Sure, it's very possible the browser will just show up to developers as an iPad version of Safari instead of iPhone Safari, meaning they would have to change a bit of code on their website. Do I expect them to? Heck yes. If their website supports iPhones, I think it's pretty much a given that they'll add a few lines of code that makes it work on iPads as well. I'd be hugely surprised if they didn't.
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So would you really miss Flash ?
- Thread starter daferrisda
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Sure, it's very possible the browser will just show up to developers as an iPad version of Safari instead of iPhone Safari, meaning they would have to change a bit of code on their website. Do I expect them to? Heck yes. If their website supports iPhones, I think it's pretty much a given that they'll add a few lines of code that makes it work on iPads as well. I'd be hugely surprised if they didn't.
I hope that this is true as it needs to be somewhere in the middle at the moment to allow videos to launch the iPad youtube app when needed but also display full webpages and not mobile sites. The 9to5mac Safari walkthrough is pretty interesting and would indicate that it is showing up as full Safari.
Link
I've been very vocal with my dissatisfaction about the iPad not having Flash capabilities. It is a deal breaker for me. But the iPad will never have Flash, unless someone can jailbreak it and add Flash that way. Steve Jobs is very adament about Flash. He made another comment about it being a CPU hog with security flaws today. He called it old technology. He's right that Flash is a CPU hog with security holes and that it is old technology. It's still in a huge majority of popular websites and that's not going to change soon, particularly if Microsoft still supports it. It's all about the numbers. If a company had paid thousands of dollars for someone to develop a website and it uses Flash and >95% of the people visiting their site are using browsers that support Flash, then there's no incentive for the company to pay to have their site redesigned to support <5% of their viewers. If they want to accomodate, they will simply have a "quick and dirty" version with some code that re-directs to this page when the iPhone/iPod is detected. Yes, eventually Flash will die. It will be a slow death, though. I applaud Steve Jobs for his vision and his drive to advance technology. I still think that an iPad without Flash is premature for true internet viewing and sales will suffer. I view it like Apple TV. If Apple TV would have a tuner and allow DVR capabilities from cable television, I'd dump my PC Media Center in a heartbeat. But Jobs doesn't want that. He wants a device that gets 100% of its content from the Internet (and pay Apple a fee for it, too). As a result, sales are minimal. It's simply a toy. I see the iPad i nthe same way. It's a toy without the functionality to make it a truely revolutionary and desirable product. At least that's my opinion. But good luck to Apple and for those who actually buy an iPad, I truely hope that you enjoy it and find your investment worthwhile.
The same thing holds true for software in general. there is a lot more s/w available for windows than for OSX. Specialized software and drivers (for example, software used in conjunction with an insulin pump, to run reports) are written only for Windows. Mac-only owners need not apply. They whine on forums that support such products, and I tell them, "you KNEW when you went Mac you were buying a system that isn't as widely supported as windows. that's the way it is. don't bellyache now!" Apple hasn't really tried to appeal to the masses until they started building iPods. That was a step in the right direction. and the iPhone. but tradition and attitude is something they can't let go of. they want to be a "walled garden". No wonder Verizon was unable to do business with them--Verizon is very iron-fisted also--can you imagine the convos that must have taken place between Jobs and Verizon?? I would have loved to been a fly on the wall for that encounter!
most of the flash i run into is annoying banners and congratulations. youve won.
so likely i will not miss it. however there are lots and lots and lots of games created through flash though. so i will miss that. supporting flash would give millions of flash developers something to develop for. there are certain things i understand like no native multitasking. i kind of like that. having to remember to close stuff like on my blackberry is annoying. apples way is better imho. nice and simple concept. but flash brings nothing but goodness like games and more. so i just dont understand why the no support.
so likely i will not miss it. however there are lots and lots and lots of games created through flash though. so i will miss that. supporting flash would give millions of flash developers something to develop for. there are certain things i understand like no native multitasking. i kind of like that. having to remember to close stuff like on my blackberry is annoying. apples way is better imho. nice and simple concept. but flash brings nothing but goodness like games and more. so i just dont understand why the no support.
