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When will the federal government deal with important stuff? Whether or not a flash compiler can make software for a particular device is offensive. Does this mean that every device that has software must allow adobe to compile software for them?

If Apple is illegally wielding monopoly power that would be "important stuff." Let the government do their job - they'll doubtless find there's no issue here and move on to something else.
 
It's high time someone stood up to the power hungry Apple. Hope this is not just some prearranged dog and pony show to give the illusion of due diligence on the behalf of the us government.

"Prearranged dog and pony show"...
hmm, interesting.
[not unlike some of the posts by certain members around here perhaps?]

But, go on . . . prearranged by whom? (and why?)


--


>> Apple Facing Antitrust Inquiry Over Flash-to-iPhone Complier Ban

Yes yes... Apple is surely doomed *this* time. They should have done their homework, some research on the matter. They should have thought this out ahead of time. :eek: Now Steve will have to go out and find some lawyers to start working on it. [i hope they're smarter than those top notch bulldogs working for the govt.] Tsk tsk tsk. Oy veyyyyyyyyyyy!
 
It might mean that Adobe is slower to fix issues.

It might but it does not. I checked national database for software vulnerabilities. I entered two queries to find software flaws reported last year (January to December) . First one was for Flash plugin:

* Includes only Software Flaws (CVE)
* Has CPE: cpe:/a:adobe:flash_player_plugin
* Published: After 01/01/2009 and Before 01/01/2010

I got 0 vulnerabilities (I know it's not correct but this is the best I could find).

The second query was for OS X:

* Includes only Software Flaws (CVE)
* Has CPE: cpe:/o:apple:mac_os_x
* Published: After 01/01/2009 and Before 01/01/2010

I got this:

Statistical Data
Year # of Vulns % of Total
2009 101 1.76
2010 0 0.00

So the score is 101 to 0 in favor of Flash (plugin) :)
 
It might but it does not. I checked national database for software vulnerabilities. I entered two queries to find software flaws reported last year (January to December) . First one was for Flash plugin:

* Includes only Software Flaws (CVE)
* Has CPE: cpe:/a:adobe:flash_player_plugin
* Published: After 01/01/2009 and Before 01/01/2010

I got 0 vulnerabilities (I know it's not correct but this is the best I could find).

...

So the score is 101 to 0 in favor of Flash (plugin) :)

So you know "it's not correct," but you rely on it to prove your point.

Ok.
 
I think FTC disagrees with you. Here is the quote from their web site:

Market Power
Courts do not require a literal monopoly before applying rules for single firm conduct; that term is used as shorthand for a firm with significant and durable market power — that is, the long term ability to raise price or exclude competitors. That is how that term is used here: a "monopolist" is a firm with significant and durable market power. Courts look at the firm's market share, but typically do not find monopoly power if the firm (or a group of firms acting in concert) has less than 50 percent of the sales of a particular product or service within a certain geographic area. Some courts have required much higher percentages. In addition, that leading position must be sustainable over time: if competitive forces or the entry of new firms could discipline the conduct of the leading firm, courts are unlikely to find that the firm has lasting market power.

So you took some vague wording that could be used to justify your point of view, or not, and now present it as evidence that your interpretation is correct. Market share and sales can both be expressed in revenue or units. However, market share is most commonly expressed in unit share with respect to product sales.

Have you ever seen any antitrust case that was based on revenue share? All of the big ones seem to be unit share.
 
So you know "it's not correct," but you rely on it to prove your point.

Ok.

Yeah. I just can not believe that nobody found a flaw in Flash last year. So most likely the flaws are underreported. Probably for both tools. But this might be the only database that registers these things so it's clearly better than our own guesstimates.
 
Yeah. I just can not believe that nobody found a flaw in Flash last year. So most likely the flaws are underreported. Probably for both tools. But this might be the only database that registers these things so it's clearly better than our own guesstimates.

Comparing the number of public vulnerabilities in a closed source plugin to an OS with a large number of open source components is comically arbitrary.
 
