Apple iPhone ads shed disclaimer, show Flash support

[AppleInsider]

Several readers noted late Wednesday that Apple has removed a disclaimer from its new series of iPhone ads regarding contract requirements. Meanwhile, the latest ad for the Apple handset suggests Adobe Flash support has may be a done deal.

When Apple launched a trio of iPhone ads earlier in the week, each included a disclaimer that read: "Use requires minimum new 2 year activation plan." However, a fourth spot added to the mix on Wednesday omitted the warning and Apple subsequently removed the note from all previous iPhone spots.

At the same time, readers also noted that the latest ad, which promotes an embedded version of Apple's Safari web browser, shows a Adobe Flash clip rendering properly on the New York Times website.

Although the Flash clip cannot be seen running in the ad, the fact that it renders has led to speculation that Apple will manage to include support for digital media format at the time of iPhone's launch.

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[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

[DaveGee]

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

Before (photo removed) After (photo removed)

FAKE!!!!!!!!

I can clearly see the brush strokes where you tried to black out the wording...

FAKE!!!!!!!

Trust me, I'm a *pro* at spotting this stuff!

Dave

[caliminius]

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

At the same time, readers also noted that the latest ad, which promotes an embedded version of Apple's Safari web browser, shows a Adobe Flash clip rendering properly on the New York Times website.

Although the Flash clip cannot be seen running in the ad, the fact that it renders has led to speculation that Apple will manage to include support for digital media format at the time of iPhones launch.

Before

After

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

Well, hopefully Flash is in the iPhone. The computer at work doesn't have Flash installed (nor is it allowed) and it effectively makes many sites unusable. On the plus side, it does also prevent a fair number of ads from appearing as well. But if the iPhone is truly supposed to be a mobile web device, it needs Flash.

[Guybrush Threepwood]

I can't wait for pop up ads when I get my iPhone...

[BenRoethig]

Including flash support would be a very wise decision for Apple.

[EagerDragon]

Originally Posted by caliminius

Well, hopefully Flash is in the iPhone. The computer at work doesn't have Flash installed (nor is it allowed) and it effectively makes many sites unusable. On the plus side, it does also prevent a fair number of ads from appearing as well. But if the iPhone is truly supposed to be a mobile web device, it needs Flash.

It also needs a good way to block it.

[SpinDrift]

Originally Posted by DaveGee

FAKE!!!!!!!!

I can clearly see the brush strokes where you tried to black out the wording...

Na, they're just smudges on your screen!

[fabsgwu]

Speaking of Flash ads, looks like AppleInsider has a whooooole bunch these days

[nevenmrgan]

"Apple iPhone ads shed disclaimer"

Did anyone else read this to mean that iPhone now includes a disclaimer about storage sheds?

[CRHain88]

Originally Posted by DaveGee

FAKE!!!!!!!!

I can clearly see the brush strokes where you tried to black out the wording...

FAKE!!!!!!!

Trust me, I'm a *pro* at spotting this stuff!

Dave

I went to go talk to cingular to see what they need when buying a new phone to ensure no hiccups. I know verizon, you're name has to be on the bill or you can't buy a phone and I wanted to make sure cingular wasn't like this, otherwise I'd need to have my mom add me to it.

The guy at the counter said something along the lines of last 6 months of contract? When I said I was cingular, he mentioned that he was hearing that "they" are saying that there isn't a two year contract.

[mgkwho]

Adobe Flash support has may be a done deal.

Remove the word "has" please.

And PLEASE proofread...half of my comments are directed towards correcting your articles.

-=|Mgkwho

[minivanilli]

i hate to possibly burst everybodys bubble. i am an interactive art director and work on flash banners all the time. all websites require a backup GIF or JPEG for people that have bowsers that dont have flash installed. so just because it looks like flash is showing up, it could be the site serving up the default GIF because the safari iphone browser does not have flash. SORRY.

[SMQT]

It would be kinda sorta stupid to announce that you get the REAL internet, and then kinda sorta not support Flash. :P

[Matthew Yohe]

Originally Posted by mgkwho

Remove the word "has" please.

And PLEASE proofread...half of my comments are directed towards correcting your articles.

-=|Mgkwho

Get over it. I've tried this approach already, they don't care.

[pmjoe]

Flash is no big loss. I block it almost completely on every computer I own. If a site insists on it, then I don't need to use that site. Including Flash on the iPhone without an easy way to block it would be huge turn-off: waste of CPU, waste of bandwidth, popups, etc.

