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How the iPad Is Already Reshaping the Internet (Sans Flash)
The Internet's already starting to look different, says Gizmodo, in a piece of interest not only to everyone with an iPad floating around the UPS system, but also those of us thinking about some other kind of tablet in the medium-term future. As they put it, "The iPad doesn't run Flash. If your website uses Flash, it won't play well on the iPad. Turns out, a lot of people want their sites to look pretty on the iPad."
And an anonymous reader adds this snippet from Webmonkey: "In anticipation of Saturday's release of the iPad — which doesn't run Flash — Apple has published a list of 'iPad Ready' websites. The sites are all big league sluggers like CNN, The New York Times, People Magazine and MLB.com. Surprisingly, there are also a few video-heavy sites in the mix (Vimeo, Flickr, and TED) which would traditionally rely on Flash Player for video playback."
Not all of us lay back and spread our legs for Apple, timothy.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
It's stupid to do this just for the iPad, but if it helps to move more towards web standards then I don't care about the means to the end..
which is totally what she said
If the iPad does actually kill off Flash, Steve Jobs will finally have given something worthwhile to the world of computing.
Flickr is not a video heavy site.
The entire web is to give up flash because Apple said so? Really??!
The magical number is: 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
... reshaping the ipad.
Let's face it, aside from the hype this device is merely another tablet. So far none have made any sort of impression on the internet and I would fully expect that in a few months time, when all the buzz has died back all these ipads will be languishing in desk drawers and cupboards somewhere - when people discover that their old laptops are much more capable and less of a pain to use.
*Looks closer* Oh yeah! Some of the pixels.... no wait that's just a bit of dust.
"we've got trenchcoats and bad attitudes" - John Constantine, HellBlazer
The first thing I did to make my site more iPad-friendly was to use nothing but different shades of pink. The green I used before is gone, along with the black. It's all pink.
The second thing I did was put penises all over the place. My site is actually about mobile homes, but erect penises are what really attract the iPad crowd.
The third thing I did was use words like "fabulous" and "super duper" all over the place.
The fourth thing I did was replace all 's's with 'th'. So now my site has text like, "This is the motht fabuloth mobile home you'll thee on the market today!"
The fifth thing I did was made my site navigable with nothing more than a flick of the wrist.
I'm sure with these changes that my site will become the premiere site for iPad-using mobile home enthusiasts.
At least the articles of the last few days suggest that it real name should be Ipadmodo. And hope that it dont happens here. "Ipaddot, news for ipad users, stuff that matters to Apple" just dont sound right.
This has nothing to do with the iPad. Once again, Apple is getting the credit for something that was already happening in the industry.
Flash started to get dropped when ad blocking systems became so popular which meant more people were blocking it by default. Also AJAX became the next big buzzword, which meant that a lot of things that people (necessarily) used Flash for could be done using standard Javascript. There just isn't the need for it anymore.
I'm not saying that having more systems that don't support Flash will not be a factor in the decision regarding what technology will be used on a website. But the writing has been on the wall for Flash for quite some time, at least for general website interfaces. Obviously it will still have a use for games (which is why Apple will never support Flash - it bypasses their strict controls).
'iPad Ready' - my god, Jobs' jesus complex is getting worse if he thinks the internet has to prepare itself for a crappy, locked-down, crippled mono-window browsing device
I have been a user for about 10 years. This ends Feb 2014. The site's been ruined. I'm off. Dice, FU
The opposite will happen. They'll find their laptops and computer languishing in disuse, and their iPads carried with them around the house all the time. The era of the heavy, stationary computer needing a desk for hours-long use (whether you mean desktop or laptop) is over.
STOP . AMERICA . NOW
If that's what it takes to ban Flash from the net forever, I'd buy one, just to sponsor that effort.
On the other hand, I'd be buying from the evil lords of quicktime, so now I have to decide which is worse: Apple or Adobe.
Can't we just put them in an arena, let them slug it out, and then cut the victor's throat and get rid of both evils and have some fun?
Musicians don't die. They just decompose.
It is yet again a marketing ploy by Apple to make it look like the iPad is much bigger "player" than it is, while presenting its weakness as a strength.
Websites on the list are not bending over backwards to appease the mighty iPad.
They are either offering a "alternative solution" for portable devices that don't run Flash, while still keeping the Flash version running - OR simply trying to move away from Flash on their own.
It is not like they got together and said: "Hey, this new_thingyTM is coming out - we better change everything so that those couple of thousand users can use our site so that the new_thingyTM sells better and doesn't flop. Quick! To the HTML5-mobile!".
It is simply a list of "compatible sites" that will actually work with the new bigger iPod - unlike every other video site on the internets.