Comparing the number of public vulnerabilities in a closed source plugin to an OS with a large number of open source components is comically arbitrary.

The phrase "comically arbitrary" is appropriate for many of the turtlenecked overlord's recent statements, and Apple's actions.

I just saw the "live" Daily Show segment on AppleGate tonight on TiVo (http://tv.gawker.com/5526868/jon-stewart-slams-apple-over-its-handling-of-gizmodo-case). I wonder if Jon's comments about Mason jars could be accurate....
 
IMO, the topic of Flash dilutes the issue. The problem is that given the following hypothetical:

Program A: Written using Objective-C in the XCode IDE. Given more than a cursory once over, this particular app is riddled with a minefield of memory leaks and other issues.

Program B: Written using a forbidden language and then compiled into a 100% compatible iPhone OS executable app, tuned to run smoothly and efficiently by the compiler's author.

Program A passes inspection and Program B does not. This is the problem. Although I am inclined to believe Apple's official reasoning and that they aren't behaving this way simply to be jerks, I do think it undermines their message when the rules they say are in place to protect the end user's experience don't necessarily have anything to do with the end user's experience.
 
First one was for Flash plugin:

* Includes only Software Flaws (CVE)
* Has CPE: cpe:/a:adobe:flash_player_plugin
* Published: After 01/01/2009 and Before 01/01/2010

I got 0 vulnerabilities (I know it's not correct but this is the best I could find).


So the score is 101 to 0 in favor of Flash (plugin) :)
I should learn this "I know it's not correct but..." stuff :D Can be useful when I know I am at the wrong but still want to argue ;)
 

And the biggest security risk is in Flash by design. Flash sets it own cookies (LSOs or supercookies) that ignore any browser security settings. They ignore any private browsing type state. Flash provides no indication to the user of the storage. It tracks all Flash enabled sites that you visit, and maintains this list and the LSOs indefinitely.

And the best part, to manage settings related to these privacy issues, you have to visit a website that is inaccessible from the Flash context menu. No user accessible way to change these settings from within the plugin or the browser chrome. You have to go to a website that you can only find by searching the internet if you come up with some reason to suspect it exists.
 
Utterly stupid,

The government should stay out of Apple business. All the government manages to do is stifle competition.
 
IMO, the topic of Flash dilutes the issue. The problem is that given the following hypothetical:

Program A: Written using Objective-C in the XCode IDE. Given more than a cursory once over, this particular app is riddled with a minefield of memory leaks and other issues.

Program B: Written using a forbidden language and then compiled into a 100% compatible iPhone OS executable app, tuned to run smoothly and efficiently by the compiler's author.

Program A passes inspection and Program B does not. This is the problem.

Depends on the odds of A versus the odds of B. If the odds are right, the costs of just banning all type B apps might be lower than the costs examining each app far more carefully, especially with on the order of a million app submissions (including updates) per year likely soon.
 
Utterly stupid,

The government should stay out of Apple business. All the government manages to do is stifle competition.

If government did as you said, Apple would not be around today. It was government that told Microsoft "to let Apple live". After that MS developed MS Office for Mac and invested $100 million into Apple.
 
Depends on the odds of A versus the odds of B. If the odds are right, the costs of just banning all type B apps might be lower than the costs examining each app far more carefully, especially with on the order of a million app submissions (including updates) per year likely soon.

I understand where you're coming from on that, however I think there would be some sort of middle ground that could be reached. This is also going on the assumption that the percentage of bad apps are higher on the side of the 3rd party tool which isn't necessarily going to be true depending on the tool.

As a developer, I've been studying Objective-C, Cocoa, and Cocoa Touch but I still have quite a ways to go before being proficient in any of it. I realize my background in Windows development isn't going to be a perfect match to developing for Mac/IPhone but it would certainly help to not have to use Objective-C. In a perfect world I'd like C# and a unicorn. In this world, I'd settle for being able to write to the APIs using only C++.
 
