Robert Scoble interviews Flash Platform execs
by Serge Jespers on 11. Mar, 2010 in Flash Platform
Wall Street Journal on Apple, Flash and more
by Serge Jespers on 10. Feb, 2010 in Industry
It’s refreshing to see the “old media’s” take on this… They surely make some interesting points.
Kevin Lynch (Adobe’s CTO) blogs about Flash, past and future, Apple iPad, HTML5, OSP and more.
by Serge Jespers on 02. Feb, 2010 in Industry, adobe, open screen project
Adobe’s CTO Kevin Lynch just published a blog post with his thoughts on Flash, past and future, Apple iPad, HTML5, OSP and more.
The blog post entitled “Open Access to Content and Applications” gives you a good idea on where Adobe and the Flash Platform is going and what we are doing with our Open Screen Project partners. It also repeats that “we are ready to enable Flash in the browser on Apple’s devices if and when Apple chooses to allow that for its users, but to date we have not had the required cooperation from Apple to make this happen.”
Read the post on blogs.adobe.com/conversations
The iPad’s browsing experience
by Serge Jespers on 29. Jan, 2010 in Industry
My fellow evangelist Lee Brimelow created an accurate view of the browsing experience on Apple’s new iPad. Sometimes a picture does say more than a thousand words… Go check it out on Lee’s blog.
Open letter from a Mac-head
by Serge Jespers on 28. Jan, 2010 in Industry
Dear Steve,
After working on Windows PCs for over 15 years, I switched to Mac about 6 years ago. I was sick and tired of spending more time keeping my system up and running than being creative. I remember it well. I actually borrowed a G5 to test both Mac and Windows head to head… and I never looked back. I immediately fell in love with OS X and the simplicity of using a Mac. Everything just worked and I could finally be creative again without worrying about crashes or driver conflicts. It wasn’t long before every single PC in the house was replaced by a Mac. I got a G5 to work on, bought a Power Book for work on the road, an iMac for my girlfriend and even an eMac for my mom.
When you announced the iPhone, I had my credit card in my hand somewhere halfway through your presentation. Sadly you only released it in the US at first and so I had to wait a little bit. I’m not ashamed to say that I “imported” one and hacked it so I could use it in Europe. You did a fantastic job with the iPhone and you truly changed the mobile industry. I could even live with the fact that the first version did not have the Flash plugin in the mobile Safari browser. I didn’t think I would, but I was standing in line the day you launched the iPhone 3G in Belgium and yes… I was also in waiting in line the day you launched the iPhone 3GS.
It was definitely harder to swallow that you still didn’t allow Flash on the 3GS. I totally found it plausible that the original iPhone’s CPU was struggling with Flash content but you said that the 3GS was a lot faster than the original iPhone. Add to that that Flash runs just fine on Android, WebOS, WinMo and Symbian smartphones… Together with the Open Screen Project partners, Adobe is working very hard on making sure that Flash Player 10.1 runs smoothly on these devices.
Yesterday, you announced the iPad. I recently bought an HP TouchSmart TX2 tablet (running Windows 7, which allows me to install both Flash Player, AIR and any other plugin) because you are right. There is room for something between the iPhone and my MacBook Pro. There definitely is room for a tablet to browse the web, play games, watch movies or read books on. However… this time you failed to enthuse me.
While the iPad’s form factor seems spot on, the limited operating system isn’t. When you demonstrated the web browser, it was very obvious that the browser did not support Flash (or any other plugins). When you showed the New York Times website, the video player was missing and a big missing plugin icon showed up on screen. Surely this is not the experience you wanted to demonstrate. You said you can browse the full web on the iPad but it clearly isn’t the full web… Isn’t that exactly why you would use a beautiful device like this? To watch video on sites like Facebook, CNN, ESPN, ABC, Fox, Hulu, MSNBC, Epix, … while you’re on the road? But it’s not just about video. What about those hundreds –maybe thousands– of sites that rely on advertisers to pay their bills? Sure… web ads can be really annoying but the reality is that advertisers like to use Flash for their ads. And what about games? Millions of people play Flash games on sites like Facebook, Miniclip, Kongregate and Disney every single day. Flash is a big part of the web today and when you promise “the best way to experience the web” I expect it to be the full web and not the crippled version you demonstrated on stage yesterday.
I’m sure Adobe would welcome you with open arms if you decided to join the Open Screen Project and help us to build an optimized version of Flash Player for the iPad. Some of our OSP partners have already demonstrated full HD 1080P Flash Video on a netbook so I see no reason why it wouldn’t work on the iPad.
I’m sorry to say that even though I am a Mac-head, I won’t be standing in line to get an iPad if I can’t browse the full web on it.
Serge
To anyone reading this: Make sure you blog your thoughts and/or leave a comment.
Update: Also read Ralph Hauwert’s and Mike Chambers’ post.
The future of magazines?
by Serge Jespers on 07. Dec, 2009 in Cool stuff
UPDATE: Wow… I’ve just read that this is actually a real product. They’ve even showed a working prototype to the press last week. What’s even cooler is that it’s built with AIR & Flex!
Flash on mobile: Apple: “Naah”, MS: “Yes!”
by Serge Jespers on 17. Mar, 2008 in Flash, Industry
Let’s face it, Flash is a big part of today’s internet. In fact, more than 70% of all the video on the web is Flash video and then we’re not even talking about the massive amount of games and the numerous full blown applications out there. I’m sure you’ve all read or heard about Steve Jobs saying that the desktop version of the Flash player “performs too slow to be useful” and that Flash Lite “is not capable of being used with the Web” in response to questions raised at a shareholder meeting about Apple’s plans on supporting Flash on the iPhone.
And yet half a billion (500 million) mobile devices are already shipped with Flash Lite support enabling mobile browser support for Flash content on devices like the Nokia N-series and the Sony Ericsson K800. 18 of the top 20 OEM’s are currently shipping mobile devices with Flash Lite support and today we’re adding Microsoft to that list of OEM partners. (more…)
Big Spaceship profiled on Apple Pro website
by Serge Jespers on 24. Feb, 2008 in Cool stuff, Industry
I’m sure most have you have seen more of Big Spaceship’s work than you realize. Remember “Sammy the talking suitcase“? Or HBO Voyeur? I’ve been a fan of their work for quite a while and it’s nice to see them on the Apple Pro website.
Big Spaceship does all their work on Mac’s mainly using Adobe’s CS3 and Apple’s Final Cut Pro. This is a great article that gives you a peak behind the scenes of this Brooklyn-based studio.
- Using Growl in AIR applications with AIR 2 NativeProcess 15. Mar, 2010
- Mission critical Flash 12. Mar, 2010
- Robert Scoble interviews Flash Platform execs 11. Mar, 2010
- Number 1 on my wishlist: HP’s slate device 08. Mar, 2010
- The HTML5 Flash Marriage: Geolocation source 08. Mar, 2010
Latest Tweets
Where am I?
Serge Jespers is at home in Mechelen, Belgium.
Flash Platform blogs
- Adam Lehman
- AIR team blog
- Andrew Shorten
- Ben Forta
- Christian Cantrell
- Christophe Coenraets
- Duane Nickull
- Enrique Duvos
- Ethan Malasky
- Flash Platform blog
- Greg Wilson
- James Ward
- Kevin Hoyt
- Lee Brimelow
- Mark Doherty
- Matt Chotin
- Mihai Corlan
- Mike Chambers
- Piotr Walczyszyn
- Renaun Erickson
- Ryan Stewart
- Ted Patrick
- Terry Ryan
- Tom Krcha





