When Jobs said it runs for 10 hours, he specifically gave an example of watching video on a flight from San Francisco to Tokyo. Like all battery numbers, I'd expect it to be a bit less than the amount stated, but he did talk about a real activity. Moreover, after making the 10 hours claim, he added that standby time is one month.
There is a DataGrid component in the free Flex SDK. The AdvancedDataGrid is part of the data visualization package that comes with Flex Builder Professional. In general, the Flex community thinks the AdvancedDataGrid is garbage. Slow, messy, and written by engineers that aren't part of the main Flex team who don't follow the official best practices. There are functions in its classes that are hundreds of lines long. I'm not kidding. I know guys who have written their own implementation of the features in AdvancedDataGrid because it sucked so bad. Thankfully, most use-cases for a DataGrid will be handled just fine by the regular DataGrid in Flex.
I imagine that the content owners aren't quite sure how Internet TV can be most profitable yet. I doubt they make much from advertising through Internet streaming compared to the traditional TV market. In a knee-jerk reaction, they're saying that if you're going to watch their shows on a TV (which Boxee obviously lets you do), then you should do it with the full set of commercials, rather than the one or two that get displays with the on-demand Internet streams. For the time being, TV streaming through a browser is probably considered a hassle for most viewers, so they have to make up for it with fewer advertisements. Boxee takes away the hassle (and in many cases, makes things BETTER than traditional TV), so content providers think they're getting ripped off again. In short, they're trying to insert the maximum amount of annoyance viewers will tolerate, and Boxee is screwing it all up! How dare they.
This happens with Adobe Flash Player with every new major release. Dozens, if not hundreds, of websites think you have an older version of Flash Player because they check for something like majorVersion == 9 rather than majorVersion >= 9, and they display a "please upgrade" message when you're actually running the brand spanking new player. It's amusing, but a little sad since it happens over and over again. Still though, everything is fixed within a couple weeks, and it's no big deal. Microsoft needs to suck it up, accept that some developers are dumb, and force those folks to fix their broken version checks. It'll only increase the number of devs who did it wrong next time, and the problem will be worse when the major version finally gets a change.
Notes on your Java vs Flash upsides.
* Flash also supports TCP sockets, not just HTTP requests. Also, AMF (also commonly known as Flash remoting) is a lightweight binary format available to Flash commonly used for live streaming data. The primary implementation for the server-side is written in (you guessed it) Java.
* Correct, Flash doesn't support signing to add increased functionality. However, Flash Player 10 now allows the user to open and save files from the local file system.
* Yeah, OpenGL would be cool. There is now limited 3D support in FP10.
* Have you heard of Flex? No keyframes in sight. Many Java developers love it for building web UIs that integrate with Java backends. Macromedia started working on Flex for exactly the reasons you describe. Developers aren't animators and frame-based UI development doesn't make much sense.
* I've not needed to internationalize any of my recent projects, so I can't respond to the current state of this one.
* Yes, Java is faster. However, Flash's VM speed is much closer to Java than that of most JavaScript engines.
Do you really believe that? If Flash weren't available, people who want ugly, useless websites would use something else. Adobe can encourage good practices, but they can't be blamed for poor taste.
You don't "have to go through One Software Company" to view Flash content. Check out Open Screen Project. The specifications for Adobe's Flash formats, SWF/FLV/etc, are available, and anyone can make a compiler or their own implementation of Flash Player. Your SWF content as it stands today is safe for viewing in the future and you never need to ask Adobe for software to view that content again. They may release new versions of the formats in the future, and maybe they'll decide it shouldn't be open anymore, but today's content will always be readable/writable.
if you want it to appear in Google, be read by people, to be bookmarked, to be quoted/cited/linked etc.
...you probably shouldn't be using Flash. Plain and simple. I'm a Flash developer and I have no problem saying that. The most common argument against Flash on Slashdot is that it sucks as a document. Of course it does. Viewing documents is not the purpose of Flash, especially when you're embedding it into a browser that's way better at displaying, formatting, and laying out text.
