Entries tagged ‹ apple ›

June  11th.  2010
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»Marco.org: iPhone multitasking and background updating

Sad but true. Even I was under the impression that when Apple said iOS 4 was going to support multi-tasking, that it was actually going to support multi-tasking. That’s not to say Apple’s solution is bad - in fact, it’s quite brilliant. It’s just missing a critical ability; the ability for apps to make requests for data over the Internet in the background.

Most iPhone users expect this to be possible as of iOS 4 and it’s not the case currently.

By naming these features “multitasking”, Apple has set customers’ expectations to include what apps can do in a traditional computer multitasking environment.

It’s going to mislead people into expecting such behavior from apps, but we can’t actually deliver most of it.

April  21st.  2010
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Apple is not a champion for the open web

posted 2 years ago

This has bothered me since the day Apple started throwing around their anti-Flash, pro-HTML5 rhetoric.

Today, as things stand, there is NO open substitute for Flash on Apple’s mobile devices (iPod, iPad, iPhone). The alternative is the equally closed iPhone OS platform.

Trading the Flash platform for the iPhone OS platform is the SAME DIFFERENCE. Pushing HTML5 video is a cop-out and a smoke screen.

Just look at all the site-specific apps on the App Store. Apple promotes the ABC, Netflix, WSJ, etc apps as benefits. I see the opposite - content providers being locked into yet another proprietary technology. How do sites being forced to serve their content via “apps” good for the “open web”? At least Flash is cross-platform (in the “it mostly works” sense).

That’s not to say I want Apple to support Flash on their devices. I’d much prefer Apple lived up to their marketing-speak and push HTML5 and deliver on the phoney PR promise of an open alternative to Flash. There are several young open HTML5 technologies including WebGL and Canvas that have the potential to provide a complete, open replacement for Flash.

Canvas is supported in varying degrees today by Safari, Chrome, and Firefox, but the problem hindering each is miserable performance.

Unfortunately, Apple will not be the one to lead the charge for HTML5. They have no motivation to see Canvas and WebGL mature to the point where they can replace Flash because that would mean less content for their tightly controlled App Store.

Apple criticising Flash for being closed is hypocritical and two-faced.

January  17th.  2010
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I wrote a much more interesting caption for this photo, but tumblr apparently doesn’t auto-save drafts so I lost it when my first attempt at posting it failed. Long story short - cat chewed through new aluminium Apple keyboard wire. In a fit of grief I proceeded to wallop the broken keyboard on the desk, bending the shit out of it and popping off a key. Later in the day I returned to the brutalized keyboard, feeling repentant for having needlessly assaulted it and decided to try my hand at repairing it. Some steady hands, patience and a lot of electrical tape later I’m typing this post up (for the second time) on my slightly bent, but fully functional Apple aluminium keyboard. Cat - 348, Me - 1

I wrote a much more interesting caption for this photo, but tumblr apparently doesn’t auto-save drafts so I lost it when my first attempt at posting it failed.

Long story short - cat chewed through new aluminium Apple keyboard wire. In a fit of grief I proceeded to wallop the broken keyboard on the desk, bending the shit out of it and popping off a key.

Later in the day I returned to the brutalized keyboard, feeling repentant for having needlessly assaulted it and decided to try my hand at repairing it. Some steady hands, patience and a lot of electrical tape later I’m typing this post up (for the second time) on my slightly bent, but fully functional Apple aluminium keyboard.

Cat - 348, Me - 1