tequila bomb

I don’t know how long Apple’s ad will run for. So go visit espn.com right now.

You can still access all of the site’s menus even when the advert is running, and portions of the website seem to have been cleared out of the way. Seamless, non-irritating, responsive, intuitive, and a very attractive advert to watch on top of all that. Simply awesome. Oh, and it’s Flash-less!

Any company that shows this duty of care to an audience it is trying to attract is one that I am going to buy stuff from. Simple as that.

Take note Wired, and other crappy ad laden sites. This is what you should be doing when you do your huge banner adverts.

Yes, the iPad doesn’t have Flash. We know that already.

The interesting parts of the video Bloomberg has obtained from Blackberry actually comes at the end, with the Acid3 test, and rendering demos for Java and HTML5 Canvas. Apple have something to work towards matching there. I am sure they will.

And, as Bloomberg say, do remember that the Playbook is not a finished product yet. A lot of things can go right, as well as wrong between lab videos being made and a device finally hitting the market place.

One last thought… Am I the only one out there in the blog-sphere that sees that the iPad actually presents a finished page at exactly the same time as the PlayBook?

Let’s get to the most obvious thing — size! Apple’s CEO — who will remain nameless — publicly stated that a 7-inch screen was too small for a tablet, and after using the Tab, we tend to agree.

And yet I still think Apple would be willing to push out a smaller iPad if the Tab gains traction in the market. Something that is looking less likely at the moment, certainly in the “iPad killer” number department.

It’s a very weird in-between feeling; we can’t decide it feels like a smartphone that is too big or a tablet that is too small. We still can’t figure out the best way to use the keyboard in portrait mode. Hold it with both hands and try and thumb type? Hold the tablet in one hand and only use one hand to type? Use Swype?

I think the lesson we can learn here is basically that if it won’t go into your pocket then there really is no advantage to building tablets smaller than the iPad’s magazine style form factor. Unless you want an expensive dashboard mounted GPS.

On Flash, and the browser…

Browsing the web with Flash on (enabled by default) proved to be a pretty frustrating experience. Scrolling was jittery, slow, and sometimes pages just wouldn’t even finish loading. However, once we changed the browser’s plug-ins setting to on demand (think Click2Flash), the browser popped to life. Pages loaded very quick, scrolling was almost fluid, and using multi-touch gestures to pinch zoom in and out worked like a charm. The browsing experience on the device is exactly where you want it to be.

No surprises there.

This extension removes the need to use flash on YouTube by converting all videos to their HTML5 video tag equivalents. It also has the added benefits of decreased CPU usage compared to flash, and the removal of in-video ads.

Using it now. It seems to work just fine.

A few of you have asked why this is better than the YouTube HTML5 beta, and the reason is very simple: YouTube will only display an HTML5 player for videos without advertising in them, so videos from Vevo or many other popular sources will still use flash.

Getting rid of ads is a real bonus!

Today we’re making available a preview of Adobe® Flash® Player that we’re calling “Square.” This preview includes support for two new areas, namely enhanced support for Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 9 Beta and native 64-bit support for all major desktop operating systems including Linux, Mac, and Windows.

I have spoken previously about the various Apple iPhone OS / iOS Developer Agreement clauses that have caused consternation within developer circles, and a feeding frenzy among bloggers over the last few months…

Clause 3.3.1 – Language and Development Kit Restrictions.

Clause 3.3.2 – Restrictions on interpreted code.

Clause 3.3.9 – Restrictions on collecting User’s Data.

Although on the face of it these clauses if applied to the letter were quite worrying, I have always maintained that people were getting their knickers in a twist unnecessarily. Apple was simply setting a base line, and would apply a certain amount of judgement in special cases.

That didn’t stop some people predicting that Unity and others would soon be booted from the App Store. Something I said they were wrong about then. And I have been proven to be correct about today.

In short the changes to Apple’s iOS Developer Agreement mean this :

• Flash Apps Flash Professional CS5 authoring tool OK.
• Flash is not.
• Scripts that are compiled at run time are OK.
• Downloading new scripts to an app over the air is not.
• AdMob are “in”.
• Distimo may have to work harder to “be in”.

