Tag Archives: apple

Confirmed: Apple’s “Magic” Trackpad works with AIR 2.0

by Serge Jespers on 29. Jul, 2010 in AIR

Yesterday I saw a Tweet from Ralph Hauwert who was wondering if Apple’s Magic Trackpad would work with AIR 2.0. You probably already know that AIR 2.0 supports multitouch and gestures. The trackpad on a recent MacBook Pro supports gestures and these work nicely in AIR 2.0. So… My hunch was that the “Magic” Trackpad… I’m sorry… I just have to put that in quotes. With all these magic products I’m starting to wonder why Steve doesn’t have a show in Vegas yet ;-))) But back to my hunch… My hunch was that the “Magic” Trackpad would also just work.

Earlier today I happened to be walking past the Apple Store in Ginza, Tokyo and I went in and bought one. When I got back to the hotel I updated the trackpad drivers through Apple’s Software Update and paired the trackpad with my MBP. I already had DestroyTwitter running and tried the three-finger swipe on it. Oh… In case you didn’t know… the latest version of DestroyTwitter has support for the swipe-gesture to switch between different canvases. The “Magic” Trackpad worked perfectly with DestroyTwitter. I also tried some of my demo applications and they all worked as expected.

Now that I’ve used it for a while I think I like the “Magic” Trackpad. Especially in “lean-back-mode”. I can definitely see this replacing my mouse on my Mac Mini back home. I have it connected to my TV and use it to watch video content from the web.

So… To summarize: The “Magic” Trackpad does work with AIR 2.0. (Note: Like the trackpad on a MacBook, the “Magic” Trackpad only supports gestures. So no raw multi-touch points).

Now go build some cool touch-enabled apps (and send ‘em to me when you’re done)! Flash on!

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Flash is as open as HTML5

by Serge Jespers on 22. Apr, 2010 in Flash Platform, html5

How’s that for a controversial title? But… It’s true… Hear me out!

First of all let me say that I have absolutely nothing against HTML5! Innovation and competition is always good and keeps everyone on their toes. UPDATE: I also want to emphasize that this is not a fight. HTML5 and Flash can live together just fine and can even complement each other!

One of the first blog posts I read this morning was one on AppleInsider. An Apple spokeswoman claimed that Adobe’s Mike Chambers got it all backwards when he blogged about Apple’s closed system. That’s not the part that made me cringe though. She said that “it is HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, and H.264 that are open and standard, while Adobe’s Flash is closed and proprietary“.

Ok… So… Let’s analyze that a little bit… Let’s begin with the biggest claim here: H.264. Last time I checked, H.264 was far from open. It is owned by a private organization known as MPEG LA who said earlier this year that “Internet Video that is free to end users would continue to be exempt from royalty fees until at least December 31, 2015“. Nobody knows what is going to happen after 2015. The patents awarded to MPEG LA don’t expire until 2028. So… to make this clear… H.264 is not open.

So what about HTML5, CSS and JavaScript… Those are open, right? Well yeah. The specs are open meaning that everyone can download those specs and build an application around it to display that language. Hey… Wait a minute… That sounds a lot like Flash! The specs for FLV (Flash video), SWF (the file format for Flash Player), AMF (the binary format for exchanging data) and RTMP (the protocol used for transmission of audio, video, and data) are all published and can be downloaded by anyone.

The specs for HTML5 are decided by the Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group (WHATWG). The WHATWG was founded by individuals of Apple, the Mozilla Foundation, and Opera Software in 2004, after a W3C workshop. Apple, Mozilla and Opera were becoming increasingly concerned about the W3C’s direction with XHTML, lack of interest in HTML and apparent disregard for the needs of real-world authors. Anyone can participate as a Contributor by joining the WHATWG mailing list. The same goes for Flash. Our bugbase is open to anyone and anyone can view bugs and add feature requests.

But the Flash runtime is closed! Ok… Sure… Flash Player is not open source although some parts are. That said… Ask yourself this: Is your browser open source? The only browser that is completely open source is Firefox. Safari is only partly open source (only the WebKit engine). The same can be said about Chrome (in the Chromium project). However, the biggest HTML runtime out there –Internet Explorer (still used by over 50% of all internet users)– is as closed as Flash Player. And so is Opera (even though they are part of the WHATWG).

