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An April's fool joke that is not so funny today

theregister.co.uk

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Re: An April's fool joke that is not so funny today

#11

Post by ZeroGravitas »

It does make you wonder about Apple's commitment to supporting HTML5 web-apps. When they were an underdog it made sense, but now that they're in a position of strength you are relying on their good will, not their self-interest.

After all, if you read through Gruber's piece on the change, everything he says applies just as much to HTML5 webapps e.g. no lock-in, lowest common denominator, vague sense on non-nativeness etc.

He specifically says "There is no platform vendor for the web — and Apple has complete control over WebKit, its implementation for the web." but that could easily become the Adobe Flash or Microsoft line of "Standards bodies move too slowly for us".

Re: An April's fool joke that is not so funny today

#14

Post by martinpannier »

ZeroGravitas wrote: post #11

It does make you wonder about Apple's commitment to supporting HTML5 web-apps. When they were an underdog it made sense, but now that they're in a position of strength you are relying on their good will, not their self-interest. After all, if you read through Gruber's piece on the change, everything he says applies just as much to HTML5 webapps e.g. no lock-in, lowest common denominator, vague sense on non-nativeness…

Maybe standards do move too slowly for Apple. The reason they're not like Adobe or Microsoft (to answer your implicit comparison) is that neither Flash nor Silverlight are open standards, whereas Webkit is open-source. In that sense every progress Apple makes is accessible to everyone and not in Apple's control. So I don't really understand your fear (or your comparison).

Re: An April's fool joke that is not so funny today

#15

Post by lwhi »

michaelcampbell wrote: post #12

It wasn't funny then, either. And, I'm not sure I get it in the "today" context.

Come on - lighten up. It's an article which lampoons the behaviour of Apple.

Apple are engaging in protectionist behaviour - the development of iHTML would be the extreme conclusion of this trend.

It's relevant today, because their recent (anti-Adobe) behaviour is a nod towards the extreme behaviour described in the piece.

Re: An April's fool joke that is not so funny today

#16

Post by rimantas »

ZeroGravitas wrote: post #11

It does make you wonder about Apple's commitment to supporting HTML5 web-apps. When they were an underdog it made sense, but now that they're in a position of strength you are relying on their good will, not their self-interest. After all, if you read through Gruber's piece on the change, everything he says applies just as much to HTML5 webapps e.g. no lock-in, lowest common denominator, vague sense on non-nativeness…

  It does make you wonder about Apple's commitment to
  supporting HTML5 web-apps.
It does not. iAd demos yesterday were HTML5 apps. And frankly, if anything even remotely looks like iHTML in the original post, it's Flash.

Re: An April's fool joke that is not so funny today

#17

Post by lwhi »

ZeroGravitas wrote: post #11

It does make you wonder about Apple's commitment to supporting HTML5 web-apps. When they were an underdog it made sense, but now that they're in a position of strength you are relying on their good will, not their self-interest. After all, if you read through Gruber's piece on the change, everything he says applies just as much to HTML5 webapps e.g. no lock-in, lowest common denominator, vague sense on non-nativeness…

HTML5 isn't an official standard yet.

Will Apple end up defining what becomes part of the specification due to early (premature) adoption?

Re: An April's fool joke that is not so funny today

#18

Post by fakelvis »

martinpannier wrote: post #13

I don't like it when they write "April Fools!" at the end. It ruins the fun. Imagine if you punctuated all your jokes with a laugh and a loud "Joking!" ...

I think this is quite appropriate in many situations. Why?

- Unless it is during the first few weeks of April, I (and I imagine many others, too) pay no special attention to the exact date a news item or blog post was written (the year: yes, month: maybe, day: no). - Almost everything we write on the Internet is going to be archived for future generations to read.

If topics such as this become irrelevant/non-topical in 10-15 years time, someone coming across this article for research purposes may be drawn in by the ruse.

Just a thought.

Re: An April's fool joke that is not so funny today

#19

Post by lwhi »

martinpannier wrote: post #13

I don't like it when they write "April Fools!" at the end. It ruins the fun. Imagine if you punctuated all your jokes with a laugh and a loud "Joking!" ...

If you try to genuinely fool someone after noon on 1st of April, you are the fool.

The 'April Fool' label prevents that heinous possibility from occurring.

Re: An April's fool joke that is not so funny today

#20

Post by rimantas »

lwhi wrote: post #15
michaelcampbell wrote: post #12

It wasn't funny then, either. And, I'm not sure I get it in the "today" context.

Come on - lighten up. It's an article which lampoons the behaviour of Apple. Apple are engaging in protectionist behaviour - the development of iHTML would be the extreme conclusion of this trend. It's relevant today, because their recent (anti-Adobe) behaviour is a nod towards the extreme behaviour described in the piece.

It is still not funny. First, because HTML is very wrong choice there: Apple is the juggernaut behind it (with Google's help). Second, this is really really old, I don'e even remember when I first heard the joke about Apple cars.
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