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500MB download? Why didn't Wired Magazine use HTML5 for their iPad app?

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Re: 500MB download? Why didn't Wired Magazine use HTML5 for their iPad app?

#51

Post by WiseWeasel »

ajg1977 wrote: post #46
andybak wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's funny. As far as I can tell all the tools that are used for HTML (text editors and IDE's mainly) seem to be working pretty well for HTML5. And if you mean WYSIWYG then that market is dominated by Dreamweaver and even that has added HTML5 support.

Because you CAN churn out HTML5 in different text editors (or Dreamweaver) doesn't mean they're a GOOD way to generate rich content. While I think Flash (the authoring tool) is a bloated mess, it's light years ahead of anything that exists for creating interactive content with HTML5/CSS/Javascript. There are no good tools for generating something like the Wired app in HTML5.

Actually, the Flash Builder app in CS5 can output to Canvas, but unfortunately, the latest version of mobile webkit that renders UIWebViews still has fairly poor Canvas rendering capabilities and performance.

Re: 500MB download? Why didn't Wired Magazine use HTML5 for their iPad app?

#52

Post by jimmyjazz14 »

I get Wired magazine delivered to me by mail. The user experience is great, the pages turns just like real paper. The thing is indestructible too; I can drop it down a flight of steps without even a scratch showing up on it. My dog chewed up my first copy and it only cost me a few bucks to replace it. I can roll it up stick it in my pocket and read it at the beach, I don't even worry about getting sand in it. Can HTML5 deliver that experience?

Re: 500MB download? Why didn't Wired Magazine use HTML5 for their iPad app?

#53

Post by betageek »

jawngee wrote: post #37
betageek wrote: post #18

The fundamental argument is flawed - I find it extremely hard to believe that anyone could create the same seamless experience as the iPad Wired app in HTML5. I certainly haven't seen any demo's that would imply it's possible, saying "you could do that in HTML 5" if very easy to say, a lot harder to do. Maybe if the authors of these kinds of posts provided us with a demos I'd start taking these missives seriously.

I'm the author of the article. Have you used it? It really is pretty much a slideshow. Even if you write it using webkit, you can ape whatever wonderful interactions you seem to be having (that I must have completely missed) using multiple UIWebView's and some good ol CoreAnimation. You can also extend UIWebView with straight up Objective-C, further adding in the ability to do pretty much whatever you want. There are…

I've seen a "shit ton" of demos and nothing I've seen is applicable to this problem. Wired is one of the most visually rich magazines around, it's layouts are complex, the visuals are rich, it's won many design awards - hundreds of people are involved in creating a beautiful design artefact. Writing an article that goes "wired sux, they didn't do it in HTML5" implies that the level of finish of the Wired app is possible, but I haven't seen any demos that are anywhere near the size and complexity of a magazine like Wired - if they exist I'd love to see them

Re: 500MB download? Why didn't Wired Magazine use HTML5 for their iPad app?

#54

Post by kevinelliott »

DrSprout wrote: post #41
andybak wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you RTFA? You could have made this a native app using the webkit control and bundled all the content in a 10th of the size.

Yeah, I'm saying that from what I'm reading they must have intentionally been looking to create a completely native app that is worse than the Flash-compiled one. That or the descriptions of the app are somewhat overcritical.

To entertain your reasoning: Adobe certainly could have intentionally created a "sucky native app" to contrast their "awesome Adobe iPhone OS compiler" but they mostly left out features and released a bloated (size) app. If they truly made a native app with HTML-based text and image optimization, or use their compiler, they could have equally reduced the size of this app and increased the functionality beyond what they have done here. Thus, the current implementation does NOT do a good job of proving that their compiler could have been better than a native Objective-C app.

Even so, if Adobe did want to throw a laughing cog at Apple via their clients, they're doing Wired a disservice, and frankly, that's terribly insane. They just couldn't throw a high profile partner/client under the bridge just to amuse some tantric executive war between Adobe and Apple.