Interesting. If you're still having problems with that machine, Adobe provides a Flash Player uninstaller that might work. Worse case scenario (and I've hit this one once, actually), you can delete the old ActiveX control manually from wherever its hiding in the c:\windows directory (I'm on a Mac these days, and I don't remember the exact location off the top of my head).
They already did. Flash Player 9 is running some nice JIT-compiled bytecode that is 10-30 times faster than previous versions. I'm not sure how it compares to Java, but it's definitely much faster than most browser-based JavaScript engines these days.
Disclaimer: Designers who write code generally write bad code, so not all AS3 code is going to be as fast as it could. It's sad because that's why people think Flash is slow.
The short version is that Flash 9 is not comparable right now because the VM is not in use by many projects.
Are you serious? As a software engineer who works with Flash and Flex daily, I've worked exclusively with Flash Player 9 and ActionScript 3 for over two years. Almost anyone who calls him or herself a Flash developer will say the same. I might have let your argument slide a year ago, but with Flash Player 9 installed on well over 90% of web-connected computers, it's silly not to use AS3. Anyone still working with AS2 and Flash 8 is probably a designer building simple "experience sites" or advertisements who knows a little about coding or a developer who doesn't know any better (or is a masochist).
Accessibility options. A page done almost entirely in Flash is almost guaranteed to be inaccessible to someone with a screen reader. Sadly, that's because developers are lazy. Flash Player has documented support for a pretty decent level of accessibility, and some undocumented support for more powerful stuff. Unfortunately, it's generally considered a nice-to-have (read: unless it's a requirement, it never happens), so this feature of Flash Player goes wasted most of the time.
No intention of porting Flash to x86-64 platforms, on Linux -or- Windows (at least AFAIK) Tinic Uro, an engineer on the Flash Player team at Adobe, has stated on his blog (on several occasions) that the port to 64-bit is in progress. He's explained that Flash Player has a lot of legacy code that needed to be optimized to run well on slower computers. That means some of it is specific to 32-bit architectures so that they could get every last bit of speed and cut memory use down on those poor ancient machines. Changing stable code shouldn't happen lightly. Unlike many open source projects, a nearly-ubiquitous runtime like Flash Player needs to focus more strongly on stability and compatibility between versions. Adobe is committed to backwards compatibility, and there's nine versions of the SWF format they have to account for and test against.
Simply knowing the inputs and outputs of a product and then mimicing the same output when given the same input is not against any license agreement. Yes, I agree. If that weren't true, then OpenOffice and a million other open source projects would have died a horrible death a long time ago.
If it was, then the agreement would make any previous versions of the same product illegal. I don't think this is the correct interpretation. The users of the previous version of the software were already authorized to use it for that input/output combination. The creators of the software can't say that the previous version is mimicing the new version because the old version was created first. It's the new version that is mimicing the old version, and the creators have every right to continue authorizing such use. Even if your interpretation were correct, no software company would be stupid enough to sue its own users for continuing to use an old version.
I personally know many folks that have been on the Flash Player and Flex development teams since the Macromedia days. They're still on board at Adobe, and the Macromedia spirit is still going strong. Kevin Lynch, formerly the Chief Software Architect at Macromedia is now CTO and Senior VP at Adobe. From the perspective of the external community that works with Flash and Flex daily, almost nothing has changed. In fact, most of the changes we've seen are improvements thanks to Adobe's greater resources.
I have no doubt that the hard work done by Macromedia can be repeated by Adobe because much of Adobe still looks and acts like the Macromedia of old.
Yeah, and for most of us, that's laughably expensive. I can't wait for the day when mobile broadband costs about as much per month as my wired broadband at home. I switched my phone service entirely to my cell when that became reasonably affordable, and I imagine I'll do the same for wireless Internet when it isn't priced at point only the wealthy or desperate will consider.
