USA Today plans 'radical' overhaul to focus on devices like iPad - Page 2

Good explanation, it clarifies much of what I have suspected is true for decades now.

It's ironic that given the plethora of choices for "news" it's harder than ever to become informed, since the "news" outlets that exist have become even more excessively slanted one way or another. It's regrettable that while the WSJ's and even the NYT's content is so much more refined, their electronic versions are becoming eclipsed by the McNews. It's still the best print product IMO but since the Bancrofts sold it, even the Wall Street Journal's quality has declined substantially. Its (paid) electronic version trails the (free) NYT's and borders on user-hostile They'd better get on board, and right soon, lest they too become irrelevant.

"News" has been reduced to a product that's packaged and sold. Sometimes it's even manufactured. As such, it resembles more entertainment than information. Make no mistake... Glenn Beck and Jon Stewart are first and foremost entertainers. Good ones, but their product is entertainment... not news. So are the talking heads on the three-letter TV networks (whose names I don't know since I went cold turkey on TV years ago). Thinking you're getting your "news" from ABC, CBS, or CNN is as wrong-headed as thinking you're getting it from Rush Limbaugh. The difference is that while I believe Glenn Beck would be the first to admit he's an entertainer, so many arrogant so-called "journalists" would never admit it.

Long ago I coined the term "nooz" to distinguish it from a product seeking to inform its clientele. Unlike news, "nooz" is a product sold for its own benefit, while apparently seeking to dumb down society. The McNews is its poster child.

...Get that trivia question yet? Winner gets removed from my ignore list

I think these journalism / B-school grads that run popular news outlets have performed a major societal disservice. Educated men should raise society's standards, not reduce them to the lowest common denominator simply to secure the widest possible audience.

Yes, NPR is an outstanding app. Brilliantly implemented.

Sad but true... the appearance of wealth (in our cars, in our homes). The appearance of knowledge (in our conversations with others). The appearance of leadership (in our government ). It's what we want. Such laziness!

I still don't get why every source needs their own app though. Wish Apple had made a nice news app or browser plugin that supported offline content.

Is the disdain because he is a "conservative" commentator or something else?
Serious question as I have never listened to him nor read any works by him. I do have a fiction book authored by him but have not yet read it.

He pretends to be conservative, but hes really just an entertainer, for lack of a better term, looking for ratings without trying to any credible argument or news. He constantly contradicts himself as needed, which is pretty funny when The Daily Show writess piece his rants together. But that likely helps his ratings.

Im all for conservative values if that suits you, but I am not for those using the media to twist the facts to suit their political agenda. But I will not get into that here. Id like to stick with the comedic aspects of politics in the media (if possible).

Here are some hilarious clips from The Daily Show about Glenn Beck

http://www.thedailyshow.com/videos/tag/Glenn+Beck
PS: Mods, if this crossing a line feel free to delete my post.

Glenn Beck is a fearmonger cashing in.
Fox "news" is headed by George H.W. Bush's cousin. They've been caught distorting the news to fit their narrative many times. Cable news and especially fox will ruin ones ability to think.

I don't believe that most iPad owners would even care about Beck's 'Restoring White to America' rally. Most Americans, for that matter.

Honestly, smart move for them. Maybe they can be the Angry Birds of news apps :P

When you read the actual article this story refers to it turns out that USA Today isn't abandoning the nearly 2 billion people who have computers to focus on iPad owners at all.

On the contrary, the shift is merely about focusing on all types of electronic devices rather than print, which is pretty much what the industry as a whole is doing.

Being an Apple-centric site of course we expect AI to try to find the Apple-centric spin on any story it reports. But really, this one screams of desperation.

As if those icons of yellow journalism at CNN/ABC/CBS/NBC are any different...

A news item about USA's business decision gets derailed into a discussion of how dare Apple take away my 'Flash' choice and then a referendum on Glen Beck. Most of these comments are without factual basis to boot. Beck is more of a Libertarian than a conservative. His show is not a news show but an opinion show intended to entertain. I haven't watched a lot of Beck but he does have a fairly large audience. The fact that he has become a favorite target for some liberal comedians does show that he is having success. If you have never or hardly watched his show then your view of what he has to say is slanted by what others say about his message.

This is interesting. Have you watched a week straight of Glenn Beck on Fox News? How many shows of Glenn Beck in real time have you watched (full episodes)? Anything (complete episodes) recent from his show at all?

That's sad then.

They may be far from perfect news stations but they are a hell of a lot better than the distortion and propaganda machine on Fox with Ben Gleck and co who I suspect are on the Koch payrol. The terrifying thing is over a fifth of this country believe everything they say!

Sure have (and other Fox News programs, but that's because they have so many hot reporters) and his shtick is fearmongering and rabble-rousing appealing to bigoted middle America under a thinly veiled guise of concern.

