Android Prototype Tablet Running Flash

[FanIn80]

[Hack&Lube]

Since Google is full of nerds that name their things like the "Nexus One" (a take on the Nexus Six series from Blade Runner), they should produce it in clear plexi like this video and call it Orac.

[FanIn80]

Ha yeah. That would be pretty awesome. Well, I don't know about the Orac thing, but I like the idea of a clear plastic case.

[Barnes]

I am assuming you put the because the browser folded like a cheap tent?

[Russic]

Of course it's just a beta and is bound to be unstable, but it is kinda funny how he's bragging about it playing flash at the precise moment flash crashes the browser.

[FanIn80]

My favourite part is where he tries to recover by opening... Contacts!

[Flames0910]

but can it do mouseovers?

[Temporary_User]

I don't get what I'm watching here.

I have an iphone that crashes quite a bit when I try opening apps, I don't make videos and subsequent threads about it.

[Devils'Advocate]

Originally Posted by Temporary_User

I don't get what I'm watching here.

I have an iphone that crashes quite a bit when I try opening apps, I don't make videos and subsequent threads about it.

Seriously? I use my iPhone for hours every day and have never had a single crash. I think there might be something seriously wrong with your iPhone. Is it jailbroken? Have you installed packages from Cydia/Icey/Rock? Maybe you need to take it back to where you bought it from. An iPhone should NOT crash "quite a bit".

[BlackEleven]

Originally Posted by Devils'Advocate

Seriously? I use my iPhone for hours every day and have never had a single crash. I think there might be something seriously wrong with your iPhone. Is it jailbroken? Have you installed packages from Cydia/Icey/Rock? Maybe you need to take it back to where you bought it from. An iPhone should NOT crash "quite a bit".

I have an iPhone as well and the facebook app crashes with some regularity (once a week or so). It crashed the whole phone once to the point where I had to power it off and on. The rest of the apps seem fine. How much it crashes depends on lot on what apps you're running. Apple quality control process should weed a lot of them out, but a few are still going to get through.

[La Flames Fan]

I am so sick of hearing about Flash.

I designed with it when I was a younger, inexperienced designer but wouldn't go near it now. Sites like YouTube already play on non-Flash supported hardware.

Flash Sucks...Let it Die.

[Russic]

Originally Posted by Temporary_User

I don't get what I'm watching here.

I have an iphone that crashes quite a bit when I try opening apps, I don't make videos and subsequent threads about it.

Something sounds wrong with your phone. I'd say mine (which is jailbroken) crashes about once every 2 months.

The video is entertaining because the guy is bad mouthing the ipad for a feature it lacks just as that feature crashes the tablet. You can't take it very seriously because it's so early on in development, but the timing of the bug is almost perfect.

[FanIn80]

"Good thing I didn't get an iPad, because this one has FLASH!!1!oneone11!."

*browser crashes*

"Whoops... ... ... So, here's... uhh... Contacts...."


...yeah, that's not funny at all.

[Russic]

It's also an important lesson for a company that is trying to strengthen it's brand ... When your product isn't ready to be shown, don't f'n show it. Do a mockup video like the Courier.

[FanIn80]

Yeah, exactly. People always bitch about... The Company That Shall Not Be Named... having such tight security around their products, but like any good creator, you never want to show something off until it's actually finished.

[Hack&Lube]

LOL Apple fans trolling right back without subtlety

I admit I was/am part of the problem but I'm a little sick of this stuff in the tech forums now. It's not funny at all. It's just technology and the business of new technology being stupid as usual. Everyone deserves something that just works, nomatter what the brand name on the product is.

My philosophy will always be to support as many formats and much software as possible. Even if that means supporting legacy formats and having cross-platform emulation, that's the most important thing for technology for me because being able to experience everything that's out there without fear of incompatibility and the ability to enjoy all the things have been made in the past is very important to me.

[FanIn80]

This is something I've wrestled with throughout my career. When to cut off support?

My rule of thumb is the cut-off point comes when supporting old technologies gets in the way of the adoption of current technologies. I just can't see a logical reason for holding back progress for the sake of people who aren't willing to adapt.

Some people in the world still use abacuses. Imagine if the rest of the world waited for them to be ready before we all moved on. It's important to recognize that there is nothing wrong with wanting to still use an abacus. Where I have the problem is with people who want everyone else to still use an abacus along with them.

There's a guy I used to work with who would get pissed off if you answered a text while having lunch with him. We'd be sitting there for 15 minutes talking about pointless crap, and then I'd get a text from a buddy asking if I want him to get a ticket for me for a show that night... I'd (naturally) respond to that, and then he'd go into a diatribe about how rude people with cell phones are these days. I'd always remind him that there's no point in making progress in the way we communicate, if we don't also make progress in the rules of communication. This isn't 1950 anymore. He does have the ability to recognize how the world has changed, and choose not to be offended by people's use of current technologies.

