So work has kept me from posting in a while. Stupid Work. But something of substance is forthcoming, with new photos of The National European tour coming soon.
Guess what? My Mac’s Safari browser just crashed while watching a Flash video on The Wall Street Journal (scroll down to watch it). The subject? Adobe’s response to Steve Jobs’ recent arguments agains using Flash on Apple mobile devices. But let’s put that aside for now. In my last post on this debate, I did my best to be humble; to refrain from partisanship as much as an Apple fanatic is capable; and to give any of you the opportunity to fill in the gaps in my knowledge on this subject.
When I read Steve Jobs’ Thoughts on Flash, I noted how struck I was by what seemed like Steve’s relatively dispassionate position on this subject. Maybe my vision is blurred while reading between the lines, but Jobs’ arguments were not delivered with his typical bravado (i.e. arrogance). It seems to me that point by point, Steve proposed lucid, practical reasons for not embracing Adobe Flash’s on Apple mobile devices. Maybe that’s just me. But:
What was glaringly obvious to me during Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen’s rebuttal was his delivery of the same lame corporate marketing bromides you hear at every mid-level management meeting across America: “value proposition.” “world vision.” “delivery mechanism that allows us to amortize investment.” Who is us? Whose investment?
The interviewer points out that Steve’s response seemed “personal” and “nasty.” It’s no secret Mr. Jobs can be an arrogant ass and a real tyrant. But you don’t see many titans of industry adopting the genteel protocol of Victorian drawing rooms (nor the watered down language of corporate marketing). Asshole he may be, but he delivers innovation like no other technology company in recent history and does it with a confidence and panache that comes from nowhere if not straight from his heart. Even with all his faults, his recent response did not feel like the tantrum of a man that is used to having his way. I detected no belligerence or defensiveness in the tone of his language. More importantly, I felt informed by Jobs’ response. In contrast, Adobe’s response felt like a sales pitch worthy of an alternate Glenngary Glenn Ross script.
I was sincerely hoping to hear countering arguments that completed the picture for me. I have no interest in debunking Adobe in favor of my beloved iPhone. I simply wanted facts, straight up. I wanted specifics that would enable me to defend either side of this debate with informed intelligence. Unless I forgot to take out my earplugs (I did not play my drums last night), I couldn’t cobble together a single lucid piece of information from the smorgasbord of Narayen’s clichéd language. He even uses the word “factoid” to bolster his own weak arguments. Consumers, and certainly technology professionals, are not interested in something as politically slanted as a “factoid,” which is defined as “a brief or trivial item of news or information. An assumption or speculation that is reported and repeated so often that it becomes accepted as fact.” Seems like Mr. Narayen needs to polish his rhetorical skills if he hopes to present viable arguments to this debate.
Narayen uses the word “smokescreen” multiple times to describe Steve’s “allegations”. That’s where this man’s credibility completely fell apart for me. The interviewer repeatedly asked him to respond to the specific points in Jobs’ agenda. He responded to none of these in any substantive, factual manner, choosing instead to continue using corporate platitudes to deflect pointed questions. Wait a minute. Isn’t that a smokescreen? His whining tone, flimsy language and closed body language tells the real story.
Narayen goes on to state that “technology is not the issue.” Do what? Ok, you lost me with that one, sir. Then he goes on to mention that InDesign, a print application, can bridge a development gap for an interactive platform? C’mon.
There’s plenty more in this interview that I could dissect and debunk. But I have little interest in tearing down a company that has gifted the world with Photoshop– an application that shakes my atheistic leanings through the sheer depth of it’s capabilities. But the bottom line is: hey, it would be great to have Flash on the iPhone/iPad. But if the rhetorical and business positions of these two guys are to be my only guide, then I’ll side with Steve and wait till a better solution comes along. Apple ain’t dumb. It can’t be that far off.
Can’t we all just get along? Watch the video below. Hope it doesn’t crash your Mac.
Thanks for the info and the links, kph! However, I think most anyone that’s been a true Applephile for the past several years – at least the ones I know – are well-aware of these nasty tendencies and have something of a love/hate relationship with the company. (Indeed, I even worked for them until I quit last June, disgusted with their corporate shenanigans!)