You know... It is not a bug that it doesn't run Flash. It is a feature. See - here is the list of sites that work just fine on it.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
if it helps to move more towards web standards then I don't care about the means to the end..
So what will replace Flash on sites like Newgrounds, which use Flash for vector animation? Will it be canvas or animated SVG? Let me know when badgers can dance on iPad; only then can Flash be obsolete.
Talk about marketing having a genius plan. If this was something already happening, more websites will begin changing as time goes on. Additionally, with Jobs telling everyone "i-Pad" ready, users will think that their device is soooooo goooood that EVERYONE is conforming to it. Bravo, marketing team. I sure hope someone finds that thing useful. Because I must be getting old, since I just don't get it. I have a blackberry, a netbook, a large laptop, and a desktop.... What gap in my life is this supposed to fill? But apparently I will need one since I-Pad ready sites are already out there.... I sure hope my blackberry or computer can handle something like that.
Just like my wife.
Utilizing the synergization of benchmark e-solutions to pre-workaround action items!
Despite Apple's ban on sexy apps, the iPad seems destined for pr0n and other lascivious uses. Which makes me wonder: if one were to develop a tablet specifically for that purpose, what features would you expect it to have in terms of video support, security, etc? (Not to dissuade musings on "special attachments" but it's already been done (pretty much NSFW).)
Prisencolinensinainciusol. Ol Rait!
Slashdot's record on understanding technology and society is embarrassingly bad and getting worse.
Linux is going to storm the desktop and Dean Kamen is a genius so Segway will revolutionize society, just wait, but the iPod is a lame device that nobody will buy, the iPhone is an undesirable, locked down, me-too phone with no important features and a lousy touchscreen, and iPad is just another crappy tablet that nobody will buy.
Forgive me for thinking that all of this iPad hate on Slashdot ought to be heard as "BUY APPLE STOCK."
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So there are a bunch of business spending a non-trivial amount of money to get their websites up to a different spec for a few hundred thousand people on a device that can basically display most websites anyway? Talk about a waste of money. At least wait until you can see how many iPad users visit your site before spending your bucks. That is unless it's a marketing campaign. The logic behind the "race to who can go out of business first by wasting a bunch of money" seems idiotic to me.
Good. Now, as someone who periodically does web design during my day job, could the iPad set its sights on killing off IE6? That would make me a very happy designer. :)
OK, so I just watched that Badger-Dance thing, and have decided that if the presence of the iPad in the world will conclusively cause fewer of those... toons, animations, jumpy-things, whatever it was... to be created, I'll buy two iPads and a couple of shares of Apple stock, just on principle.
Flash is the white powdered wig of the Internet. Don't ask, "But what will replace it?" Just stop using it altogether.
If H.264 were free to use in open-source browsers we wouldn't need to put up with Flash video in the first place.
What I've noticed with the iPhone is that there are a number of sites that won't work well on the iPhone (usually due to flash content), and rather than making a general mobile version (or just a site based on HTML+Javascript) the company will release an iPhone-specific app. Case in point: Chipotle. Their site is entirely flash-based. There is also an app for the iPhone. But if you're on any other device that doesn't have flash you're SOL if you want to order a burrito online to carry out.
In the case of Chipotle, this hardly a tragedy, but it seems totally inane that they coded an iPhone-specific app rather than just, say, making a mobile site that every device would be able to use. It seems like it would be more work and worse for their business. Unfortunately, there are plenty of other website that have an iPhone-specific app that duplicates their site functionality rather than just making a website what it ought to be, a nearly universal interface.
As irrational as this seems (to me, at least), it looks like more popular Apple mobile devices could lead to an even less accessible and standards-compliant web.
"You call it a new way of thinking; I call it regression to ignorance!" -- Operation Ivy
I'm sure Apple will release an update of the product called 'Max iPad' that will *really* be interesting.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
NOBODY does "serious content creation."
Literally nobody. A statistically insignificant portion of the global internet-using public.
I completely agree that people doing development, rendering, engineering, physics, authoring, or whatever other kind of creation you want to talk about will not do it on an iPad or other similar device. They will continue to have heavy, cumbersome, hot, unfriendly, complex devices somewhere in their office/workplace/house for accomplishing these tasks.
I concede that point.
And it absolutely nothing to do with mine.
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How dare you use the Lord's name in vain!!
It's appropriate to use just 'J' or 'S' when referring to Him.
You were correct in spelling 'jesus' with a lower case 'j' when using him in reference with Him, 'J'.
I can't respond any further because I have to go to the Apple store and wait in line to get an iPad on Saturday - I'm late as it is for a spot in line.
...for the competitors.
iPad is an awesome idea poorly executed. The OS is poor. The hardware limitations are severe. The price is silly. The lockdown is a showstopper. But the idea of a small wireless touchscreen as a form factor for a computer is awesome.
