Adobe, You Brought An Advertisement To A Gun Fight
Money Quote:
When you’re leaving notes all over the web trying to convince people how open your technology is, maybe leave out the Registered® Trademark® logos next time.
Category: News
Wi-Fi Sync: Another App Store Casualty
Well, you knew Apple would never let an application that handled syncing in to the App Store, didn’t you?
So, instead of letting his hard work go to waste, the developer has decided to offer his application up for $9.99 through the Cydia Store, which is available to jailbroken iPhones.
Although I’m not surprised in the least by Apple’s decision, I still find it annoying. WiFi syncing is something that is sorely missed on the iPhone OS platform. Users want it. Other platforms have it. An entrepreneurial developer has provided it. And Apple won’t let you have it.
Category: Links
How to use Custom Fields in MarsEdit 3
Detailed look at how to use this killer new feature in MarsEdit 3.
Category: Links
MarsEdit 3.0
Big update to the blog editor that brings an all new text editor, new upload options, support for custom fields and pages in WordPress and more. Get it now for $39.95, or update from a previous release for $14.95.
Category: Software
Internet Explorer Falls Below 60% Market Share
More good news for those who appreciate browsers that push the envelope and advance the use of HTML5/CSS3.
Steve Jobs: Thoughts on Flash
Steve Jobs has penned another detailed missive, this time on Flash and how/why Apple doesn’t support it on it’s mobile devices. It’s a 1600 word opus that breaks down the argument in to 6 reasons – openness, full web, reliability (and security/performance), battery life, touch, and platform issues.
I can’t argue with most of the points, however this one is not entirely accurate:
Adobe’s Flash products are 100% proprietary. They are only available from Adobe, and Adobe has sole authority as to their future enhancement, pricing, etc. While Adobe’s Flash products are widely available, this does not mean they are open, since they are controlled entirely by Adobe and available only from Adobe. By almost any definition, Flash is a closed system.
The Flash plugin is proprietary, but anyone can build an application that exports to the Flash format. Applications like Swish and others offer Flash creation tools that export to the Flash format. It’s a minor point to quibble with, as the Flash plugin is proprietary.
It will be interesting to see how Adobe responds to this. Adobe, from the CEO on down, has been dissing Apple’s mobile offerings lately in hopes of preserving it’s Flash kingdom. Having Steve Jobs and his 1600 word megaphone broadcast a detailed defense of why Apple avoids Flash can’t go unanswered. Can it?
HP buys Palm for $1.2B
HP decided it wanted to be a player in the mobile handheld space, and they made a smart acquisition.
From the Press Release:
Palm’s current chairman and CEO, Jon Rubinstein, is expected to remain with the company.
I bet he sticks around about 3 months.
Details of AT&T 3G Data Plans for Apple iPad
AT&T has posted a PDF detailing the terms/conditions of 3G data service for the iPad 3G.
Category: News
Microsoft brings it’s Linux grudge to Android
Many of you will remember years ago when Microsoft was so afraid of Linux, it threatened to sue any company that used it with patent infringement. These threats resulted in many companies, including Novell, to set up cross-licensing agreements with Microsoft. These agreements were basically agreements that said if “you license this technology from Microsoft, we won’t sue you for patent infringement”.
Down late in the mobile game, Microsoft is going back to that play, now with Android as the target. And can you blame them? It worked the last time, and they were in a position of dominance with Windows versus Linux. In the mobile space, they are getting creamed by the iPhone and Android. And Microsoft’s answer to both those threats won’t be out until the 4th quarter of this year.
So Microsoft has exerted patent pressure on it’s cheating lover, HTC. HTC was once the top producer of smart phones running the Microsoft Mobile OS. Now, they are one of the top producers of Android phones.
Under this “agreement”, Microsoft will receive royalties from HTC for using the Android OS on their phones. Think about that for a second. Android is open source. Google doesn’t require any licensing fees or royalties when a company uses Android. Of course, Google is usually the default search provider on these devices, and receives most of its compensation from that service. But the precedent here is huge. HTC now pays Microsoft for the privelege of using Google’s operating system on it’s phones.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out. I can’t believe that Google will let this go unanswered. Android has just started to pick up steam in the mobile arena, and this precedent could turn off a lot of hardware manufacturers from going the Android route on their products.
Of course, the big winner here is Apple. Having it’s two other rivals fighting each other means that they aren’t directing their resources at fighting Apple.
Category: News
WWDC hits San Francisco June 7th
WWDC has been finally announced. June 7th – June 11th @ the Moscone West. With only 40 days from announcement to event, there isn’t much time for developers to make arrangements for this years event.
This year Apple is offering five technology tracks:
- Application Frameworks
- Internet & Web
- Graphics & Media
- Developer Tools
- Core OS
There’s an expectation that Apple will debut the next iPhone at WWDC, but I wouldn’t bank on it. Apple has an event scheduled for late june at Yerba Buena Gardens, and that venue/date will probably serve as the launch event.
The more concerning issue is the lack of Mac focus at this years event. The Mac is shut out of the Apple Design Awards, and there aren’t many conferences that are Mac specific this year. The question is whether this is a one year fluke, since Mac OS X 10.7 is nowhere near being ready to preview, or is this the start of Apple’s planned Mac desktop obsolescence?
