Wednesday 24 February 2010
113 year-old
I am in the process of including 113-year-old Florence Baldwin in the centenarians project. Florence is probably the last remaining living person to have met Queen Victoria!
Tuesday 2 February 2010
Is this the beginning of the end of Flash?
Over the past four months, I have been learning Adobe's Flash and trying to make sense of it all. Why Adobe make such shoddy software products that make you wana tear your hair out I will never know. They are not the most user friendly software to use are they. I have found serious flaws in all of Adobe's Creative suite, which makes it frustrating as a professional, but for now, lets concentrate on Flash. Since being thrust into doing irrelevant Flash projects, I have done some light reading on Flash as a platform and turns out that Flash could become a thing of the past by the time I graduate from my current course. It is no surprise that Apple have taken the stance to not support Flash on both the iPhone and the newly announced iPad. The platform doesn't even run smoothly on OS X due to text rendering (apparently), but according to various sources, Flash is being ditched in favour of H.264. Both Google and Palm are also choosing not to support Flash as the platform cannot be used on mobile devices. So what does the future hold for the platform that Adobe purchased from Macromedia?
We are entering an era of mobile devices that are changing the way we do things. Who would have thought a few years ago that you could have a phone in your pocket that would have the internet, GPS maps with location and could be customised by downloading the apps you wanted and not have to put up with the crap stuff that come on most phones that you never use. The iPhone changed the mobile landscape and now the iPad has arrived, which is the first glimpse of what the future holds for mobile devices and computers. I wouldn't be surprised If we see a 'MacBook Touch' or 'MacPad' in a few years time! If Flash is not being supported for these devices that are shaping the future, then is this the beginning of the end of Flash? It is pointless learning a platform that will probably be obsolete by the time my course is over. Given the choice, I would rather learn DreamWeaver or AfterEffects, applications that are relevant and future proof. So what are the alternatives to Flash?
Steve Jobs has publicly made his views known about Adobe stating they are "Lazy" and that Adobe Flash were responsible for the majority of crashes on the Mac. I can see his point. Ive had Safari crash a number of times due to Flash and its plug-in. The problem is that Flash on non Windows platforms is a CPU hog which is also a known cause of browser instability. Battery life is crucial to mobile devices, and CPU hogs and crash-causers are not going to get chosen if there are alternatives. And there are. YouTube and the BBC iPlayer now offer content in H.264 which is now becoming the preferred format instead of Flash, and many more companies are set to follow so don't worry about missing out on your favourite content when you purchase your iPad. The only company that is continuing with Flash is Microsoft as Flash seems to run much smoother on the Windows OS. But how long will it take for Microsoft to realise the game is up with flash and also jump ship?
With regards to Flash multimedia interfaces for websites which shows up as a blue lego icon to indicate that you do not have the correct plug-in to support it, AJAX and HTML5 have already started Chipping away at the market and my guess is that 80% of animated slideshows that you see out there are powered by AJAX scripts. Flash will not die tomorrow, but plug-in technology is on its way out. Why do you need a flash plug-in to be able to see content? People just want a computing experience that just works without the need to install things. Thats the future of computing and browsing. HTML5, with its built-in support for video and audio plays perfectly into this new model of computing and browsing. No wonder that Google and Apple browsers support these HTML5 features... Flash is on its way out!
We are entering an era of mobile devices that are changing the way we do things. Who would have thought a few years ago that you could have a phone in your pocket that would have the internet, GPS maps with location and could be customised by downloading the apps you wanted and not have to put up with the crap stuff that come on most phones that you never use. The iPhone changed the mobile landscape and now the iPad has arrived, which is the first glimpse of what the future holds for mobile devices and computers. I wouldn't be surprised If we see a 'MacBook Touch' or 'MacPad' in a few years time! If Flash is not being supported for these devices that are shaping the future, then is this the beginning of the end of Flash? It is pointless learning a platform that will probably be obsolete by the time my course is over. Given the choice, I would rather learn DreamWeaver or AfterEffects, applications that are relevant and future proof. So what are the alternatives to Flash?
Steve Jobs has publicly made his views known about Adobe stating they are "Lazy" and that Adobe Flash were responsible for the majority of crashes on the Mac. I can see his point. Ive had Safari crash a number of times due to Flash and its plug-in. The problem is that Flash on non Windows platforms is a CPU hog which is also a known cause of browser instability. Battery life is crucial to mobile devices, and CPU hogs and crash-causers are not going to get chosen if there are alternatives. And there are. YouTube and the BBC iPlayer now offer content in H.264 which is now becoming the preferred format instead of Flash, and many more companies are set to follow so don't worry about missing out on your favourite content when you purchase your iPad. The only company that is continuing with Flash is Microsoft as Flash seems to run much smoother on the Windows OS. But how long will it take for Microsoft to realise the game is up with flash and also jump ship?
With regards to Flash multimedia interfaces for websites which shows up as a blue lego icon to indicate that you do not have the correct plug-in to support it, AJAX and HTML5 have already started Chipping away at the market and my guess is that 80% of animated slideshows that you see out there are powered by AJAX scripts. Flash will not die tomorrow, but plug-in technology is on its way out. Why do you need a flash plug-in to be able to see content? People just want a computing experience that just works without the need to install things. Thats the future of computing and browsing. HTML5, with its built-in support for video and audio plays perfectly into this new model of computing and browsing. No wonder that Google and Apple browsers support these HTML5 features... Flash is on its way out!
Updates
Hi everyone, apologies for not posting anything on my blog for a while, things have been manic since the turn of 2010. Right updates. For a start, the Centenarians project is still very much alive and kicking and hope to make a serious push to getting it finished over the coming months. I am now back with the Dagenham Crusaders for another season, which could be my very last as a marching member. But what a way to end a career that has spanned almost 30 years than to end in the 30th anniversary of the DCUK championship, as well as commemorating the 30th anniversary of the Crusaders winning DCUK's first championship title.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)