Our friends at Apple have release a flurry of updates this week.
Starting with a little housekeeping, Apple updated iWeb. If you use iWeb to host your website or blog, the updates should help streamline your site further. At a meaty 177+MB, the 3.0.2 update is fixes “a variety of issues related to publishing sites to MobileMe.” It also, refines and cleans up the comment & search functions for blogs and podcasts.
Apple’s Safari web browser was also updated this week: it is available for Mac OS 10.6, 10.5, 10.4, Windows XP, Vista & 7.
Though minor, the update was deployed to fix three primary areas: “issues that could prevent users from submitting web forms…issues that could cause web content to display incorrectly when viewing a Google Image result with Flash 10.1 installed…And, [it also] establishes an encrypted, authenticated connection to the Safari Extensions Gallery.”
Finally, the granddaddy of updates (and one many of us have been waiting for) was the first major bump to iOS 4. Available for iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 3G & iPod Touch (iPad will still have to wait until November), iOS 4.1 is chuck full of goodies.
General housekeeping, in the update, will fix annoying bugs like the iPhone 4 promiximity sensor issue, the wonkiness of the Nike+ app and whatever sluggish performance iPhone 3G users reported.
But, the housekeeping issues aren’t really what really has this update shining — it’s got some cool new features:
To start, it now has the HDR (or High Dynamic Range) photo capability that Steve demonstrated in the September 1, 2010 Music Event. The update also includes Apple’s “Game Center,” and [finally] the ability to upload HD footage directly to YouTube. This update also adds support for AVRCP Accessories (like 3rd party ear buds that use built-in controls).
Game Center is the social-network-of-sorts that Apple announced back in April. Similar to Microsoft’s Xbox Live, Game Center allows users to send and receive requests between friends, so that they can invite others to multiplayer games (even over the net). Users can also be auto-matched to play games together (also over the net), discover new games to play and compare stats & achievements with their peers.
Game Center will only work with the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS and the iPod Touch (2nd generation or later).
Users can update iWeb & Safari, by selecting “Software Update” from their “Apple” menu in the top left-most corner of their screen.
To receive the iOS update, plug your iDevice into your Mac, and head to iTunes. If iTunes doesn’t ask you to update your device automatically, select the device (in the source menu on the left) and click the button that says, “Check for Update.”
Are you following Maximize Ur Mac on Twitter?
Well, his royal Steveiness has weighed in on all the Flash broo-ha-ha. I’m proud to say that he reaffirmed my earlier arguments, and has hopefully shed some light on the masses that might (GASP) not read this blog…yet.
via Apple (emphasis is my own):
“Apple has a long relationship with Adobe. In fact, we met Adobe’s founders when they were in their proverbial garage. Apple was their first big customer, adopting their Postscript language for our new Laserwriter printer. Apple invested in Adobe and owned around 20% of the company for many years. The two companies worked closely together to pioneer desktop publishing and there were many good times. Since that golden era, the companies have grown apart. Apple went through its near death experience, and Adobe was drawn to the corporate market with their Acrobat products. Today the two companies still work together to serve their joint creative customers – Mac users buy around half of Adobe’s Creative Suite products – but beyond that there are few joint interests.
I wanted to jot down some of our thoughts on Adobe’s Flash products so that customers and critics may better understand why we do not allow Flash on iPhones, iPods and iPads. Adobe has characterized our decision as being primarily business driven – they say we want to protect our App Store – but in reality it is based on technology issues. Adobe claims that we are a closed system, and that Flash is open, but in fact the opposite is true. Let me explain.
First, there’s “Open”.
Adobe’s Flash products are 100% proprietary. They are only available from Adobe, and Adobe has sole authority as to their future enhancement, pricing, etc. While Adobe’s Flash products are widely available, this does not mean they are open, since they are controlled entirely by Adobe and available only from Adobe. By almost any definition, Flash is a closed system.
