Apple Ipad (Heavy Flow)

[MojoJojo]

Classic Jobs..

I know it sounds like they are going to implement this in free apps. But.. I really hope it doesn't start coming into play if you have a 1.0 version of an app and this advert pops up everytime you use it to advertise 2.0.

This indeed does worry me.. Imagine using safari on the ipad and all of the sudden a massive splash ad comes and jizzes all over the screen advertising.

Hmm, the way I think it works is that an app developer can add in a space for one of these iAds. Apple will then push appropriate iAds into that space, and share some of the revenue with the developer.

There are already quite a lot of free apps that have something similar with google ad-words or other advertising collaborators. But it's possible with Apple pushing this as revenue stream more will start appearing.

Apple have always been shits for software developers. On Mac OS X the big problem is they keep on changing the APIS every couple of versions.* The only reason to develop for Apple has been that Mac users are generally far more willing to pay for software than Windows peeps. Oh, I suppose they give away their full development environment for free, which is a bit of a plus too.

It's ironic considering one of the reasons that Apple lost out to MS was MS put a lot of effort in getting developers on board for Windows.

But for a small developer who wants to get paid, iPhone still seems the best bet. (haven't heard much noise about Android, so I'm guessing it's marketplace isn't really taking off yet. Ovi is awful and I don't think MS market is even open yet, is it?).

[jutl]

Jobs sounds off about Apple-Adobe spat:

http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/

He is one lying motherfucker...

*"Apple even creates open standards for the web. For example, Apple began with a small open source project and created WebKit, a complete open-source HTML5 rendering engine that is the heart of the Safari web browser used in all our products."

Unless you already knew he was talking about KHTML, you would assume that Apple created WebKit from scratch from those carefully constructed sentences.

* "Adobe's Flash products are 100% proprietary. They are only available from Adobe, and Adobe has sole authority as to their future enhancement, pricing, etc. "

No - the Flash spec is published and anyone can implement and enhance it in their implementation. There are many open source Flash players such as Gnash.

* "Adobe publicly said that Flash would ship on a smartphone in early 2009, then the second half of 2009, then the first half of 2010, and now they say the second half of 2010. We think it will eventually ship, but we're glad we didn't hold our breath. Who knows how it will perform?"

No - MicroB on Maemo 5 has a full Flash implementation and shipped Q4 2009 on the Nokia N900.

* "This becomes even worse if the third party is supplying a cross platform development tool. The third party may not adopt enhancements from one platform unless they are available on all of their supported platforms. Hence developers only have access to the lowest common denominator set of features. Again, we cannot accept an outcome where developers are blocked from using our innovations and enhancements because they are not available on our competitor's platforms."

This is just rubbish. The existence of a cross-platform development environment within Flash stops no-one using the first party Apple iPhone SDK. If apps built using the latter are genuinely better then the market will favour them, with no need to contractually prevent developers from using anything else.

The man's a cunt.

[Lee Van Cleef]

I'm going to wait for the one with the physical keyboard and trackpad.

[Slaaaaabs]

Oh boy, Adobe surely have grounds for legal action after that little excretion of lies.

[Blumf]

No - MicroB on Maemo 5 has a full Flash implementation and shipped Q4 2009 on the Nokia N900.

It's a bit worse than that, Flash was available on the N900's predecessors (which admittedly weren't smart phones, missing the phone bit, just like the iPad) going back to the original Nokia 770 released in 2005, 2 years before the first iPhone.

[Ignatius_S]

Going back to multitasking, this article - http://davidquintana.com/entry/mobile-multitasking - explains the difference between Android and iPhone nicely.

With the change to the iPhone developer licensing agreement, there has been quite a lot of speculation that this wasn't aimed specifically at Adobe but to ensure compatibility for the multitasking features in the upcoming OS.

Hmm, the way I think it works is that an app developer can add in a space for one of these iAds. Apple will then push appropriate iAds into that space, and share some of the revenue with the developer.