Adobe responded to all this today…

Apple’s announcement today that it has lifted restrictions on its third-party developer guidelines has direct implications for Adobe’s Packager for iPhone, a feature in the Flash Professional CS5 authoring tool. This feature was created to enable Flash developers to quickly and easily deliver applications for iOS devices. The feature is available for developers to use today in Flash Professional CS5, and we will now resume development work on this feature for future releases.

This is great news for developers and we’re hearing from our developer community that Packager apps are already being approved for the App Store.

If you thought App Approval times were bad before…

Ironically this new open, transparent and friendly face to the App Store is more likely to make me consider moving to other services…

Just how bad is Flash on Android?

What does this demonstrate? Simply that the idea that Apple could simply magically put Flash on the iPad (which runs a processor in the same class as the Nexus One) is fantasy. Ignoring the broader reasons for Apple wanting to keep Flash off its platform, it’s clear that Flash is simply too processor-intensive to work properly on mobile-class processors as currently specified.

Pretty bad. In fact, if you’re thinking video, utterly unusable.

From Technovia.

Of course, some of this saw this coming in May, and of course prior to that. Which is why some of us were in whole hearted agreement with Apple’s strategy for Flash.

Yet another move to end dependence on Flash, giant online video website, Vimeo, today introduces a new universal video player designed to work on the iPhone, iPad, iPod touch (iOS) and Android devices.

“With the latest generation of browsers and devices, we’ve had huge demand for an embeddable player that works with HTML5 and on devices like iPad and iPhone,” said Andrew Pile, vice president of product and development for Vimeo, in a statement.

In other news Adobe’s CEO, talking with the London Telegraph, said that his company would “..rather work with partners who are interested in working with us.”

Translation : The FTC probe thing didn’t come off. And we still have not delivered any of the software we promised.

Adobe hasn’t given any signs that it’s close to porting Flash to webOS, Palm said in an AT&T online app development seminar on Thursday. When asked about the multiple delays, a representative said that Palm didn’t ‘know what the hold-up is’ with getting it ready. Adobe itself hasn’t commented on the state of the webOS version or of other platforms.

Surprise!

Are Adobe still aiming for 50 Bazillion Flash handsets by next week?

Perhaps Adobe thought that HP / Palm aren’t making mobile phones anymore?

I asked the question in this post’s title, perhaps somewhat flippantly, in an earlier post today. But it was not posed without first seriously considering that possibility.

This week Unity celebrated its 5th anniversary…

Unity has succeeded in the browser game market where Flash never has :

But even if the new HTML standard represents a somewhat unknown, distant threat to Flash, this week’s news that the Unity plugin has passed its 30 millionth download shows that, for gamers wanting more graphically advanced browser games, Flash has significant competition already. “Unity’s strength lies in 3D gaming, an area that Flash has never made any real progress in,” says Lloyd. “If you take a look at 3D web-based games, Flash pales in comparison to hardware-accelerated 3D with the Unity plugin.

From Edge Online.

In some ways Flash’s migration to mobile may even be a last gasp for the technology. Much in the way that the 2D and pixel art genres have seen a resurgence in budget console and mobile game ecosystems. Perhaps Flash too will have a resurgence in those places too.

But I fear it will be short lived. A prospect that this article from Edge Online explores…

There are some interesting comments from a range of industry people. They all pretty much seem to conclude that Flash will survive…

Tom Fulp, creator of the Newgrounds Flash game portal and founder of Behemoth, developer of Alien Hominid and Castle Crashers, has always been publically supportive of Flash and the developers who work with it. But even he is diplomatic when it comes to Apple’s refusal to welcome the plug-in to their products. “In all honesty, I want to flat-out hate Apple for their decision. But they do have some valid arguments, as Flash has not traditionally run well on mobile devices. The hardware keeps getting better, though, so the excuses are running out. I do think Apple likes to control the access to software via their App Store, but I also do believe a lot of their other reasons for not supporting Flash. I think they’ll regret it some day. I’m already considering Droid phones and the HP Slate instead of iPhone 4 and iPad.

I am not so sure.