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Is it possible that the iPad just can't physically handle flash due to overheating?

J

johnmoorejohn

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 31, 2010
37
1
When I watch Hulu on my macbook, my fans are at full blast within 5-8 minutes or so. I then continue to watch for another 15-45 minutes all while the macbook is as hot as can be trying to cool itself down.

I wonder if there are even any fans in the iPad. I'm pretty sure my iPhone does not have a fan. I haven't read about anyone pondering if perhaps when SJ says that 'battery life' would be an issue, that he secretly means that the new A4 chip would just burn itself out from all the heat if someone watched flash video for 45 minutes.

Is it possible they would engineer the iPad in a way where the wrong type of instruction set to the A4 could produce so much heat that it would burn itself out?

I remember the iPhone having heat issues when the G3 first came out. I do not remember hearing that any one's G3 actually overheated and failed though. But the iPad is running more screen and perhaps more wattage from the new processor.

What do you think?
 
Apple could probably collaborate with Adobe to optimize Flash to work well on iPad. I am suspecting Apple is just not fond of Adobe.
 
johnmoorejohn said:
I wonder if there are even any fans in the iPad. I'm pretty sure my iPhone does not have a fan. I haven't read about anyone pondering if perhaps when SJ says that 'battery life' would be an issue, that he secretly means that the new A4 chip would just burn itself out from all the heat if someone watched flash video for 45 minutes.
Click to expand...

No, the A4 chip is an extremely low power chip. As such, it does not get hot like Core 2 Duo. This is why the A4 chip was created for mobile devices.
 
I'm sure that's not it. Some of the games for the iPhone are more intensive than flash and my iPhone never overheats.
 
There are number of discussions around here about Flash, and if you follow them it will become apparent this is a bigger issue than just overheating or Apple just not being fond of Adobe. There are some fundamental issues involved and Apple has made a strategic business decision to move in this direction.
 
Who cares if a device overheats doing something it's never going to do?

I can think of a lot of 'fail' scenarios much more interesting than flash.
 
johnmoorejohn said:
When I watch Hulu on my macbook, my fans are at full blast within 5-8 minutes or so. I then continue to watch for another 15-45 minutes all while the macbook is as hot as can be trying to cool itself down. Flash is pretty bad on a Mac period. However, the newest 10.1 update is a bit better. Install that and then try it.

I wonder if there are even any fans in the iPad. I'm pretty sure my iPhone does not have a fan. I haven't read about anyone pondering if perhaps when SJ says that 'battery life' would be an issue, that he secretly means that the new A4 chip would just burn itself out from all the heat if someone watched flash video for 45 minutes. No fans. It would be pretty bad design if the A4 was able to burn itself out. Modern processors (IE last few years) will shut down before they reach a temperature level that will damage them

Is it possible they would engineer the iPad in a way where the wrong type of instruction set to the A4 could produce so much heat that it would burn itself out? No.

I remember the iPhone having heat issues when the G3 first came out. I do not remember hearing that any one's G3 actually overheated and failed though. But the iPad is running more screen and perhaps more wattage from the new processor.
and has a much larger surface area to dissipate heat with...

What do you think?
Click to expand...

I think flash is not designed for anything but a keyboard and mouse, it is not optimized to run on Mac OS and thus would significantly reduce battery life while increase heat, while major users are moving away from it (Youtube et al). Is anyone still surprised Apple isnt supporting it?
 
I think Apple gave up on Flash support because they couldn't figure out how to emulate ALL mouse events FLASH can recognize. Multitouch can only do so much. They would have looked worse to only support a fraction of the FLASH out there than stating up front they would support none.
 
Sydde said:
Apple could probably collaborate with Adobe to optimize Flash to work well on iPad. I am suspecting Apple is just not fond of Adobe.
Click to expand...

