Steve Jobs has one reason and one reason only for disallowing Flash on his platforms: If flash could be run in the browser, the entire app market would fall apart--the same useless apps would be available for free on the internet. Apple wouldn't make any more from the app store. Anything else Stevo says about Flash is complete BS and misdirection./story
It's already possible to write free apps for the iPhone/iPad using HTML5, CSS and JavaScript and make them available on the Web and has been since the day the iPhone OS was released. So far, it hasn't made much of a dent in the number of apps available at the App Store. In fact, when Apple originally announced that Web Apps would be the only way to write for the iPhone, people screamed about it until they released a SDK.
In any case, Apple doesn't make all that much money on the App Store. It exists purely as a selling point for their hardware, which is where the real profit comes from.
apple should drop that $99y just to come free apps other phone systems do not have this level of lock in.
Check the cost on developing for WiMo sometime. Microsoft charges a registration fee and a $99 per app submission fee on top of taking 30% of the revenue.
One of Adobe's biggest Flash users is YouTube; however, for the last six months or so it's been possible to view YouTube videos using HTML5 if one chooses. Go try it out some time. It's still in beta and there's a few bugs in it but it works and doesn't cause the fan on my laptop to run the entire time like it used to when I was viewing in Flash.
Forget about all the other bullshit about Apple and Steve Jobs and Adobe. Flash is a resource hog, it requires software available from only one source to view and very expensive software to develop. The Web will be better for everybody once it's gone. Well, everybody but Flash developers, and I suspect that they're the people who are currently rushing to its defense.
At least currently, if you own a Mac computer, you are free to write, use, sell or give away applications with zero involvement from Apple other than your initial purchase. [...]
You (for all practical purposes) need to use their tools to write an app.
As opposed to all those Windows apps that have been developed on Linux machines, of course.
I actually deleted my facebook profile last week. But that doesn't mean they are actually going to delete my information [...]
More true than you might think.
I played around on Facebook for a few weeks just to see what it was all about but as soon as I heard about their new policies concerning member info, I closed my account. After I finished the process, however, a page popped up letting me know that all I had to do was to use my password to log back on again and everything would be back the way it was.
Apparently, "closing" a Facebook account doesn't do much.
Apple and the MPEG people could find that at the end of the battle that their own patents have fallen.
I could be wrong about this but I suspect that most of the technology companies which earn their money from actually shipping products rather than merely by licensing IP--including Apple and Microsoft--wouldn't be all that sad to see that happen. Most of them file for software patents as much to protect themselves from lawsuits as anything else.
In California, where both Apple and Lala are based, non-compete clauses in contracts are automatically void.
In most cases that's true. However, there's an exception allowed for when a company is sold. From the Wikipedia article you linked to:
Exceptions - valid non-compete agreements in California
There are limited situations where a reasonable non-compete agreement may be valid in California.
If an owner is selling the goodwill in their business. (Business & Professions Code Section 16601).
When there is a dissolution or disassociation of a partnership. (Business & Professions Code Section 16602).
Where there is a dissolution of a limited liability company. (Business & Professions Code Section 16602.5).
In this case, LaLa has sold the goodwill in their business to Apple. That would allow Apple to include a valid non-compete clause.
Now I might be missing something, but what did they gain through this acquisition?
Probably some slick little bit of code that Lala used in their streaming severs. $80 million is chump change to Apple and they no doubt did the math and figured it would cost them more to develop something similar in-house. Also, no worries about software patent lawsuits this way.
They've successfully done it once, though. Seems like an easy way to generate that cash AGAIN when someone else comes along to buy them up, since they won't be competing with their predecessor.
You can bet that Apple added a no-comptete clause to the contract; in return for Apple's cash, the Lala crew agrees not to create a competing service for x number of years. Standard Operating Procedure in those situations.
I agree on the hinge, but a stylus is actually a very good input device for drawings and writing
You're right, but they do have drawbacks as well. I used to have a Palm PDA that I liked a lot. I also used to have to carry around a pack of extra styluses (styli?) in my briefcase because I was always losing the damned things. So far, my fingers have always been there for me when I'm using my iPhone.
Not that fingers as input devices don't introduce their own set of problems. For instance, never try to use an iPhone while eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich...
And, if tablets are so bad, why then do people like you freak out over Android tablets?
