WordPress 3.0 is now live after a while in development. I would explain the highlights if this video didn’t do it so well for you already.
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WordPress 3.0
Steve Jobs on Flash
Wow….just wow….never in a million years would I have expected to read what I just read…A 1600 word essay from Steve Jobs himself explaining IN DETAIL why Apple is supporting flash less and less. You can read the original article here straight from apple.com.
Argument
Steve highlights six main points to explain his reasoning.
1. “Open”
Steve dives into detail about how flash is a completely closed system. He admits that the iOS is proprietary too but explains that flash is completely controlled by Adobe, the definition of closed.
2. Full Web
Since the iDevices stopped fully supporting flash people continuously say that without flash you’re missing out on 95% of web video. That is blatantly not true. He first talks about YouTube since they hold an estimated 40% of web video and come with a handy little application to make it all work, and then he lists these: “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.” A very convincing point.
3. Reliability, security and performance.
The trifecta of the computing experience, and something flash has never delivered on any Apple platform. Don’t believe me? Just go here (warning depending on your browser it may crash immediately, thats the point.) Or you can just read this article from TUAW explaining the 16 month old bug…
4. Battery life
I’m glad Steve touched on this because this is something a lot of people don’t understand, and he explains it in detail. Mainly flash video is decoded in software rather than hardware (where H.264 is decoded) which destroys your battery life.
5. Touch
This makes perfect sense. Flash relies heavily on hover events to achieve silly effects, this is obviously not something you could provide on an iDevice, Steve puts it this way “Flash was designed for PCs using mice, not for touch screens using fingers.”
6. The most important reason
Steve debunks the idea that they only reason you can’t develop in flash for the iDevices is political, he explains that it’s because of their spotty performance when transcoded.
Final Thoughts
I think this is a great argument that really may be one of the last nails in the coffin that is flash, something that I am not sad to see go.
Steve confirms they aren’t dropping OSX
After Apple confirmed WWDC today people started noticing that the focus was definitely on the iOS. There was absolutely no mention of OSX in the itinerary. 9to5mac (one of my favorite sites) posted this article about it, raising the question, is this the new path for Apple. I know many people myself included did not like this at all and thankfully it is not. A Steve Jobs Email Replies reader Nathan (twitter) thankfully just forwarded me this email that he received directly from Steve.
It’s great to hear that the iOS is not going to be their only focus in the future. Thanks Nathan!
New MacBook Pros and Apple’s strong lineup
Well I just have to say that I am most impressed with Apple’s current lineup of hardware. Their iPods are more sophisticated than ever. The iPhone is ruling the roost in the mobile space these days. The iPad made quite a splash when it launched and is still going strong. Apple’s iMac continues to sell well while simultaneously eating away at the need for it’s more costly bigger brother, the Mac Pro desktop. And finally we have the well-loved and highly respected Macbook Pro family. Apple’s newest laptops, released today, are simply stronger than ever.
While I immediately questioned Apple’s reluctance to add Intel’s latest i5 series processors, it will all come out in the wash I’m sure. In my mind the people that purchase Apple’s entry level Macbook Pro are not going to be too discouraged by the somewhat stale Core 2 Duo. I feel that the longer battery life will be more appealing to said customers. Power users are still going to opt for the “sweet spot” 15″ Macbook Pro or even the “way too big” 17″. That said, these new laptops are a welcome addition to the hardware family.
I am loving that there is now an option to add a 512GB SSD, however the price leaves a lot to be desired. I find it silly that 500GB is the largest HDD that Apple allows in their CTO option. Still though, with the low cost of storage these days, it’s not really a big deal anymore.
All in all these new laptops are a nice compliment to Apple’s current hardware lineup. I can’t say I was really surprised or blown away by the upgrades. Today’s announcements seemed like a very natural progression in the way of things. While I certainly won’t be going out of my way to replace my late ’08 Macbook Pro 15″, I wouldn’t hesitate to plop down the cash for one of the new 15″, or even 13″, Macbook Pros.
Twitter buying Tweetie: The Aftermath
I can tell you right now I’m not happy about this article and I think very few people are. If you read my last article you know that Twitter bought Tweetie branding them as their favorite application. They are changing the name to “Twitter for iPhone.” Why are they taking the happy name “Tweetie” that Loren said wasn’t as scary as “Twittelator” the Arnold Schwarzenegger of iPhone Twitter clients. You don’t think he said this? Check out this video of him speaking for the Stanford iPhone application development class (iTunes Link). Twitter decided to switch the name for one reason SEO. I’m not sure if SEO is what you would call it for the application store but that’s why. Uniformed people go to the store and type “Twitter” in which case Echofon comes up first and Tweetie 2 is about 15th, yet Tweetie is arguably the best Twitter client on the iPhone (ignore Tweetdeck it’s a different story).
So why is everyone angry about this? They have a good reason to be, a good many reasons. First of which this is discouraging development of other applications (like Nambu), since Twitter branded themselves its very hard to compete with the initial creator of the entire system.
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Tweetie bought by Twitter.
Twitter just purchased the amazingly popular iPhone application Tweetie 2. Loren Brichter(the creator of Tweetie) will now be part of the Twitter mobile team. The iPhone application is by far the best experience of Twitter on the iPhone hands down. The desktop version of Tweetie is not a bad application for Twitter on the mac I personally use it daily and have chosen it over the many other mac applications. So as everyone knows this is great news for Tweetie and Loren. Twitter will be converting the application to “Twitter for iPhone” for FREE, currently it is $2.99. Since it’s amazing this is fantastic news for everyone.
So where is the bad news in this? It’s for the other developers. Twitter buying Tweetie is a clear message that it is the best. It is the application that they prefer and they are endorsing it as the ideal experience for using Twitter on the iPhone. It’s name “Twitter for iPhone,” is perfect for searching in the App Store. When people search for “Twitter” it will definitely be the top application with the best reviews for FREE. I can’t even explain how happy yet surprised I am for the acquisition. It’s great for Loren and the future of the application but it’s very surprising to me that a major company like Twitter would brand themselves with a personal application.
Overall this was a great decision and I can’t wait to be a part of the future of Twitter for iPhone.
Original articles:
From Twitter’s blog: http://blog.twitter.com/2010/04/twitter-for-iphone.html
From Loren’s blog: http://news.atebits.com/post/509476371/an-amazing-ride