41–50 of 68 posts
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Yes it is, it's just not yet evenly distributed.
It really isn't. Mainstream sites still play video with Flash, and I doubt that is going to change in 2010. But, we'll see.
Not including flash on a tablet seems like a mistake to me. It's one thing on a cell phone, but quite another on a device that will probably be positioned as a casual use computer.
I don't think it's necessarily a mistake if your goal is to strong-arm the industry towards abandoning Flash.
Not including flash on a tablet seems like a mistake to me. It's one thing on a cell phone, but quite another on a device that will probably be positioned as a casual use computer.
Non-windows versions of flash have turned out to be incredibly inefficient: relatively simple flash banner ads make my otherwise near idle mac go wild. From what I've seen, it's even less efficient on Linux. Battery life is still going to be a huge concern for the apple tablet. If adobe gets its sh*t together, it may yet come to the tablet/iPhone OS. Until that time, it would be ridiculous for apple to allow that poorly designed of a virtual machine onto its otherwise energy efficient hardware.
I really hope he's wrong about several of these things (no flash, only apps from an app store, full Apple lockdown of everything). Why would I want another iPhone, just with a bigger screen? Especially when it's not clear when I'd use it over an iPhone or my Macbook? I can only handle so much of the Apple totalitarianism, especially if the damn thing costs $1500 or something.
Maybe you wouldn't.
But I would. Because when I need mobile computing, I generally don't have a desk, or even a chair. Sometimes I'm actively walking around. And I don't need to use it for sessions of length or complexity that justify the overhead of the desktop computing model. And I don't need arbitrary pre-existing desktop apps.
I just need awesome core apps that I can get at in a couple seconds, use (literally) on the go and be able to get through a day without recharging or hassle (lock-ups). It doesn't have to replace my laptop. Just my dead-tree notebooks.
The iPhone has come far, far closer to working for me than conventional laptops, netbooks, or windows tablets. It just doesn't have quite enough screen real-estate for some tasks and the ergonomics aren't right for others.
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cough cough YouTube? (also, the majority of online display advertising, Facebook and countless other uploaders, etc...)
The iPhone has supported YouTube through a native application since it launched . It does this by streaming the MPEG-4 video directly instead of using Flash as a player. Every other video site does this as well, and they don't even need a native app or any server-side weirdness. The only reason we don't do this on the desktop is inertia. the majority of online display advertising Which no consumer gives a flying fuck…
iPhone has, but I'd wager the vast majority of YouTube users watch videos in their browsers.
the majority of online display advertising Advertisers are the revenue source for innumerable online sites; they like Flash so it is important.
Re: uploaders... A native application...does the same thing. Sure, but again, I'd wager that most people use the on-site bulk uploaders.
The point is that Flash is useful and easily accomplishes things (with nearly 100% market penetration) that would be much more difficult without Flash (building a native app, trying to animate ads across browsers).
I'm amazed that anybody is still expecting Flash. Has the iPhone not conclusively demonstrated that Flash is a legacy feature of dwindling relevance?
In what world is Flash 'dwindling in relevance'? Maybe the hyper progressive iphone-toting geek world but down here on planet earth, where we still browse the web with things called computers, Flash has massive leverage and I don't see it going anywhere for years.
Apple sold 7 million iPhones last quarter, and a few million more iPod Touches. One of the primary features of these, for which they are often praised, is web browsing. None of them, not even jailbroken ones, support Flash. Many other devices in the market offer web browsing with Flash. They do not generally sell well, at least by comparison.
One conclusion you can draw from this is that there are 7 million more poor deluded fools out there who stupidly think it's possible to slink by on the web without the vital component of Flash. There will be much gnashing of teeth and rending of garments as these dreamers agonize over their diminished experience of the web, until that proud day in some distant future when they are finally blessed by their provider of their crippled devices with the privilege of Punching the Monkey any time they like. There will be load screens and gradients and tweening galore.
Another possible conclusion, which is the one I have drawn, is that these people are by and large satisfied with their purchases and consider the lack of Flash support a mild disappointment, if they consider it at all, on the occasion that they are blocked from some task (watching a video, playing a game, viewing an ad) because the author has chosen to limit its accessibility to Flash-supporting clients. And that this is a sign, perhaps, that Flash is really not so very vital to the experience of the web as is often supposed, being not so much a technical necessity as an inertial holdover from an earlier time--from back when you could honestly say that 99% of Web users had Flash. And further, that the popularity of devices that omit Flash support is not going to wane on that basis; more likely the opposite: that Flash itself is likely to slide into irrelevance as more people browse the web without it.
Hence: Flash is a legacy feature of dwindling relevance.
As it happens, I don't own an iPhone. I have only even used one for maybe 30 minutes, total. You may want to paint me as "hyper progressive" or swayed by owning the device, but my argument is based on what I see going on around me, right now, here on planet Earth.
Not including flash on a tablet seems like a mistake to me. It's one thing on a cell phone, but quite another on a device that will probably be positioned as a casual use computer.
I don't think it's necessarily a mistake if your goal is to strong-arm the industry towards abandoning Flash.
It might be true that the tablet will have a significant impact on tomorrow's computing platforms. But what really scares me is the prospect that it might become more and more accepted that the user will loose the freedom to decide what software he can install and thus what to do with the machine.
This is something that goes against anything we learned from the open web and, of course, from "hacking" (jailbreaking does not count here). It goes against the central things I value at computing.
By comparison, _I_ could not care less whether this thing comes with Flash or not.
What really amazes me is the fact that even on this site, the discussion barely touches the app store issue. It might be true that the tablet will have a significant impact on tomorrow's computing platforms. But what really scares me is the prospect that it might become more and more accepted that the user will loose the freedom to decide what software he can install and thus what to do with the machine. This is some…
Our only hope is that web apps can be accepted before the idea of a 'pc app store' really takes hold.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
In what world is Flash 'dwindling in relevance'? Maybe the hyper progressive iphone-toting geek world but down here on planet earth, where we still browse the web with things called computers, Flash has massive leverage and I don't see it going anywhere for years.
And where do you see it going in some years? Do you see it becoming more important? Or is it a demonstrable fact that devices without Flash support have been highly successful in the market? Apple sold 7 million iPhones last quarter, and a few million more iPod Touches. One of the primary features of these, for which they are often praised, is web browsing. None of them, not even jailbroken ones, support Flash. Many…
7 million iphones sold is great, but pales in comparison to how many pcs/macs are sold which come with full Flash support out of the box.
The poor iPhone users with no Flash support deal with it because they bought an Apple product and know 'the deal'. If you're going to buy Apple products you buy what they shit out, and complaining doesn't do a damn thing to sway Mr. Jobs and his crew. With any other provider the uproar over no Flash support would be deafening.
You're probably right, most iPhone users probably don't care so much about Flash support because they don't really have a choice and would rather have the good points of an iphone rather than ditch it just for that one feature (look how many stuck around with no MMS).
Flash blows, and I curse the day my clients discovered it but its not dieing, dwindling or fading .. yet.