There are already quite a lot of free apps that have something similar with google ad-words or other advertising collaborators. But it's possible with Apple pushing this as revenue stream more will start appearing....

That's exactly the idea behind it – or the spin at any road. One thing that was mentioned that in an ad-supported free version of an iPhone app, if you clicked on the link, the app would close and then the relevant Web page would be brought upl with iAds, you'be be able to get that information without leaving the app you're in – I suspect this will be more use on the iPad. The developer gets a bigger slice of the revenue and it's likely that more people will click on the links.

It'll be up to the developer if/how they incorporate iAds.

Jobs sounds off about Apple-Adobe spat:

http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/

He is one lying motherfucker... The man's a cunt.

We are talking about Steve Jobs... you expect different?

I think my favourite story about him is (as taken from Wikipedia):

The same year, Alcorn assigned Steve Jobs to design a prototype [for Breakout arcade game]. Jobs was offered US$750, with an extra $100 each time a chip was eliminated from the prospected design. Jobs promised to complete a prototype within four days.

Jobs noticed his friend Steve Wozniak—employee of Hewlett-Packard—was capable of producing designs with a small number of chips, and invited him to work on the hardware design with the prospect of splitting the $750 wage. Wozniak had no sketches and instead interpreted the game from its description. To save parts, he had "tricky little designs" difficult to understand for most engineers. Near the end of development, Wozniak considered moving the high score to the screen's top, but Jobs claimed Bushnell wanted it at the bottom; Wozniak was unaware of any truth to his claims. The original deadline was met after Wozniak did not sleep for four days straight. In the end 50 chips were removed from Jobs' original design. This equated to a US$5,000 bonus, which Jobs kept secret from Wozniak, instead only paying him $375.

The two bits I really like aren't mentioned in the above:

One is that if he had been given his fair share (or even a little bit more), Wozniak wouldn't have to have used a MOS processor for the Apple I, but could afford the Intel one he wanted – this has a long-term problem for the company, so by shafting his best friend in this way (not the first time it had happened), Jobs wasn't quite as smart as he thought was.

But the bit I really love is that Wozniak found out about this years later when he was on an Apple jet, reading a new book about the company... and when he did, burst into tears. An executive put a comforting hand on his shoulder and said: "Woz, we're so sorry.... We all thought you knew." No prizes for guessing how it had become public knowledge in Apple.

* "Adobe publicly said that Flash would ship on a smartphone in early 2009, then the second half of 2009, then the first half of 2010, and now they say the second half of 2010. We think it will eventually ship, but we're glad we didn't hold our breath. Who knows how it will perform?"

No - MicroB on Maemo 5 has a full Flash implementation and shipped Q4 2009 on the Nokia N900.

I think he's actually referring to Flash 10.1 for Mobile as that fits the roadmap. However, it is on track to be released in the first half of 2010, after Adobe had to publicly correct its CEO after he said that the release was being delayed again.

[glitch]

:words:

More: http://www.blixtsystems.com/2010/04/jobs-lies-in-thoughts-on-flash/

I was thinking of picking up a Macbook pro in the next few months to replace my creaky laptop but after all this Apple/Adobe bullshit, TOS 3.3.1 (or whatever it is) and Google jumping into bed with Adobe, my iPhone is the first and last Apple purchase I'll make. Now that's I've played on my boss' Android, I'll definitely be going down that route.

Every developer I know has taken a strong stance against Apple except for, surprise surprise, those who were already Apple zealots.

The emails going round the office between the Flash and front-end developers have been pretty hilarious the past few days.

[Ignatius_S]

More: http://www.blixtsystems.com/2010/04/jobs-lies-in-thoughts-on-flash/....

