After spending time playing with Flash Player 10.1 on the new Droid 2, the first Android 2.2 phone to come with the player pre-installed, I’m sad to admit that Steve Jobs was right. Adobe’s offering seems like it’s too little, too late.
Review of Flash plugin for Android. Devastating review.
And what Apple is doing violates Postel's Law which says you should be liberal in what you accept. Another reason Postel was wise. It helps keep the web from breaking.
All that sounds nice, but I changed my mind about the issue after hearing the argument from Jobs that convinced me: supporting Flash is a significant effort. Apple decided that it wants to put its limited resources on technology that looks more promising – and that's HTML5. They have done before with floppy drives on iMacs and other technologies considered to be “standards” at the time are now totally forgotten.
Also, applying internet ”laws” to something as closed and self-contained as Flash doesn't really buy me.
Take it with a grain of salt, but it's looking like some prayers have been answered on this Fourth of July -- Flash (or is that "Frash"?) is running on this man's iPad, cleverly ported from Android.
Interesting proof of concept, but don't expect to see it in the App Store.
HD video begs to be watched in full screen, but that has not historically been possible with pure HTML
YouTube's stance on Flash vs HTML5 <video>. No surprise there: Flash is still the only viable option now. But the article itself is worth reading as it provides pragmatic rationale why web standards are not there yet.
"We are trying to give the best internet experience for our users therefore we need Flash - there is no way to beat around that bush."
"But at Opera we say that the future of the web is open web standards and Flash is not an open web standards technology."
Opera decided to make a mark in the Jobs vs. Flash debate by issuing a statement that would make Captain Obvious proud.
Scribd co-founder and chief technology officer Jared Friedman tells me: “We are scrapping three years of Flash development and betting the company on HTML5 because we believe HTML5 is a dramatically better reading experience than Flash. Now any document can become a Web page.
Just don't get overexcited. The conversion from PDF was automated, so don't expect semantic markup.
There are three points I wish to address specifically to illustrate just how hypercritical the letter is: Carbon, H264, and iTunes on Windows (or iTunes' non-existence on Linux).
Rebuttal to Steve Jobs article on Flash.
Applications must be originally written in Objective-C, C, C++, or JavaScript as executed by the iPhone OS WebKit engine, and only code written in C, C++, and Objective-C may compile and directly link against the Documented APIs (e.g., Applications that link to Documented APIs through an intermediary translation or compatibility layer or tool are prohibited).
In a swift and silent move Apple just killed Mono Touch and the most touted feature of Flash CS5: iPhone app export.
As a first step, we’ve begun collaborating with Adobe to improve the Flash Player experience in Google Chrome. Today, we’re making available an initial integration of Flash Player with Chrome in the developer channel. We plan to bring this functionality to all Chrome users as quickly as we can.
It could be either a sign of Google's stance in the holy war against Flash, or just a pragmatic move towards improving the state of plugins in the browsers.
Current Flash sites could never be made work well on any touchscreen device, and this cannot be solved by Apple, Adobe, or magical new hardware.
That’s not because of slow mobile performance, battery drain or crashes. It’s because of the hover or mouseover problem.
Many (if not most) current Flash games, menus, and even video players require a visible mouse pointer. They are coded to rely on the difference between hovering over something (mouseover) vs. actually clicking. This distinction is not rare. It’s pervasive, fundamental to interactive design, and vital to the basic use of Flash content. New Flash content designed just for touchscreens can be done, but people want existing Flash sites to work. All of them—not just some here and there—and in a usable manner. That’s impossible no matter what.
Often overlooked but fundamental problem with Flash on touch devices. Again, following web standards and accessibility principles in a first place shows its value.