[JupiterOne]

More grammar police...

...shows a Adobe Flash clip rendering properly ...

Tsk, tsk

[blackbird_1.0]

Originally Posted by nevenmrgan

"Apple iPhone ads shed disclaimer"

Did anyone else read this to mean that iPhone now includes a disclaimer about storage sheds?

[DaveGee]

Originally Posted by mgkwho

Remove the word "has" please. and PLEASE proofread...half of my comments are directed towards correcting your articles.

And one would imagine that the other half of your posts are to defend yourself against people calling you the grammar police.

D

[nufase]

Originally Posted by nevenmrgan

"Apple iPhone ads shed disclaimer"

Did anyone else read this to mean that iPhone now includes a disclaimer about storage sheds?

wouldn't it be "Apple iPhone *adds* shed disclaimer" if that were the case?

I know you were probably just trying to be funny however, mis-reading titles isn't funny, it just makes you look foolish.

[josh59x]

The New York Times image that keeps on getting used in the iPhone ads is from October 2006. Probably a static image, not real running inside the Safari browser

[SpinDrift]

Originally Posted by pmjoe

Flash is no big loss. I block it almost completely on every computer I own. If a site insists on it, then I don't need to use that site. Including Flash on the iPhone without an easy way to block it would be huge turn-off: waste of CPU, waste of bandwidth, popups, etc.

You must live an exciting life!

[Eric1285]

Originally Posted by josh59x

The New York Times image that keeps on getting used in the iPhone ads is from October 2006. Probably a static image, not real running inside the Safari browser

That might explain why everything seems so darn fast in all the commercials. Even off of Wifi, I can't see the iPhone being that quick. They must have everything cached for the commercials, because on my Cingular 8125 off of Wifi, pages take much longer than that to load. Same on my Moto Q over EVDO.

[nevenmrgan]

Originally Posted by nufase

wouldn't it be "Apple iPhone *adds* shed disclaimer" if that were the case?

I know you were probably just trying to be funny however, mis-reading titles isn't funny, it just makes you look foolish.

Yes, it was just an attempt at some light humor, Mr. Buzzkill.

[cwinnipeg]

keep the seriousness in check... He was attempting to be funny, I think that most could see that.

[floccus]

I think a big reason for removing the contractual agreement disclaimer is that having those types of disclaimers has traditionally implied that you're getting the phone for a discount. Since both Apple and ATT have made it clear that there won't be any type of subsidy for the iPhone, I don't think they can rightfully make you sign a contract just to purchase the iPhone at its MSRP. There has also been a lot of posturing lately on the whole contractual obligations deal, with Altel now allowing you to change your contract w/o having to sign up for another two years.

[JupiterOne]

Originally Posted by nufase

I know you were probably just trying to be funny however, mis-reading titles isn't funny, it just makes you look foolish.

[Eric1285]

I think they just wanted to avoid confusion with people thinking that you had to be a current AT&T customer to get the iPhone. It seems silly that anyone would think that, but for people who aren't in the know it's a common belief (our general manager where I work just asked me about it today and both he and his friend assumed you had to already be an AT&T customer to get the iPhone).

[sigs21]

Originally Posted by josh59x

The New York Times image that keeps on getting used in the iPhone ads is from October 2006. Probably a static image, not real running inside the Safari browser

Also the time on all 4 ads is the same... 9:42 am ... 4 comercials shot in under a min.. I want them filming my companys stuff..

[Louzer]

Originally Posted by nufase

wouldn't it be "Apple iPhone *adds* shed disclaimer" if that were the case?

I know you were probably just trying to be funny however, mis-reading titles isn't funny, it just makes you look foolish.

Of course, but he probably assumed that the editors misspelled the word anyway.

[anantksundaram]

Originally Posted by sigs21

Also the time on all 4 ads is the same... 9:42 am ... 4 comercials shot in under a min.. I want them filming my companys stuff..

Brilliant. Honestly.

(But you must have a bit of time on your hands to notice stuff like that?)

[Matthew Yohe]

Originally Posted by josh59x

The New York Times image that keeps on getting used in the iPhone ads is from October 2006. Probably a static image, not real running inside the Safari browser

Actually.. no... It's live.

This is someone looking at an archive of the NY Times. You can tell this because user "blackholesun" is logged into the NYTimes website.

[Eric1285]

Wow, I wouldn't have noticed that.