I find progress to be one of those hot-button topics with a lot of people. I don't know why. Maybe some people personalize progress and see it as themselves that are being left behind?

Admittedly, I'm a pretty adventurous guy. I get pretty excited about new things and I'm usually more eager than most to play around with them.

[Hack&Lube]

It's not about abacus' or cellphones or the changing of the physical technology. It's the fact that with modern computing power and capacity, there is no real limitation on what can be supported, thusly the issue of format/standards support is purely a software thing and not a physical thing where physical old technology prevents new physical technology from being adopted.

You had the same issue with trying to get movies in the wrong format to play on your playstation. This is basically what I am talking about. I want all formats to be playable/enjoyable/usable always because there will always be content out there in some format that may not be the latest thing but is still something of merit. There is no physical reason why it should be impossible. Man, I still have tons of VHS tapes that I need to convert to digital one day because there is a lot of stuff I have on tape that simply cannot be found in modern formats.

In all of this, especially with the flash debate, there is no actual impediment, no real reason aside from a business decision and Apple's clout. Sure you might think that flash sucks and flash is slow and I would probably agree, but I think there's a ton of great stuff out there made in the past 10 years in flash that I always want to be able to enjoy. One of the worst things about the internet is that great content disappears everyday and is not archived perfectly somewhere.

[FanIn80]

I'm sorry, but this is not a business decision. I know it's the new, cool thing to hate and distrust Apple, but there is solid, factual evidence that supports their claims of Flash being outdated and blocking progress. On top of that factual evidence, we have other companies like Microsoft and Opera coming out in support of the same comments Apple made (although, a bit more friendly about it).

I'm just unwilling to accept the "Apple just wants to make money" argument. It's nothing more than a cop out. Maybe a smokescreen at best. If anything, they stand to loose a lot of money on their stance. There are a LOT of Mac users who are also Adobe users. These people rely on Adobe products in order to do their jobs, and they wouldn't hesitate to buy a PC instead of a Mac, if Adobe ever pulled the plug on their Mac support.

So, putting that nonsense aside, and looking at the real aspects of this issue...


The technological landscape is shifting towards handheld, lightweight devices.

Look at the last 5 years. We saw desktop sales give way to laptop sales. Then we saw laptop sales give way to netbook sales. Now we're seeing netbook sales give way to (whatever new category the iPad represents) sales.

Flash was great, but it's served its purpose. It's part of the old desktop world, and while it made the transition to laptops, it barely made the transition to netbooks. It won't make the transition to handhelds, because they just don't have the hardware to support it. I'm not talking about processing power here. I'm talking about battery life, security and reliability.

The way these new devices are being used in our lives, we can't allow for huge power drains or security issues or even random crashes. When I pull my cell phone out, I need it to do it's job. I don't want to sit there and troubleshoot something just so I can make a phone call. I also want to know that if I'm phoning the bank, there isn't some unknown security hole on my phone sending all my key-presses off to someone's remote database. Lastly, I can't be plugging it in every 4 hours to recharge it.

HTML5 does everything Flash can do, but it does it using considerably less power, with considerably less security risks and considerably less crashing.

While it's nice to see some devices coming out that are making a big deal about supporting Flash, and I have no doubt they'll make a pile of money off of people who think they're missing something without it, at the end of the day these devices are causing more damage than good.

What's going to happen if people start buying an Android tablet with Flash, only to discover for themselves the very thing that's already been mentioned? They're going to do the same thing people always do... they're going to say that "all tablets suck because they are unsecure, have lousy batteries and don't work properly."

Instead of encouraging companies to try to force proprietary 3rd-party interpreters (like Flash) onto these new devices, we should be encouraging companies to adopt the new, open standards that have been designed with these very devices in mind. We should also be encouraging web developers to move forward using HTML5, CSS and JavaScript... and, lastly, we should be encouraging Adobe to replace their Flash application with a new development tool that allows people to develop using these new open standards.

PS: I know Adobe is starting to add H.264 support to Flash, but there are other reasons for it not being adaptable to new devices. Mouseover vs touch is one example.

Anyway, this is just how I see things.

[FanIn80]

...but this is probably too much discussion for a thread that was obviously just a simple joke-post. It's unfortunate that there wasn't an Android thread handy for me to bump, and I had to create one from scratch, but I think everyone realizes it was all in jest.

I think, with all the "jokes" Apple users constantly see in our threads here, firing back with one of our own shouldn't be considered all that untoward. I'm actually relieved at the fairly mellow response. I was afraid I was going to get melted off the face of the planet for posting this, even in spite of my aforementioned observation.