Macgasm

Check out these chocolate iPhone apps found on Etsy, 20 edible apps made to order. Each chocolate is designed just like an app you would find on the home screen of your iPhone and every box contains four different flavours of yummy gourmet chocolate. The maker even adapted a version for Mother’s Day! Can’t afford to get your mom a real iPhone? Then why not get her some iChocolate! Only $46.44 USD. Om nom nom.

While we were all fast asleep, google updated their image searching page for mobile devices, including the iPhone, Touch, and iPad (guessing on this one). Previously the app was a giant pain to use and you weren’t able to scroll through the images very easily.

But now, you can actually flip through the images at full screen resolutions. I had to try a couple times before I got access to the search in Mobile Safari, so you might want to make sure you clear your cache before you try it out.

Article Via Just Another iPhone Blog

Steve Jobs has decided it’s time to share his thought on Flash, through an open letter that was released today on Apple’s website. If you don’t have time to read the letter I can sum it up for you, “Adobe, quit misrepresenting the problem. Get your shit together.”

In the open letter Jobs reveals his thoughts about Adobe’s claims that Flash is an “open” system, and that 75% of the internet video is being served up by Flash players.

Perhaps the most important argument Steve makes is that relying on third party tools to develop for the iPhone can cause a slew of other problems because “developers grow dependent on third party development libraries and tools, they can only take advantage of platform enhancements if and when the third party chooses to adopt the new features.”

I’m not sure if I agree with him fully, but it’s nice to see where Steve’s head is at currently. Most of these arguements have been played out in the media, but it’s nice to see a compiled list from Apple’s CEO.

Keep in mind, this is only one side to the story, and we’ll certainly be seeing some more fallout from Adobe.

You can read the letter on Apple’s website, or below.

The Open Letter in Question

Apple has a long relationship with Adobe. In fact, we met Adobe’s founders when they were in their proverbial garage. Apple was their first big customer, adopting their Postscript language for our new Laserwriter printer. Apple invested in Adobe and owned around 20% of the company for many years. The two companies worked closely together to pioneer desktop publishing and there were many good times. Since that golden era, the companies have grown apart. Apple went through its near death experience, and Adobe was drawn to the corporate market with their Acrobat products. Today the two companies still work together to serve their joint creative customers – Mac users buy around half of Adobe’s Creative Suite products – but beyond that there are few joint interests.

I wanted to jot down some of our thoughts on Adobe’s Flash products so that customers and critics may better understand why we do not allow Flash on iPhones, iPods and iPads. Adobe has characterized our decision as being primarily business driven – they say we want to protect our App Store – but in reality it is based on technology issues. Adobe claims that we are a closed system, and that Flash is open, but in fact the opposite is true. Let me explain.

First, there’s “Open”.

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.

Apple has many proprietary products too. Though the operating system for the iPhone, iPod and iPad is proprietary, we strongly believe that all standards pertaining to the web should be open. Rather than use Flash, Apple has adopted HTML5, CSS and JavaScript – all open standards. Apple’s mobile devices all ship with high performance, low power implementations of these open standards. HTML5, the new web standard that has been adopted by Apple, Google and many others, lets web developers create advanced graphics, typography, animations and transitions without relying on third party browser plug-ins (like Flash). HTML5 is completely open and controlled by a standards committee, of which Apple is a member.

Apple even creates open standards for the web. For example, Apple began with a small open source project and created WebKit, a complete open-source HTML5 rendering engine that is the heart of the Safari web browser used in all our products. WebKit has been widely adopted. Google uses it for Android’s browser, Palm uses it, Nokia uses it, and RIM (Blackberry) has announced they will use it too. Almost every smartphone web browser other than Microsoft’s uses WebKit. By making its WebKit technology open, Apple has set the standard for mobile web browsers.

Second, there’s the “full web”.

Adobe has repeatedly said that Apple mobile devices cannot access “the full web” because 75% of video on the web is in Flash. What they don’t say is that almost all this video is also available in a more modern format, H.264, and viewable on iPhones, iPods and iPads. YouTube, with an estimated 40% of the web’s video, shines in an app bundled on all Apple mobile devices, with the iPad offering perhaps the best YouTube discovery and viewing experience ever. Add to this video from Vimeo, Netflix, Facebook, ABC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, ESPN, NPR, Time, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Sports Illustrated, People, National Geographic, and many, many others. iPhone, iPod and iPad users aren’t missing much video.

Another Adobe claim is that Apple devices cannot play Flash games. This is true. Fortunately, there are over 50,000 games and entertainment titles on the App Store, and many of them are free. There are more games and entertainment titles available for iPhone, iPod and iPad than for any other platform in the world.

Third, there’s reliability, security and performance.

Symantec recently highlighted Flash for having one of the worst security records in 2009. We also know first hand that Flash is the number one reason Macs crash. We have been working with Adobe to fix these problems, but they have persisted for several years now. We don’t want to reduce the reliability and security of our iPhones, iPods and iPads by adding Flash.