Please redact the majority of this comment. Surely, you understand the chilling effect that would occur if my frank and honest opinions and analysis were to be disclosed in a broad setting. Though I willingly chose this public forum, much like a government employee chooses a job with the risk of public scrutiny, the risk of embarrassment is too great to allow you to publish it for all eyes to see. What if some spelling or grammar nazi notices a tiny mistake that resulted from my lack of proofreading? No, Slashdot, I would rather not have my comment face the wrath of the unwashed masses with mod points today.
Agreed. Planes crash for more reasons than as a result of terrorism. What about the over 18,000 people who have died as a result of tornadoes in the US since 1875? Surely the grief of families who have lost loved ones to tornadoes is just as important. If 9/11 is a valid reason to remove a plane crash disaster, there are equally valid reasons to remove the others.
Adobe's open spec for the SWF format may be used by anyone who wants to create SWF files. It may not be used if you intend to build an alternative way to view SWF files. In other words, you can create your own compiler, but not a new Flash Player like Gnash.
Developers working with ActionScript in Flash Player have no access to the user's file system. Makes it pretty hard to distribute a Flash-based trojan.
Slashdot Mirror
When Jobs said it runs for 10 hours, he specifically gave an example of watching video on a flight from San Francisco to Tokyo. Like all battery numbers, I'd expect it to be a bit less than the amount stated, but he did talk about a real activity. Moreover, after making the 10 hours claim, he added that standby time is one month.
There is a DataGrid component in the free Flex SDK. The AdvancedDataGrid is part of the data visualization package that comes with Flex Builder Professional. In general, the Flex community thinks the AdvancedDataGrid is garbage. Slow, messy, and written by engineers that aren't part of the main Flex team who don't follow the official best practices. There are functions in its classes that are hundreds of lines long. I'm not kidding. I know guys who have written their own implementation of the features in AdvancedDataGrid because it sucked so bad. Thankfully, most use-cases for a DataGrid will be handled just fine by the regular DataGrid in Flex.
I imagine that the content owners aren't quite sure how Internet TV can be most profitable yet. I doubt they make much from advertising through Internet streaming compared to the traditional TV market. In a knee-jerk reaction, they're saying that if you're going to watch their shows on a TV (which Boxee obviously lets you do), then you should do it with the full set of commercials, rather than the one or two that get displays with the on-demand Internet streams. For the time being, TV streaming through a browser is probably considered a hassle for most viewers, so they have to make up for it with fewer advertisements. Boxee takes away the hassle (and in many cases, makes things BETTER than traditional TV), so content providers think they're getting ripped off again. In short, they're trying to insert the maximum amount of annoyance viewers will tolerate, and Boxee is screwing it all up! How dare they.
Jason Kilar, CEO of Hulu, admitted on the company's blog that the content owners demanded that Boxee stop displaying Hulu content.
This happens with Adobe Flash Player with every new major release. Dozens, if not hundreds, of websites think you have an older version of Flash Player because they check for something like majorVersion == 9 rather than majorVersion >= 9, and they display a "please upgrade" message when you're actually running the brand spanking new player. It's amusing, but a little sad since it happens over and over again. Still though, everything is fixed within a couple weeks, and it's no big deal. Microsoft needs to suck it up, accept that some developers are dumb, and force those folks to fix their broken version checks. It'll only increase the number of devs who did it wrong next time, and the problem will be worse when the major version finally gets a change.
Notes on your Java vs Flash upsides. * Flash also supports TCP sockets, not just HTTP requests. Also, AMF (also commonly known as Flash remoting) is a lightweight binary format available to Flash commonly used for live streaming data. The primary implementation for the server-side is written in (you guessed it) Java. * Correct, Flash doesn't support signing to add increased functionality. However, Flash Player 10 now allows the user to open and save files from the local file system. * Yeah, OpenGL would be cool. There is now limited 3D support in FP10. * Have you heard of Flex? No keyframes in sight. Many Java developers love it for building web UIs that integrate with Java backends. Macromedia started working on Flex for exactly the reasons you describe. Developers aren't animators and frame-based UI development doesn't make much sense. * I've not needed to internationalize any of my recent projects, so I can't respond to the current state of this one. * Yes, Java is faster. However, Flash's VM speed is much closer to Java than that of most JavaScript engines.