The company does appear to be on its way to Evil Empire status, and I hate them for that, but they continue to provide a user experience that, for me anyway, just can’t be beat.
Jobs certainly has a Flash agenda, and I’m sure Apple will remain more closed than open to the developer community…that’s kind of how they’ve always been, I suppose, and that’s really not very admirable at all but may be part of the secret to their success. However, I still prefer the way their products look, feel and operate to any others I’ve encountered. Until something better (for me) comes along, they’ll have my often kicking & screaming support….
I could easily be accused of partisanship on the side of Apple. I’m a die-hard Mac-head and an iPhone addict. But in this case, Steve Jobs’ recent rebuttal to the ongoing mobile Flash support debate offers the most compelling arguments I’ve yet heard on the subject.
I like Flash. It does some cool things. My own design + development company has used it extensively over the years. But as SEO becomes a higher priority to our small entrepreneurial clients, we have begun to move away from it in favor of JavaScript/CSS/HTML (though we still loveSiFR to render branded, system-agnostic typography–without the mobile device/SEO penalty). Not to mention that, as a closed system requiring a very specialized skill-set, professional-grade Flash developers are much scarcer than their HTML-based counterparts. It’s also harder to pass on a Flash/ActionScript code base to new vendors, and it’s typically more expensive to execute and more unwieldy to maintain, particularly when used in conjunction with a Content Management System.
I have a considerable financial investment in the Adobe software suites that are crucial to running my business. But as a compulsive iPhone user, I’m only occasionally frustrated by the lack of Flash support, though to such a negligible extent as to be almost irrelevant. And although widespread adoption of newer technologies like HTML5 is still a ways away, I’ve begun to lean towards Steve’s point of view.
Though I found his points regarding “Touch” user interfaces extremely compelling, one could argue that DHTML navigation (as much as I f’ing hate it) suffers similar disadvantages as Flash on a touch-screen device. Moreover, his arguments do side-step the glaring fact that, despite Google’s embracement of more “open,” non-Flash technologies, Flash is supported on their own Andorid mobile operating system. But friends don’t let friends drive Androids (and most definitely not BlackBerries) ;-)
I’m just a graphic design guy in love with user-friendly Interface design and Information Architecture, so I’m by no means an expert on the mobile Flash debate. I’m sure many of you could counter with your own, more well-informed arguments. And of course Jobs by definition must promote his own agenda–but his recent, uncharacteristically open rebuttals make a lot of sense without coming across aggressive or excessively partisan.
In the spirit of non-partisanship (and humility in admission of my own incomplete grasp of the subject), fill in the gaps in my arguably tenable position by commenting below.
KPH makes the point we all need to keep in mind in assessing any large firm’s restrictive-by-choice architectures and that is – business is king. With the MSFT, GOOG, APPL s of the world it’s all about shareholder value. And again with them, free is a loss leader.
Case in point a recent NYorker article talked about the iPad vs Kindle biz models. Apparently, Jobs is being lauded by publishers for making deals with them that don’t cut them out by going directly to authors like Amazon. Hurrah SJ right for preserving the publishing biz right ? The agreement has a 2 year cap after which all is fair game. Enough time that is for a firm of Apple’s resources to take a huge chunk of market share and populate iBooks with as many titles as Amazon.
Just sayin’ So in the end, controlling demand is the way to get the “right” outcomes for users. So what’dya say, shall we all switch to Droids? Eeeehmmm you first….i love my iPhone ;-)
Have you seen these ridiculous adverts for Windows 7? I know us Mac geeks are wont to take any shot we can at our old nemesis, but this one is a slam dunk.
Pretty girl in bad British accent revels in the fact that W7 now has a “new task bar…Now I can see everything I have open!”
Wow! Revolutionary! How did we ever get along without this new feature? Well, 10 years ago we all got Mac OS X. That’s how.
I’ve spent an hour or so on W7 (I feel so dirty) and it is an improvement from XP and Vista (a monkee could have improved those). But as always, those improvements were pilfered from functionality that’s been native to the Mac OS for 10 years.
