This article talks about how Apple is losing some of it’s lustre among tech people:
But, there’s evidence that Apple is losing some of its luster with techies. The company’s stubborn refusal to support Adobe Flash (which wins props with some IT pros but breaks a lot of Web sites), its draconian and ambiguous review policy for the App Store, and it’s strong-arm legal tactics with HTC and Gizmodo are having a negative impact on how young, tech-savvy professionals view Apple, according to YouGov’s BrandIndex.
I’m definitely not with Apple when it comes to strong arming HTC and Gizmodo, but when it comes to Adobe Flash, I am conflicted. I count myself among those who would like to use Flash on the iPhone, but I also am fully behind Apple’s efforts to try to destroy this monstrosity that’s been poisoning the Internet for years. You can see why it is to be loathed here and here. All valid reasons for hating Flash.
The only aspect of not having Flash on the iPhone that really drives me nuts are for video playback sites. This is something that probably will be mitigated by HTML5, when, sometime next Century, W3C finally gets around to cementing the standard. But will anyone use HTML5? There are issues with that as well, namely that it pushes video support on to the browser. I would like to see Flash die and be replaced by a W3C standard, but in the mean time it’s highly prevalent on the Internet, and becomes more widespread while the W3C dithers on a solid HTML5 standard.
Apple didn’t “strong arm” Gizmodo.
Gizmodo broke California state law and bragged about it, and the cops came.
The “connection” between Apple and the cops is tenuous at best, and I’ve seen nothing to connect Apple directly to how the warrant was issued or served beyond handwaving, apart from the obvious “Apple told the cops that this dude had admitted to buying THIER STOLEN PROPERTY and would very much like it back” – and that’s not “strongarming”.
(And as for HTC? If patent lawsuits are “strong arming”, then all that’s going on is every company that ever made something strong arming every other company.
Why no complaints about Nokia “strong arming” Apple?)
There’s already a practical non-Flash web video standard, in h.264 (which is what HTML5 uses, in practice, as well as Apple), even if you don’t use HTML5 <Video> tags.
Any video playback site that requires Flash isn’t worth looking at anyway; and there’s nothing stopping any of them from using h.264 right now, regardless of W3C’s dithering on “finalizing” things. But, then, I hate web video to begin with and have no care for Hulu, since I don’t watch network TV.
[Arguably the real slowdown in adoption is that IE8 doesn’t support the Video tag already. Nobody actually needs to wait for W3C approval, since, thank God, they’re not a Government regulatory body.]
Yep, I count as a Flash hater. But, as far as h.264 adoption, CBS is already committed to the HTML5 method, ABC is using the app method. Other sites are certainly examining their options.
Flash was great for artists but sucked for programmers for many moons until fairly recently. And, honestly, it does nothing but slow a site down. Good UI design and information architecture still rules sparklies at the end of the day.
As for the rest… meh. It’s a *nix box that has better integration with Corporate functions that you don’t have to screw with. Yes, yes, I know about Ubuntu and such, been deploying Linux since .9 kernels, but Apple has already beaten them to the seamless, “it just works” integration game, and I’m tired of screwing around under the hood.
As a matter of fact, I expect my new Macbook Pro with SSD to arrive any day now.
Facebook has also begun its conversion to all HTML5…
Not that I am a big facebook fan but it is a very influential player out there.
From Sigivald: “(And as for HTC? If patent lawsuits are “strong armingâ€, then all that’s going on is every company that ever made something strong arming every other company.
“Why no complaints about Nokia “strong arming†Apple?)”
Yes, enforcing patents counts as strong-arming, especially if they are software patents! Heck, the way Microsoft enforces copyright is sometimes strongarming.
As for the stolen-property issue: although I would hope that someone would make a good-faith effort to find the original owner of some device, I would also expect that if it was found in a bar (as was claimed), it wouldn’t be stolen property, but instead found property. Although I wonder: how the heck do you find the original owner of an iPhone, even if it’s clearly a prototype of some sort?
I have mixed feelings about the Gizmodo issue.
As for myself, I decided Apple is evil over two things: the iron-fisted control over the AppStore, and the continual de-modding of those who mod their iPhones so that they could use their phones to run unapproved apps and to use networks besides AT&T (which is crucial when AT&T’s network in places where is either unreliable or nonexistent altogether).
It’s a free market.. either use the iPhone and the associated App Store and the current ties to AT&T in the States, or use something else. I don’t see how that’s ‘evil’. Even the iPad has finally proven the viability of a tablet product, and rumors of Verizon/Google Android tablet already exist. So, you still have options.
Other options suck? Sounds like a market opportunity.
I agree: this is why I want nothing to do with Apple’s products.
Having said that, I also sympathize with those who simply want to use their iPhone the way they want to use them. After all, it’s their property: they should be free to alter it however they want!
I’ve used their products for years, and generally can’t stand Microsoft products, and got tired of constantly fighting with Linux (I get paid to do that professionally).
“Any video playback site that requires Flash isn’t worth looking at anyway;”
Wow. A comment like that doesn’t scream “fanboi” at all. You should try joining the world most of us live in, where we don’t get so attached to brands that we have to prove to everyone why our choice is the most awesome one ever and everyone should do exactly as we do.
Personally, I think Andy pretty much hit it on the head there. If you don’t like the way Apple implements the iPhone, don’t get one. As for de-modding, they have a contract with AT&T. If they don’t make efforts to keep peoples phones on AT&T, they really aren’t upholding their end of the contract.
The only thing about the Flash stuff that annoys me is that Steve Jobs was pitching the lack of Flash as though leaving it out was some kind of feature. But I was never going to spend that much money on an iPad. So what I think of the Flash issue is pretty irrelevant.