First netbooks, with 8" screens, 2GB of flash and 512MB RAM were useless too. But I don't imagine myself without my eee900 now - it reached a very usable and perfectly adequate parameters for an attractive price, while retaining the basic form factor.
It will be the same with "pads", computers that look just like iPad, but can be used for photoshop (wireless, affordable Cintiq anyone?), can run any software you like (factory floor control or storage hall management anyone?), can be had for the same price as a netbook, can use 3G, can be used in bright daylight without backlight, have built-in SD reader, a camera and so on.
And just like the web only -somwehat- adapted to netbooks (they are what keeps 32bit software alive), but few sites care about the earliest of them, iPad influence on the net won't be very deep either.
45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
apple creates a website of websites that dont use flash and its "CHANGING THE INTERNET"
ironically, only 2 are not "big, old corporations"
hrm, maybe if i go buy a domain and create a list of websites, i could change the internet too...
heh, ill just go play the ps3, it will affect more people
I am glad that Apple is taking a stand with Flash especially now that with web standards it really isn't needed. I've never really thought flash would be so vital for video streaming as there were other video streaming applications out there such as windows media center, real networks player, and quicktime. HTML 5 is a step in the right direction and sadly I believe that without this pressure from Apple, most video sites will continue to use flash. As for internet marketing and advertising... I really hope they find a better tool other than Flash to use.
you can play twister on it
But if i am link pics i think you will like This comic
the strength of Flash is that it's like Java. you write once and the content will play anywhere with a flash plugin, which is almost every OS and soon to be device. Apple doesn't care about videos, they care about the flash apps and games. if they can lock people into the iTunes system to code for the iphone/ipod/ipad then developers won't code for another platform unless there is money to be made to recoup the investment. Flash makes it easier for a start up device maker to displace Apple's market dominance since it cuts the development time and cost.
Apple saving us from Adobe? Has Hell just frozen?
Love many, trust a few, do harm to none.
I don't know what this means. Do people hang out near the uninterruptible power supply at work?
WAT
Damping absorbs vibrations. Dampening is caused by moisture.
There are still too many sites out there that use a fixed-width table layout - on todays wide-screen monitors, all the content is in the left third of the browser.
Then split your monitor into two windows, showing one web site on the left and another on the right. The eye is best at reading 60- to 70-column layouts anyway; otherwise, you're spending half your time hunting for the start of the next line. Why do you think newspapers are printed in five or six columns, not one wide column across the page?
suck iSteve's cock every morning before going to work.
technical criteria. But what is passing over geek sites in waves the last six months is not:
"I really want different features. I wouldn't buy this."
But rather:
"Nobody will want this device. Apple is off base. The iPad will flop."
My point is to suggest that geeks stick to the former, which is justified (certainly it's easy to see how this device might not satisfy the desire for a general-purpose tinker-and-project machine), and steer away from the latter, which tends to increase the all too common marginalization and mockery of said geeks.
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Remember when Jobs claimed applications should be web based, then when they got their developer kit finished, suddenly the 'App' store was born?
Same thing, they obviously didn't get flash finished, so website that want to co-market with Apple have to make a flash free website, just as they made a mobile version for telephones.
However when the new Android flash supporting cheaper devices arrive Jobs will hope to have flash ready.
If these sites allegedly WORK with the iPad without flash, WHY, OH WHY don't they ALSO work right now with Firerfox with flash disabled? (Firefox versions that support HTML 5 features.)
*boggle*
I meant to suggest precisely that hours-long use will now happen on the iPad.
And you're wrong about the desk; it's not a better choice. People want to integrate networks into their regular and social lives (carry it with them into the living room, sit on the sofa, etc.), not sequester themselves away so that they can connect.
The latter is the geek dream, but for most people, sitting at a desk for hours is the LAST thing they want to do when they get home. Right now they use the 'net in spite of the desk, not because of it.
STOP . AMERICA . NOW
What geeks call "sexiness" and "slick gloss" are for regular users actually "basic intelligibility" and "the possibility of use."
Geeks routinely dismiss the user interface as epiphenomenal to the computing experience. The computer is real, the user is real, and the user interface is this accidental/interchangeable quantity that may be more or less cumbersome, but that is at the end of the day just a minor detail. No user interface actively prevents or determines use for a geek.
NOT SO for the general public. For the general public, the user interface is the computer, full stop. There are no "features" apart from those they can immediately understand and use. There are no "capabilities" apart from those that they can see how to access.
Contrary to Slashdotian opinion, the user interface is the thing of greatest substance in computing for most people, and that is why Apple has been a wild success since Steve Jobs came back, much to Slashdotters' chagrin.