Apparently some illustrious souls have shot back at these ads with pretty much the same sentiment. Cheerio, chaps! Suck it, Windows!
Yeah, those ads make me laugh. Every single feature is something we Mac users have had for years, as you say. Also entertaining is how the people in the ads become sexy ‘models’ in their remembrances of how they came up with the idea….
Beers in a can suck They lose their crispness and body and deny us the eye candy of a glistening, sweaty golden bottle of lager or the thick foam of a chocolaty, full-bodied stout. (Sorry, I got carried away there, but I’m sure there’s such a thing as beer porn out there).
Now, cans certainly afford us a pseudo-manly display of strength as we punctuate our last slug with a crushing hand (shark hunter Captain Quint did it best). But the canned beers’ charm ends there. At least until recently. Three beers negate the theory:
The Sapporo tall boy: Housed in a tank of a can, it’s a stalwart silver monster that will defeat all but the manliest hands. It’s crisp, flavorful, delicious. Drunk from a glass bottle: Insipid and lame, tastes like ass.
The Heineken Mini Keg. Also quite the sturdy vessel. When offered the same beer in a bottle, I opt for wine, whiskey, gin, hell – even a Coke. But not so in the mini-kegger. It’s delicious, crisp, relatively full-bodied. But don’t be fooled – the run of the mill canned version also tastes like ass.
Tecaté: For some, it’s Mexico’s Budweiser, except, you know, actually tasty.
Add a lime and it’s sublime.
i honestly adore your posting type, very interesting.
don’t give up and keep writing for the reason that it’s simply well worth to following it,
impatient to see a whole lot more of your own articles, good bye :)
OCD recipe for crispy Coca-Cola I’m from two Southern locales that revere Coca-Cola: Mexico City (the second biggest market in the world) and Atlanta (the birthplace of Coke). Neither is responsible for my love and loyalty to the best beverage every made (bourbon, another typically southern spirit running a close second, though never, ever mixed with Coke. Why ruin two good things by putting them together).
To borrow from a terrible movie (The Invention of Lying), Coke’s competitor should adopt the following marketing campaign: “Pepsi. When they don’t have Coke.” Amusing as the this notion may be, Sir Knight (another fellow Southerner) and I would pay it no heed. Sitting in a New York deli one fine day, we each asked the waitress for a Coke with lime. “Is Pepsi ok,” she asked. “No!” we replied in close harmony. We order iced tea instead.
So, if you share our passion for the crispy caramel delight, here’s the proper way to serve it:
It’s gotta be served from a can. Or at least a glass bottle if you can find it these days. Coke in a plastic bottle: flat-ish and strangely film-y.
You gotta pour it over ice. But not just any ice. It’s gotta be wet ice, cubed, not crushed. Plop them in a highball glass, rinse them with cold water and drain it, leaving only the ice.
Squeeze a wedge of lime over your freshly-rinsed ice. No self-respecting Mexican uses lemon.
Pour the Coke like a pro pours a beer. Slowly, tilting the glass.
Now tell me if that’s not the crispest coke you ever had.
Friends laughed at the fastidiousness of this approach. ‘Till I presented them with a taste test that forever changed their coke-drinking habits. One beverage was prepared with love and tenderness. The other was sloshed carelessly into a glass smoking with dry ice, resulting in a beverage flat as a pre-teen and as syrupy sweet as a bad romantic comedy.
Ok, maunet will not be a place to voice my political opinions. This forum is devoted to much less consequential topics (though I would argue and hope you agree that music, humor, film, art and literature are certainly worth a minute or two of your day).
Nevertheless, friend Miles Cliatt articulates beautifully on the subject, particularly in response to the notion that Obama did not accomplish enough in his first year. Thanks Miles, for providing a venue such as yours so I don’t have to.
I know there’s a whole roost of folks that are “not cat people,” or say that they’re “more of a dog person” or, at their most vulgar extreme “hate cats,” (you in particular, can suck it).