Apple has many proprietary products too. Though the operating system for the iPhone, iPod and iPad is proprietary, we strongly believe that all standards pertaining to the web should be open. Rather than use Flash, Apple has adopted HTML5, CSS and JavaScript – all open standards. Apple’s mobile devices all ship with high performance, low power implementations of these open standards. HTML5, the new web standard that has been adopted by Apple, Google and many others, lets web developers create advanced graphics, typography, animations and transitions without relying on third party browser plug-ins (like Flash). HTML5 is completely open and controlled by a standards committee, of which Apple is a member.
Apple even creates open standards for the web. For example, Apple began with a small open source project and created WebKit, a complete open-source HTML5 rendering engine that is the heart of the Safari web browser used in all our products. WebKit has been widely adopted. Google uses it for Android’s browser, Palm uses it, Nokia uses it, and RIM (Blackberry) has announced they will use it too. Almost every smartphone web browser other than Microsoft’s uses WebKit. By making its WebKit technology open, Apple has set the standard for mobile web browsers.
Second, there’s the “full web”.
Adobe has repeatedly said that Apple mobile devices cannot access “the full web” because 75% of video on the web is in Flash. What they don’t say is that almost all this video is also available in a more modern format, H.264, and viewable on iPhones, iPods and iPads. YouTube, with an estimated 40% of the web’s video, shines in an app bundled on all Apple mobile devices, with the iPad offering perhaps the best YouTube discovery and viewing experience ever. Add to this video from Vimeo, Netflix, Facebook, ABC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, ESPN, NPR, Time, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Sports Illustrated, People, National Geographic, and many, many others. iPhone, iPod and iPad users aren’t missing much video.
Another Adobe claim is that Apple devices cannot play Flash games. This is true. Fortunately, there are over 50,000 games and entertainment titles on the App Store, and many of them are free. There are more games and entertainment titles available for iPhone, iPod and iPad than for any other platform in the world.
Third, there’s reliability, security and performance.
Symantec recently highlighted Flash for having one of the worst security records in 2009. We also know first hand that Flash is the number one reason Macs crash. We have been working with Adobe to fix these problems, but they have persisted for several years now. We don’t want to reduce the reliability and security of our iPhones, iPods and iPads by adding Flash.
In addition, Flash has not performed well on mobile devices. We have routinely asked Adobe to show us Flash performing well on a mobile device, any mobile device, for a few years now. We have never seen it. Adobe publicly said that Flash would ship on a smartphone in early 2009, then the second half of 2009, then the first half of 2010, and now they say the second half of 2010. We think it will eventually ship, but we’re glad we didn’t hold our breath. Who knows how it will perform?
Fourth, there’s battery life.
To achieve long battery life when playing video, mobile devices must decode the video in hardware; decoding it in software uses too much power. Many of the chips used in modern mobile devices contain a decoder called H.264 – an industry standard that is used in every Blu-ray DVD player and has been adopted by Apple, Google (YouTube), Vimeo, Netflix and many other companies.
Although Flash has recently added support for H.264, the video on almost all Flash websites currently requires an older generation decoder that is not implemented in mobile chips and must be run in software. The difference is striking: on an iPhone, for example, H.264 videos play for up to 10 hours, while videos decoded in software play for less than 5 hours before the battery is fully drained.
When websites re-encode their videos using H.264, they can offer them without using Flash at all. They play perfectly in browsers like Apple’s Safari and Google’s Chrome without any plugins whatsoever, and look great on iPhones, iPods and iPads.
Fifth, there’s Touch.
Flash was designed for PCs using mice, not for touch screens using fingers. For example, many Flash websites rely on “rollovers”, which pop up menus or other elements when the mouse arrow hovers over a specific spot. Apple’s revolutionary multi-touch interface doesn’t use a mouse, and there is no concept of a rollover. Most Flash websites will need to be rewritten to support touch-based devices. If developers need to rewrite their Flash websites, why not use modern technologies like HTML5, CSS and JavaScript?
