What's new

Why Jobs Flash explanation doesn't make sense

romanr said:
For me it's not video for the most part. It's not games either. It's flash apps like my just released webmail from Cox.com and many other apps like it. I don't get everyones suggestion that I take my iPad back. I love my iPad in everyway except in how it keeps me from accessing a good part of the web's best content. Can a consumer not engage in a little winning? BTW, prior to buying my iPad I did infact know about the lack of Flash support. But what I didn't know was how prolific Flash was. On my PC, I didn't care about what platform a website used for it's content. I just knew it worked. Now my iPad is constantly displaying "stop signs" which let me know that Flash is everywhere.

I wasn't sure how prevalent Flash would be either, that's why I installed a Flash blocker in Firefox - it let me check it out first.

romanr said:
I've been a PC guy for a very long time, going back to Windows 3.1 and DOS before that. Frankly I did't get the whole Apple thing. The iPad is my first introduction and I'm hooked. But that doesn't mean I now worship at the Jobs alter and follow blindly with whatever he says. Like it or not, a good chunk of web developers followed the Flash wave and to cut support at this time is plain stupid.

If it's stupid then I'm sure that they won't sell very many of them....
 
While said:
I can't agree more. They have their selfish reason for not even takeing flash into consideration.

Sent from my Blackberry...nah...just kidding

Just because Apple isn't doing things the way everyone else is doing it doesn't make them "selfish". Calling Apple selfish indicates a sense of entitlement. Nobody's entitled to ANYTHING from Apple, other than reasonably ethical treatment from their staff (that is, no bias against color, race, sex, creed, religion, etc.). That's it. You either like their product and buy it or you don't like it and take your money elsewhere.

Michael "Spam, spam, bacon, eggs and spam. Hold the bacon and eggs." Sent from my iPad 2 using iPF

Dude, enough with the entitled stuff. You must listen to a lot of talk radio. No one is claiming any kind of entitlement to anything. I'm pretty sure we all paid for our iPads and didn't get them through some sort of entitlement program.

If we are entitled to anything is the right to bitch a good while on this forum :)
 
romanr said:
Dude, enough with the entitled stuff. You must listen to a lot of talk radio. No one is claiming any kind of entitlement to anything.

You may not be, but when people are saying that the company is being 'selfish' or 'unfair' they are. Both of those indicate that someone believes something is owed to them.
 
Catfiend said:
You may not be, but when people are saying that the company is being 'selfish' or 'unfair' they are. Both of those indicate that someone believes something is owed to them.

Thanks for the supportive observation. I can't call Comcast "selfish" and "unfair" because they choose not to have the NASA channel (they really don't which just blows-and it's a "free to air" channel paid for by the government!). That would demonstrate that I have this inane sense that I'm entitled to get what I want from them. Sadly, the reality is there is no NASA channel because, well, that's just the way Comcast does their business. So, my choices are: I can stay with Comcast for whatever other reasons there may be or I can take my money elsewhere and sign on with any of the other cable providers or ditch cable TV altogether.

"But why does only Motorola Xoom and Samsung Galaxy Tab have Flash? Why can't Apple give that to me, too? It's unfair! They're selfish and mean, that's why!" Is it me, or does anyone realize just how childish that sounds???

Michael "Spam, spam, bacon, eggs and spam. Hold the bacon and eggs." Sent from my iPad 2 using iPF
 
Those of us that have dealt with Apple for a long time, accept the fact that they do not try to please everyone. It is not fanboy nonsense. It is the acceptance of the fact that every now and then, Apple will stop dealing with a product because it is no longer relevant. At times it is inconvenient, especially when you are using a SCSI Zip drive and Apple stops supporting SCSI. Progress means having to give up the old to make way for the next generation. With Apple, it is a clean break, no dragging it out.

And FYI, I started my dual computer usage with OS 5, and Windows 3.1. I would rather Apple's method of upgrading over the hodge podge of PC methods. Apple is not for everyone, but out of the five most significant advancements in the first decade of computers, two were Apple products, the Apple II and original Macintosh.
 