If government did as you said, Apple would not be around today. It was government that told Microsoft "to let Apple live". After that MS developed MS Office for Mac and invested $100 million into Apple.

Microsoft developed Office 98 with a more Mac-like interface because their Mac Business unit made tons of dough from Mac software sales and was fretting over the loss of many of those sales in the wake of the Word 6 debacle.

As for the $150 million dollar "vote of confidence", it is broadly accepted that that centered primarily on the desire by Microsoft to keep their theft of Quicktime code (for purposes of improving Video for Windows), via the San Francisco Canyon Company, out of the courts and adding to their then-already long list of headaches on the anti-trust front. It also enabled them to get Explorer installed on Macs as the default browser...
 
But it is not native code...it is cross compiled. It may run at a great speed, but it won't necessarily take advantage of all the API's that are included in Apples SDK.
That is especially a concern with the new multitasking implementation (in the upcoming iPhone OS 4.0) i would imagine. These controversial conditions in the latest SDK seem like a logical step, to make separating the wheat from the chaff an easier task for Apple. [harder for **some** developers of course, but all to the user's (and the platform's) benefit.]

"Fart apps" my Aunt Fanny: X-Plane




This is not only about Flash. The EULA also prohibits third party tools like MonoTouch which produce NATIVE applications - but with MonoTouch, the developer can program in C# and also has full access to .NET APIs. But since the EULA does not allow C#, in theory this tool cannot be used anymore.

Same goes for Unity3D - a cross platform game development environment that also produces NATIVE apps on each supported platform: Wii, Mac, PC, iPhone and soon the Xbox 360 and others to come. Unity can also be programmed in C# and it is based upon Mono.

Other NATIVE compiler vendors who either already ship or are planning to develop a compiler for the iPhone OS are also hit by this EULA.
Why do so few posts (such as yours there) mention "Ansca Corona" when listing middleware? (you know, these guys). I don't see them whining, wringing hands, etc.

It's like saying if you want to use our platform, your application's display language must be, let's say, Lithuanian. We won't accept your mother tongues French or German or English. It's not only ridiculous, it's also highly discriminating. And in the case of Apple's EULA, the ONLY reason why this EULA exists is to wipe out unwanted competition and to force developers to use Apple's own tool kits.

Do you think General Motors would get away with it when they forced their customers to buy tires and gas only from them? I don't think so.
Great analogies (not). :rolleyes: ...but they would probably get laughed out of court (if they even made it that far).




I'm guessing Jobs is a flaming liberal. How do you like your big government nanny state now stevey????
Say what??? [clearly your grasp of the underlying technical issues in this case is beyond anyone's understanding.]
 
It would have been nice if MacRumors had used a title more like Slashdot's, which was "Apple May Face Antitrust Inquiry."

But that probably wouldn't stir things up as much as their current title, which seems to pit Adobe against Apple.
 
And, frankly speaking, I doubt that this EULA is legal at all. It's like saying if you want to use our platform, your application's display language must be, let's say, Lithuanian. We won't accept your mother tongues French or German or English. It's not only ridiculous, it's also highly discriminating. And in the case of Apple's EULA, the ONLY reason why this EULA exists is to wipe out unwanted competition and to force developers to use Apple's own tool kits.

Do you think General Motors would get away with it when they forced their customers to buy tires and gas only from them? I don't think so.

I had to post this because I didn't see it the first time probably because my brain went "ignore ignore warning, bADDD" and i totally skipped it.

Totally not "Great analogies" as stated in the previous poster.

The most accurate analog would be, "if you want to work in a german play on stage, you must be speaking german only with a german accent." It makes no sense for a german show to have all americans speaking with the southern accent, would it?.

As for the car analogy, it would be "to create an engine part or any other parts for our GM engines and our GM made cars, you must use GM specs (language)". Tires and gas are like graphics and sounds, it doesn't matter what format they're in, the language will accept it (almost all formats).

Your analogies are so far off, it's not even funny.
 