Even if iPhones, iPods and iPads ran Flash, it would not solve the problem that most Flash websites need to be rewritten to support touch-based devices.
Sixth, the most important reason.
Besides the fact that Flash is closed and proprietary, has major technical drawbacks, and doesn’t support touch based devices, there is an even more important reason we do not allow Flash on iPhones, iPods and iPads. We have discussed the downsides of using Flash to play video and interactive content from websites, but Adobe also wants developers to adopt Flash to create apps that run on our mobile devices.
We know from painful experience that letting a third party layer of software come between the platform and the developer ultimately results in sub-standard apps and hinders the enhancement and progress of the platform. If developers grow dependent on third party development libraries and tools, they can only take advantage of platform enhancements if and when the third party chooses to adopt the new features. We cannot be at the mercy of a third party deciding if and when they will make our enhancements available to our developers.
This becomes even worse if the third party is supplying a cross platform development tool. The third party may not adopt enhancements from one platform unless they are available on all of their supported platforms. Hence developers only have access to the lowest common denominator set of features. Again, we cannot accept an outcome where developers are blocked from using our innovations and enhancements because they are not available on our competitor’s platforms.
Flash is a cross platform development tool. It is not Adobe’s goal to help developers write the best iPhone, iPod and iPad apps. It is their goal to help developers write cross platform apps. And Adobe has been painfully slow to adopt enhancements to Apple’s platforms. For example, although Mac OS X has been shipping for almost 10 years now, Adobe just adopted it fully (Cocoa) two weeks ago when they shipped CS5. Adobe was the last major third party developer to fully adopt Mac OS X.
Our motivation is simple – we want to provide the most advanced and innovative platform to our developers, and we want them to stand directly on the shoulders of this platform and create the best apps the world has ever seen. We want to continually enhance the platform so developers can create even more amazing, powerful, fun and useful applications. Everyone wins – we sell more devices because we have the best apps, developers reach a wider and wider audience and customer base, and users are continually delighted by the best and broadest selection of apps on any platform.
Conclusions.
Flash was created during the PC era – for PCs and mice. Flash is a successful business for Adobe, and we can understand why they want to push it beyond PCs. But the mobile era is about low power devices, touch interfaces and open web standards – all areas where Flash falls short.
The avalanche of media outlets offering their content for Apple’s mobile devices demonstrates that Flash is no longer necessary to watch video or consume any kind of web content. And the 200,000 apps on Apple’s App Store proves that Flash isn’t necessary for tens of thousands of developers to create graphically rich applications, including games.
New open standards created in the mobile era, such as HTML5, will win on mobile devices (and PCs too). Perhaps Adobe should focus more on creating great HTML5 tools for the future, and less on criticizing Apple for leaving the past behind.
Steve Jobs
April, 2010″
To see my original thoughts on the Flash debacle, check out this earlier post >>
new iPad owners (and potential buyers) may be wondering…what does an expert keep on their iPad’s homepage?
here’s what i have on mine & why…
let’s start with the dock (located at the bottom of the screen, regardless of orientation); they are the primary applications that are visible now matter which home “screens” you are on:
Mail:
Obviously, the core method of communication for the iPad. I have more than 10 active email accounts to manage, so having Mail at my fingertips is a must.
Safari:
the iPad version of Safari is almost as robust as the desktop version. it’s amazingly capable and super-easy to use. Notice there isn’t a facebook app on the homepage? there’s 2 reasons for that: 1) no facebook app for iPad exists (yet). 2) and more importantly, it’s not necessary. Safari on iPad renders facebook’s site as well as you could ever need. No smartphone app required.
iBooks:
it’s a little funny to hear Steve Jobs talk about “iBooks” now that moniker refers to digital books apple sells, and not their previously named laptops (now macbooks). But, the application is easy to use and a major reason to purchase the iPad: eReading. Tho the kindle soars in bright light, the iPad is surprisingly easy (and comfortable) to read on. I already have a number of books in my queue just begging to be read.