With the security/reliability I think he's being quite sanguine. Adobe's overall security record of late has not been good – e.g. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/02/03/microsoft_windows_protection_bypass/ which damaged rather important and rather decent memory protections that Microsoft had created; it took over 16 months to fix a potentially very bad bug in Flash Player - http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/02/09/adobe_flash_crash_bug/ This isn't to say that everything else is superior in terms of security, but Adobe has taken a lot of bashing of late and I felt this was something glossed over.

The point about battery life is probably more to do the way multitasking is done on iPhone 4.0 – but I do say probably!

[VegaLA]

Adobe CEO responds.
WITH Video!

http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/29/adobes-ceo-jobs-flash-letter-is-a-smokescreen-for-cumberso/

[Squink]

Regardless of whether Jobs is lying out of his ringpiece, Flash is always going to be much shitter than anything Apple ever produces. The sooner that cavalcade of shit is gone from the web, the better.

[jutl]

Flash is always going to be much shitter than anything Apple ever produces.

I beg to differ.

[mobias]

Has anyone here read this book http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICon:_Steve_Jobs ? I fully recommend it to anyone who wants to read what appears to be a fairly balanced appraisal of Steve Jobs life. Lots of quite interesting insights.

I think this whole Adobe saga will be a real test of Jobs and where he's positioned his company in what looks like the end of his tenurship. I hate the idea of being evangelical towards Apple but truth be told they do make very good computers. In the end I think Adobe will have to dance to their tune.

[Ignatius_S]

Bit about Apple possibly being investigated for anti-trust policies - http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/05/03/doj_and_ftc_exploring_apple_antitrust_inquiry/  - as mentioned in the story, Adobe with its most recent statements suggest its not bothering legal action.

Has anyone here read this book http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICon:_Steve_Jobs ? I fully recommend it to anyone who wants to read what appears to be a fairly balanced appraisal of Steve Jobs life. Lots of quite interesting insights...

The mention of the accusation of an earlier book is well deserved - it's an entertaining read, but a bit of a rehash of other sources and I'm pretty sure there are a few factual errors in there. Michael Malone's work about Apple, Infinite Loop, has a lot of good stuff about Jobs - including one or two quite disturbing stories, which I don't think are in the Jobs biographies.

[mobias]

Adobe are putting more of a boot in http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/10113915.stm 

Has anyone here played with an ipad yet or even got one? I'm against buying first generation technology but I'm a seriously considering getting one simply because I need a means of easily displaying images for clients to see (I'm a photographer) and the bottom of the range ipad is cheaper than a shitty laptop. 


David Hockney's a fan http://www.wonderhowto.com/wonderment/famous-artist-david-hockney-gives-ipad-big-thumbs-0115939/

[eggminge]

I've had an 160GB Archos 7 for a couple of years and it's been quite good. 7 inch touch screen,  supports flash 9, plays .avi, .mp4, .mkv, .mov, and .flv files. Plays movies very well over a wireless network and is NOT tied to iTunes! It looks nice but is a bit on the clunky side. Touch screen not anywhere near as responsive as the iPhone. I do want an iPad but will choose to wait until it's been well and truly tried and testing by the masses. Also 64GB puts me off slightly. For around £350 you can get a 320GB Archos 7 as a lovely media tablet. Not as fashionable but a nice bit of kit.

[Blumf]

the bottom of the range ipad is cheaper than a shitty laptop. 

Er....

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/technology/2010/05/07/apple-ipad-uk-prices-and-release-date-finally-revealed-115875-22242345/

The entry level 16GB WiFi model will cost £429

Shitty laptop : 300 quid
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/ei-systems-sorrento-03448091-pdt.html
And that's after a few seconds looking at an obvious site, plus a netbook would be even cheaper.

I like eggminge's Archos suggestion too.

[eggminge]

I like eggminge's Archos suggestion too.

If you're wanting something to play movies on, the Archos 7 shits on Apple's reputation for poor battery life:

"On a video rundown test the Archos lasted for six hours and 45 minutes, with brightness set at 50 percent and WiFi on."