Seadog said:
Those of us that have dealt with Apple for a long time, accept the fact that they do not try to please everyone. It is not fanboy nonsense. It is the acceptance of the fact that every now and then, Apple will stop dealing with a product because it is no longer relevant. At times it is inconvenient, especially when you are using a SCSI Zip drive and Apple stops supporting SCSI. Progress means having to give up the old to make way for the next generation. With Apple, it is a clean break, no dragging it out.

And FYI, I started my dual computer usage with OS 5, and Windows 3.1. I would rather Apple's method of upgrading over the hodge podge of PC methods. Apple is not for everyone, but out of the five most significant advancements in the first decade of computers, two were Apple products, the Apple II and original Macintosh.

Well put!

Michael "Spam, spam, bacon, eggs and spam. Hold the bacon and eggs." Sent from my iPad 2 using iPF
 
I don't get why a debate over what should be allowed on an iPad needs to be reduced to personal nonsense. It shouldn't be had at all though, because Apple should be allowing whatever people want. If Microsoft required all apps be bought through their own app store when PCs came out, they would have been nothing but a fad.

But anyway, if the concern is that people would blame iOS, then Apple can use the same system as Android. As I said, there is an option, which could be enabled by default, that has the browser show where a Flash video/game is and the user must click on it to play it. This way, the browser isn't slowed down or whatever. The user would then know that this is Adobe Flash, an app that they consciously (I hope) downloaded from the App Store. And I'm sure the majority of people know what Flash is, because if you don't have it installed on your PC/Mac, a big thing comes up saying you don't have Flash installed. My grandfather, who calls me whenever he wants to check his AOL email, even knows what Flash is. And I think that every app I have has crashed at least once. If everyone blamed iOS, the iPad's would have a pretty bad reputation.

That said, I've never had Flash crash on me ever. Not once. Not on my PCs or Android. I think the crashing problem is limited to Mac, and if I remember correctly, it is because Apple doesn't allow Adobe to access some part of the OS or something.

No one cares that Apple is trying to make money. All corporations are inherently selfish and its a good thing. But when this selfishness or stubbornness or business practice -- whatever you want to call it -- begins to negatively impact the user experience, people have a right to complain. I'm not exactly sure what a world where consumers were unable to complain would look like, but I'd imagine it would involve poorly made mud huts (even by mud hut standards) and slavery.
 
And what is the difference with the fact that you cannot load IE9 to a PC using XP? Or the fact that Android will not let users watch videos on CNN and several other sites? Would you fault Toyota for not letting you run diesel in the car they sold you? Life comes with restrictions. Do you buy a TV and complain about what it does not offer? Just because you paid money for an item they sell millions of, does not allow you to dictate policy. Manufacturers make decisions every day without any help from the peanut gallery. They know that the buyers decide what is important with their dollars. And right now, the buyers are saying they would rather iPad without Flash than Android with Flash. And I am willing to bet that by the time there are Android products ready to compete with the iPad, nobody is going to care about Flash.

If you want to dictate policy, buy the majority of shares in Apple. And then watch Jobs walk out the door when you tell him to put Flash on the iPad. The sooner people realize that the shareholders are the true fanboys of Apple, the better. My only regret was that I knew 15 years ago when they announced Jobs was returning to Apple, that it was a great time to invest. All I needed was some spare cash. So now, I am a very poor financial genius.
 
Android doesn't let users watch CNN videos? Its one of my most visited sites. I just checked it again and all videos are available to watch. In fact, CNN was touted as one of the most iPad-friendly sites, but streaming video still required Flash and I streamed it on my Droid X several times. Of course, there is now an iOS app which allows you watch the streams.

I really do love my iPad. Steve Jobs is seriously brilliant.. a true visionary. But as someone who has loved technology for a long time, I'd rather decide for myself what's best. I don't need something that "just works" as many say. Most companies do listen to mainstream opinion -- for better or for worse. Their board would be nobodies if it weren't for their customers, the majority of which don't want to view big white spaces.
 

Most reactions

Latest posts

Back
Top