices.'"

But it turns out that he has to agree with Jobs on Flash, after spending some time using, or rather trying to use, mobile Flash Player 10.1 on the Android 2.2. The author tried several sites, and came to the conclusion that it isn't ready, and really what is the point of making websites compatible? If they have to recode them for Flash, why not just do it so it is compatible with HTLM5?

"Demand for HTML5 skills among developers is soaring, according to a new report released today by DoNanza, a search engine that aggregates project postings from online freelance jobs markets like Elance and oDesk."

Just how big of a demand is there? Well, according to the report done by DoNanza.com, in Q2 2010 there was a 474% increase in the demand for HTML5 developers. How was Flash faring in the same report? Down 24%. But to put it in perspective, there were 11 times as many Flash projects posted as there were HTML5 projects. It's an interesting report nonetheless.

"We just saw Flash 10.1 ported to the iPad demonstrated in video form by Comex, and now you can get in on the action too, as long as your iPad is jailbroken. It's called Frash, and while the plugin is still pretty early and doesn't do video playback yet, you can definitely play games and other animations right now, and we're told video support is forthcoming."

While the ability to have Flash (or more accurately, Frash) on my iPad is very attractive, the jailbreaking process and the necessary mods in and around the file system are less attractive, and can "brick" your system (and "blow up the universe") if you're not careful. Right now I can survive without Flash on my iPad, but that may change depending on the adoption and acceptance of HTML5.

"Listen, Adobe. I come to you under a white flag to try and warn you: a little collateral damage like a dead JLA member isn't going to stop this guy. He's put out an iFatwa on all things Flash, and he doesn't let a failed launch set him back."

$15.00 USD will get you a t-shirt with the graphic above on it, very funny!

"Long before Apple even announced its new iPad, media companies were going nuts about the device, for two reasons. First, they believed they would be able to create apps that would be gorgeous and stunning and way better than anything they've been able to do on a Web browser. Second, money."

Image Credit: Macblogz

Of course the rub, according to this author, is that they have to work with Apple, and that Apple doesn't exactly play nice with others that don't follow along with their vision (think Flash and Adobe). Don't play by our rules and we really don't want to deal with you. His article is meant to serve as a warning to those that want to "play in Apple's garden" and he advises, DON'T DO IT! A recent article at the Mobile Opportunity blog takes a different tact, that it is only about the money, but that Adobe and Apple are both to blame and the customer is the "innocent victim" in all of this. Personally, I don't Apple is a "bully" and I certainly don't think the customer is an innocent victim, however I do agree it is about money.

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"They're taking their time, but it's coming; CBS just announced this week that it's turning its entire video content on CBS.com into the iPhone-friendly HTML5. This means that by this fall, you'll be able to enjoy Horatio Caine, Barney Stinson, Anthony DiNozzo and many more right from your iPhone OS devices."

And it will be direct streaming from their website, unlike ABC, so it even makes watching on your iPhone or iPod Touch possible. Sweet. Now all we need is NBC and Fox to get onboard the HTML5 train.

"It appears Adobe found some fire beneath itself as it moves quickly to take advantage of new OS X hardware APIs."

OS X 10.6.3 brought out some options for developers to add hardware accelerated h.264 video playback, and now Adobe is taking advantage of it. They touting what they call "Gala," which is a preview release of Flash Player 10.1. This will allow any Mac running OS X 10.6.3 and that has either NVIDIA GeForce 9400M, GeForce 320M or GeForce GT 330M processors to playback hardware accelerated h.264 video. Previous to this, the hardware acceleration was only available on Windows machines or x86 based netbooks. You can read the Adobe press release here.

"Apple has slammed Adobe right back in the latter's complaints that Cupertino keeps its iPhone platform closed."

According to Apple spokeswoman Trudy Miller, "Someone has it backwards - it is HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, and H.264 (all supported by the iPhone and iPad) that are open and standard, while Adobe's Flash is closed and proprietary." Adobe's position is of course the opposite, that Apple is the closed system since they won't allow flash on the iPhone and iPad. It appears the war of words is still going strong.

"Adobe is basically saying they've given up on Apple's iPhoneOS products. Principal Product Manager for developer relations for the Flash Platform at Adobe, Mike Chambers lays out the bad news for Flash developers who'd want an easy way to port their apps to iPhone."

According to Weintraub "While CS5 will still export for the current iPhone, they are warning developers that Apple will probably pull their '100+ apps already built in Flash' from the App Store at some point in the future and, most importantly, Adobe have suspended all investments in Flash CS5's iPhone App export functionality."

He also makes the interesting point that while Adobe is excited about Android, is Google all that excited about Flash since they took YouTube to H.264-encoded MP4s and it wasn't because they loved Flash. Is this just the latest salvo in the war with Apple or do you think they are washing their hands of the whole mess?

"Steve Jobs has responded to a couple more emails -- this time questions about the new iPhone developer rules, which prevent anyone from using Adobe's Flash on the iPhone (and have infuriated many developers and Adobe employees.)"

Greg at Tao Effect has been communicating with Steve Jobs over the Flash issue, you can read them all here. Seems like we see more and more stories about Jobs tossing out a reply to an email from the public.

"Even in the age of blogs, this has got to go down as a first for corporate PR. Adobe is telling Apple to "go screw yourself" over the new iPhone developer's license that appears to ban apps made with Adobe's Flash-to-iPhone programming tools."

