Comments on: Apple and Microsoft's Flash dance

By: Dreamdeceiver, Silcone Valley

Dreamdeceiver, Silcone Valley — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 00:26:04 +0000

Saha & other Flash users:

Flash Crash: Ain't that the truth & the platform (not surprisingly) doesn't matter.

I have 0 (ZERO) problems with Vista x64 and with MacOS Leopard x64 with one common exception: FLASH

By: Saha, Ann Arbor, MI

Saha, Ann Arbor, MI — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 01:10:27 +0000

Why I don't want Flash on iPhone without modifications.

I bought a Macbook Pro 15" less than a year ago (2.4GHz Santa Rosa) with 4GB of RAM and

the other day the CPU was doing 110% and running hot. I looked at the processes

to see track down the culprit. It was Safari, one of the tabs I had left open

the day before was Gizmodo. The Gizmodo webpage about the iPhone was running

two concurrent flash video banners about a competing Blackberry Pearl phone.

Once I killed the Gizmodo website my CPU returned to normal and the laptop

cooled off. This recent trend I've noticed on my older Powerbook G4 (1GHz)

with 1GB RAM was fine web browsing, till the advent of flash video banners.

Then my web browsing experience and computer performance went south.

I have nothing against Flash content as long as they give the user control

over the web browsing experience back. On the iPhone this is even more critical,

given that its not running an Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz.

Solution for the iPhone would be:

1. Confirm download of Flash video (FLV) content. This saves bandwidth and time

2. Ask the user if they want the Flash video to be played again. Looping Flash videos kill performance.

By: Nick

Nick — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 16:45:48 +0000

Flash Lite is used for device UI, an on device portal (NTT DoCoMo) and web browsing. Web browsing is a relatively new addition for Flash Lite it was added with Flash Lite 3.0 (current version) and will be improved in the up coming version that is part of the MS agreement. Adobe expects a significant percentage of websites to be run in the upcoming version of Flash Lite. If you would like some additional information about Flash Lite visit the mobile section of the Adobe website http://www.adobe.com/mobile

By: Steven, Atlanta GA

Steven, Atlanta GA — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 10:28:18 +0000

Will,

Just because someone is an Apple "toady" does not mean that they cannot put forth a well reasoned argument. Believe me, folks with a lot less credibility and knowledge than Daniel Dilger have repeatedly been cited as sources.

By: AdamC, Miami, Florida

AdamC, Miami, Florida — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 05:18:35 +0000

Lame as usual, Adobe Flash maybe on 500m phones but these phones are seldom connected to the net whereas the iPhones and iPod Touchs are different, they are meant for the internet.

Flash does no work well with Safari and installing Flash in Safari will kill the web experience with the iPhone and iPod Touch.

BTW MS don't make phones and the phone manufacturers are the ones who WILL be suffering because of MS cleverness.

By: Eric, Concrete Wa.

Eric, Concrete Wa. — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 01:34:13 +0000

GO ON2 TECHNOLOGIES. Making it all happen! Better Technology, Cheaper Technology, Faster Technology, and Higher Technology.

ON2 Rules.

By: JS, Detroit, MI

JS, Detroit, MI — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 00:28:50 +0000

Isn't Flash Lite used for the interfaces on most of these phones? That is not exactly a full web implementation. MS? we'll see when the product actually ships.

By: Perthy, Australia

Perthy, Australia — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 00:13:29 +0000

Daniel Eran Dilger at Roughly Drafted does have a very strong Apple bias, but he also digs far deeper and more thoroughly into issues than any other journalist I have ever read. For sure you need to read what he writes with discernment, but you're missing out on some pretty impresive insights if you ignore his coverage.

As far as Flash Lite is concerned, it is NOT the same as the full Flash plug-in you get on desktop PCs. It can not display the vast majority of Flash sites on the web and is instead used to create the user-interface on cheaper phones from Verizon etc.

The web is moving towards the open Web 2.0 standards of Ajax and Javascript that the iPhone fully supports. This is what we should be encouraging – not proprietary processor-hogging, battery-draining Flash.

-Mart

By: Kontra

Kontra — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 19:53:10 +0000

Apple has other plans for a rich-media runtime on the iPhone platform as I explained here: Runtime wars (1): Does Apple have an answer to Flash, Silverlight and JavaFX? Runtime wars (2): Apple’s answer to Flash, Silverlight and JavaFX

By: Will, London

Will, London — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 19:09:15 +0000

Are we actually meant to take Daniel Eran Dilger seriously, Philip? He's quite possibly the biggest Apple toady on the Internet – and that's saying something. You do yourself no favours by citing him as a 'serious' analyst.