That's a bit different to my iPhone which has to be charged at least once a day, twice if I use it heavily.

The Archos is a bit slower at browsing though and if you want a good PDF reader avoid it like the plague!

[biggytitbo]

Adobe are putting more of a boot in http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/10113915.stm 

I'm no fan of Apple but I agree with them about flash, a largely unnecessary and shitty piece of software whose only worthwhile use in web development is for video, but hopefully not for much longer. Because clueless media types tend to shit their pants over any of Apple's latest fads, our bosses (who have gotten hold of an ipad) are getting us to recode all our websites so they don't rely on flash. Which is fine by me! When you actually look through what flash is being used for, virtually none of it has any reason to exist in flash. Use raphael and javascript, tap straight into the DOM, that extra layer of bad software is not needed.

[mobias]

That's a bit different to my iPhone which has to be charged at least once a day, twice if I use it heavily.

I thought that the ipad was actually getting some praise for the length of its battery life. Are people not reporting getting surprisingly long runs out of a single charge? I've got a first generation iphone and its totally knackered, a full evenings charge will just about last a single day and thats with no ipod usage.

Cheers for the info on the Archos. I know that there are cheap as chips laptops out there for less than 400 quid but since I primarily need to display photographs on whatever I get screen quality is really paramount and screen quality on any laptop less than about £500 (or probably more) is usually pretty shit with a very small angle of view. The ipad's screen is supposed to be amazing and one of its real selling points. 

[eggminge]

Review on zdnet:

"For my battery test, I played movies, TV shows and other videos back-to-back until the iPad died. This stressed the device's most power-hogging feature, its screen. The iPad lasted 11 hours and 28 minutes, about 15% more than Apple claimed. I was able to watch four feature-length movies, four TV episodes and a video of a 90-minute corporate presentation, before the battery died midway through an episode of "The Closer."

That's really promising. Shame we can't upgrade our existing iPhone/iPod Touch devices. I vowed never to buy Apple and was drawn in by the tempting iPhone 3GS upgrade on my O2 contract. I've never regretted it. Despite the miserable battery life it is a fantastic little gadget and if the iPad is a bigger, improved version then I would be willing to suck Santa off this year to get my hands on one. Santa does exist doesn't he guys? I've heard people say he doesn't but that's bullshit. Right?

[The Widow of Brid]

I pre-ordered mine at the beginning of the week, under the reasoning that everyone gets to make one stupid early adopter purchase they'll almost certainly regret per lifetime.

Minimum expectations - shiny toy that'll make my life slightly easier but that I could easily live without.
Maximum expectations - something that for day to day use will replace my comics library, sketchpad and notebooks in the way the iphone + Stanza ebook ap and Kindle ap have replaced my paper books.

We shall see.

[mobias]

Cool, report back here with your review. Be interested to hear what you think of it.

[chumfatty]

I pre-ordered mine at the beginning of the week, under the reasoning that everyone gets to make one stupid early adopter purchase they'll almost certainly regret per lifetime.

Minimum expectations - shiny toy that'll make my life slightly easier but that I could easily live without.
Maximum expectations - something that for day to day use will replace my comics library, sketchpad and notebooks in the way the iphone + Stanza ebook ap and Kindle ap have replaced my paper books.

We shall see.

I did exactly the same thing for most of the same reasons. I don't need one, I have a perfectly good Macbook and iPhone 3G so this is really a redundant purchase, but it's shiny and gadgety.

I have been suffering 'Buyer's Guilt' ever since hitting the pre-order button and I'm experiencing a huge internal struggle between cancelling the order and keeping it.

[mobias]

Did you guys order the 3G one or the standard wi-fi model? Once it starts getting above 500 quid for one I think it starts getting too expensive for me but 3G would be handy. Also 16GB for the cheapo model isn't really much once you start putting a few movies on there as well as everything else. Its so tempting to get one but I'm so against getting first generation Apple stuff. By Xmas time they will have a built in camera plus 4G plus much more memory plus better multitasking.

