Flash on the iPhone is a technical not political problem
There has been a lot of speculation lately that politics between Adobe and Apple are causing the delay in bringing Flash to the iPhone.
However, beyond proving that there's tremendous demand for Flash support on the iPhone I believe these political ramblings are irrelevant.
While Adobe and Apple have had their differences in the past I think this is a purely a technical issue not a political one.
Apple does not have an alternative that competes with Flash.
There is no conflict of interest.
Flash has an install base of over 90% of all computers
1 and it is now the norm on websites for both advertising and video playback. As such Flash is an integral part of the Internet experience.
Finally, as mentioned, if the amount of news and blog posts about Adobe / Apple politics is any indicator there is clearly tremendous demand from iPhone fans and developers.
And why shouldn't iPhone owners expect Flash support on their
iPhones? Wasn't it Apple who stated in one of the
original iPhone ads:
"This is not a watered down version of the Internet, or the mobile version of the Internet, or the 'kinda sorta looks like the Internet', Internet. It's just the Internet on your phone."
So the demand, the interest, and the benefit are there for all parties including iPhone fans, iPhone developers, Adobe and Apple. What then is the problem?
Here's my stab at the issues:
- Potential hardware dependencies in Flash such as video codec support may mean many of the most popular Flash applications may simply not work well or at all on the current iPhone hardware.
- Limitations in processing power on the iPhone may lead to inconsistent or poor experiences with Flash applications in general
- Processor requirements of flash may well severely drain and reduce battery life.
- AT&T's wireless network is extremely limited, thus extraneous Flash applications in web pages such as advertisements might diminish the whole iPhone Internet experience.
Off hand I can think of one simple solution that may mitigate many of these limitations.
In order to prevent advertisements and other Flash applications from needlessly using up processor cycles, draining the battery and wasting precious wireless data bandwidth the iPhone interface could simply require an extra click before a Flash application begins to load in a web page.
Anyone who's a fan of the
FireFox Flashblock extension will understand what I mean. Flash applications are merely represented in the page by a Flash button and will not load / play unless first clicked upon.
This simple
UI enhancement would solve the problem of needlessly wasting limited bandwidth and processor cycle by allowing users to ignore all Flash applications except those which they specifically choose to load.
Alternatively in order to avoid taxing AT&T's network Apple could block flash usage while on AT&T's network all together, but don't think this will be necessary.
Labels: adobe, apple, ATT, firefox, flash, flashblock, iPhone
T-Mobile blocks Twitter
This strikes a cord lately with cellular services like
Verizon and then
AT&T paying lip service to "open". And people say we don't need net neutrality laws? I can't wait to see what becomes of this issue.
From:
Alternageek Technology Podcast > T-Mobile blocks Twitter? (updated) "T-Mobile would like to bring to your attention that the Terms and Conditions of service, to which you agreed at activation, indicate ?? some Services are not available on third-party networks or while roaming. We may impose credit, usage, or other limits to Service, cancel or suspend Service, or block certain types of calls, messages, or sessions (such as international, 900, or 976 calls) at our discretion." Therefore, T-Mobile is not in violation of any agreement by not providing service to Twitter. T-Mobile regrets any inconvenience, however please note that if you remain under contract and choose to cancel service, you will be responsible for the $200 early termination fee that would be assessed to the account at cancellation."
From:
T-Mobile Turns Off Twitter?I?m a T-Mobile customer and testing the issue right now, although I have received sporadic updates as recently as last night. It would be quite astonishing if T-Mobile is blocking an opt-in text messaging service considering how common they are and T-Mobile?s relatively small market share in the U.S. However, it wouldn?t be the first time the company has been at loggerheads with a third party service. Earlier this year, T-Mobile blocked VOIP-based free calling service Truphone, but eventually lost in court.
There's an bit more including some responses from twitter on it at the interesting customer empowerment site getsatisfaction.com.
GetSatisfaction.com > T-Mobile Shuts Down Twitter Service for Good?Labels: ATT, cellular, cellular industry, common carrier, getsatisfaction.com, net neutrality, network neutrality, open-access, SMS, T-Mobile, T-Mobile sucks, truphone, twitter, verizon, VOIP
The future is open, Verizon to support any device or app on it's network?
Some people may overlook the importance of this.