There has not yet been a tablet PC with this user interface. Despite Slashdotters assertions that the identity of a device is all about "features," the fact is that this is a substantively new device by virtue of its user interface, a user interface that has already been proven to be one of the most successful and highly regarded in all of technology and that will likely be the determining factor in the iPad's success... all while Slashdotters dance around saying "the stoopid public, they've been fooled by teh glossiness!"
STOP . AMERICA . NOW
Steve also lured the entire RIAA into iTunes, cut the cost and made it DRM-free for the entire world to buy at less than one dollar per song. In the meantime when they did DRM-only the added a mechanism in iTunes to burn it to (re)writable media DRM-free and lossless and a mechanism to auto-RIP audiodiscs back to your computer.
If that wasn't enough for the world already, then what is? ;)
He did it for his wallet, and nothing else.
In hard economic times, the best way to make money is to cater to the wealthy. Often, the easiest way to do that is to simply A) make it pretty, B) jack up the price, and C) build the perception of exclusivity. This fits the Apple model pretty well. In fact, by not including Flash they are actually enhancing that perception of exclusivity. Soon, the web sites will be jumping on the same bandwagon. By promoting themselves as catering to the special needs and desires of those who can afford an iPad they will, as you suggest, attract the visitors who have money to burn. And the funny thing is that so many people who think they are smarter than everyone just because they have money are taking the bait, hook line and sinker.
It seems people are forgetting a lot.
It's not "Flash VS HTML5 Video" it's "Flash Video vs HTML5 Video"...
There is a LOT more to flash than just playing videos.
The thing is that regardless of what most people say, HTML5(with js canvas, css, etc) is hardly convenient to code many things that flash does really well. Currently we only have a couple gizmos and proof of concept games/apps in js... There are thousands of well made apps that work really fine in flash doing all of that.
I personally think that while flash is certainly not ideal, it is serving a purpose that html5 can not fill easily.(And unlike what people think, the flash vm is actually quite fast and efficient)
Obviously for presentation stuff or video, I will agree flash should go away(and probably will).
(Exception set aside of really artistic & filled-with-transitions artistic websites, with little content, where it's fine)
I've noticed that the internet has become more springtime fresh, like the cool dew on a summer's morning.
Alex, I'll take keybindings not used by Emacs for $400....
Jobs should speed up the effort of excluding Flash on Safari as well, then it would be interesting to see how well it plays with the fanboys.
Vimeo has been offering HTML5 video for everyone since January (http://vimeo.com/blog:268), before iPad was launched, so they are not just "trying to look good on iPad".
im not changing any of my websites for apple drones. also, im going to advise against it if any of my development clients ask me about it. its apple drones' problem if they lock themselves to apple into a narrow world.
im all for proprietary technologies losing ground, but apple, in this fashion, wont be its instigator.
Read radical news here
that a very significant of the 1.7 billion internet users in the world are either animators/renderers or architects, and thus, will sink the iPad because you can't do animation or blueprints on it?
Or did you mean something else beside "have you been out there in the world?"
FYI, I haven't been in CS since before 2000. I used to hang around with coders. When I stopped is when I went "out there in the world" and realized that for the average person technology and features are in no way intrinsically cool and exciting.
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For Ipad 'compliant' Armor Games & Newgrounds websites.
As soon as anyone says "industry best practices", my bogometer gets pegged. Everyone has a different version of what "industry best practices" should be.
A word of advice - don't use that marketroid phrase in a serious discussion.
Advertising to THOSE people would be preaching to the choir for certain advertisers and meaningless to most others.
So they are actually a waste of advertising money.
Sure, you will be able to sell them every single shiny thingamajig by Apple or a lot of Starbucks lattes - but also only about zero items that are not "hip".
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
talking about. You conflate aesthetics and user interface unjustifiably.
They are not.
I'm saying that the user interface is precisely the steering wheel. Slashdotters are busy worrying about the size of the engine, the presence of a winch, and the friction performance on the skid pad. They say "I can install my own steering wheel, what I care about is what this baby will do!"
The public wants to buy the car with the steering wheel, period, even if the engine is smaller, there's no winch, and you have to slow down to corner.
To which the Slashdotter responds, "You're purchasing based on a totally superficial quantity! Pure cosmetics! Any idiot can install a steering wheel! Look at the engine, winch, and cornering characteristics!"
The public will continue to buy the cars with steering wheels, even if they are "cosmetic."
STOP . AMERICA . NOW
Crapple and it's annoyingly-vocal minority user base has nothing to do with it.
asdf
body of message
and so on.
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You forgot to mention that it will cost you $100 just to replace the battery. You are clearly correct: wait for the competition. There is a reason that Apple is suing companies that are coming out with Android devices.
