The Apple Tablet

[pauljholden]

re: Flash

I think there's lots of reasons not to have it, 1) it's not really an open standard, 2) it's a dog that falls over a lot, 3) how exactly would a flash game that requires the use of a keyboard work? look how long apple took to figure out cut and paste, 4) the iPhone was able, by virtue of numbers, to get Youtube to move away from flash and the bbc to offer a flash alternative. 5) html 5 is promising to offer truckloads of interactivity at a fraction of the processing power. 6) the iPhone doesn't play video inline, so flash would probably be the same.

(And, I'm sure the fact that the lack of flash means if you want to write a game, you've got to buy a mac and become a mac developer doesn't annoy apple in the least)

Also: seems odd to complain about the iPad's lack of of flash when the exact same complaints where levelled at the iPhone when it offered the same 'best browsing' experience yet didn't include flash.

Anyhue, I'm not surprised nor that bothered by lack of flash, if anything I'm sure I'll not miss the horrendous interactive ads that a feature of internet live on the desktop - maybe apple are right, maybe not having flash IS the best browsing experience ;P

-pj

[Jim_Campbell]

They may as well be trying to be the font police, or railing against bad site design.

Hardly ... Adobe's implementation of Flash on the Mac is a joke. All their Mac coding is pretty woeful, TBH, and I think Jobs is firing shots across their bows. I have little doubt that Flash can run on the iPhone, but hearing my laptop fans max out every time I hit the most basic piece of Flash content when they don't do that rendering in Cinema 4D ... well, I wouldn't be sorry to see Adobe pressured into doing a better job.

Cheers

Jim

[Steve Green]

I'm not a flash defender, but it just appears to be a couple of industry gorillas indulging in a pissing contest.

How the functionality works on Apples devices is more down to the site or games designers really - it's not down to Apple to try to control.

I'll be interested to see it in action though.

I'd be more impressed if Apple would get off their fucking arse and sort out a 64bit quicktime implementation - oh and Pro-Res codec for Windows would be nice as well...

[Dan Kelly]

I'm not a flash defender, but it just appears to be a couple of industry gorillas indulging in a pissing contest.

Indeed it is.  At least in this case Apple is advocating Open Standards vs. Adobe's closed one.  HTML5 and H264 is a much better way to go.

The only reason that websites like to develop in Flash is that someone can't go "view source"ß

[pauljholden]

Right, despite initial worries, it turns out that the iPad's screen resolution of 1024x768 is actually FRIENDLIER to 2000AD than it is to US comics. And by friendlier I mean it's closer to the 2000AD aspect ratio - meaning that, though it's still reduced slightly more than the US equivilient, there's a LOT less deadspace on the page - US comics, by comparison, have to have a fair old chunk to the left and right (and if I were developing a comic reader, I'd turn those into subtle navigation buttons just so it doesn't look like deadspace)

I've also printed a 1024x768page out at the correct dpi, producing a 2000AD page as it might be read, and, though text is small, it's still readable (again, if I were developing something, I'd include a simple, quick ZOOM for dialogue).

So, that's me. Counting down the days til I can buy one of these suckers! See you in the future!

-pj

[Jim_Campbell]

Here's my computer running one open window in Safari -- Facebook:



What's that you say? 3.5% of CPU capacity in use? Hey, that's pretty good! Now, let's try clicking on a Flash game in Facebook ...



Whoa! 60% of CPU capacity? And my fans have gone from 1800rpm to 5320rpm.

There's nothing Apple can do to make Adobe's crappy code run better on their hardware, this is something that Adobe need to fix, and have needed to fix for quite some time now. You're right, Steve, about the pissing contest, but when Adobe do incredibly stupid shit like breaking Expose in Photoshop, they need taking to task.

Cheers

Jim

[Emperor]

I fully expect the comixology guys to update their apps to suit - and, if so, there's a bunch of good, readable comic content already on there...

They've made a little demo of what it will look like:

http://vimeo.com/9029643

You are right about the dead space.

I'm not that fussed about the panel-to-panel movement - I'd prefer something like they have on the Adobe Reader where you can zoom to a size that suits and move around the page as you like, but I suspect that'll be an option too.

Now anyone know how the smaller publisher can get on comiXology? It would seem to be ideal for the small press to get on their for free or at a very low cost but I've had a nose around and can't find anything - it might be helpful to quite a few people to know where to sign up and get some tips on resolution, possible problems with font sizes, do you need to do anything fancy for the panel-to-panel scrolling? I think Alex de Campi is going to write something on this but if anyone has any resources then throw them in when you find them - it might even be worth starting a thread for it over in Creator Commons eventually.

[Jim_Campbell]

Some interesting thoughts on the iPad from John Gruber at Daring Fireball.

Cheers!

Jim

[Jim_Campbell]

They've made a little demo of what it will look like:

Well, that made me motion sick just watching, never mind trying to read it!

Cheers

Jim

[pauljholden]

They're usually their solution for reading comics designed to compensate for a small screen on a large screen - why not turn the thing 90degrees and just read the damn comics?

-pj

[Richmond Clements]

I've just been reading about this on the beeb. It seems this cpmputer can't actually run 2 apps at once? So you couldn't, for example, listen to spotify and read at the same time?
If this is the case then it strikes me as a bit bloody stupid!

[King Trout]

Oooh. You're all talking about new-fangled gadgets!

- Cletus

[pauljholden]

It's the same limit as the iPhone - also: it can run more than two apps at a time, but the apps running in the background are apple's apps - so, for example, you can listen to iTunes at the same time as reading a comic.

I don't want to turn into the apple defender guy here; I'd much rather be talking about what the iPad can mean for comics, but adding background apps may turn a great computer with some limits into a horrible computer with none - for example, I'm regularly running 16 full grown apps on my 2.6Ghz dual pro iMac (and god knows how many background processes) and sometimes it's a lot easier to fire up my iPhone to check email than it is to switch to email on the iMac...

There's an assumption that if apple included the things that they've deliberately included, everything on the system would be better (make it better! Add flash!) - but sometimes including those things can make them worse (ZOMG this computer is shit? why? I dunno... flash has crashed, I think, or my background spotify is tying up the network...).

-pj

[Richmond Clements]

Don't panic- PJ!
I'm a neutral observer on this one- I don't really care either way. My take on new fangled things is that if they're still going in a couple of years and getting a bit cheaper- then it's time to think about getting one.

I'd love it if you were right and this did help sell more comics. Like the one I linked up the thread a bit, for example...

[Jim_Campbell]

So you couldn't, for example, listen to spotify and read at the same time?

It's an iPod. The idea is that you use the iPod functionality to listen to music. Yes, I know people want to use other other music services but, as PJ notes, part of Apple's strategy is to limit functionality in order to improve user experience. If no simultaneous access to Spotify and another app is a deal-breaker for you, then that's the end of that.

Cheers

Jim