You really think the iPhone can launch stuff that quickly?

[jasondwelsh]

Originally Posted by nufase

wouldn't it be "Apple iPhone *adds* shed disclaimer" if that were the case?

I know you were probably just trying to be funny however, mis-reading titles isn't funny, it just makes you look foolish.

Ah, for cryin' out loud.... You can't be serious. On second thought, you're probably "serious" all the time. How sad.

By the way, shouldn't you avoid posting public messages??? You know, being a former Mafia informant in the federal witness protection program and all?

[fabsgwu]

Won't Flash be required for Youtube? And what would the "real internet" be without youtube? Besides, with Google on board, I'm sure there'd be a push for it...

[John_Drake]

Originally Posted by floccus

I think a big reason for removing the contractual agreement disclaimer is that having those types of disclaimers has traditionally implied that you're getting the phone for a discount. Since both Apple and ATT have made it clear that there won't be any type of subsidy for the iPhone, I don't think they can rightfully make you sign a contract just to purchase the iPhone at its MSRP. There has also been a lot of posturing lately on the whole contractual obligations deal, with Altel now allowing you to change your contract w/o having to sign up for another two years.

I think you just might be right. What this would mean of course is that a contract from ATT might be heavily suggested, in order to get 'Visual Voicemail' (Side note: Was this feature really worth all the hassle for Apple to take on a partnership?!?), but not necessarily mandatory. A smart move if true.

[JulesLt]

Originally Posted by fabsgwu

Won't Flash be required for Youtube? And what would the "real internet" be without youtube? Besides, with Google on board, I'm sure there'd be a push for it...

With the AppleTV deal, YouTube are re-encoding everything as H264 (I presume they will continue to also encode in Flash as that's the widest installed video plugin).

Originally Posted by pmjoe

Flash is no big loss. I block it almost completely on every computer I own. If a site insists on it, then I don't need to use that site. Including Flash on the iPhone without an easy way to block it would be huge turn-off: waste of CPU, waste of bandwidth, popups, etc.

A suggestion. Go look at sites like picnik or gliffy - Flash based real applications. Check out what Adobe Flex can do, and how many companies are starting to use it. Sure AJAX can do a lot, but with Flex you can do it a lot easier / cross-browser - and thus far cheaper.

On the other hand, the user interface conventions of these web apps will generally not work with the iPhone.

And while you might block Flash, mySpace users seem to love cluttering their pages with Flash widgets that bring my G4 Mini to a crawl. I can see their being a big overlap between mySpace users and people who will get an iPhone when they're cheaper.

(Although if Apple had any sense they'd launch a kick-ass social network which tied into iTunes, iPhone, and iWeb - unlike .Mac it should be free, and unlike mySpace it should have no third-party ads, and should actually be well-designed - like not taking you through 3 pages to do a simple task, simply so they can serve you 3 adverts. Make sure it works well on the web. Make sure it works even better with iLife)

[sigs21]

Ok so saw 3 ads last night on 20/20 and MSNBC all had the 2 year agreement back on them.. so is this abc not showing the right tape or what..

[boss1]

Originally Posted by sigs21

Ok so saw 3 ads last night on 20/20 and MSNBC all had the 2 year agreement back on them.. so is this abc not showing the right tape or what..

If a commercial recording was submitted to that network station then they are showing the right tape. Just not the 'new one'...yet.

I noticed the same thing when I first saw the ads. The 2 year contract is an obligation to the consumer. It's really not a brilliant idea to shove obligations in the consumers face if you don't have to. It was a wise move to remove that from the commercial although it shouldn't have been up there in the first place!

If you don't get what I'm saying ...hmm.. this is probably not the best metaphor but it would be it would be like putting "You must withdraw money from your bank and pay us to use the phone", on the commercial. It's an obligation to the consumer, not really worth throwing up in the ad if you don't have to.


Also, things get complicated when you start to brand marketing messages into consumers heads such as "2 year contract" and then go ahead and change it up on them too quickly. You confuse them, your marketing gets confused, your new promotion efforts, such as "the 6 month plan" option, are now hindered by all that previous marketing, it just becomes a big ugly marketing mess.



anyway, i like the overall quality of the ads.


By the way, AT&T doesn't allow streaming internet or direct download on the iPhone (as stated in that users manual that was posted online). How does affect the possibility of youTube or other flash media on the iPhone? or does that type of flash not even fall into the category of streaming or direct download as it is browser based and cached?