What would be bad is if sites exclusively use HTML5 video for Ipad/iphone users ONLY and exclude PC/Mac/Linux users from accessing the HTML5 versions of the page. So far I've been unable to get the HTML 5 versions to work on my Mac. I hate flash, I hate the whole (execute a binary blob inside my browser). Java is still in that area but I'm less animated about that due to the fact that java is GPL'd.
of the parent post, which specifically argued the iPad to be inappropriate for "serious content creation."
A point that I fully concede.
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Anybody remember this? A flash interpreter done in JavaScript would be a nice option to have for iPhone and iPad users ...
economically speaking people find things desirable because they find them useful.
Status, for example, is not an easy thing to achieve, and it is a thing with real benefits for outcomes like job quality and access to social networks able to enhance life quality in various ways (friends with sailboats, prettier dates, etc.)
To suggest that something "merely" offers status but no usefulness is thus to ignore a significant form of utility.
In fact, I'd suggest that anyone who looks around society and says "status, symbols, power, money - those do not tell you anything really important and do not say anything useful about the persons involved" is seriously ideologically blinkered.
I certainly want to know where my competitors (for a job, in business, for a date) or bureaucrats (in politics or beyond) fall in relation to status, symbols, power, and money. And whether I'm looking for a research grant or venture capital or a simple white collar job, my ability to show literacy in using status, symbols, power, and money is critical to success.
I can't get over the ways that people often dismiss these as though they're nothing. "Oh, Obama only won because of his symbolic power. Pish, posh." Um, yeah, maybe, but (1) he's president, and (2) you try to get elected president, it's not so easy, and if symbolic power is what led to the accomplishment of this rather difficult task, then it proved to have a significant utility for him.
And despite your lifetime of deep reflection, there is a significant connection between quality, ingenuity, creativity, and usefulness. Your problem is that you want to lump these in with fairness, i.e. the notion that "my opinion and work is as good as yours."
If you're upset at the previous poster, perhaps that's your problem--it isn't. Certainly not as good as Apple's, which people find useful enough to pay a premium for, whether that use is as a matter of informational utility, social utility through things like status, or some combination of both.
STOP . AMERICA . NOW
almost every complaint about the iPad is exactly the same complaint people had about the iPod.
For me, there are two deal killers:
1: No built in video camera
2: http://wepad.mobi/en
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I said that what geeks (i.e. you) call sexiness is actually for regular users (i.e. someone else) basic intelligibility and the possibility of use.
I was not equating the two, I was suggesting that in what you misunderstand to be a single aesthetic quantity (the sexy user interface), regular users actually identify a distinct quantity that geeks do not, the quantity of usability.
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Since android is on more devices and quickly overtaking the iPhone OS, a smart developer would write for that OS.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Baltimore!
Bow-ties are cool.
This may interest you:
http://wepad.mobi/en
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Figures, when I need mod-points I don't have them....
But I give thanks to your post and parent post for saying what you did and saying it well.
Let me rephrase, since I was clearly unclear before.
Geeks posit that user interfaces are useful, but at the same time they routinely assume that user interfaces are essentially (in the philosophical sense) aesthetic quantities.
When the public finds a user interface to be useful, Geeks therefore assume that users' preferences are aesthetic ones. "The public has been fooled by teh sexxy!" In fact, the public is often responding to the user interfaces usefulness with respect to their desired ends and the knowledge and ability that they possess.
So what geeks take to be an aesthetic judgment about a useful tool (the user interface), is for the public a matter of utility maximization with respect to that useful tool.
This stems from the fact that geeks equally grok all user interfaces, so it's true that the primary mode of differentiation between them is often aesthetic. The public, on the other hand, does not equally grok all user interfaces, so the primary mode of differentiation between them for the public is inherently a matter of utility: can I use it or not?
Apple excels in making user interfaces that non-geeks are able to use. Geeks mistake the preferences of non-geeks to be aesthetic decisions because they see the user interface as inherently aesthetic in nature with respect to computing tasks.
STOP . AMERICA . NOW
Frequent travellers. Right now, lots of folks who fly a lot are using Kindles. This thing does everything a Kindle does, plus web browsing, movie watching, e-mail, etc, etc. And it's a lot easier to haul out of your carry on than a laptop.
Also: grandma (and other tech challenged folks). What does grandma want to do with her computer? Same deal: e-mail, web, look at pictures of the grandkids, maybe a little Facebook, maybe a few games. What does grandma actually do with her computer? Mostly play Mah-Jongg, because she's got the computer so screwed up with various adware and configuration problems that she can't even get it connected to the internet anymore (why, yes, I am speaking from experience). Grandma will need to have a tech-savvy relative to give her this as a gift, though (probably), as she won't hear about or understand the iPad on on her own.
