Is it true that I wouldnt be able to access Facebooks cafeworld or scrabble?

[s1m]

Face it, if the ipad can't function with one of the biggest, most popular websites on the web, that's a glaring hole. Facebook was around a lot longer before ipad.

I have a Facebook app on my iphone that works fine.

I can easily browse FB on my iphone as well. I think a lot of people access FB to "speak" with friends and not just play flash games...

Frankly if this kills FB gams then maybe Jobs is doing us a favour

 

[msduncan]

As much as I hate to say it --

I'm buying an iPad and am excited about it. I've even detracted the detractors of the device. I even got a 3 day ban for calling one of the anti-ipad trolls a name.

BUT.... Apple really is missing the boat on this Flash thing. They are trying to dictate the market, and it's not working. It's paramount to putting crocodiles into a river on a wildebeest migration route and predicting that it will stop wildebeest migrations.

 

[Durious]

I have a Facebook app on my iphone that works fine.

I can easily browse FB on my iphone as well. I think a lot of people access FB to "speak" with friends and not just play flash games...

Frankly if this kills FB gams then maybe Jobs is doing us a favour

I prefer the facebook app more then the facebook website for navigation, looking forward to the larger screen to use

As for facebook flash games sadly my wife had this issue cause she played bejeweled constantly... but it turns out there's a APP Store versions for it that links to the facebook leaderboards and now she is on-board 100%. Seeing this I'm sure other developers will move the apps over in the same capacity... people will pay! haha

 

[Sketh]

As much as I hate to say it --

I'm buying an iPad and am excited about it. I've even detracted the detractors of the device. I even got a 3 day ban for calling one of the anti-ipad trolls a name.

BUT.... Apple really is missing the boat on this Flash thing. They are trying to dictate the market, and it's not working. It's paramount to putting crocodiles into a river on a wildebeest migration route and predicting that it will stop wildebeest migrations.

It seems to be working for Apple, the whole non-flash thing. The media used to be all "Rawr blah no flash rawr." And now the companies are like "We're going to convert for the iPad." And the media has started saying "rawr yeah apple... rawr."

So I guess we will see.

 

[FrankieTDouglas]

I have a Facebook app on my iphone that works fine.

I can easily browse FB on my iphone as well. I think a lot of people access FB to "speak" with friends and not just play flash games...

Frankly if this kills FB gams then maybe Jobs is doing us a favour

And I have that app, too. It's great for uploading a pic, changing status, or responding to messages while commuting. Yet, it doesn't play any of the videos available on facebook and is unable to play many of the facebook applications.

When people sit down in the evening on their couch and want to browse the web on their ipad, they want to be able to actually explore facebook rather than do a quick hit while the subway is at a stop. This device is being pushed as a tool for leisure. Isn't very convenient if halfway through browsing facebook and, say, they want to interact with a farmville update from a friend's page, they need to put down their ipad, walk to the desktop, turn it on and finish the process. This is the exact opposite of leisure. Annoyance seems about right.

"A lot" of people I know use facebook just as much for its apps as to communicate. In fact, it's another way to interact with friends. The facebook and ipad crowd are the same target audience.

And if Steve Jobs does us a favor by eliminating facebook apps that MILLIONS of people enjoy, that is terrible. Let people enjoy their choice of online entertainment. Otherwise, your last statement echos 1984 and Big Brother.

 

[fobfob]

This device is being pushed as a tool for leisure. Isn't very convenient if halfway through browsing facebook and, say, they want to interact with a farmville update from a friend's page, they need to put down their ipad, walk to the desktop, turn it on and finish the process.

An extremely good point and well made. I agree that this will slow initial sales of the iPad quite a lot. However, I think it quite naive to think that this will remain the status quo. Either Facebook (and others) will adapt, or Apple will adapt.

 

[skubish]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7D11 Safari/528.16)

It seems a simple switch to enable flash would appease both sides of this argument.

 

[samcraig]

An extremely good point and well made. I agree that this will slow initial sales of the iPad quite a lot. However, I think it quite naive to think that this will remain the status quo. Either Facebook (and others) will adapt, or Apple will adapt.

Indeed a good point. I don't think it will slow down sales "much" - but rather lead to frustrated buyers who don't think to ask the question because they'll assume that they can surf the web. The device is being touted as the best way to view the web. I'm not knocking their marketing. But most "general" users wouldn't think to ask if one website vs another will work on a device.

So what you'll have is a group of people very frustrated with their device who will then have to use an alternate method. These people will typically fall into a few camps. Those that do it and accept the limitations. Those that do it and are frustrated with the limitations and those that are frustrated but justify the lack of support so that they don't feel as frustrated for making the purchase without having more knowledge about it.

 

[Bytor65]

An extremely good point and well made. I agree that this will slow initial sales of the iPad quite a lot. However, I think it quite naive to think that this will remain the status quo. Either Facebook (and others) will adapt, or Apple will adapt.

I really think you are being Naive. Your either/or situation leaves out what actually will happen.

Neither will Adapt. Facebook won't lose that many farmville players because they can't use it on iPad, Apple won't lose that many sales because you can't play farmville on it. Facebook will keep having flash games and people simply won't play flash game on their iPad. There is nothing to adapt. There are really no flash gaming alternative and Jobs seems dead set against flash (Years of no Flash on iPhone/Touch should make that obvious).

If you want to play flash games on iPad you will be disappointed.

 

[xraydoc]

Good point but the porn site I go to uses Flash.

Boom.


Though I can think of at least one that doesn't (and works on the iPhone).