They demoed a 64-bit BSD version live on stage at a recent Flash conference. It may be coming soon.
Do you really believe that? If Flash weren't available, people who want ugly, useless websites would use something else. Adobe can encourage good practices, but they can't be blamed for poor taste.
He's referring to the older terms. Adobe removed that restriction when they re-released the specs earlier this year under the new terms.
You mean like these specs that have been out for six months?
You don't "have to go through One Software Company" to view Flash content. Check out Open Screen Project. The specifications for Adobe's Flash formats, SWF/FLV/etc, are available, and anyone can make a compiler or their own implementation of Flash Player. Your SWF content as it stands today is safe for viewing in the future and you never need to ask Adobe for software to view that content again. They may release new versions of the formats in the future, and maybe they'll decide it shouldn't be open anymore, but today's content will always be readable/writable.
Interesting. If you're still having problems with that machine, Adobe provides a Flash Player uninstaller that might work. Worse case scenario (and I've hit this one once, actually), you can delete the old ActiveX control manually from wherever its hiding in the c:\windows directory (I'm on a Mac these days, and I don't remember the exact location off the top of my head).
They already did. Flash Player 9 is running some nice JIT-compiled bytecode that is 10-30 times faster than previous versions. I'm not sure how it compares to Java, but it's definitely much faster than most browser-based JavaScript engines these days.
Disclaimer: Designers who write code generally write bad code, so not all AS3 code is going to be as fast as it could. It's sad because that's why people think Flash is slow.
Public Flex sites, true. Most Flex apps run behind enterprise firewalls.
If you see a Papervision app, there's a good chance it's Flash 8.Yeah right. No one in their right mind would run Papervision in Flash 8. It barely runs in Flash 9, hogging 100% of CPU.
Are you serious? As a software engineer who works with Flash and Flex daily, I've worked exclusively with Flash Player 9 and ActionScript 3 for over two years. Almost anyone who calls him or herself a Flash developer will say the same. I might have let your argument slide a year ago, but with Flash Player 9 installed on well over 90% of web-connected computers, it's silly not to use AS3. Anyone still working with AS2 and Flash 8 is probably a designer building simple "experience sites" or advertisements who knows a little about coding or a developer who doesn't know any better (or is a masochist).
I have no doubt that the hard work done by Macromedia can be repeated by Adobe because much of Adobe still looks and acts like the Macromedia of old.
Yeah, and for most of us, that's laughably expensive. I can't wait for the day when mobile broadband costs about as much per month as my wired broadband at home. I switched my phone service entirely to my cell when that became reasonably affordable, and I imagine I'll do the same for wireless Internet when it isn't priced at point only the wealthy or desperate will consider.
Dear Slashdot,
Please redact the majority of this comment. Surely, you understand the chilling effect that would occur if my frank and honest opinions and analysis were to be disclosed in a broad setting. Though I willingly chose this public forum, much like a government employee chooses a job with the risk of public scrutiny, the risk of embarrassment is too great to allow you to publish it for all eyes to see. What if some spelling or grammar nazi notices a tiny mistake that resulted from my lack of proofreading? No, Slashdot, I would rather not have my comment face the wrath of the unwashed masses with mod points today.
Sincerely,
User #774466
Agreed. Planes crash for more reasons than as a result of terrorism. What about the over 18,000 people who have died as a result of tornadoes in the US since 1875? Surely the grief of families who have lost loved ones to tornadoes is just as important. If 9/11 is a valid reason to remove a plane crash disaster, there are equally valid reasons to remove the others.
Adobe's open spec for the SWF format may be used by anyone who wants to create SWF files. It may not be used if you intend to build an alternative way to view SWF files. In other words, you can create your own compiler, but not a new Flash Player like Gnash.
Developers working with ActionScript in Flash Player have no access to the user's file system. Makes it pretty hard to distribute a Flash-based trojan.