In addition, Flash has not performed well on mobile devices. We have routinely asked Adobe to show us Flash performing well on a mobile device, any mobile device, for a few years now. We have never seen it. Adobe publicly said that Flash would ship on a smartphone in early 2009, then the second half of 2009, then the first half of 2010, and now they say the second half of 2010. We think it will eventually ship, but we’re glad we didn’t hold our breath. Who knows how it will perform?

Fourth, there’s battery life.

To achieve long battery life when playing video, mobile devices must decode the video in hardware; decoding it in software uses too much power. Many of the chips used in modern mobile devices contain a decoder called H.264 – an industry standard that is used in every Blu-ray DVD player and has been adopted by Apple, Google (YouTube), Vimeo, Netflix and many other companies.

Although Flash has recently added support for H.264, the video on almost all Flash websites currently requires an older generation decoder that is not implemented in mobile chips and must be run in software. The difference is striking: on an iPhone, for example, H.264 videos play for up to 10 hours, while videos decoded in software play for less than 5 hours before the battery is fully drained.

When websites re-encode their videos using H.264, they can offer them without using Flash at all. They play perfectly in browsers like Apple’s Safari and Google’s Chrome without any plugins whatsoever, and look great on iPhones, iPods and iPads.

Fifth, there’s Touch.

Flash was designed for PCs using mice, not for touch screens using fingers. For example, many Flash websites rely on “rollovers”, which pop up menus or other elements when the mouse arrow hovers over a specific spot. Apple’s revolutionary multi-touch interface doesn’t use a mouse, and there is no concept of a rollover. Most Flash websites will need to be rewritten to support touch-based devices. If developers need to rewrite their Flash websites, why not use modern technologies like HTML5, CSS and JavaScript?

Even if iPhones, iPods and iPads ran Flash, it would not solve the problem that most Flash websites need to be rewritten to support touch-based devices.

Sixth, the most important reason.

Besides the fact that Flash is closed and proprietary, has major technical drawbacks, and doesn’t support touch based devices, there is an even more important reason we do not allow Flash on iPhones, iPods and iPads. We have discussed the downsides of using Flash to play video and interactive content from websites, but Adobe also wants developers to adopt Flash to create apps that run on our mobile devices.

We know from painful experience that letting a third party layer of software come between the platform and the developer ultimately results in sub-standard apps and hinders the enhancement and progress of the platform. If developers grow dependent on third party development libraries and tools, they can only take advantage of platform enhancements if and when the third party chooses to adopt the new features. We cannot be at the mercy of a third party deciding if and when they will make our enhancements available to our developers.

This becomes even worse if the third party is supplying a cross platform development tool. The third party may not adopt enhancements from one platform unless they are available on all of their supported platforms. Hence developers only have access to the lowest common denominator set of features. Again, we cannot accept an outcome where developers are blocked from using our innovations and enhancements because they are not available on our competitor’s platforms.

Flash is a cross platform development tool. It is not Adobe’s goal to help developers write the best iPhone, iPod and iPad apps. It is their goal to help developers write cross platform apps. And Adobe has been painfully slow to adopt enhancements to Apple’s platforms. For example, although Mac OS X has been shipping for almost 10 years now, Adobe just adopted it fully (Cocoa) two weeks ago when they shipped CS5. Adobe was the last major third party developer to fully adopt Mac OS X.

Our motivation is simple – we want to provide the most advanced and innovative platform to our developers, and we want them to stand directly on the shoulders of this platform and create the best apps the world has ever seen. We want to continually enhance the platform so developers can create even more amazing, powerful, fun and useful applications. Everyone wins – we sell more devices because we have the best apps, developers reach a wider and wider audience and customer base, and users are continually delighted by the best and broadest selection of apps on any platform.

Conclusions.

Flash was created during the PC era – for PCs and mice. Flash is a successful business for Adobe, and we can understand why they want to push it beyond PCs. But the mobile era is about low power devices, touch interfaces and open web standards – all areas where Flash falls short.

The avalanche of media outlets offering their content for Apple’s mobile devices demonstrates that Flash is no longer necessary to watch video or consume any kind of web content. And the 200,000 apps on Apple’s App Store proves that Flash isn’t necessary for tens of thousands of developers to create graphically rich applications, including games.

New open standards created in the mobile era, such as HTML5, will win on mobile devices (and PCs too). Perhaps Adobe should focus more on creating great HTML5 tools for the future, and less on criticizing Apple for leaving the past behind.

Steve Jobs
April, 2010

Before the iPad was released there were rumors that Hulu would be available as one of the apps that would launch with the iPad. It didn’t happen, and we are still left wondering if it will be released.

Some quick background info

Hulu uses Flash to deliver their content over the Internet. Which works fine if you are watching videos on your Mac; however, it will not work on your iPhone or iPad since Flash is not supported on these devices.  It was rumored that Hulu was going to conform to the HTML5 standard and remove the Flash wrapper that is on their videos. I guess that is why they didn’t launch with an app when the iPad was released. Now with the technical stuff out of the way, I’d like to now talk about the Hulu app.