Great. Fine. I get it. Dogs are cool. They’re funny and loyal and goofy and fun outdoors. If I owned a British bulldog, I would have little need for therapy or anti-depressants. Just looking at that ridiculous face would lift the spirit. So, dog people, dont’ say I never loved you, or them. But:
Here at maunet (and our extended fold of writerly pet friends) we are most definitely cat folk. They’re handsome, independent, quirky and self-sufficient. You don’t have to get up at 6AM in the middle of a Brooklyn blizzard to walk them and–ahem–pick up their steaming little piles of poop for them. I hate getting up early. And I most definitely hate picking up other mammal’s poop.
And what about water? A wet dog smells god-awful. A wet cat? Well, first off, they have enough sense to not get wet. And if some unfortunate incident befalls them and they end up wet, they don’t leave your hands smelling like…like… hell i don’t know what like–here my writerly metaphors are stumped by that nasty wet-dog smell.
I could go on and on. But better to have Robert DeNiro’s
intimidating authority put to rest this age-old argument:
Loss, inevitable
Two years ago, my beloved Benjamin developed liver cancer. I spent one long year and more money than I could afford keeping him comfortable enough to enjoy, relatively speaking, one more quality year before finally letting him go. Now our dear Sir Knight and the Lady Kate are going through the same thing. One half of the charming duo Cosmo & The Drake has taken quite ill and may not make it through the winter. And as sad an ordeal as this is, it has at times been leavened by humor.
A recent visit to the vet yielded this conversation:
Kate: He seems to have some kind of growth near his anus. Vet (lifting Cosmo’s tail): That’s his penis. Knight: A penis anus. Vet:What?
Love the Drake. Love the Cosmo. Love the cats. Long live the cats…
Those in creative fields still beholden to client demands (record labels, global brands, movie studios, corporate retailers, the list goes on…) are well familiar with the mercenary principle: you gotta make a living, the client is “always right,” (but not really, ever). So whaddya do? Suck it up and deliver often-emabarassing, sub-par work.
In the December issue, Wired presents us with a “how to fail” strategy presumably aimed at lifting our spirits and helping us turn setbacks into advantages. Gotta love the bullshit affirmation, elusive as it may be. But the piece does deliver some satisfaction in this short anecdote from Alec Baldwin:
“The Fail: Mercenary acting.
I needed to make a living. People don’t realize actors are like plumbers. When you invite a plumber to your house and say, “I want you to put this sink in my bathroom,” the plumber doesn’t say, “I’m not going to install that sink, it’s hideous. You have the worst taste in sinks!” No, he just says, “OK,” and he puts it in.
The Save: Making a terrible romantic comedy.
My Best Friend’s Girl had one of the worst scripts I’ve ever read in my life. The movie was a huge disaster. Scathing reviews.
And I realized: I’m done with doing it for the money.”
You know what it takes to make it in the creative business with your pride intact: It takes brass balls. Go and do likewise, gents…
Sharing a numerical moniker with c23, Mick 23 iterates one simple graphic element into a remarkable variety of visual/verbal haikus. Oh, and they’re funny. Funny’ll get you every time…
Yes, mental speed outsrips limited typing skills. Proofing only works 90% of the time when you multi-task. Find a typo? Your proofing services appreciated. Contact me and provide post link URL and text reference. Much obliged, kind sir, lovely madam.
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Saturday 05.01.2010 | 5:40 UTC
KBJ says:
Thanks for the info and the links, kph! However, I think most anyone that’s been a true Applephile for the past several years – at least the ones I know – are well-aware of these nasty tendencies and have something of a love/hate relationship with the company. (Indeed, I even worked for them until I quit last June, disgusted with their corporate shenanigans!)
The company does appear to be on its way to Evil Empire status, and I hate them for that, but they continue to provide a user experience that, for me anyway, just can’t be beat.
Jobs certainly has a Flash agenda, and I’m sure Apple will remain more closed than open to the developer community…that’s kind of how they’ve always been, I suppose, and that’s really not very admirable at all but may be part of the secret to their success. However, I still prefer the way their products look, feel and operate to any others I’ve encountered. Until something better (for me) comes along, they’ll have my often kicking & screaming support….