PIXELS by Patrick Jean

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.

More Job’s Thoughts on Flash via Apple

Il Museo dell’Informatica Funzionante a Palazzolo Acreide e’ una struttura che, nonostante la mancanza totale di supporto o aiuto da parte delle Amministrazioni Locali, ospita una esposizione permanente interattiva di computer storici, che i visitatori possono non solo osservare, ma anche provare ed utilizzare, “mettendoci le mani sopra”, utilizzando i loro sistemi operativi, il loro software o consultando i manuali originali.

Allo stato attuale, il Museo manca di una sede adeguata, quindi non ci è possibile allestire una vera e propria esposizione; questo sito nasce come un primo catalogo del nostro materiale espositivo e come centro di raccolta per la documentazione relativa al funzionamento dei sistemi.

Failure as a Strategy – Observations from Nicolas Nova from Jonathan Marks on Vimeo.

Download the Glitch Studies Manifesto.

onedotzero_adventures in motion: final call for submissions from onedotzero on Vimeo.

onedotzero adventures in motion: now open for submissions!
SUBMISSION DEADLINE: FRIDAY 29 MAY 2009

I finally decided to launch new version of Random Magazine – www.random-magazine.net
As you probably know, it has a long story: the first version went online in 2001 as a single webpage hosted by the art portal Exibart.com, but it soon grew into a bigger project. I used to post everyday a short article about Net Art, using the site as a public diary of my daily surfing sessions.
In 2005 I decided to get Random a brand new web address and a real publishing platform. A lot of people started to contribute and the topics began to widen, including all forms of digital creativity (video, installations, music, games). Last year I decided to take a rest, giving myself the time to think about the future of this project I love so much.

In 2009, Random Magazine is back, and it’s the place where I share links about art & technology. Hope you enjoy it.
p.s. (Any feedback would be much appreciated!)

Valentina Tanni
www.random-magazine.net
www.valentinatanni.com

The artist Natalie Jeremijenko, well know for her extraordinary capacity to combine tecnological innovation with social and environmental causes, invited us at the Lift2009 conference in Geneva to reflect on tecnology resources from a new perspective, based on energy efficiency, recycling and the battle against pollution.

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
PROGRAMMA
Giovedi 22 Gennaio
h 20.00 Mesmerizing Show (Performing Arts)
Bock & Vincenzi (UK) The Infinite Pleasures of the Great Unknown
h 21.00 + h 23.00 Megascope
Virgilio Villoresi/Dominique Vaccaro/Angstarbeiter (I) Eclissi
h 22.30 Mangrovia
Camilla Candida Donzella (I)
Pete Swanson/John Wiese/Liz Harris (USA)
Emeralds (USA)
Keiji Haino (JP)

Venerdi 23 Gennaio
h 20.00 Mesmerizing Show (Performing Arts)
Bock & Vincenzi (UK) The Infinite Pleasures of the Great Unknown
h 21.00 + h 23.00 Megascope
Virgilio Villoresi/Dominique Vaccaro/Angstarbeiter (I) Eclissi
h 22.30 pm Live Media Floor
Pierre Bastien (F) Kinetic Syncopators
The Skaters (USA) play Le Vampire de la Cinémathèque by Roland Lethem (B)
Growing (USA)
ATAK NIGHT: Keiichiro Shibuya (JP), Evala (JP)
h 24.00 Mangrovia – Village Oblivia
Invernomuto (I) with Sunburned Hand of the Man (USA)
Sabato 24 Gennaio
h 21.00 Mesmerizing Show (Performing Arts)
Bock & Vincenzi (UK) The Infinite Pleasures of the Great Unknown
h 21.00 + h 23.00 Megascope
Virgilio Villoresi/Dominique Vaccaro/Angstarbeiter (I) Eclissi
h 22.00 Live Media Floor
Németh (A) plays I.E., Domino by Lotte Schreiber (A)
Andrea Dojmi/Flushing Device (I) The Distance to the Sun
Mudboy (USA)
Black Dice (USA)
h 24.00 Mangrovia
Camilla Candida Donzella (I)
Pascal Battus/Kamel Maad (F) Eyear
Mattin/” ” [sic] Goldie (Basque Country/UK) Deflag Haemorrhage/Haien Kontra
Thomas Ankersmit/Valerio Tricoli (NL/I)
AAVV jam session (Mangrovia/Live Media Floor all guests plug-in)

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Netmage 09
sede: Palazzo Re Enzo – Piazza Nettuno Bologna
www.netmage.it
www.xing.it