For everyone else: I'm not so sure. If you already have an iPhone and a good laptop, and you don't travel a lot, I'm having trouble understanding why you would need this. But between the two groups described above, plus a healthy dollop of geeks who just like to buy gadgets, I think Steve is going to sell a metric assload of these things.
with the potential someday either to totally suck (if Apple becomes the dominant player in a DRM universe of internet users and producers) or to suck much less (if Apple takes a more iTunes-like path and opens things up eventually).
One of the most interesting possible effects of iPhone/iPad to my eye is its discursive effects on computing. Users develop their understandings of the computationally possible based on what they understand of the user interface ("what it lets me do"). That which it doesn't offer they often don't imagine.
So there is a way in which Apple is indeed shaping the future of computing by shaping users' understandings of what computing is for and can and can't do, and this of course affects the structure of the internet and its content since the primary purpose of computing amongst the planet's population right now is as a mediator for the network.
Right now like so many other things iPhonePadPod is indeed a closed garden, and that sucks. At the same time, it enables a whole universe of tasks achievable with computing that hadn't really existed before (most of the ways in which I use my iPhone that tie social media/participation to location tracking to the characteristics of urban space). People can say "this existed before" or "this would have happened without Apple," but it didn't, not in ways that people actually wanted to use. It happened through the iPhone and at the moment nobody else is doing it nearly as well. Some of this success may inhere in closedness and its relationship to order, predictability, and the ability to realize a strong, focused vision that actually represents a field of practice that people want to engage in (a task where Microsoft fails but apple routinely succeeds).
So, on balance, mixed bag. Closedness sucks. On the other hand, this may be an instance in which closedness made possible an interesting kind of progress. Even if you don't buy that, it's an instance in which closedness right now embodies a certain kind of progress that many (myself included) like and are willing to pay for. Others are trying to shift this progress onto more open "tracks" (i.e. Android) but are meeting with limited success, largely because the devices and ecosystems are proving not equivalent for the task (largely as a matter of the user interface issues that are so controversial here, including in this story).
In the meantime, we have handset hacking and we can DeDRM every known eBook and music format, so I don't feel as though I'm living in a totalitarian information state yet.
So that's my comment on the subject. ;-)
P.S. You're no doubt right, too, that many Slashdotters are being unfairly characterized by my use of "Slashdotters" in my posts. So, those of you that aren't busy engaging in irrational Apple-hatred and regular-user-hatred, my apologies to you.
STOP . AMERICA . NOW
... are variations on the theme of "less capable than my netbook. No flash. Lame."
Dude, the raw quantity of bits moved over the internet by these things is not the most important measure of their influence. Book publishers, game designers, newspaper publishers, etc, etc, are falling all over themselves trying to get their products into the iPad. I'm sort of lukewarm toward the device myself... but I can still see that it's going to be a huge deal.
People hate Flash because it is being used by millions of ads ...
What if, they replaced the ads using HTML5?
Will you still love HTML5?
I'm kinda with you on the QT problem... but it really has gotten to be less of a pain in the ass in its most recent incarnation. Apple still deserves some flak for the previous versions though, which really did suck pretty hard.
Layers of programs, security, badly coded drivers and networking stuff. Blame both the platform and Adobe in this case.
Most of these Flash scripts are full of memory leaks pulling your browser down to a memory eating cpu loading program which uses even more memory than World of Warcraft in some cases. On the MAC and PC it's both the same problem. Dynamic websites with memory leaks and bad implementations of Ajax and much more.
Larger companies don't to care anymore because Moore's law does the job for them. I cannot even imagine why 2gb of memory is a requirement these days while I used to run OS/2 and other platforms on lower system requirements. It's as these companies don't care about optimizing their own code anymore; just produce and release; often without the appropriate needed testing.
In the DOS world we used to be very specific with what to load. There were memory managers like QEMM386, HIMEM, CACHE86 and others to get the most out of the system. The Windows world has become so complex that optimalization is merely an illusion. There used to be demo-parties dedicated in programming the best graphical capabilities in the smallest possible memory requirements/filesize. Why these software gigants can't do it is probably a matter of money.
Not to forget; Optimalization speeds up the Operating System and generally clears out a lot of bugs too. Maybe it's about time to get some memory-minimalization tools for Browsers too; to cut the air to those ever-sucking memory ghosts.. But how would the general consumption "market" be, if everyone found out we actually don't need all that horsepower, eating away our electricity by the hunderds of watts by starting to optimize at the core...
If Adobe would care to optimize their Flash, a lot of problems would already be solved for a lot of browsers. Same to Microsoft about their Windows kernels, which have improved over the years but still full of leaks. The jumps went too fast between Windows versions to be even possibly qualitative enough. I've only knew 3 real "stable" versions which were Windows 98SE, XP and NT2000; but only stable, almost at the end of each lifecycle.