And with that, I come back to the title of this post: Flash is as open as HTML5 = HTML5 is as open as Flash.

UPDATE: You should also read “HTML5 canvas proprietary Apple technology?” by Leo Bergman and “I’d rather be a Woz” by nothingGrinder. Hat tip to Philippe and Aaron who posted this in the comments.

Note: I’m sure many of you will have some comments on this topic and I have no problem with your comments as long as you keep them constructive and on topic.

Note 2: For those who saw a drop in the comment count: I just disabled and deleted Topsy trackbacks. These are not comments but automatic pingbacks from RTs on Twitter.

(Image credit: Justin Marty)

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On sub-standard apps

by Serge Jespers on 11. Apr, 2010 in Industry

Steve Jobs (via TechCrunch): Intermediate layers between the platform and the developer ultimately produces sub-standard apps and hinders the progress of the platform.

That’s the first thing I read this morning… I agree with Greg Slepak (CEO of TaoEffect) who wrote:

Crappy developers will make crappy apps regardless of how many layers there are.

That doesn’t mean that all developers using a specific layer will build crappy apps.

Chroma Circuit by Bowlerhat Games is a very good example. Chroma Circuit started out as a Flash based web game. It was one of the first apps that got packaged as an iPhone app using the Packager for iPhone. Apple didn’t seem to mind playing Chroma Circuit on their iDevices as they featured it as a staff pick on iTunes a while ago.

Fickleblox by BlueSkyNorth is another good example. This application started out as a Flash Lite game and is thereby available on a broad range of devices. It was also packaged using the Packager for iPhone and thus available in the app store.

Both applications (and there are dozens like this in the app store today) are fun to play, easy to use and perform well on the iDevice. You can hardly call that sub-standard! You can also hardly say that they hinder the progress of the platform. In fact… I think it is Apple who is now effectively hindering the progress of the iDevice platform. By allowing “intermediate layers” like Flash but also Unity, Titanium, MonoTouch, Corona, … the platform has become more open and appealing to non Obj-C/C/C++ developers. More developers (regardless of which technology they use) on the platform = more applications in the appstore. I wonder how many apps in the appstore today were built using one of these intermediate layers…

I’m with Adobe and all other intermediate layer providers, for that matter!

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Robert Scoble interviews Flash Platform execs

by Serge Jespers on 11. Mar, 2010 in Flash Platform

Earlier this week, Robert Scoble visited the Adobe office in San Francisco to talk to Anup Murarka (director on the Flash Platform team) and Aaron Filner (group product manager for AIR). In the first video they talk about Adobe’s recent announcements. In the second video they debunk some of the recent claims that were discussed in the tech community. They talk about HTML5, Apple, battery life, multitouch and more… After watching the videos, also read Robert’s (@scobleizer) thoughts on his blog.

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Wall Street Journal on Apple, Flash and more

by Serge Jespers on 10. Feb, 2010 in Industry

The Wall Street Journal just published an interesting article entitled “The Microsofting of Apple?” with their thoughts on Apple, Flash, Google and more. If you’re not subscribed to the WSJ, you can find the article on Ben Forta’s blog.

It’s refreshing to see the “old media’s” take on this… They surely make some interesting points.

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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

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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.

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Open letter from a Mac-head

by Serge Jespers on 28. Jan, 2010 in Industry

DISCLAIMER: I work for Adobe on the platform evangelism team. I’ve been a Flash designer/developer for the last 12 years. Even though I work for Adobe. I’m pretty sure I would have also written this post if I was still a freelance Flash developer. The views expressed on this blog are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer.

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.

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The future of magazines?

by Serge Jespers on 07. Dec, 2009 in Cool stuff

I came across this video on Ubergizmo and I wish this was real today…! The video demonstrates a multi-touch tablet to read magazines in full color with video, audio and online capabilities. The video is created by The Wonder Factory and other than that, there really isn’t any more information out there. While it’s only a concept today, I really do hope we’ll see some of this in the future. Maybe we’ll even see it on an Apple tablet in the not too distant future?

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!

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Flash on mobile: Apple: “Naah”, MS: “Yes!”

by Serge Jespers on 17. Mar, 2008 in Flash, Industry

flashLiteMobileLet’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…)

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