Of course, the answer to that is simple: it has nothing to do with tablets actually being bad and everything do to with who's making the tablet in question. If, instead of Apple launching the iPad, Google had launched a device identical to the iPad in every way and called it the gPad, you can bet all those same people would be singing it's praises to high heaven.
I do like though that I can change my car how I like it. If I want to I can change the seats, put in a different stereo system, put in a faster engine, put on snow tires, put a lift kit on it, etc. Essentially I can make my car how I want it or need it to be.
Yes, but do you actually do any of those things? Probably not, and it's the same deal with most computer users who don't frequent site such as Slashdot. The ability to customize something is great, but only if you're actually going to customize it. The majority of people don't; that's why people buy a lot more minivans than they do kit cars.
Apple is a niche computer company. After having it's ass handed to it by Microsoft and the PC clone makers back in the Nineties, it's learned that it can't go head to head with them in the commodity computer market. Instead, it's carved out it's own markets serving people who just want a computer to do the simple things they need it for. That's not to say you can't still get a powerful computer from them, only that it's not where they're making their real money any more.
My messages are still archived on google groups, and I wish there was a way to erase them, because it's somewhat embarrassing to read posts from your teenage self 25 years ago (especially the typos).;-)
"The Internet Never Forgets." Unfortunately.
There are a few things of mine in the archives I wish would go away too. At least they're mostly under nicks that aren't easily traced to me anymore.
Slashdot Mirror
Steve Jobs has one reason and one reason only for disallowing Flash on his platforms: If flash could be run in the browser, the entire app market would fall apart--the same useless apps would be available for free on the internet. Apple wouldn't make any more from the app store. Anything else Stevo says about Flash is complete BS and misdirection. /story
It's already possible to write free apps for the iPhone/iPad using HTML5, CSS and JavaScript and make them available on the Web and has been since the day the iPhone OS was released. So far, it hasn't made much of a dent in the number of apps available at the App Store. In fact, when Apple originally announced that Web Apps would be the only way to write for the iPhone, people screamed about it until they released a SDK.
In any case, Apple doesn't make all that much money on the App Store. It exists purely as a selling point for their hardware, which is where the real profit comes from.
apple should drop that $99y just to come free apps other phone systems do not have this level of lock in.
Check the cost on developing for WiMo sometime. Microsoft charges a registration fee and a $99 per app submission fee on top of taking 30% of the revenue.
HTML5 is infact just a red herring.
HTML5 isn't going to replace Flash.[...]
I wouldn't bet on that.
One of Adobe's biggest Flash users is YouTube; however, for the last six months or so it's been possible to view YouTube videos using HTML5 if one chooses. Go try it out some time. It's still in beta and there's a few bugs in it but it works and doesn't cause the fan on my laptop to run the entire time like it used to when I was viewing in Flash.
Forget about all the other bullshit about Apple and Steve Jobs and Adobe. Flash is a resource hog, it requires software available from only one source to view and very expensive software to develop. The Web will be better for everybody once it's gone. Well, everybody but Flash developers, and I suspect that they're the people who are currently rushing to its defense.
At least currently, if you own a Mac computer, you are free to write, use, sell or give away applications with zero involvement from Apple other than your initial purchase. [...]
You (for all practical purposes) need to use their tools to write an app.
As opposed to all those Windows apps that have been developed on Linux machines, of course.
Look, it's not you, it's me...
Well, as puppy resources dwindle, nations will go to war to protect their puppy supplies and...
Wait, wait--it's a joke, son! ;-)
The "kill puppies" button. Or is that only on my copy of Outlook?
Nah, mine has that too. It's right next to the "Famine" button, between the "Pestilence" and "War" buttons.
I actually deleted my facebook profile last week. But that doesn't mean they are actually going to delete my information [...]
More true than you might think.
I played around on Facebook for a few weeks just to see what it was all about but as soon as I heard about their new policies concerning member info, I closed my account. After I finished the process, however, a page popped up letting me know that all I had to do was to use my password to log back on again and everything would be back the way it was.
Apparently, "closing" a Facebook account doesn't do much.
The porn industry chooses its standards. Everyone else follows.
Yeah? Then how do you explain that box out in my garage filled with porn on Betamax tapes?
Apple and the MPEG people could find that at the end of the battle that their own patents have fallen.
I could be wrong about this but I suspect that most of the technology companies which earn their money from actually shipping products rather than merely by licensing IP--including Apple and Microsoft--wouldn't be all that sad to see that happen. Most of them file for software patents as much to protect themselves from lawsuits as anything else.
