Why Flash will not work on touch screens

Article has been out for about a week, but I just ran into it and thought others may like to see this perspective also.
And possibly gain a little insight into why, no flash.
The article is a very good read.


An Adobe Flash developer on why the iPad can’t use Flash — RoughlyDrafted Magazine

This is interesting. It had never occurred to me before

Great find Bob , lets hope some of the naysayers here take the time to read it. Thanx for sharing.

Clay

That makes a lot of sense. Thanks for the illuminating read.

So will HTML 5 solve this?

And another company joins in on the fun !
Virgin America dumps Flash over lack of iPhone support

This is going to start to get interesting .

Clay

osxx said:

So will HTML 5 solve this?

Click to expand...

One of the major problems with HTML5 video at this point is the differing codecs that browser makers are using. Safari and Chrome's implementation of HTML5 video uses H.264 and Firefox and Opera use Ogg. So, if you go to a site with an H.264 video, you can forget about watching it in Firefox or Opera. So, for HTML5 video to become a legitimate alternative, all the browsers need to support the same codec.

As an example, try going to this video in both Safari and Firefox (it's ogg encoded so it should only play in Firefox).

Safari shows a picture, Opera shows a screen that says you need a HTML5 capable browser and it plays in FF, although it looks like it's going to take an hour to download that particular 10 minute video.

Sorry, I'm running the beta of Opera 10.5 which has the video support. I believe support for HTML5 video in pre 10.5 versions was only available in experimental builds such as this one (that's version 9.62).

Guess I need to check for a newer beta, I've got the 10.10 beta.

Looks like they already pulled the 10.50 beta download too. The page it's on downloads 10.10 now.

Found it.

Funny, Video plays in Safari here. Starts as a picture then the player bar shows up. I click Play and it plays with audio and looks great. FF played also but was very jerky.

Opera 10:10 said it was HTML5 and would not play. On my Power PC G5, will check later on intel with latest build of Opera. No chrome here either on PPC.

You're missing out on the exciting Opera development! They just released 10.5 for Windows and the Mac and Linux versions are still in beta. You can watch the progress here where they frequently post new builds. The Mac version can sometimes be unstable (depends on the day) but it is leagues above 10.10. It's been re-written in Cocoa so it looks and acts more like a Mac app, the new JS engine is easily 5 - 7x faster (it's Safari fast) and progress is coming along nicely. I know you're an Opera fan so I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

dtravis7 said:

Funny, Video plays in Safari here. Starts as a picture then the player bar shows up. I click Play and it plays with audio and looks great. FF played also but was very jerky.

Click to expand...

It plays in Safari? Really? There goes my theory about Safari only doing H.264 out the window! It didn't play here though. Hold on, I'm going to re-investigate.

EDIT: Investigation Results

I tested that video with the six browsers I have installed.

Safari 4.0.4: picture, no video.
Firefox 3.6: plays, choppy video, sound ok
Opera 10.5 (build 8277): perfect (not that surprising though)
Chromium (39581): clicking play does nothing
Opera 10.10: says "You need a HTML5 <video> capable browser to view this movie."
Chrome Beta: works but sound is off.

It's definitely an ogg video - the video file is called "BigBuckBunny.ogv".

vansmith said:

You're missing out on the exciting Opera development! They just released 10.5 for Windows and the Mac and Linux versions are still

Click to expand...

Don't rub it in! Grin

Just send me some $$$ so I can get a nice either 21.5" or 27" iMac and put this G5 one in the bedroom for a backup!

I love the new Opera when I am using my only Intel Mac.

Don't understand why everyone else can't add Paste and Go to the address bar menu.

got the 10.50b1

bobtomay said:

Don't understand why everyone else can't add Paste and Go to the address bar menu.

got the 10.50b1

Click to expand...

That bugs me to no end Bobtomay. I think the newer Chrome has that but nothing else. Paste and Go i makes life so easy. Makes me want to ditch every other browser for Opera! Just might do that if 10.5 does a PPC version like Van found mentioned.

Van, everything is exactly as you say it here (except I am still on PPC and can't try latest Opera) except Safari. Maybe I have some plugin installed. I get a pic but if I wait 5 seconds, the player bar shows and I can click play and watch the video and it's smooth as can be even on my G5 which shocked me and looks outstanding!

Plays instantly and beautifully on my Safari browser -- but I do have Perian installed, which may be a factor.

The character animation is pretty nice, the backgrounds are VERY nice, but the interaction between the two is -- um, lacking. Looks better than Dreamworks, but not as good as Pixar.

dtravis7 said:

Don't rub it in! Grin

Just send me some $$$ so I can get a nice either 21.5" or 27" iMac and put this G5 one in the bedroom for a backup!

I love the new Opera when I am using my only Intel Mac.

Click to expand...

Hahahaha, I keep forgetting that it's Intel only at this point. Hopefully, it's only "at this point". I showed you that bug for one of the builds - it looks like they want to have PPC support.

dtravis7 said:

That bugs me to no end Bobtomay. I think the newer Chrome has that but nothing else. Paste and Go i makes life so easy. Makes me want to ditch every other browser for Opera! Just might do that if 10.5 does a PPC version like Van found mentioned.

Van, everything is exactly as you say it here (except I am still on PPC and can't try latest Opera) except Safari. Maybe I have some plugin installed. I get a pic but if I wait 5 seconds, the player bar shows and I can click play and watch the video and it's smooth as can be even on my G5 which shocked me and looks outstanding!

Click to expand...

Paste and Go is indeed in the Chrome Beta and the Chromium nightly I have (which is a bit out of date).

I've kept Safari open while writing this and I got nothing. I even tried opening Safari as a 32-bit application thinking that maybe there was some odd reason that 64-bit execution was causing problems. Well, it wasn't.

chas_m said:

Plays instantly and beautifully on my Safari browser -- but I do have Perian installed, which may be a factor.

Click to expand...

Perian here also but I thought everyone on Mac Forums used Perian!

Van, what version of Perian you using?

Also to Chas, 10.5 or 10.6 ?

It just shows a pic here on Intel Mac with same Safari and Perian version but on 10.5 on PPC plays great.

I'm using Safari 4.0.4, 10.6.2 and Perian 1.2.

vansmith said:

I'm using Safari 4.0.4, 10.6.2 and Perian 1.2.

Click to expand...

Not sure what is going on but here on the Intel C2D Mini with latest everything and 10.6.2 I get exactly the results Van does. BUT it plays on PPC with 10.5 with same Perian and Safari.

Is it 10.5?