--- I am known for the ones who want to find me on the net. Is that a privacy risk or a privilege? One might wonder..
...paying customers have the desire to get what *they* want. And the bad old web designers mostly have this need to eat. So...they tend to give the customer what they ask for. Imagine that. Paying customer beats out academic arrogance.
I gave up tying more than a few characters for a pass code quite a while ago on my iPhone. With the iPad's much faster processor, I imagine that I'll be doing the same only faster.
Why can't you imagine holding a device that feels good in your hands to watch video? Did you give up on holding books? Or will your iPad stand not work for you, for some inexplicable reason?
Hours of work? I can easily see doing that on an iPad, since I already have to do that on my iPhone. And I'm excited about the larger screen and faster processor to get that work done. I'm looking forward to the applications that will be made to take advantage of this and will make my life (work and personal) better.
This is not to say that the iPad will work for you, but don't assume that you know what will work for me and the millions of others that will purchase and use the iPad.
I noticed the "click for pre-order information" link.
That devices looks like numerous other devices that are supposed to come out soon, but are not ready yet.
But yes, if those devices ever are actually for sale in the US, then those devices might compete with the iPad. As I said, there is a reason that Apple is trying to sue Android device makers.
I'm surprised you managed to type while holding Microsoft and Google's cocks in your hands...
The listed "surprise" working sites are no surprise at all. They are not flash per se, but use flash video; YouTube-esque. Sites like this have been possible on MobileSafari for ages if you were jailbroken with iMobileCinema installed. It just ignores their flash player but detects the flv video file and uses the internal player to play that.
Wake me when sites like addictinggames work.
from 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
to 45 2F 6E 40 3C DF 10 71 4E 41 DF AA 25 7D 31 3F
That reminds me of the time my brother bought the 4GB original iPhone instead of the 8GB one, he used it until the 3G came out then sold it to me. Then I used it until the 3GS came out and I sold it to my coworker. She unlocked it so she could use it with TMobile, and she is still using it today. Is that what you mean by "lunch-bag letdown"? That doesn't sound so bad to me.
Tell you what, I wouldn't buy the base model, because I know I'd want to use 3G, but I have lots of friends with iPod touches who don't seem to mind not having 3G. I wouldn't buy the 64GB model, because I don't use a lot of space like that. So I'd spend only $630, a far cry from your outrageous $1,000 number. Remember, different people have different needs. Just because you need to buy the most pimped out model doesn't mean everyone else does.
There is no AdBlock for the iPad. When the user runs an "app", the app has full control of the user experience. If the app wants to run an ad that can't be skipped, it can. The advertising community has been excited about this for months.
It's noteworthy that the Wall Street Journal charges more for their iPad version than for their print version. (It may have more features; most of the stock tables have disappeared from the print version, since everybody serious gets that info in real time. The iPad version might bring back stock info.) Dow Jones and Company has always been in the forefront of timely online delivery. Their original business was delivering stock quotations, and they used to own and operate a huge network of stock and news tickers, which started up in 1897. Their "online business" is still bigger than their print business.
We control the horizontal. We control the vertical. ...
I hope this means there will be an HTML5 video option for Ted.com. Their flash player is horrendous! I had to make a Ted.com userscript for full-screen video just be able to view videos full screen without it closing when using multiple monitors.
They are not.
Most sites actually made the transition earlier, while others are actually cases of those iPhone-specific versions. Both being completely unrelated to iPad.
TED.com is a prime and loudly touted in TFA example of that.
And again, it is the case of Apple saying:
"See? We actually planned to land on our face and not on our ass with that no-flash feature.
Now you can easily and seamlessly, one might even say 'out of the box' use the very same sites you are used to using on your iPhone - right there on your iPad instead.
See - here is the list of those sites that work just fine on it. Soon, you will find out that you actually don't need the rest of the internet at all.".
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
When a new artifact appears that is so well designed that its likeness becomes ubiquitous, what do we call that? It doesn't matter that there were similar things before that pioneered the artifact-space, they didn't have the features to succeed. We should be glad that the bar is being set so high with the iPad. As with the iPhone, alternatives will exist, but Google still hasn't figured out the app-store, and Microsoft is just now figuring out the touch interface. This is a huge indication of how far ahead Apple is in their thinking. It is the very definition of visionary- like Google with search. It is as if up to that point everyone else was trying to make due with the current technology, hacking away one little piece at a time, banging about in the dark, groping for a tiny bit of success. Will the JooJoo or Slate prove to be as useful, elegant, and fun to use?
In just a few years, these devices will be very low-margin products that will be in the price range of far more of us (less than US$100), the batteries will likely cycle a magnitude more, they'll be better for us and the environment, we'll be able to make good use of them outdoors, and it'll be a special occasion when we leave our bloody pads behind.
