Sean Walther’s Blog

iPad, iPhone, Apple — and Flash. A Sad Story.

Anyone who regularly reads this blog (sorry) can see how optimistic I am that the iPhone will eventually support flash.  Today I read news that entirely dashes those hopes.

I just hopped over to MacRumors.com (I love that site) and saw this, Steve Jobs at Apple Town Hall Meeting on Google, Adobe, Next iPhone, 2010 Macs and More.

In the article MacRumors reports:

Apple does not support Flash because it is so buggy, he says. Whenever a Mac crashes more often than not it’s because of Flash. No one will be using Flash, he says. The world is moving to HTML5.

That is, what I consider to be, the final nail in the coffin.  Steve Jobs has shown his hand with regards to Flash.

A few weeks ago, news hit the internet of a clever developer who had implemented his own HTML/Javascript version of Flash — and it worked on the iPhone.  You can see this at the demos of Gordon – An open source Flash runtime written in pure JavaScript with SVG.

What does all this mean?  Flash won’t be allowed on Apple’s most cherished devices.

If Steve Jobs is experiencing headaches because of Flash and there is an alternative, why wouldn’t he pursue it?  HTML flash handle Flash like effects in an open format, a format in which Apple can control and mitigate the reach of Adobe into its own products.

It has been over a year since Adobe was able to demo Flash running on the iPhone.  Why hasn’t it made it on the iPhone?  Well Steve Jobs and Apple both believe the future is in the canvases of HTML 5.  Video can be properly (and easily) embedded, sound included, animation effects that surpass today’s AJAX packages, and many other facets that make HTML 5 a candidate to replace Flash.

This doesn’t make me happy.  I’ve come to love Flash as it has evolved.

Apple will use all forces it can to stop Adobe from growing their Flash install base.  While Apple has control over a large platform, the iPhone/iPad, they will force developers to adapt to the new technologies such as HTML 5.

Apple has zero intention on ever letting Flash hit the iPhone, iPad, or even any computer if they could do that.  I don’t foresee them stopping Flash from their full fledged computers, that would be suicide.

Say goodbye to the romantic notion of Flash on your Apple device.

Tags: Apple, canvas, Flash, HTML 5, iPad, Steve Jobs

Speed Up Google Analytics: Use Async

Saw a great post at High Performance Web Sites blog, Google Analytics goes async.  The author is Steve Souders, who works at Google on web performance.  So this is from the horses mouth.

Think about it, why would you care when the Google Analytics code is loaded?  All it does is capture data, as long as Google gets it — it may as well go out at midnight.  The new code enables an “async” request in HTML5. › Continue reading

Tags: Async, Asynchronous, Google, Google Analytics, Google Gears, HTML 5, HTML5, Steve Souders

Adobe and Apple working together for Flash on the iPhone

I know, can you believe it?  All this drama, and we find out they’re both amicably working towards a solution.  

Saw it on Apple Insider, Adobe, Apple working together on Flash for iPhone.  

Seems like it was announced recently.

Apple Insider mentions that Apple has been trying to tout HTML 5 as a replacement to flash on the iPhone.  I know HTML 5 has some cool toys in it, but not nearly enough to meet why people demand Flash on the iPhone — because everyone is already USING flash on the web.  Saying you provide a desktop like browsing environment and not including Flash is a big deal to me.

This made me happy to read (except the HTML 5 part).  Hope you enjoy the news too!

Tags: Adobe, Apple, Apple Insider, Flash, HTML, HTML 5, iPhone