The problem is, the second Apple introduces Flash to the platform, Adobe can turn around and say "suck it, we'll get to it when we get to it." This is exactly what happened with the Mac support of Flash a few years ago, and it appears Steve Jobs hasn't forgotten. If Adobe released Flash and it seems "okay" on the iPad, but then, later on, there is some terrible bug that crashes iPads, there is absolutely nothing Apple can do themselves; they would have to rely entirely upon Adobe to fix it, and Adobe would have no incentive to fix it quickly. In contrast, if there was a major bug in HTML 5, Apple would be able to fix it themselves. Once Apple allow Flash on the iPad, they cannot take it away. It seems it's a Pandora's Box that Apple are keeping away from for now.
 
I doubt that is a problem, expecially since it can play HD Video.

Apple does not want to effectively allow another company to have a 4GL programming platform work on their system.

I agree with the above post. Adobe competes with Apple, Apple should not allow them on the iPad or iPhone it would be a mistake to put any relience of these devides on any other company.
 
EssentialParado said:
The problem is, the second Apple introduces Flash to the platform, Adobe can turn around and say "suck it, we'll get to it when we get to it." This is exactly what happened with the Mac support of Flash a few years ago, and it appears Steve Jobs hasn't forgotten. If Adobe released Flash and it seems "okay" on the iPad, but then, later on, there is some terrible bug that crashes iPads, there is absolutely nothing Apple can do themselves; they would have to rely entirely upon Adobe to fix it, and Adobe would have no incentive to fix it quickly. In contrast, if there was a major bug in HTML 5, Apple would be able to fix it themselves. Once Apple allow Flash on the iPad, they cannot take it away. It seems it's a Pandora's Box that Apple are keeping away from for now.
Click to expand...

The one thing that businesses have to learn with Apple is that if you ignore or snub them, they you can get your self blacklisted pretty quick. Verizon has already learned this the hard way.

Adobe still is not Cocoa for creative suite, CS is languishing behind such that Apple is losing CS customers to PC's. Flash has been a POS on all platforms except Internet Explorer for years, even worse on Macs and still no fix.

You'll know Adobe is officially on the black list the day Apple releases or buys a company with a product that competes with illustrator to complement Apeture. Aperture only exists because Photoshop is about a generation behind where it should be (although Lightroom is an improvement it has really fragmented photoshop).
 
I'm sure battery life is another issue, too.

Still, Apple has pretty much stonewalled Adobe, making any argument over who's responsible for Flash's poor performance on OS X irrelevant. Flash development, viewing, Photoshop, gaming and anything else requiring formidable hardware are all done on my PC, as my mac can't deal with it. Surfing and bill paying are for the mac.

People screaming "HTML 5!!!!!1" need to actually look into the technology first. Like....how it's years away from being mainstream. :rolleyes: But I digress.
 
flash has to much power over the intenet and this is not good for the consumer.I am glad apple is not going to have it on the ipad..
 
The Nokia Booklet 3G can run 1080p flash videos without a built-in fan.

The reason it heats up on OS X is because the flash for OS X is poorly coded.
 
samcraig said:
Ahh - so instead you would rather Apple have all the power. Got it.
Click to expand...

I don't think that this is what would happen. If HTML5 succeeds in 'killing' Flash then control over how to write content will pass to the W3C and WHAT-WG. Obviously Apple plays a part in these organisations, but then so do lots of companies and I'd far rather see web-standards being decided by an open collaboration than by a single company.
 
superstrikertwo said:
No but a company had to stand up against it. MS somewhat has shafted them by making Silverlight but it's obviously not as widespread.
Click to expand...

Apple standing up against Adobe has nothing to do with the consumer however. In fact, it is quite the opposite.
 
The same thing happens when I watch MLB games in my computer. After 5-10 minutes my computer gets hot and the fan works overtime. I end up turning the computer off right after the game.

Do you think the same thing will happen with the iPad? I always thought I had this problem because I was using my old PowerBook G4.
 
bozzykid said:
Apple standing up against Adobe has nothing to do with the consumer however. In fact, it is quite the opposite.
Click to expand...

Surely this is just a statement of the obvious; that a companies purpose is to make a profit.

Having said that I don't see Apple's support for open web standards as part of any sort of devious plot. I think that they believe that they can make the best implementation of the standard and gain custom that way.
 
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