In California, where both Apple and Lala are based, non-compete clauses in contracts are automatically void.
In most cases that's true. However, there's an exception allowed for when a company is sold. From the Wikipedia article you linked to:
In this case, LaLa has sold the goodwill in their business to Apple. That would allow Apple to include a valid non-compete clause.
You can also bet that non-compete clauses are unenforceable in California.
True in many cases, but California law makes exceptions in the case of business ownership exchanges. Here's some info on it.
AAC is technically an "open standard" [...] but for all practical purposes is useless outside of the iTMS walled garden.
Someone should tell Microsoft about this. Their Zune will play AAC files. Also Sony music players, Creative music players, Pioneer car stereos...
Now I might be missing something, but what did they gain through this acquisition?
Probably some slick little bit of code that Lala used in their streaming severs. $80 million is chump change to Apple and they no doubt did the math and figured it would cost them more to develop something similar in-house. Also, no worries about software patent lawsuits this way.
They've successfully done it once, though. Seems like an easy way to generate that cash AGAIN when someone else comes along to buy them up, since they won't be competing with their predecessor.
You can bet that Apple added a no-comptete clause to the contract; in return for Apple's cash, the Lala crew agrees not to create a competing service for x number of years. Standard Operating Procedure in those situations.
And of course, you can use the leaves for poke salad. With a lot of boiling...
Not meaning to sound like a dick, but it's poke salat. There was even a song about it way back in the day, Poke Salat Annie.
Don't ask me what salat means, though. I have no idea.
And to us real old greybeards, going online used to be BBS...remember BIX?
I never used BIX but I used the local dial-up BBSs and FidoNet a lot. Also AOL when it was still called AppleLink.
People using Brush Script, using Cooper Black for body text, or Copperplate for anything other than titling should probably be shot.
I agree and am willing to join your endeavor. I have guns.
I know that I showed its demo to 4 die hard, fanatic iPhone _and_ Apple users and they were really impressed with it.
To be fair, though, it's pretty easy to create an impressive demo of a product that doesn't actually exist.
I agree on the hinge, but a stylus is actually a very good input device for drawings and writing
You're right, but they do have drawbacks as well. I used to have a Palm PDA that I liked a lot. I also used to have to carry around a pack of extra styluses (styli?) in my briefcase because I was always losing the damned things. So far, my fingers have always been there for me when I'm using my iPhone.
Not that fingers as input devices don't introduce their own set of problems. For instance, never try to use an iPhone while eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich...
And, if tablets are so bad, why then do people like you freak out over Android tablets?
Of course, the answer to that is simple: it has nothing to do with tablets actually being bad and everything do to with who's making the tablet in question. If, instead of Apple launching the iPad, Google had launched a device identical to the iPad in every way and called it the gPad, you can bet all those same people would be singing it's praises to high heaven.
I do like though that I can change my car how I like it. If I want to I can change the seats, put in a different stereo system, put in a faster engine, put on snow tires, put a lift kit on it, etc. Essentially I can make my car how I want it or need it to be.
Yes, but do you actually do any of those things? Probably not, and it's the same deal with most computer users who don't frequent site such as Slashdot. The ability to customize something is great, but only if you're actually going to customize it. The majority of people don't; that's why people buy a lot more minivans than they do kit cars.
Apple is a niche computer company. After having it's ass handed to it by Microsoft and the PC clone makers back in the Nineties, it's learned that it can't go head to head with them in the commodity computer market. Instead, it's carved out it's own markets serving people who just want a computer to do the simple things they need it for. That's not to say you can't still get a powerful computer from them, only that it's not where they're making their real money any more.
Were you trying for cybersex or the real thing? Remember, DoS is only a crime on "on the Interwebs"
You know, that makes me think of the Internet being "a series of tubes" in a whole different way.
And it's always easier to find sympathy for a pretty person than for an ugly one.
Whoa, thanks, that explains a lot of bad things that have happened in my life...
(Seriously, though--good post.)
My messages are still archived on google groups, and I wish there was a way to erase them, because it's somewhat embarrassing to read posts from your teenage self 25 years ago (especially the typos). ;-)
"The Internet Never Forgets." Unfortunately.
There are a few things of mine in the archives I wish would go away too. At least they're mostly under nicks that aren't easily traced to me anymore.