I was talking with my brother today. it was his opinion that the
decision by adobe would not have happened wthout the death of steve
jobs. he was telling me that their feud was so bitter that neither
would have ever changed their minds. I'm just glad that his
unwillingness to allow flash on apple devices lead to us getting a
more accessible media. good luck to us all. thanks steve, max
On Nov 11, 2011, at 11:10 PM, Chris Blouch wrote:
True, but I think Adobe might be paving the cowpath. Apple/Jobs
threw down the gauntlet forcing many developers to dip their toes
into HTML5 who might have just hung out forever in the Flash camp.
So with the popularity of the iOS platform we're already getting
benefits of mindshare from developers, product managers and company
heads who are all painfully aware of the lack of Flash on their new
shiny toys. Nothing gets a product onto the HTML bandwagon faster
than the executive VP or CEO squeaking about not being able to
access something on their iPad.
CB
On 11/11/11 2:10 PM, Ricardo Walker wrote:
Right,
I agree. What I said was, this won't mean much for accessibility
in the short term. Flash is still saturating the market. Its not
just going to go away over night. Especially when Adobe is still
putting out updates.
Ricardo Walker
[email protected]
Twitter& Skype: rwalker296
www.mobileaccess.org
On Nov 11, 2011, at 1:52 PM, Chris Blouch wrote:
What developers yearn for is write-once for all platform
solutions. So if I can make one web page that generally works for
iOS and Desktop, why do a 'separate but equal' implementation in
flash? Everybody knows that eventually serving two masters ends
badly. Sure flash will linger on but fewer resources will go to
the multiple-implementation path. Some would claim that the whole
App Store model itself will collapse as developers can just do
HTML5 web apps for Android, iOS, Desktop and whatever else comes
down the pipe, at least for large swaths of the application
functionality space.
CB
On 11/11/11 1:36 PM, Ricardo Walker wrote:
Hmm,
In the mobile space yes. But I don't see this news effecting
flash on desktops anytime soon. Soon meaning 3 years or less in
this case. And its flash on desktops that is the real thorn in
the backside as far as accessibility is concerned.
Ricardo Walker
[email protected]
Twitter& Skype: rwalker296
www.mobileaccess.org
On Nov 11, 2011, at 12:06 PM, Cara Quinn wrote:
I thought all of you might find this really interesting. This is
actually really amazing news for us in the blind community!
This is the first step to dealing with some of the
extraordinarily difficult issues we've all had at times in
accessing important content on the web!
This is truly a wonderful step! woohoo!
Smiles,
Cara :)
---
Adobe discontinues mobile Flash Player
Sylvie Barak
11/9/2011 3:51 PM EST
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--Adobe Systems Inc. announced Wednesday
(Nov. 9) it will restructure its operations, a move which will
result in layoffs for some 750 employees and the discontinuation
of Flash Player for mobile devices. The upcoming release of
Flash Player 11.1 for Android and BlackBerry PlayBook will be
the last update to the software.
In a shocking 180-degree twist, Adobe said in a blog post it
would no longer be working to adapt Flash Player for mobile to
new browsers, OS versions or different device configurations,
and that it would instead focus on building applications for
mobile and investment in HTML5 - long considered a rival standard.
“HTML5 is now universally supported on major mobile devices, in
some cases exclusively,” wrote Danny Winokur, vice president and
GM of Adobe’s interactive development team, adding that this now
made HTML5 superior in terms of creating and deploying content
in the browser across mobile platforms.
“We are excited about this, and will continue our work with key
players in the HTML community, including Google, Apple,
Microsoft and RIM, to drive HTML5 innovation they can use to
advance their mobile browsers,” he added.
Winokur said Adobe would now urge developers to continue
packaging native apps with Adobe AIR instead.
“The announcement to no longer develop Flash Players for mobile
devices is an admission by Adobe not so much about the
superiority of HTML5, but more about HTML5 momentum and the
incredible amount of resources it takes Adobe to maintain the
Flash player for so many different chips sets and mobile OSes
that change generations two to three times per year,” said
analyst Jack Gold of Gold Associates.
Indeed, in the mobile space where OS versions and chips change
so quickly, Gold says Flash for mobile has been a “resource
nightmare” for Adobe. “We could have seen this coming,” he added.
The war of words over whether Flash was right for mobile has
been raging for years now, with Steve Jobs and the Apple Inc.
camp firmly opposed to Adobe’s offerings on the basis of their
inherent instability and battery drainage. So adamant was Jobs,
in fact, that he famously wrote a 1500 word missive about what
he saw as the platform’s failings, subsequently banning it from
iOS altogether.
