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Can somebody explain just why apple wouldn't do flash support? licensing fees, technical difficulty, power demands? Also, if the ipad and iphone both lack flash support, might it add up to enough pressure to get some websites to use alternatives?

Apple has said that it is because Flash is too much of a battery hog: it burns though the battery faster than Apple likes. In Apple's defense, there is a LOT of opportunity for Adobe to make Flash more efficient in terms of CPU usage, ideally building in ways to utilize GPUs like many other forms of evolving video and multimedia technologies.

BUT, the Flash plugin is allowed on all Macs, even those with much less than 10-hour batteries. It would seem that if it is a battery problem for ONE line of devices that rely on batteries from Apple, it would also be a problem on Macbooks and Macbook pros.

There is no big obstacle to getting Flash running on this line of devices. I'm sure Adobe would bend over backwards to help get a Flash player running on these things (I've heard they've already coded one especially for this line). But Apple doesn't want Flash on these devices for now... and that appears to be the ONLY reason.

As many have offered, they could allow it but be sure to give us an Apple warning that using Flash may result in a quicker depletion of battery power, allowing each BUYER of their device to decide for themselves. It could be a tool that makes it a per Flash component option so that one could "click to play" only something they want to play, while ignoring Flash-based ads, etc. All this is perfectly doable, well within Apple's capability.

They just choose for us that we shall not have Flash on these devices. No options. No choice, other than to NOT buy these products from Apple. In turn, a number of people decide to agree because Apple is (apparently) always right about everything... devolving this kind of thread into posts about Flash being "99% ads" and pretending- or perhaps just not knowing- the many very valid, very positive uses of Flash (especially in Education) that are otherwise challenging to replicate in HTML5, javascript, and H.264... especially on Educational budgets.
 
Because someone has been making a Modbook for 3 years and noone cares?


The price is the killer...sadly... macsales.com

OK, everyone turn off flash if you know how and go to these sites for a preview of the ipad web experience....

http://cache0.techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/comscore-video-metrix-feb.png

comscore-video-metrix-feb.png


I wonder if disney is redesigning in html5 as we speak... they are stevos' buddies...

Just disabled plugins in safari, went to disney and got a blank page... not even a redirect... MAGICAL!

AOL's index page works... the games don't... MORE MAGIC!!!!

Hulu... NOOOOO... This is beyond magic!!!

Foxs' index page loads... However, NO SHOWS ON FOX FOR YOU!!!! OK... THIS IS PLAIN FANTASTICAL!!!

Ultimate web browsing experience???? TRY IT FOR YOURSELF!!!! SAFARI MENU: Safari, preferences, security.. disable plugins...
 
I have seen a Blu-Ray movie (played off a disc). You know what's better? The same movie played from a file not a spinning plastic disc.

The same bitstream will look identical whether it comes from a BD, an HD, an SDD, a network link, or even a 50,000-floppydisk RAID-0 array.

It will *not* look better when read from a hard drive.


HD movie store. 3D movie store. Displays for 3D viewing and incidentally HD viewing. Apple gives you 3D end to end for the home. We're going to need some storage space!

Before storage space, you're going to need bandwidth. Until a large percentage of the population has *honest* 100 Mbps download links, BD will continue to grow. ("*honest*" does not mean that 500 houses have 100 Mbps connections, but share a 1 Gbps backhaul link.)

And even with *honest* 100 Mbps per house, that means that it's likely that only one TV can watch a BD-quality movie at a time.


http://gizmodo.com/5406488/flash-101-tests-hardware-accelerated-hd-hulu-and-youtube-video-yes-please

"I took the same [480p Hulu] Office clip I'd been using for all of the other tests and ran it on my Mac Pro at full screen (2560 x 1600)….Going from roughly 450% down to 190% (or a bit over 10% of total CPU utilization across 16 threads) made full-screen Hulu playable on my machine."

This should help Mac Pro and quad core Imac sales, if finally Flash will play OK. :eek:

Seriously, I can't understand why my 1.4 GHz Atom can play flash videos on Windows full screen without hiccups - but Apple OSX needs two Xeon CPUs to do the same.


Blu-ray resolution is 6x greater than DVD. You're going from 345k pixels to 2 million pixels. Not only the pixel count, but video encoding too. MPEG-2 to H.264 and VC-1 at bitrates up to 10x that of DVD video.

