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John Gruber has said some great things about Adobe’s news, but this is his best point:
Apple didn’t win. Everybody won. Flash hasn’t been superseded in mobile by any sort of Apple technology. It’s been superseded by truly open web technologies. Dumping Flash will make Android better, it will make BlackBerrys better, it will make the entire web better. iOS users have been benefitting from this ever since day one, in June 2007.
iOS counts for 61% mobile web usage, Android just 18%. This shows that most Android owners don’t even use their phone as a ‘smartphone’.
Before you set scrolling back to the “old” way, think about this.
Based on revenue, Apple is now the largest mobile phone provider in the world, surpassing even global leader Nokia.
[Starbucks CIO] also said that iDevices from Apple are used more in its stores than any others. How important is that? Well, Gillett wanted to use Flash on the social network, but there wasn’t any way he could because of Steve Jobs’ refusal to support Flash.
So, Starbucks built its system using HTML5.
”Starbucks CIO shows why next version of Windows is “risky business” for Microsoft (and why iOS is the best thing to ever happen to the Open Web).
Another gem from this interview: “He said that laptop usage is flat, or even slightly declining, and that mobile usage [including tablets like iPad] is on fire and growing a great percentage every month.”
If you count the iPad as a PC, Apple’s share of the US PC market is 25%. They just became the US’s number 1 computer maker.
Apple tops consumer satisfaction survey again
For the seventh straight year in a row, Apple has topped the American Consumer Satisfaction Index survey, ringing in at number one on the annual list of PC manufacturers as ranked by customers.
That’s nine points ahead of its closest competitors, which are Dell, Acer, and HP. As you can see from the chart above, Apple is on its way up as well.
It’s tempting to lay success like this at the feet of the iPod, iPhone, and iPad, but keep in mind that this is strictly about PC manufacturers. Consumers are more satisfied than ever with their Macs, and it shows on the sales side as well, with Macs selling in record numbers.
(Source: appleinsider.com)
Pretty bad. In fact, if you’re thinking video, utterly unusable.
It’s like a bad joke, the Android browsing experience is already pretty clunky looking when you sit it next to the iPhone and the huge black rectangles jumping around the page 5 frames too late as it struggles to redraw really doesn’t help. Looks completely hacked in and half arsed, this is supposed to be Adobe’s flagship mobile product and this is the best they can deliver?
Apologist geeks in the comments are trying to justify that the videos should have been re-encoded but doesn’t that completely defeat the argument that Flash should have been on the iPhone? By that logic you are suggesting that video makers re-encode all their video, Adobe programs Flash for iPhone and Apple allows it on their phones just to save you reprogramming a video player… because that’s the only part of this chain which hasn’t had to be completely changed just to get that video to the device via Flash.
I’ll remember this video next time Shantanu Narayen spews forth more bullshit like the following
I think we’ve proven that the technology is not only suitable but it actually significantly enhances the value on these mobile devices.
This would be amazing
This is the fun part.
We’re about a week away from Apple announcing a new product. People are pretty sure it’s going to be an iOS-based Apple TV, that its name will be simply iTV, and that it will sooner or later have its own App Store. It’s all very exciting.
But this calm period — this strange time when we know everything and yet nothing — is the fun part, because we get to take our best shots at guessing what our new toys will look like. Here’s mine.
First, what kind of apps would make sense for an iTV? It’s not a touchscreen device, and you don’t carry it around with you. You operate it from your couch. So the obvious category is games.
But you need some kind of controller to play a game, unless Apple is working on its own version of Kinect, which I doubt. An Apple Remote doesn’t really cut it, and while an iPhone or iPod touch would make a great game console controller, as has been pointed out, it’s unlikely that Apple would require one: no game publisher is going to invest in developing a game whose market is restricted to owners of two separately-purchased devices, and iTV sales would be hobbled from the start. At least one standard controller needs to be included in the box for the iTV to be a viable gaming platform, so that controller has to be relatively simple and inexpensive.
What if that simple, inexpensive controller is something like an iPhone without the screen?
Above, I’ve crudely Photoshopped this concept together. It’s the love child of an iPod touch and a Magic Trackpad. It has the same inertial and gyroscopic motion sensors as the iPhone 4, and the same multitouch surface we’re familiar with. A home button. Bluetooth. No screen.
Of course, you’d have the option of using your existing iPhone or iPod instead — just run the free iTV app — and when your friends come over, they can bring their iPhones so you don’t have to buy extra controllers. And some games will make use of those screens if they’re present: you could do the SCRABBLE Tile Rack thing, for example. Games like The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures — an old multiplayer Nintendo GameCube title which used up to four connected Game Boy Advances as controllers, showing some of the action on the small screens — would also work well. But every game would be playable with the standard, screenless controller.
The Magic Trackpad costs about $70 retail. It doesn’t have any motion sensors in it, but it has all the rest of the hardware required by this hypothetical controller. I’m just guessing here, but it seems reasonable that a smaller, handheld Magic Trackpad with a motion chip in it could cost under $50.1
And you know what? I think this device might even work as the only remote for the iTV, even when you’re just using it to, you know, watch TV. No pushbutton Apple Remote at all, in other words: everything is gesture-based. Tap to pause, swipe left to rewind, swipe right to fast-forward. Slide up or down to adjust volume. Home key to exit to the menu, which you navigate by flicking and tapping. And just imagine how much better seeking around in videos will be with a touch surface…
Damn. Now I really hope Apple makes this product I’ve just invented. I’m excited just writing about it. This is the entertainment gizmo that I want to own.
See what I mean about the fun part?
Wii Remotes cost $40, wireless PS3 controllers are $45, Xbox controllers are anywhere from $30 to $60, and all three systems ship with a controller, so that’s about the right price point. ↩
This is what high-end smartphones looked like in 2007:
Smartphones were an established consumer-electronics market with devices that people thought were pretty cool, but often frustrating and with serious shortcomings and design flaws.
Then this happened:
