The Reason for No Flash

[JohnnyApple]

It's all about control. Apple want's full control over the device, and allowing flash denies them of that 100% of control. Very sad state of affairs and turn-around from what Apple was preaching just a few short years ago.

 

[vegasmike]

So do you want flash to make things, or do you want flash to see and use things, things being software of course. If you want something that reads and uses flash, I could write that, but if you want an app to make flash content, I could do that but am not interested. Interpreter, easy, creator, no hard just not interested.

 

[mac]

Yeah, obviously the lack of Flash has killed such Apple devices like the iPhone..... it's been an overwhelming failure, hasn't it?

Not a failure, but not as big as people think it is. Also, it's not the primary device iPhone users go to to browse the web because of it's limitations (mainly screen size) - so lack of Flash is an irritation rather than a deal breaker. Whereas web browsing is supposed to be one of the iPad's killer apps.

It'll be interesting to see how the whole Flash scenario plays out. It definitely has the potential to make the iPad niche much smaller than it really needs to be.

 

[Superbike81]

I downloaded Flash Blocker right when the iPad was announced, just to see how much I would miss flash. I did a two week trial of zero flash, never even hit the enable flash button on it.

Surprise surprise! I didn't miss it at all. The majority of the websites I browse have zero Flash on them whatsoever, and those that do, it's normally something not needed to extract the information from the site.

 

[iDoug]

I downloaded Flash Blocker right when the iPad was announced, just to see how much I would miss flash. I did a two week trial of zero flash, never even hit the enable flash button on it.

Surprise surprise! I didn't miss it at all. The majority of the websites I browse have zero Flash on them whatsoever, and those that do, it's normally something not needed to extract the information from the site.

That's good to know! I need to try that out, but I doubt I will really miss the flash support.

 

[Ninja]

Not having flash at this point doesn't really bother me that much. I think a hands-on with it will tell me more and if I really need it for the daily browsing and work that I do on the web currently.

If you want to find out the amount of Flash involved in the web I recommend that you install Firefox and the Flashblock addon. You may be surprised how much Flash is used for things like buttons & etc to navigate web sites.

For me, the lack of Flash is a deal breaker. There are a lot of other shortcomings, but the lack of Flash is a continuing failure of Apple. Steve promised "all the internet" for the first iPhone. Without Flash you can not access "all the internet". Steve lied.

 

[Superbike81]

Not having flash at this point doesn't really bother me that much. I think a hands-on with it will tell me more and if I really need it for the daily browsing and work that I do on the web currently.

If you want to find out the amount of Flash involved in the web I recommend that you install Firefox and the Flashblock addon. You may be surprised how much Flash is used for things like buttons & etc to navigate web sites.

For me, the lack of Flash is a deal breaker. There are a lot of other shortcomings, but the lack of Flash is a continuing failure of Apple. Steve promised "all the internet" for the first iPhone. Without Flash you can not access "all the internet". Steve lied.

You keep saying the same thing over and over again.

Please tell me what sites you use regularly that are unusable without Flash.

Because I used the Flash Blocker for 2 weeks (like I said above) and there wasn't a single site that I wasn't able to get the information that I needed without Flash. It was all superfluous advertisements, video clips, and games.

 

[Dorje]

Please tell me what sites you use regularly that are unusable without Flash.

Newgrounds?

 

[Superbike81]

What is that? Some kind of developers website? Or games or something?

If so, How do you even play games like that on a touch screen? The few that I have played required a keyboard.

 

[Ninja]

Not having flash at this point doesn't really bother me that much. I think a hands-on with it will tell me more and if I really need it for the daily browsing and work that I do on the web currently.

If you want to find out the amount of Flash involved in the web I recommend that you install Firefox and the Flashblock addon. You may be surprised how much Flash is used for things like buttons & etc to navigate web sites.

For me, the lack of Flash is a deal breaker. There are a lot of other shortcomings, but the lack of Flash is a continuing failure of Apple. Steve promised "all the internet" for the first iPhone. Without Flash you can not access "all the internet". Steve lied.

You keep saying the same thing over and over again.

Please tell me what sites you use regularly that are unusable without Flash.

Because I used the Flash Blocker for 2 weeks (like I said above) and there wasn't a single site that I wasn't able to get the information that I needed without Flash. It was all superfluous advertisements, video clips, and games.

Good for you! (Seriously.)

Most people have no idea at all how much Flash is used in the internet (especially people who have never used anything but Safari as a browser simply because it does not offer the option to block Flash (a good thing when on a slow connection)) and the sites that they use. If you do and are making an informed decision to purchase the device that is great. Far too many people are being misled by Apple. I very much like the news reader NetNewsWire. It saves me a lot of time. Unfortunately, it lacks Flash capability which means that I frequently have to open a web site in a browser in order to access web content. Fortunately, this is easily accomplished with it.

You are aware that they quietly pulled promotional materials that fraudulently showed a Flash based web site to be working on the iPad aren't you?

I suggest that people use Firefox and Flashblock so that people can make up their own minds based upon their own use. My experience is that the iPhone was of little use to me because of a number of rather fundamental problems the device had. The review I read after trying (and returning it) that best described my experience with it described it as a fundamentally flawed device. Take a look at Canon's web site. It uses a Flash based map to select the region and country for access to information. Other sites use it for buttons used to navigate the site. I am not arguing that this is the best way to build a web site. I am just saying that it is done this way in many cases which means you either have Flash capability or you can not access the web site's content.

Without Flash capability I will not purchase this or any other device. It does not fit my needs. Like it or not, Flash utilization is widespread if not ubiquitous. The truth is that Steve promised "all the internet" with the first iPhone. Without Flash you can not access all the internet. Steve lied.

 

[KiltedTim]

You are aware that they quietly pulled promotional materials that fraudulently showed a Flash based web site to be working on the iPad aren't you?

There's a distinct difference between fraud and accident. I'm sure you're the type who considers every misprinted advertisement an attempt at fraud as well. Mistakes happen. So the agency employed to produce the promotional materials used a static screen shot that did not actually come from the iPad. Not a big deal. Look at any ad for televisions in the fliers from your local paper. Guess what, that's not an actual shot of the television displaying a real image. Is that fraud too?

 

[IGonz]

Not having flash at this point doesn't really bother me that much. I think a hands-on with it will tell me more and if I really need it for the daily browsing and work that I do on the web currently.

If the ipad is anything like the iphone or itouch I don't need flash for what I do.

 

[Superbike81]

The fact is, the vast majority of people do not need Flash to browse the vast majority of websites. I saw someone earlier pull the "fact" out of thin air that 75% of the web uses Flash, which is complete and utter BS. I rarely run into Flash, and I browse the web quite a bit for research.

 

[Ninja]

There's a distinct difference between fraud and accident. I'm sure you're the type who considers every misprinted advertisement an attempt at fraud as well. Mistakes happen. So the agency employed to produce the promotional materials used a static screen shot that did not actually come from the iPad. Not a big deal. Look at any ad for televisions in the fliers from your local paper. Guess what, that's not an actual shot of the television displaying a real image. Is that fraud too?

This was no accident.

 

[scottjl]

a similar discussion was brought up on another forum i frequent. installing flashblock/noscript on your desktop and viewing site is not the same experience as viewing it on an iphone (and soon ipad). many sites out there look at what browser you are using and will direct you to a mobile version of their web site when they detect you're on an iphone using safari, i assume it will be similar when the ipad is out. those mobile sites don't have flash content. some tests (informal) were done with popular sites like disney, sports illustrated and even apple's site.

so saying that browsing using an ipad is going to result in a lot of sites with missing plugin boxes is just not true. and if the ipad takes off, expect more sites to code up mobile versions in addition to their desktop versions.