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Flash Makes Splash in Gadgets
An anonymous reader writes "Flash is winding its way into a growing number of gadgets and devices, according to an article at DeviceForge. Although Macromedia normally requires licensees to sign up for massive quantities of licenses before they can build its 'Embedded Macromedia Flash Player' into devices, the company as authorized NEC subsidiary Vibren to supply embedded Flash licenses in lower volumes to makers of POS (point-of-sales/service) terminals, personal organizers, PC replacements, small-screen airline entertainment devices, real-time securities trading terminals, digital signs, and more. Brace yourself for some juiced-up electronic billboards!"
I can't wait until embedded device designers take a cue from web designers and start using Flash for navigation and suddenly a simple thing like "adjusting the contrast on my monitor" takes 10 minutes.
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Now can we get back to work on SVG, so we at least have the possibility of an open format.
Try doing that with standard html or php...do you want to site while it loads 20 gifs that are more than 100k apiece?
Flash is the future, my friend...and as long as they keep the processor cost relatively low, I welcome it to my pda.
Mercy was given to me by Christ...I must give the same to others.
Flash IS evil, but that's not the reason. The reason is that it doesn't use the browser commands. You can't go back. You can't bookmark. You can't open a list of interesting links in new tabs while you finish reading the original page.
Flash has it's uses, but making complete websites isn't one of them.
Don't you mean "poor UI design is evil"? Both the issues you describe seem to boil down to bad design and authoring.
The only inherently bad thing I think think of that that's inherent in Flash for computers browsing the web is the fact that it won't work on all browsers, either because the browser doesn't support it, or a firewall blocks it. (Also they make handicapped access harder, but hardly anyone talks about that.)
And none of those issues are likely to be a problem in a device designed up front to use Flash (although processor use could become an issue.)
The technology should not be blamed just because some people use it poorly.
Humph! As far as I'm concerned, things went directly to hell just as soon as I was no longer able to simply tell the story and had to start scratching them damn marks in those doubly damnable clay tablets. Once that shit started, we lost all control of the medium. And ever since then, it's been one disaster after another. Scrolls, books, photographs, phonograph records......pfaugh! I'm going back inside my cave and I'm not coming out again until all this stuff blows over.
Is it fascism yet?
Theoretically, it could, although in actuality it will only add to the already prevalent information noise, since most "rich content" will be ads (or just meaningless graphics) disturbing the user process. When withdrawing money, you will have a number of presentations and offers from the bank, and perhaps from third parties (porn ads, contact ads, whore-o-scopes, dick/boob enlargement ads, ...).
Also, current installations of very simple text- and/or video based devices intermittently display the typical Screen o' Death, since these devices typically rely on Windoze systems. This kind of failure will only increase with the more complex Flash, unless implementers start deploying Linux, OS X or other more robust systems (and this will probably not happen, since most implementers are clueless). Flash itself, being rather complicated, also has a large array of bugs.
I think the problem is much broader than that. It's about the authoring experience. It's relatively easy to create some funky animations in flash, and relatively difficult to do so in java. I remember there were a few programs kicking around years ago which allowed non-programmers to produce animated java applets, but none of the ones I used even remotely touched flash for easy of use and power, much less performance.
Read reviews of shopping cart software
I hope someone comes up with a way to block these flash animations on these devices. The last thing I need is a cash register showing cartoons at me.
The ATMs around here all have commercials on them. You know, the places where everyone says "pay attention to your surroundings" while the Bank is saying "stare blankly into our 20 second ad while risking life and limb at an ATM in downtown Atlanta".
While on the subject of ATMs, who else wonders why your prefered language isn't marked on your account so you don't have to make that selection at each ATM stop?
I can't believe how damn clueless some people are regarding technology like Flash.
Everyone judges the damn content on freakin' banner adverts, instead of having a deeper look into how incredibly powerful it is.
Pffft.
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