To quote Lee Brimelow, Adobe's Flash Platform Evangelist: "What is clear is that Apple has timed this purposely to hurt sales of CS5. This has nothing to do whatsoever with bringing the Flash player to Apple's devices. That is a separate discussion entirely. What they are saying is that they won't allow applications onto their marketplace solely because of what language was originally used to create them. This is a frightening move that has no rational defense other than wanting tyrannical control over developers and more importantly, wanting to use developers as pawns in their crusade against Adobe."

Sounds pretty whiney to me, and I seriously doubt that the destruction of Adobe is foremost on anyone's mind at Apple. They don't want flash on their devices, big deal, get over it and move on.

"Apple added a new page to its Web site on Thursday highlighting companies that have Web sites offering content in iPad-compatible formats. The list shows off sites that are offering video content in HTML5 format instead of Flash, and includes CNN, Reuters, the New York Times, Time, Vimeo, Flickr, and more."

The webpage lists the sites that are compatible with your iPad and also has a form you can fill out to submit websites for addition to the list, as well as a help page so you can make your site iPad compatible.

"Brightcove's partnerships with The New York Times and Time magazine will allow HTML5 to seamlessly replace Adobe Flash video content on the publications' Web sites for compatibility with Apple's iPad."

Time and The New York Times are clients, and have already experimented with this so it is possible that by the time the iPad launches, their sites (as well as some other clients) will be ready. According to the article, "the platform provides support for intelligent device detection, playlist rendering, and playback of H.264 encoded video content." CBS is also doing some experimentation with this, and Google has already added support for HTML5 on YouTube. Seems like a pretty good alternative, what are your thoughts?

"As the battle between HTML5 and Adobe Flash continues to heat up, Virgin America has chosen a side: its brand new web site design ditches Flash in favor of HTML."

I read in a story not long ago that the iPhone might be a driving force in this, and now it appears that is coming to pass. Virgin wants to make their site as compatible as possible with the mobile user, specifically the iPhone, so customers can access their site as well as do mobile check-ins. How many other companies are going to make this switch? What are your thoughts?

"Steve Jobs unloaded on Flash during a meeting with Wall Street Journal executives last week, according to Gawker.Jobs met with editors of the Journal to show them the new iPad. The Journal make widespread use of Flash on its website for video, infographics, etc., and editors raised concerns about the absence of Adobe's plug-in."

No surprise here I guess, we all know how much Steve Jobs hates Flash, and I'm not such a big fan myself. It does make me curious though as to how many sites currently using Flash will adapt in order to work effectively with the iPad. I'm hoping for as many as possible, what are your thoughts on Flash?

"Adobe has revealed there were more than 7 million attempts by iPhone and iPod touch users to download Flash from Adobe.com in December. Discussing the matter with the San Francisco Chronicle, Adobe claimed that the stat clearly shows demand for Flash from iPhone and iPod touch users, despite Apple's decision not to support the technology."

Well, you have to give them credit for never giving up I suppose. They also state that in June of 2009 there were only 3 million attempts. They don't specify if there were multiple attempts by the same user however, so who knows how many really tried.

"Our report from yesterday must have rattled some cages at Media Arts Lab, Apple's advertising agency. As we were told by our source at the secretive organization, Apple came crashing down on them with urgent requests to change the video."

If you are curious, you can head over to YouTube and see the original version, clearly showing the web site fully functioning, Flash included. What the folks at Chiat/Day Media Arts Lab do is mock up fake web sites so they perform as intended while making the commercials. So this little mistake slipped by apparently, but has since been corrected. If you have seen the video of the presentation, Flash clearly isn't working on the iPad and you can hear chuckles from the crowd when it is displayed while Jobs surfs with the iPad. But is it really a surprise to anyone?

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"The Apple TV is a decent device if you just need to spice up your living room HDTV with your most recent iTunes content. But if you hunger for more media, browsing the Web from your couch, and viewing versions of your DVDs complete with menus and special features, Fire Core's updated aTV Flash 4.0.3 mod for Apple TV might be worth a look."

In this they did a major update to Couch Surfer Pro, so now it is compatible with Remote from the iTunes Store. So now you can browse the web using full keyboard control right from your couch using your iPhone and Apple TV, that is if you have added aTV Flash 4.0.3. On top of this, they fixed it so that you can use an external USB hard drive to act as the main storage for all your media. I'm finally biting the bullet and am going to do this to my Apple TV over the holidays, seems like it is time, I've waited long enough for Apple.

"Apple's Snow Leopard puts users at risk by installing an older version of Adobe's Flash player."

According to the blog post, "The initial release of Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) includes an earlier version of Adobe Flash Player than what is available from Adobe.com. We recommend all users update to the latest, most secure version of Flash Player (10.0.32.18)." Woops, best get that upgraded if you have installed Snow Leopard!

"For some time, programmers have used CSS Animation for the mobile version of Safari. The routines allow Web developers to present animated graphics and 3D effects, removing the need for complex JavaScript, according to MacRumors. If Apple succeeds in getting animation included in the CSS standard used by developers, the move could threaten Adobe Flash, which currently is the dominate method for Web animation."

Not much to say on this one, but one comment on Cult of Mac really summed it up rather nicely:

"Cute animations are no substitute for being able to watch the vast majority of video on the web."

I couldn't agree more.