As long as people keep supporting Apple to the tune of 15 billion per quarter, SJ is not going to change how he does things. Apple has never tried to please everyone, they have been able to stick to their vision of the future for a very long time and it's now growing as more and more people see the benefit of what they have to offer. Just as with any company and product, we all have a choice to buy their products or not. Sales figures are telling Apple they are doing something right. If iPad fails to sell, they will continue to try and figure out what the next big thing is. Tablets so far have failed to take hold, it would seem from the hype the iPad will sell well and probably see it evolve over the next few years.
I don't think flash is going to make or break the iPad due to the app store. If the iPad becomes a huge hit, developers will want their content on the iPad and will find a way to deliver their content. Simple as that. The content is what's important, not how it's delivered. Flash is popular, but not the only choice.
The WAY that u have to close things on a BB IS annoying, but AT LEAST YOU CAN MULTITASK ON A BB, which is a lot more than I can say for Apple. The BB issue is simple one of interface design, which can be corrected more simply than just throwing out the baby with the bathwater like Apple has done with the iphone/ipod/iPad. Time for Apple to step up and make a multitasking phone OS.
What are the advantages of flash, to say HTML5 or any other similar platform. If I was a developer making an internet application what are the advantages/disadvantages of flash?
I wouldn't miss flash at all. Anything that I want flash for usually has an App equivalent. I'd like to see a stronger push in the HTML5 direction, due to the fact that it is easier on most people's CPU.
Just to point out Apple's official stand on Flash:
About Adobe Flash Player
The standard for delivering high-impact, rich web content. Designs, animation and application user interfaces are deployed immediately across all browsers and platforms, attracting and engaging users with a rich web experience.
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/internet_utilities/adobeflashplayer.html
So it seems that Apple believes Flash is the standard for multimedia content on the web, despite them refusing to have it on their ultramobile devices. Makes it sort of tough to have the best web browsing experience, doesn't it?
About Adobe Flash Player
The standard for delivering high-impact, rich web content. Designs, animation and application user interfaces are deployed immediately across all browsers and platforms, attracting and engaging users with a rich web experience.
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/internet_utilities/adobeflashplayer.html
So it seems that Apple believes Flash is the standard for multimedia content on the web, despite them refusing to have it on their ultramobile devices. Makes it sort of tough to have the best web browsing experience, doesn't it?
The only advantage of Flash is that it is here today. Web developers can and do use it today. Flash is used in video, banner crap and also for site navigation. If you do a search for web templates, you'll find a lot of pre-coded templates available for sale at reasonable prices. You'll also find the vast majority are Flash sites. So an advantage is the availability of pre-coded templates - most containing Flash elements.
HTML5 is not ready today for web developers. It's a scripting code developed by Apple and Google. You see HTML5 on YouTube (owned by Google) and some selected sites that are also owned or controlled by Apple or Google. There are no HTML5 editors available today for the general web developing market.
HTML5 is tomorrow's web technology, but tomorrow is supposed to be around 2012 before general release. When an editor becomes available, it should have pretty good adoption rates. But currently, there are to many exceptions in the code to make editors possible. I'm sure it will all be worked out, but today is not that day.
You can use simple HTML, CSS and Java-script to accomplish a lot. You'd have websites that were devoid of the "pazzaz" to which we've become accustomed. The content would be the same and there would be much less "intrusion". This would be welcomed. But advertisers are sneaks little bastards and I'm sure they will give you pop-ups in HTML5 also.
I just re-did a website to accomodate Lord Jobs vision of no-Flash. The new site doesn't have quite the dynamic look that the Flash site had (no banner ads on the old site, in fact, no ads at all). But I must say the new site loads in a quarter of the time and is completely viewable on the iPhone (before I had to use a re-direct to an iPhone compatible site). I don't really care that much about catering to the iPhone, but eliminating the Flash elements makes the page load so much faster, I think this is a huge benefit.
I'm still wishing that Flash would be supported i the iPad (which it never will). The web will be slightly duller without Flash, but will be a lot nicer. Of course HTML5 may very well offer the benefits of Flash without the overhead security problems. It's still a couple of years before we'll really know.