Verizon opens up, will support any device, any app on its networkHowever, the end-to-end (aka. common carrier, aka. network neutrality) principal of the Internet is slowly taking over how other networks operate as well.
These networks are increasingly finding themselves *competing* with the Internet and they cannot do so without opening themselves up and creating a level playing field for innovators as well. You can see it with cellular networks (competing with wifi & the infinite array of internet services), traditional telephony (competing with VOIP), and to some degree cable TV, which is now competing in a very direct way for the attention of younger generations.
What this eventually means for Verizon customers is:
- Good bye having to *rent* the GPS features on your phone.
- Good bye ridiculous 10 cent text messages.
- Good bye paying $2.99 for ring tones.
- Good by buy or rent stupid applications like "weather" on your sell phone.
- Good bye having to pay $10 a month extra just to be able to blog photos from your camera capable phone.
- Good by having to choose a cell phone based the scant choices your cellular company provided.
What this means is in the long run a veritable cornucopia of services will be available to you on your phone, whatever entrepreneurs or anyone else can dream up, and all you'll have to pay Verizon for is the bandwidth you use.
What Verizon looses off charging service fees for few obtuse services they will MORE than make up for selling bandwidth for the 100,000's of thousand mobile services that will increase the utility, use and validity of their network.
Verizon no longer gets to tax based on the contents of the package or the type of service. Unlike the cable companies they no longer get to pick which content makers get to use their network.
They're now pledging to be a "carrier neutral" shipping company for bits. This throwing away of arbitrary and frankly stupid criteria can now mean innovation can really happen. Verizon will no longer arbitrate the winners and losers instead the playing field will be open to ALL comers. All, specifically meaning anyone who has access to the Internet or a cell phone. This means potentially billions of users can use or offer services or benefit from services on their network instead of the few dozen services Verizon offers its customers now.
It is funny to watch how the cellular provider "tax" on items like the absurdly overpriced 10 cent text message and other capabilities of cell phones have shifted and distorted innovation which has routed itself around them.
This taxing has been going on, and will still continue to go on for a while, but with Verizon declaring its cellular network neutral, the apple iPhone challenging traditional rules set down by cellular carriers and above all Google throwing down the gauntlet in helping create an open source mobile OS the paradigm for these closed networks like cable, cellular, and traditional telephony seem to be opening up.
The future is open.
Related article:
Apple to Unveil Faster IPhone, AT&T's Stephenson Says - Bloomberg.comLabels: ATT, cable industry, cellular industry, common carrier, competition, end-to-end, google, innovation, iPhone, net neutrality, network neutrality, open source, verizon, VOIP
Rupert from
twittervlog, one of my favorite video blogs as of late, posted
this excellent video of his thoughts on videoblogging since returning from
Pixelodeon Fest 2007 in L.A.
His words are of equal merit.
Today, I realised that everything i've been looking for is right here in front of me.
It's happening right now.
It might not be your dream, but it's mine, and I've only put the pieces together after meeting everyone at Pixelodeon and seeing all the curated sessions of films.
This is why i've fallen in love with internet video distribution. Funny how it's taken me so long to realise the obvious.
I guess i was too busy looking ahead for the one big idea, and not realising that it wasn't a 'show'.
As we say in Jedi school:
It's not the End, it's the Means Whereby.
And as the Dwarf said in Twin Peaks:
Let's rock.
I don't know this Jedi school that Rupert speaks of and I've never had the pleasure of following Twin Peaks, but Rupert's sentiment hits home for me.
Being in Los Angeles Pixelodeon was highly focused on the growth of
videoblogging as an industry with a heavy focus on so called shows and "episodic content", but in it's optimism over future growth as an industry what most pleased me is it retained and remembered it's roots. It is at it's core simply a new method of communications and therefore as much of a communications industry as an entertainment industry. And of course this changes everything.
This is something I think audio podcasters so often forget in their own strive to grow into an industry.
We call video blogging "video blogging" and not "video podcasting" because it isn't television and it isn't only about news and entertainment. It's roots and all the things that are important to it come from blogging world and remebering those roots are what keep videoblogging going strong.
Like blogging, videoblogging at it's core is just ordinary every day people speaking their mind, sharing their stories and simply communicating. In that videoblogging has and is succeeding beyond many of our wildest dreams.