Some see today’s announcement by Adobe as surrender and an
acknowledgment of defeat, whilst others see the move as a simple
repackaging and rebranding exercise, as long as Adobe Air (Adobe
Integrated Runtime) lives on.
AIR-a cross-platform runtime environment for building rich
internet applications using Adobe Flash, Adobe Flex, HTML, and
Ajax-can be run as desktop applications or on mobile devices.
The runtime supports installable applications on Windows, Linux,
Mac OS and some mobile operating systems such as iOS and Android.
“AIR wraps Flash and runs outside the browser, so it’s not
subject to the browser restrictions,” technology pundit and
software expert Simon Bisson told EE Times adding that a lot of
Flash’s problems had been down to the browser sandbox. Bisson
claimed Android Flash, for example, was let down by its lack of
touch capabilities for the browser - two point only.
AIR, however, is multi touch and allows much more hardware
access from outside the browser, making it easier to manage
resources like battery too. A good example of AIR in action is
the BlackBerry PlayBook UI, which is all AIR.
Adobe's mobile future up in the AIR
AIR has already seen a fair measure of success, with apps based
on the platform available not only on iOS, but also at the top
of the Android market. “It’s not as obvious as Flash, as it
looks like just another app, and Adobe has now launched the app-
bundled runtime for Android, which is even less visible,” said
Bisson.
AIR’s low level hardware integration also means better GPU
support and Flash’s 3D libraries are much more advanced than
WebGLs, meaning it might be the logical choice to do 3D in AIR,
especially with support from frameworks like Marmalade and Unity.
“A lot of what Flash does HTML can’t yet do,” he added, calling
Flash more of a test pilot trying things out that would later
end up getting integrated into HTML, like DRM for video for
example, something HTML5 is still unable to do. Thus, for
applications like Netflix, for instance, AIR would still very
much be a go-to market.
“It's never really been a matter of competing between the two
(HTML5 and Flash), though some people do put it in those terms,”
Bisson admitted.
“Apple may be gloating, but it’s not so much that HTML5 is
better, as it is that Adobe just isn’t capable of providing the
amount of resource that an open-sourced, standards-based
approach can offer,” added Gold, saying the rivalry was more
akin to the more popular VHS winning over technically superior
Beta all over again.
“This will accelerate the deployment of HTML5 content, not just
for mobile, but also for PC/Mac platforms,” Gold posited.
Bisson, meanwhile, said he believed this might only hold true
for in-browser use. “Outside the browser, it's more complex,” he
said, saying most developers were using HTML5 for web anyway and
that Flash for advertising had never really made it to mobile.
Indeed, Adobe recently announced the acquisition of Natobi,
creator of PhoneGap, giving the firm the opportunity to provide
tools to developers to quickly create HTML5 content for phone
ads that’s supported by virtually every mobile browser.
“I just don't buy it as surrender,” said Bisson adding, “change
of strategy? Yes. And, an unwillingness to dumb down the
capabilities of the platform for mobile browsers, which still
lag behind the desktop considerably.”
Even on the desktop, however, some see a trend of developers
moving away from developing rich content in Flash in favor of
Javascript, CSS, and HTML5, which has native support for video.
On the other hand, Adobe has released tools that will allow
mobile developers to write a program on a single platform and
deploy it across several major mobile platforms, including
Android, iOS, WindowsPhone and the BlackBerry OS.
“AIR becomes direct competition for native frameworks that way,”
explained Bisson, adding that the simplicity of writing
something once in AIR and being able to deploy it across several
operating systems was a major strength. Others have argued,
however, that the method does engender a certain lack of app
performance, though how significant this performance loss is
remains to be properly documented.
To most, however, the major concern with Adobe’s announcement
will be that all the Flash content on the web will now no longer
be guaranteed to run on future mobile devices and may now cause
a split for web developers having to code sites separately for
mobile and PC.
“We don’t believe Adobe will be able to offer a simple ‘switch’
in its tools to optimally create/support both with one
development environment – others have tried this approach and
it’s not worked out that well,” said Gold.
Meanwhile, Winokur promised Adobe would “of course continue to
provide critical bug fixes and security updates for existing
device configurations. We will also allow our source code
licensees to continue working on and release their own
implementations.”
---
View my Online Portfolio at:
http://www.onemodelplace.com/CaraQuinn
Follow me on Twitter!
https://twitter.com/ModelCara
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