Videos:
the iPad is ideal for watching movies and tv shows while on the go. although the screen isn’t your standard 16×9 letterbox, the issue is lost when you see the stunning clarity of anything in playback. to know that i have 6 tv shows (all aired episodes) and several movies, just in case i have the time to catch up, is amazingly satisfying.
Zinio:
i know i’ve been watching a little too much of A&E’s “Hoarders“, but i regularly start to panic if clutter begins to take the main stage in my home. As an avid reader, i devour over a dozen periodicals each month. Occasionally there are stories, or articles that i’d like to share or reference later. I’ve resorted to a “clip file” of torn pages that i almost never reference because they are all tossed together without any rhyme or reason. Enter Zinio. For years they’ve provided digital versions of some of the worlds most popular magazines. Up until now, i thought the company was a bit irrelevant; WHY would i ever want to pay full price to read a magazine on my computer when i could just get the print version? Then…the iPad arrived. Now i’m longing to receive as many magazines “digitally” as i can. the iPad is perfect for reading periodicals on the go, archiving stories for reference later, sharing with friends, etc. And, to boot, it’s eco-friendly. score.
now…onto the other apps, populating the bulk of the screen:
Contacts:
much like mail, my contacts are essential to my work & personal lives. thanks to MobileMe syncing, my contacts always match my iPhone, and my desktop Macs.
Calendar:
see “contacts” above.
Notes:
i’m a big fan of many of the “pre-installed” apple applications. i’m constantly brainstorming and thinking about things to do/write/share. the Notes app helps me keep me organized.
Maps:
although i’ve yet to use the google maps app for iPad (outside of just messing around), i’m sure it’s something that i’ll find of value in the future. i’ve long been a fan of google maps on my desktop and don’t know how i could live without the app on my iPhone.
Photos:
there’s been a lot of criticism [towards apple] for not including a photo editor [on iPad] more akin to iPhoto, but i disagree. i rarely need to edit pics en-route, and would rather do it on my 27″ iMac than on a 9″ iPad. i know, i’m spoiled, but i can’t really tolerate doing it on my MacBookPro’s 17″. the photo app for iPad is beautiful & simple and allows me to do exactly what i need: show off my favorite photos…while on the go.
YouTube:
the youtube application has made a giant leap forward with iPad. while i can tolerate the app on iPhone/iPod Touch, it’s usable at best. the iPad version is remarkable. watching video is easy, tracking user pages is easier. And, with HTML5, the quality of video that you can watch [instantly] will blow you away.
iPod:
now, here’s an application i have mixed feelings about. i’m never without my iPhone, and i have 16 (i know, i have a problem) various other iPods…why bog-down my iPad’s hard drive with music? I’ve opted not to. While i have synchronized some music onto my iPad, it’s not nearly as plentiful as what i have on my iPhone or other iPods. I think that even on the go, i’d rather listen to music on my iPhone (in case a call were to come through) than on my iPad. The application is lovely, but the usability? not totally up my alley.
eWiFi:
this application was a diamond in the rough. sadly, it’s been discontinued by apple from their app store. with one touch, it can show you all the open/closed/locked & unlocked wifi networks within range. it was far superior (and easier) than apples [built in] system utility. i’ve yet to find another app with the same set of capabilities. considering my iPad is only wifi capable, knowing the networks around me is crucial. for those that have it, embrace it; for those that missed out, send a prayer to apple that it can come back.