 

[danny_w]

Indeed a good point. I don't think it will slow down sales "much" - but rather lead to frustrated buyers who don't think to ask the question because they'll assume that they can surf the web. The device is being touted as the best way to view the web. I'm not knocking their marketing. But most "general" users wouldn't think to ask if one website vs another will work on a device.

So what you'll have is a group of people very frustrated with their device who will then have to use an alternate method. These people will typically fall into a few camps. Those that do it and accept the limitations. Those that do it and are frustrated with the limitations and those that are frustrated but justify the lack of support so that they don't feel as frustrated for making the purchase without having more knowledge about it.

I don't think the lack of flash will slow down sales but I do think that it will result in a lot of returns.

 

[ARF900]

As much as I hate to say it --

I'm buying an iPad and am excited about it. I've even detracted the detractors of the device. I even got a 3 day ban for calling one of the anti-ipad trolls a name.

BUT.... Apple really is missing the boat on this Flash thing. They are trying to dictate the market, and it's not working. It's paramount to putting crocodiles into a river on a wildebeest migration route and predicting that it will stop wildebeest migrations.

Win post. But remember, Apple has some big crocodiles.

 

[vini-vidi-vici]

I've never used facebook or farmville, but why can't whoever created "farmville" make an app for it, and have it link-into facebook... like scrabble, bejeweled, or any other similar game? heck, they could even actually make money on that. What's so magical about playing these games "on facebook"?

 

[samcraig]

I've never used facebook or farmville, but why can't whoever created "farmville" make an app for it, and have it link-into facebook... like scrabble, bejeweled, or any other similar game? heck, they could even actually make money on that. What's so magical about playing these games "on facebook"?

I am JUST playing devil's advocate - I swear. It seems "funny" to ask dozens of developers to change the way they've programmed vs offering a way for them to keep their code in tact and run it on your device.

Isn't easier for 1 entity to change than to ask the masses? Again - just playing devil's advocate.

 

[danny_w]

I am JUST playing devil's advocate - I swear. It seems "funny" to ask dozens of developers to change the way they've programmed vs offering a way for them to keep their code in tact and run it on your device.

Isn't easier for 1 entity to change than to ask the masses? Again - just playing devil's advocate.

I think you have a point there. For those that already have an iPhone app they will probably update the app to use the iPad's resolution, but others that have not done so already may not see a big enough market to write an app. It does seem like it would be so much easer for Apple just to give us the option to run flash if we want to do so than to ask web site developers to change the way they do things just for the iPad.

 

[Jaro65]

I know she was being honest I am simply saying that sometimes you may have to step back and ask why you're about to drop at least five bills on a device so you can sit on Facebook. Mind you, I have no friends so I don't see the appeal myself.

Well, not only the Facebook. The bottom line is that they could do so many things on iPad, including the Facebook.

 

[Mal]

I am JUST playing devil's advocate - I swear. It seems "funny" to ask dozens of developers to change the way they've programmed vs offering a way for them to keep their code in tact and run it on your device.

Isn't easier for 1 entity to change than to ask the masses? Again - just playing devil's advocate.

It's actually very simple now, because Flash now includes an "Export to iPhone App" functionality that takes care of most of the work, and the only other obstacle is the $99 to join the dev program, but of course there are solutions to that issue as well (as you can often find someone already signed up who will publish your app for you, for a much lower fee).

I know you're playing DA, so consider this a rebuttal to the objection you were voicing.

jW

 

[skubish]

I've never used facebook or farmville, but why can't whoever created "farmville" make an app for it, and have it link-into facebook... like scrabble, bejeweled, or any other similar game? heck, they could even actually make money on that. What's so magical about playing these games "on facebook"?

I am still waiting for the Mafia Wars iPhone app to link to facebook. These are popular because:
1. They are free
2. You can brag your achievements to friends
3. Herd mentality. People of facebook see other people playing these games and then they start playing them.

 

[iWoz]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7D11 Safari/528.16)

Yeah! I'm not a big fan of the facebook games I must say! However it's a shame if they don't support it

 

[studio¹³¹]

bejeweled modified their app to link to the facebook version, but its not the same game -- just a watered down version that posts the high scores. it would be nice to play it directly on facebook via the ipad...

 

[EssentialParado]

It's paramount to putting crocodiles into a river on a wildebeest migration route and predicting that it will stop wildebeest migrations.

I think that's a bit of a disanalogy. Considering how many iPhones + iPod Touches have been sold, and how many iPads will probably sell, it'll be more like 100 million crocodiles in the way.

 

[oneeach]

It seems a simple switch to enable flash would appease both sides of this argument.

Its not that easy. First, mobile Safari would need a plug-in architecture of some kind. Next, Adobe, the company that owns Flash, would need to write an ARM based version of flash that works in the Safari plug-in architecture.

What might (but unlikely to) happen is that mobile Safari will get a plug-in architecture like Snow Leopard has allowing Flash to run as a separate process which, if it has a problem, won't crash the browser or the device.

 

[Diet Pepsi]

The games that are available are pretty good. I access Facebook on my touch, but I don't like Farmville. I know there is a similar app. Maybe Farmtown. ??

 

[scroto]

Face book is a fad just like myspace was. pretty soon people will move on to the next social networking site.

 

[FrankieTDouglas]

Face book is a fad just like myspace was. pretty soon people will move on to the next social networking site.

If it's a fad, then so is the ipad. Same demographics for both.

I'd imagine the difference between an iphone/pad app and dealing directly with facebook is not having to deal with Apple. Facebook developers can freely update their games as needed, and quickly at that. If they must also go through Apple, there is not a definite turn around of submissions so it puts their entire business on hold waiting on Apple to finish the deal so the developer can present new options on a broad level across all platforms.