Lastly, although hard to believe a company fairly technology agnostic as Wired would use their financial line (their money making product) as a way to experiment with dissing a technology giant, let's pretend Wired and Adobe both wanted to stick it to Apple for the 3.1.3 clause. They would be simply shooting themselves in the foot, as their customer is who really loses out here, not Apple.

It just make any sense at all, although I will give you that it's a romantic idea. More likely, they rushed a replacement implementation, since they couldn't use Adobe's compiler. Conde Naste clearly upholds Wired to the same deadlines as their other high end properties, and want to see a ROI for all the R&D they've had, perhaps. Becausethis certainly looks like a rushed implementation, or at a minimum, one done by amateurs.

Re: 500MB download? Why didn't Wired Magazine use HTML5 for their iPad app?

#55

Post by kevinelliott »

I specifically did not purchase the Wired app because:

1) It's freakin' 500MB! Even though I have a 32GB iPad, I want that space for music and videos, not a magazine that I'll probably read once or twice for each issue.

2) It was super unclear how much future issues would cost, how they would be delivered, and how much space subsequent issues would use.

I've been very unimpressed with what the media has been able to create with the iPad. I think Apple needs to host a traveling "Developer Days" focused purely on the media, helping them to create really killer shit.

After all, these failures only lend ammo to the anti-iPad Kindle worshippers, when the problem is really the ability for media to innovate.

Re: 500MB download? Why didn't Wired Magazine use HTML5 for their iPad app?

#56

Post by cpr »

betageek wrote: post #53
jawngee wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm the author of the article. Have you used it? It really is pretty much a slideshow. Even if you write it using webkit, you can ape whatever wonderful interactions you seem to be having (that I must have completely missed) using multiple UIWebView's and some good ol CoreAnimation. You can also extend UIWebView with straight up Objective-C, further adding in the ability to do pretty much whatever you want. There are…

I've seen a "shit ton" of demos and nothing I've seen is applicable to this problem. Wired is one of the most visually rich magazines around, it's layouts are complex, the visuals are rich, it's won many design awards - hundreds of people are involved in creating a beautiful design artefact. Writing an article that goes "wired sux, they didn't do it in HTML5" implies that the level of finish of the Wired app is possi…

See the comment above: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1385172 (Sports Illustrated showing an all-HTML5 demo that looks a lot more compelling that this Wired app).

Re: 500MB download? Why didn't Wired Magazine use HTML5 for their iPad app?

#58

Post by dreyfiz »

statictype wrote: post #34
dreyfiz wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The iPad edition of the magazine was originally made in a beta version of Flash CS5, relying on its ability to output iPhone OS apps. When Apple banned third-party runtimes, Adobe built Wired this horrifying hack. I think it's an InDesign plugin. The idea is that Wired's designers won't have to learn anything about the iPhone OS to create the app, but this is a pretty atrocious implementation.

Why do you say the implementation is atrocious?

No inside knowledge or anything like that, just from the description in the article above of what they're doing internally. Converting each page of the layout into two JPEGs, one for portrait and one for landscape. That's really wasteful and destructive, they're ruining the usability of text and turning their paid app into an inferior product compared to their website.

Re: 500MB download? Why didn't Wired Magazine use HTML5 for their iPad app?

#59

Post by betageek »

cpr wrote: post #56
betageek wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've seen a "shit ton" of demos and nothing I've seen is applicable to this problem. Wired is one of the most visually rich magazines around, it's layouts are complex, the visuals are rich, it's won many design awards - hundreds of people are involved in creating a beautiful design artefact. Writing an article that goes "wired sux, they didn't do it in HTML5" implies that the level of finish of the Wired app is possi…

See the comment above: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1385172 (Sports Illustrated showing an all-HTML5 demo that looks a lot more compelling that this Wired app).

Again, this is a video - I'll judge the final version when it's in my hands, I hope they manage to pull it off in a release version.
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