In the video blogging world we are already living the dream, vlogging IS a success... all the beautiful things we've dreamed of have come true... all the "overwhelming intangibles" have been there since the first day people picked up their camera and posted videos to their blog.
This amazing ability between people across the world to connect on a deep, profound and personal level is inherent in the video blogging medium. Much more so then good old fashion text blogging, photo blogging or even audio blogging.
One might say though that this "message in the medium" has even been inherent in the web since before blogging, and that videoblogging is simply an extension of the obvious... of what the internet already is with all it's blogs, wikis, bulletin boards, mailing lists, and even it's earliest bulletin boards. However, it is clear that videoblogging is currently and for the near and foreseeable future the height of this fulfillment and that as we move forward this new space will continue to
bloom as it becomes accessible to more and more of the world. I truly believe we haven't even begun to reach the full potential of this sector; video as a tool for mass communications... not communicating TOO the masses... but for the masses to communicat with each other.
So while many, myself included, will always be struggling to take it to the next level, to grow this fledgling little hobby of ours into an entertainment and communications industry and to continue to improve on it and make it ever more accessible throughout the world the truth is we're already living the dream. We're already doing what we want to do.
Like blogging the majority of us may never make money off our video blogs, at least not directly, but that is of no consequence for us. Videoblogging connects us in new ways and opens not just new doorways but a whole realm of possibilities around the world. It's a very large step down that path to the new global village.
It is not about the entertainment for us... it's simply about a radical new shift in communications. All the power of CNN to connect with people around the world and much more is now afforded to anyone with a digital camera and internet access.
In many respects videoblogging has fulfilled on all those misdirected concepts of ubiquitous video telephones and then some. That we didn't realize that realtime one to one video wasn't the solution is inconsequential. The real answer is web-time one to many... and whatever role those original concepts of video telephony held we can now see that while they had may have their place they are to video misdirected. They are in fact as misdirected as the concept that Alexander Graham Bell had that the telephone would be the new radio, broadcasting messages to the world.
Recently I've read a lot of hype about the iPhone and despite the slow AT&T EDGE network, and despite the fact that it doesn't have a video camera and can only shoot still photos... despite this and yet because it is has ubiquitous and powerful wifi accessibilty with full and unprecedented access to all webservices (read: END to END interoperability) it will wether it gets it's video capabilities soon... or wether AT&T and the EDGE continue to suck... or even if apple refuses to open the platform to software development it has truly changed the game and will accelerate this world where we will all be able to participate in a ubiquitous and immersive media rich communications revolution. It has accelerated this eventuality by at least one or two years.
As our ability to both create and respond to each other with rich many-to-many audio, text, video and photo becomes untethered from the desktop the power and utility of these medium as tools of communication will expand exponentially.
Apple's iPhone's with it's many great promises and despite it's few minor flaws brings new and unprecidented access to this world of media rich communications on the street, in the world and puts it at our fingertips and in our pockets. That it doesn't yet fullfil every promise hardly matters. It has changed the game, set new precident and laid out the model for all others to follow. Within a year or two's time we'll not just have $500 iphones and $1000 Nokia N90 series phones but sub $100 phones which are capable of ubiqutiously accessing and creating many to many video, audio, and photo communications around on cellular networks, wifi, and hopefully even wimax... where everything we know now about these communications will simply explode and we'll realize huge new potentials and efficiencies we have yet to even dream of.
The model is already set, and some would say has been since the internet began, with it's inherent end-to-end architecture. All that remains now is to sharpen the toolsets and services, to cheapen and improve the hardware, to make it more accessible, and to enjoy, revel in and evangelize these new freedoms.
Rupert's video, shot so simply with a Nokia video cam as he speaks his mind rushing to work down london streets, not only summarizes the optimism I've felt about videoblogging since I discovered it myself in 2004 but is also for me a demonstration what it's all about, communicating and connecting with friends, family and people of like mind you have yet to meet no matter where they are in the world.
Re:
Waking up at Twittervlog.tvP.S. Thanks, Rupert for the inspiration, I hope you don't mind my theivery of the idea and spirit of your message and I hope that maybe I've expanded on it in some worth manner if not just exposed it to a few more eyeballs. ;)
Labels: ATT, digital divide, iPhone, London, mobilemediaworkgroup, movlogging, N93, N95, Nokia, Pixelodeon, Pixelodeon2007, the future, twittervlog, vloggersations