[The Widow of Brid]

I went for the 3G model, as I should be able to claim back some of the cost. The prices aren't massively defendable, but that's always the way with first generation gadgets. 

I realise this probably won't be the case for more than a small minority of buyers. But part of the appeal of it for me is in its limitations. Something that removes my ability to fiddle under the bonnet and forces me to use the device in certain specific ways is really useful to me at the moment.

[glitch]

Has anyone here played with an ipad yet or even got one?

We've got one at work. I'm confused as to why it's got the little ridges on the F and J keys on its virtual keyboard as these are supposed to be tactile points for blind users/touch typists - yet you can't feel them as it has no haptic response.

I'm going to try and avoid getting sucked into another Flash argument here but biggy's wrong about the whole thing aside from "what flash is being used for, virtually none of it has any reason to exist in flash" and that's just down to poor decision making in the development process.

[biggytitbo]

Flash is still unavoidable glitch, but with the release of ie9, its slow decline will increase rapidly. I just can't see what the point of it will be once most browsers can view video natively. SVG, canvas and javascript can do everything Flash can and can do it without an extra layer of 3rd party software. So what is the point of it, once the older browsers die out?

[glitch]

Yawn, this again.

Flash is still unavoidable glitch, but with the release of ie9, its slow decline will increase rapidly. I just can't see what the point of it will be once most browsers can view video natively.

So what is the point of it, once the older browsers die out?

The key word in both those sentences is once. If IE has such rapid rollouts across all Windows platforms, how is it that IE6 has only just lost its status of most dominant browser? How many years has it taken to get the most up-to-date browsers to all render the same (X)HTML and CSS in exactly the same way? Oh wait, they still don't and have discrepancies in the way they handle JavaScript too.

SVG, canvas and javascript can do everything Flash can and can do it without an extra layer of 3rd party software.

Show me where Canvas and JavaScript can access an attached microphone, webcam or do direct bitmap manipulation, for starters. I'm talking the main spec here, not forks.

I will love the day that HTML5 takes over all video work from Flash. Seriously. It's one less shitty task I'll have to do, no more crappy video wrappers to make. However, considering the codec war that's on, I don't see that happening particularly soon.

Out of interest biggy, how much JavaScript work have you had to do? Have you never experienced the pains of making JavaScript behave in EXACTLY the same manner for different versions of the same browser, let alone different browsers and different platforms? I'm asking you ignore any work with jQuery here as that goes through ridiculously thorough testing to ensure that it gets as close as possible - and even that isn't 100% yet.

Taking this away from Flash/HTML5 and aiming it at Adobe vs. Apple here - this is one of the most interesting blog posts I've read about it. Yes it's by an Adobe employee but it makes a great point about the App Store, how many apps haven't been made for iPhone/iPad due to Apple's (often inconsistent) attitude? I'd started planning a game I intended to deploy using CS5 aimed at iPhone and desktops via AIR. I was already getting antsy about whether Apple would allow it due to the content and now there's no way I'd bother making it for them as I don't see the point when Apple can just deny it, wasting however many weeks of development. Android however...

[biggytitbo]

Like I said, flash is going to be around for a while yet but it's use is going to shrink to the core of the things that can't be done readily natively within the browser. It's a process of evolution and as HTML5 develops all those things you mention will be sucked up too. I'm with Jobs that this is the way to go rather than relying on 3rd party software for core browser functionality.

[glitch]

The more HTML5 has to "evolve" (read: "play catch-up") to get those features, the longer it will take to agree on a spec and then get every browser to implement them flawlessly across platforms.

So the future's bright for HTML5. It's also 10 years away. Sadly I can't tell my clients/bosses to wait that long. By that time, where will Flash be? Maybe dead, maybe with a lot more features for HTML6 to catch up on.