As for Flash, in all the years that I've used it on Linux, Mac, and Windows, it has been among the slowest and least reliable software. I banish thee to the deepest abyss of cold space, never again to entertain the gravity well of a sentient's dust speck!
Put it in the box next to your Apple Newton will you?
erect penises with a flick of the wrist?
That definitely targets the Apple crowd!
The iPad is probably going to fade into obscurity.
Less space than the Library of Congress. No neural connections. Lame.
The iPad was made for morons and therefore is very successful.
"Life is short and in most cases it ends with death." Sir Sinclair
I don't do Flash, and I have money.
If a vendor has a Flash-only website, I just go to their competitor.
Because, you see, I want to spend my money, not sit watching animated menus.
The Amiga hasn't had Flash for years, long before Apple thought of this "innovation". Therefore, the Amiga deserves the credit for reshaping the Internet!
(Seriously - whatever fucked up justification for missing features will they come up with next? I thought it's bad enough to try to twist missing features into a positive, but now they're deluded enough to claim that the Ipad is now the saviour of the Internet?)
My 5800 beats an Iphone hands down, at half the price. And here's the thing - whatever features the Iphone has that mine doesn't, I'm just going to play the same trick and say "But why would I need that", followed by "Actually, by not having this feature, I'm reshaping the Internet!!!"
It's the new form of debating. Don't worry about facts or evidence - just assert that your favourite product is reshaping the Internet!!!.
That is exactly what I am saying!
In fact, I have been informed by my opposite self from a parallel universe (the one where Spock wears a beard) that THAT is exactly what happened there!
Also, there is no Apple at all in that universe, Microsoft makes the best software and their OS is free and open source.
And just for the hell of it - all PCs come with dual boot Linux distro of your choice.
But nobody uses it as it is far inferior to what Microsoft has to offer.
There are also permanent human colonies on Moon AND Mars.
Strange world that.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
This thing does everything a Kindle does
No it doesn't. How many times?
The Ipad is not an e-reader.
Seriously. With every other colour "e-reader" advertised on Slashdot, people rightly point out the lack of e-ink display which makes a Kindle etc different to any plain old LCD. But for some reason, the Ipad is immune to this. If you're happy with reading on an LCD, then netbooks and existing tablets already fill that gap, and the Ipad is still pointless and overpriced - they still do "web browsing, movie watching, e-mail,"
And it's a lot easier to haul out of your carry on than a laptop.
Why yes, if only we had devices smaller than laptops!
What does grandma want to do with her computer? Same deal: e-mail, web, look at pictures of the grandkids, maybe a little Facebook, maybe a few games. What does grandma actually do with her computer?
Right, just like any bog standard cheap netbook or tablet or indeed phone will do. Why is she going to spend vastly more on an Apple product?
Where were you when the iPhone came out? It doesn't support Flash either. And neither do many of the other smartphones that have come out in recent times. This "issue" that you're whining about is nothing new - it's been going on for years now. I have a Blackberry - it doesn't support Flash either.
What nobody seems to consider is that while the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch along with many, many other small web-enabled devices don't support Flash. That's not a political thing; there's some basic incompatibilities that make Flash a bad fit. Let's consider the iPad for this discussion - the same can be said for many, many other devices but this is the current poster boy so - think about the Apple multi-touch interface for a moment (if you've ever used it). There's no cursor and the concept of "hover" or "click" doesn't make sense either. Flash expects to have a mouse (or touchpad) attached with a cursor that can hover and click. This isn't just an Apple issue - there's a whole world of small screen portable devices that don't behave in the way that Flash expects.
For years the web has been restricted to machines with WIMP interfaces and Flash is useful in that environment. But recently more and more mobile devices have become web enabled and they don't or can't support Flash for various reasons. This is the future - more and more portable and pocket devices will become web enabled and they will have various (small) screen sizes / resolutions, various types of CPUs, various amounts of memory, various forms of connectivity and various forms of "keyboard" and "pointer" interfaces. Flash doesn't work here. It's because Flash was designed to serve in a different world but things are changing now. Apple saw this coming and made the choice to drop Flash - but others will make the same choice in the future. Technology isn't static, and no matter how Adobe would wish otherwise, Flash will become a technology of the past. It'll take it's place next to Real Player in the "glad it's gone" hall of fame.
I will lay odds on iPad outlasting Flash.
At what price learning? At what cost wisdom? The price is a man's peace of mind, and the cost is his life.
i dont really like the ipad (i am an apple fanboy though), if it had a bit more customizability and a cheaper price it would be a sucess for me, but its not.
my point is that i didnt think flash was all that good anyway, it is slow and bloated (in my opinion).