It's usually about 6.75 greater for BD. DVD uses rectangular pixels - so the 720x480 image displays as 640x480 (307.2K pixels) at 4:3. Anamorphic DVDs do a little better, but often lots of the pixels are lost to letter boxing.

I find it hard to comprehend when people claim that they can't see a quality difference with BD. Even on my laptop I there is a clear difference - let alone the XBR.
 
Steve really needs to accept the FACT that Flash is a standard all Internet users use. With such widespread acceptance as to consider it a standard, why does Apple get away with just leaving it out? I would prefer NOBODY buy the damn iPad when it's released. If everyone held strong and demanded Flash, Apple would have to cave in. It's really sad that this is probably just about Steve not liking Adobe, rather than Apple wanting to rely on HTML5... and will it even accept HTML5 if it allows the possibility for bypassing the App Store???

Just too damn bad! Cannot we all just get along and provide the best damned experience for Apple users?
 
There is no big obstacle to getting Flash running on this line of devices.

Flash would allow apps to run that aren't regulated through the app store.

That is the problem - its general awkwardness is just coincidental.

Love it or leave i guess.

And I am happy to stay. If i need anything flash - i will wait till i get home, cmd-alt-a it and recode for later consumption on iphone/iPad.
 
I have absolutely no opinion about Flash whatsoever. I don't see how anyone's day can be so empty that Flash makes a difference to it.
 
Because someone has been making a Modbook for 3 years and noone cares?

the macbook pro modbook price is insane

But to convert a new macbook would be $699 w/ the current promotion

So.. a new macbook + current promotion = $1,598

That sounds on par with what Apple would charge. And I am really considering it.
 
Channeling Steve...

Steve really needs to accept the FACT that Flash is a standard all Internet users use.

It really isn't. Some do, yes., but I worked for a web design company and Flash for us was the quick and easy and cheap crap we pulled out of web sites and replaced them with better technologies.

Perhaps Steve has a plan. I don't know and would not dare speak for him either way, but I know that the iPad sans Flash will not deter me from purchasing this product. Will that affect v2 sales? Perhaps, but I don't care about v2, I care about v1 and I'm happy with v1 features.
 
flash runs poorly on netbooks - how do you think it would run on the iPad?

Check out how well hulu runs on a pretty power netbook. Pretty crappy, and for some reason they think it will run well on a tablet and even a phone? Morons.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOdEzofmT40
thank you so much for posting that link. it's like trying to watch hulu on my 6 year old PowerBook. why people think flash should run on the iPhone or any smartphone for that matter, is beyond me.
the macbook pro modbook price is insane

But to convert a new macbook would be $699 w/ the current promotion

So.. a new macbook + current promotion = $1,598

That sounds on par with what Apple would charge. And I am really considering it.
or you could just... use a MacBook? is not having a keyboard and trackpad that much better for you?
 
"Too bad Johnny, you can't tap into all this educational content with your iPad," says Steve "...tell those teachers, trainers, etc to redo all their educational content in HTML5, javascript and H.264. Then tell them to find the budget to hire programmers to be able to link HTML 5, javascript and H.264 together on their educational web sites" Is that really the best way to go?

I think, we have to sort things out. "Flash" is used as synonym for too many things:
- as a tool to display videos in the browser
- as a tool to display graphics like stock charts and these annoying animated ads in the browser
- as as software development platform to implement applications like games or the interactive educational content you mentioned

Your browser can display text and photos without strange plugin. Now modern browsers finally can display videos as well. Using flash to display videos soon will be history.

For graphics like stock charts, the HTML5 canvas element will do. And regarding ads - who cares!

Regarding flash as software development platform, Adobe will soon release an "iPhone Exporter" allowing to compile a flash application to an iPhone app. Isn't it a stupid idea to use a browser to host an application. Why not build and run a real application. Some applications using a beta version of that exporter are already available on iTunes - approved by Apple.
 
Try it the ipad way...

See the post up the page... try some top sites the ipad way... turn off your safari plugins and browse away and see if you miss it... the proof is in trying
 
EVERY major site has at least some Flash.
Pretty much, yeah. If you were to believe this thread, Flash is only about ad banners, but come on... just look at the most popular sites.