Briefcase:
this is another miracle app, for iPhone. essentially, it allows you to connect (wherever you may be) to your home mac’s files. you can plow around looking for a file you meant to share, a video, anything. once you find it, you can transfer it to your iPhone and then view/play it locally, email it, etc. it’s surprisingly helpful. and, their support team is incredibly responsive & helpful. an iPad version has yet to be announced, but those of us who realize the power of the iPhone app, we are eagerly awaiting the debut of it’s big brother.
iTeleport:
formerly, Jaadu VNC, this is one bad-ass application. unlike most VNC applications, iTeleport does a beautiful job of combining touch with remote access. for those of you that need a computer when you only have your iPad, this, plus an Internet connection, is a dream come true. For those of you that are unfamiliar with VNC: it stands for “Virtual Network Computing“, but i hear you, “huh?” In layman’s terms it means that you can remotely control your home (or office) computer anywhere. You “virtually” log into your machine from another, securely. If someone is sitting in front of your machine while you were “controlling” it, they would see the cursor move as if the machine were possessed. VNC is particularly helpful for those of us that have many computers, computers in various other locations, or when helping people troubleshoot computing issues. Although this application will set you back $24.99 in the app store (expensive compared to most $5 or lower apps), it’s well worth the price & has a beautiful, native, iPad interface. A MUST have for anyone looking to use their iPad as a portable computing replacement.
iDisk:
having access to my iDisk is an awesome luxury. i store many files on it, and it’s super simple to share those without having to go into a whole VNC environment.
Numbers:
it’s apple’s answer to Microsoft’s Excel application…only this is the iPad, portable version. i spent many years working with and understanding the complexities of excel and have really fallen in love with the desktop version of Numbers. it manages all the power of excel, with a lot more aesthetic finesse. as a designer, i always want to control the look and feel of any product or document that i create —- even if it’s just a spreadsheet. only Numbers gives you that power, easily. the iPad version of Numbers admittedly takes a little getting use to, however, it’s amazingly robust for a tablet app. i was easily able to manipulate large, powerful spreadsheets i’d previously built. my biggest gripe? accessing excel or numbers files in your idisk isn’t at all seamless. it can be done, but you’ve gotta be cleaver to pull it off. here’s hoping it’s a feature in the next version…
Pages:
the other apple answer to Microsoft’s Word application…again…it requires a little getting use to, but is impressive and full-featured. it beautifully exports word files, pages files (duh) and pdfs —- a must have when on the go. Again, my only one complaint is the lack of iDisk integration. are you listening apple??
reQall:
it’s a pretty savvy website & iPhone/iPod Touch application, but i use only one feature: things to do. when i think of something (typically groceries), i jump online, click the bookmark and add it to my list. when on the go, i can add them by voice, or text through the app. it syncs with the cloud, so i always know what i need when i’m out and about. once i’ve gotten it? a tap, and it goes away.
Read It Later:
while some people prefer the InstaPaper app, i like Read It Later, just fine. What is it? it’s a free website (sign-up required) that tracks any and every web article you’d like to read…later. i’m always plowing through the net, but rarely have the time to read everything i stumble upon. with one click (a Javascript enabled Bookmarklet), any page i mark is saved to my account so that i can read it at my leisure (either on my desktop computer or portable). while an iPhone/iPod Touch app does exist, i prefer the “web app” that i grabbed from my “Read It Later… List” webpage. With 1-click i pop into Safari and see all the articles that i want to read. once i’m done, i check them off and they disappear. awesome.
AIM:
while i’m a big fan of AIM & instant messaging (my handle is maximizeurmac), i don’t really love chatting via AIM on my iPhone or the iPad. I prefer the “forward to SMS” method (not sure what that is? ask.). That being said, sometimes, when SMS isn’t available (say in flight), this application would be invaluable. And, the iPad native version is easy to use and very nice looking.
USA Today:
the newspaper is dead, but news reporting is not. this simple little app brings the news to your fingertips, beautifully.
Settings:
much like the first few months with an iPhone, there are tweaks and adjustments that need to be made. most of those require the system settings. i like to keep them on hand so that i can change things quickly.
iTunes Music Store & App Store:
i’m always hunting for new music, so when i hear something i like, i buy it. as for apps? i’m love discovering new things and searching for solutions to hurdles that i uncover. this “app” needs to be at my fingertips.
there you have it. my iPad homepage, explained.