Rumors of a Hulu App on the horizon

Dragos Pirvu of soft sailor is reporting that the Hulu app will be available sooner than later:

“…The last piece of information leaked by Google is the Hulu app for Android smartphones and iPhone OS. When googling for “hulu android” the official Hulu Labs website gives hints of a “Hulu App for Android devices” and later on we can spot these words “iPhone / iPod Application…” probably meaning such apps are coming soon.”

I’m guessing that it would launch when iPhone OS 4.0 is released. Apple will likely have them on stage as one of the app developers that will present the iPhone app. They did this last year with Tom Tom GPS app.  This was in conjunction with Apple introducing turn-by-turn directions on their updated GPS for the iPhone.

I’m excited to see Hulu coming to the iPhone and the iPad. I love the ABC Streaming app, and I have a feeling that the Hulu app will deliver some great content as well. The other thing that Hulu has in the works is a subscription model that they will charge $9.99 a month for content beyond the current five shows. If Hulu can deliver the same TV shows that are on satellite and cable, then I’m sold on their subscription model. If I could drop my $112.00 a month satellite bill I would be very happy. Only time will tell if sites like Hulu can de-throne the big satellite and cable companies.

Photo Credit: www.hulu.com

Article Via soft sailor

Every traditional news outlet has some kind of app: Time Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Globe and Mail; but sometimes you get tired of reading the regular everyday news on your phone.

Today's Headlines

The Onion is a free “news” and entertainment app put out by The Onion for the iPhone and iPod Touch that is available from the App Store.

If you’re not familiar with The Onion, they bill themselves as “America’s finest news source.” Basically, The Onion is a satirical news service; once available only in print, they now provide online text, audio, and video content that mimics the style of traditional news outlets, while providing a much-needed dose of humour. Now, that content is available to you in a sleek, full-featured iPhone app.

Like everything The Onion does, this app boasts the same high quality you would expect from any major news outlet. The text and photo content loads quickly within the app, and the audio and video integration with YouTube is practically seamless. Searches respond quickly and accurately, and find appropriate articles and content from the archives quite easily. You are given the option to share content via Facebook or Twitter, and the app itself via Facebook, Twitter, or E-mail. Not only that, but the options to report a bug, request a feature, or even inquire as to advertising are all supported within the app.

Search Term: Apple (of course)

The Onion app only has one sponsor, Jack Link’s Beef Jerky, and their ad is visible on almost every page. This is somewhat less visually annoying, and probably more effective, than cycling through a series of different advertisers.

If there’s anything to complain about, it’s that there is some black-on-dark-green text (on tabs) that doesn’t show up very well on the iPhone screen. Also, some of the content is not appropriate for users under 18 years of age, but the app (and The Onion) make this clear from the get-go. Oh, and it’s not real news.

I’m impressed. The Onion app is not a result of “we need an app too” thinking; it’s solid, attractive, and stands on its own. News app developers would do well to take a cue from The Onion, who have made the only “news” app that merits a spot on my home screen.

As if the stock market wasn’t already in a crazed frenzy today,  it has come out that silicon valley big shot Hewlett-Packard is acquiring Palm. The deal is estimated to be around a cool $1.2 billion in cash.

Is this good news or what? If so, who is it good for HP or Palm? I raise that question because I personally worked at HP for 12 years before being “caught up” in the Carly Fiorina spearheaded acquisition of Compaq years ago. That deal was absolutely brutal for the people and culture on both sides of that event. HP hasn’t been the same organization since and with the recent acquisition of EDS going through problems you can only imagine how this Palm inclusion into the HP-fold will play out.

True, Palm has had some incredibly disappointing announcements as of late to their shareholders and have been looking for someone to come to their rescue. I just wonder what the long-term affects of this will be on the product offerings (will the Pre remain or become an iPaq?)

Jon Rubenstein, Palm’s chairman and chief executive seems pretty happy with the move, in a released statement he said,

“…We’re thrilled by HP’s vote of confidence in Palm’s technological leadership, which delivered Palm webOS and iconic products such as the Palm Pre. HP’s longstanding culture of innovation, scale and global operating resources make it the perfect partner to rapidly accelerate the growth of webOS.”

Click here to go to the HP press release on BusinessWire.

What do you think?

If we’re setting out to change the way kids learn with the iPad, why not also set out to change the way kids play? I may be dating myself a little, but I grew up with the LightBright, and spent some time creating both fun, and inappropriate pictures on it.

One of the things that I really hated about it was that it was super easy to lose all the little pushpins. Once they were gone your LightBright became useless.

The iBrite for the iPad ($1.99) has taken a stab at taking the LightBright into 2010. We’re pretty sure kids everywhere will get a kick out of this, but it’s also been a while since I was a kid, so… who the heck knows.

The iBrite is also part of the App Star Awards, so you may wanna go check out the App Star website.

There’s been some developments regarding ZombieFarm, and Brennan completely reneges on his opinions from last week. We also bitch about iPad App Prices. Brennan shows off the Samson Q2U Recording PaK, and we then compare the Justin TV and Ustream Apps.

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