YouTube - Flash based. Yeah yeah yeah, HTML5 beta version, but it's Flash based for now. Apple has a special app for this but you don't get the full YouTube content and functionality, customized pages etc.

Facebook - not Flash based per se, but all the bells and whistles are. Applications, games etc.

MySpace - every damn MySpace page has a flash based music jukebox.

MSN - you'd think Microsoft would favor Silverlight, but anything that moves here is Flash.

Wikipedia - yeah, this one is Flash free.

TV network home pages -- all of'em have streaming content these days that let you watch episodes and clips, all Flash based AFAIK. And it's not just the US ones, every country has a few of these.

These are some of the sites that the mainstream public will most likely visit when they unpack their new shiny iPad, and they will be greeted by blue Lego everywhere. Who cares if these sites will move away from Flash in the coming years? The iPad will start shipping in 50 days. Word of mouth during the initial period will be important as f***, and the word will not be "yup, it's indeed the best way to experience the web", but rather "hey, where'd the web go?"

Steve lingered on the blue Lego long enough to make it clear that he wanted to signal to content providers "in 60 days, make sure these are history". Dream on...
 
Apple should just do a hostile takeover of Adobe. Spend 15B for it and then get engineers in there and do stuff right.
Making Flash OSX exclusive ? :D

well they could take PS, Lightroom and other things and make a huge Pro app roundup.
 
I have absolutely no opinion about Flash whatsoever. I don't see how anyone's day can be so empty that Flash makes a difference to it.

Except that it fills their days so much that some spend all their time on non-Flash sites (e.g. MacRumors) berating Apple and those that don't care about Flash for not supporting their "web-is-flash" attitudes and going so far to say that the iPad is an utter failure before it's even released because it doesn't today support Flash.
 
I just remembered...

Reading this thread it just came to my mind when Steve said than netbooks aren't better at anything. Well, they are better than the ipad at least in one thing: They can show websites with flash content! LOL
 
If I set out to buy a tablet, I'm not trying to make a statement about whether HTML5 is better than Flash. I'm just trying to get a device that lets me wander around the web and look at stuff.

Without Flash, I can't wander. Therefore, the IPad isn't an option.
 
The same bitstream will look identical whether it comes from a BD, an HD, an SDD, a network link, or even a 50,000-floppydisk RAID-0 array.

Before storage space, you're going to need bandwidth. Until a large percentage of the population has *honest* 100 Mbps download links, BD will continue to grow.

I find it hard to comprehend when people claim that they can't see a quality difference with BD. Even on my laptop I there is a clear difference - let alone the XBR.

Let me begin by saying I am a secret, closet, AidenShaw fan. (Shhhhhhh.)

This country is bandwidth crippled and that should be changed immediately and radically. If wishes were unicorns.

People are going to get the content they can get. If that means they have to settle for 720p, they will. If they want to jump through hoops and play Blu-Ray, they will. Every option has limitations and gotchas.

Apple is slowly, raising the bar on the range of things with minimal gotchas. Right now the upper end of that is lossless audio, 720p (cheater HD) video. The price to Apple access is Apple tax. The premium market has adopted it so with any luck Apple will press forward more.

Wireless LTE
Wired cable and fiber to the home
Plastic discs

That's where we are and no discontent can change it. We are Americans. We suck.

Rocketman
 
I have absolutely no opinion about Flash whatsoever. I don't see how anyone's day can be so empty that Flash makes a difference to it.

Except that it fills their days so much that some spend all their time on non-Flash sites (e.g. MacRumors) berating Apple and those that don't care about Flash for not supporting their "web-is-flash" attitudes and going so far to say that the iPad is an utter failure before it's even released because it doesn't today support Flash.
Pssh, who needs the internet then? I mean thats pretty much the emphasis with the ipad

Oh wait....you mean you want the internet? then by golly, utilize features that are common place on it such as flash
 
thank you so much for posting that link. it's like trying to watch hulu on my 6 year old PowerBook. why people think flash should run on the iPhone or any smartphone for that matter, is beyond me.or you could just... use a MacBook? is not having a keyboard and trackpad that much better for you?

um? I use photoshop and illustrator a lot. It would be nice to have a screen to drawn on. A 12" intous cintiq would cost $999 so it would be more feasible to get a modbook :rolleyes:
 
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