That is especially a concern with the new multitasking implementation (in the upcoming iPhone OS 4.0) i would imagine. These controversial conditions in the latest SDK seem like a logical step, to make separating the wheat from the chaff an easier task for Apple. [harder for **some** developers of course, but all to the user's (and the platform's) benefit.]

"Fart apps" my Aunt Fanny: X-Plane





Why do so few posts (such as yours there) mention "Ansca Corona" when listing middleware? (you know, these guys). I don't see them whining, wringing hands, etc.


Great analogies (not). :rolleyes: ...but they would probably get laughed out of court (if they even made it that far).





Say what??? [clearly your grasp of the underlying technical issues in this case is beyond anyone's understanding.]

Thanks for the link.

Since most people won't actually read it, I'm posting a key section:

Carlos Icaza and Walter Luh, former Adobe mobile engineers, said they were raising flags at Adobe in 2007 about the same complaints that Jobs detailed Thursday.

“Walter and I, being the lead architects for Flash Lite, we were seeing the iPhone touch devices coming out, and we kept saying ‘Hey, this is coming along,’” Icaza said in a phone interview. “You have this white elephant that everybody ignored. Half the [Adobe] mobile business unit was carrying iPhones, and yet the management team wasn’t doing anything about it.”

Icaza and Luh have a vested interest in this dispute: After leaving Adobe, they launched a startup, Ansca Mobile, which produces a cross-platform solution called Corona that competes with Flash.

They said they left Adobe because executives did not take the iPhone seriously when Apple announced the touchscreen device in 2007. Instead, Adobe focused on feature phones (cellphones with lightweight web features, not smartphones) and invested in development of Flash Lite to play Flash videos on such devices. Subsequently, Adobe shut down the mobile business unit in 2007, and has suffered from a brain drain in the mobility space ever since, Icaza and Luh said.

The relationship between Apple and Adobe dates back years, as Jobs acknowledged in his blog post. Apple in the past has relied heavily on Adobe’s Creative Suite to market the Mac as a platform for creative types. But the relationship has been eroding ever since Apple introduced the iPhone and opted against supporting Adobe’s Flash platform on the mobile device. Tensions increased when Apple released the iPad, which continues Apple’s steadfast lack of Flash support.

Adobe last year announced it was developing a work-around for Flash developers to easily port their programs into iPhone apps. But this month, just a week before Adobe was scheduled to release the feature, Apple issued a new clause in its developer policy, which stipulated that iPhone apps must be coded with Apple-approved programming languages (not Flash).

Adobe’s 2007 decision to focus on Flash Lite and feature phones instead of iPhone compatibility is the reason Adobe is behind and still has not offered a fine-tuned version of Flash for any smartphone, including the iPhone or any Android device, Icaza and Luh said.

The pair echoed many of the same concerns expressed by the Apple CEO.

“Flash was designed for the desktop world, for web and large screens, not the user experiences you want to create in these new devices with touch, accelerometers and GPS,” Luh said. “It wasn’t designed with that in mind at all.”

Luh was also formerly employed by Apple on the Final Cut Pro team. He said that because Adobe’s iPhone Packager didn’t use Apple’s toolchain to create apps, the resulting code would not work well on an iPhone or iPad. For instance, apps made with Packager are much larger than they would be if they were made with Xcode. A simple “Hello World” app created in Flash and compiled to work on the iPhone is substantially larger in file size, and it would take up 3.6 MB when it should be no larger than 400K when made with Xcode, according to James Eberhardt, a mobile developer who has tested iPhone Packager.

Read More http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/04/adobe-flash-jobs/
 
Apple has been acting like a d*ck lately so it comes as no surprise. They seem to think that they can do anything they want.

I think this like the flash debacle, the iPhone storm troopers breaking down the door of gizmodo and the like is that they're no longer the media darling.

You want to say Adobe can do what they want, scr*w Apple and its platform for years, and now when Apple is finally in a position to make its new platform awesome, it's "horrible" because it doesn't want Adobe's little doggie to pis* on their new turf?
 
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