Makes me sad to see someone who can't grasp the very basic, very clear, easily understandable market that the iPad is aimed at. Even more sad that someone defines a 'real' computer by it's facility to run an outdated proprietary software plug in that has yet to be successfully run in ANY mobile device.

Furthermore, It's extremely sad that some people don't understand that it's the job of any professional content provider to embed their content in an accessible way with alternative embedded techniques for the whole web audience, including those who choose not to run flash as it is not usable by those who are physically disabled.

What's next Blackintosh - Complaining that you can't edit HD video on a calculator..? There are different tools for different jobs. Buy the right tool and - amazingly - it will do what it's designed to do. If it doesn't, then you can complain. If you bought an ipad to view flash content, yr stupid. If you don't own an ipad, then you have no basis for your constant, repetitive babble.

Okay, let's start at the top. The market the iPad is aimed at is internet and email. You can't see 75 percent (Walt Mossberg's figure) of the internet. Not good.

Flash may be outdated proprietary software but it is needed to visit websites. If you don't have you can't see it.

I never said I wanted to edit HD content. You made that up. But since you mentioned it, why is there iMovie for the phone and not the iPad?

And don't call me stupid or I will have you BANNED. Like I was for name calling. BANNED!!!! BANNED!!!!!

I was using Glenn Peck as an example of a site people might want to visit and cannot because the CEO of Apple has a personal vendetta against the CEO of Adobe.

This is not a political forum. But I must ask: How the heck do you know what most iPad owners care about? Did you take an opinion poll or something? Or do you just "know everything" like everyone else in this forum?

Yeah, that's what I thought.

So youre interpreting Mossbergs comment that 75% of the content on the internet can only be seen with Flash? Id love what kind of slimy argument you muster on that one.

And needed? Surely by some, but there are 100 million iOS users out there that dont seen to need it, and there are Blackberry, WinMo, Symbian, and Android users that dont seem to need it as evidenced by the cumulative sales. In fact, its seems so uneeded that Adobe still only has Flash for ONE mobile OS platform, and only for ONE version of that OS and not even for all devices that run that OS despite that number already being phenomenally small.

If it was such a requirement then these sales of device with OSes that access the internet and do not have Flash would not have been happening, and yet they are.

Try the app. ootunes (pronounced infinite tunes but you need to type ootunes to find it). Plays just about anything that is streamed on the web regardless of what format it is originally streamed in. By far my favorite app.

In July 2010 6,400 programmes were streamed from the BBC iPlayer to Android devices.

In July 2010 there were 5,272,464 programmes requested via the BBC iPlayer from Apple iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad devices.

Why so striking a difference? Because Android users can only access iPlayer using Flash, Flash is only available on Android 2.2, and the overwhelming majority of Android handsets — even brand-new ones — are still running older versions of the OS.

But, of course, there are no iOS users with Flash installed. That’s what I see as the main problem with Android’s official support for Flash: it gives providers like the BBC an easy way out. Would there exist a dedicated iPlayer app for the iPhone if iOS had supported Flash all along? Does Android’s support for Flash make it less likely that the BBC will develop a native iPlayer app for Android?

Daring Fireball

The BBC iPlayer is a web app but the point is still made. Every single iOS devices can stream H.264 from BBC with no problem. While Flash support on Android is spotty and inconsistent. There is still no widely available Flash plug-in for mobile devices. Where would mobile media playback be today if Apple sat around waiting on Adobe?

There are several news aggregators. I don't think this is something Apple needed to do.

Get a real life, troll boy.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume "sure have" to mean:

#1: Watched a week straight of Glenn Beck on Fox News
#2: You've watched them in their entirety
#3: Watched a recent episode.

Original Quote by me for which you responded to:

Given the above to be true, can you recall the specifics of a recent particular episode that you had problems with? The likelihood being, I would have watched the same episode. I'm trying to drill down specifically to your own first-hand accounts of an episode that you simply factually disagreed with.

What is so slimy about what I said? I'm only repeating what I heard. At least I gave you a source to back up what I said. If I had not you would have bitched that I made the figure up.

Why mention mobile devices? This thread is about the iPad. I can see leaving Flash off of a mobile phone if it's gonna kill the battery. But the iPad is meant to be used in the home on Wi Fi. Give me flash and I'll plug the blamed thing into the wall socket. What's wrong with that???

As far as Flash being needed, I see that iPad's are now shipping within 24 hours. Maybe that's because a lot of people are returning them when they find out the stupid thing doesn't work on the internet. Maybe the word is out and less people want one. It's very likely that the average Joe figured the damned thing would just work. And when it didn't, they thought, "What the hell, I'm taking this piece of crap back."

Jeez, Solipsism, you were way off the beam on this post.

That seems to be a huge stretch given Apple's track record with iOS devices, customer satisfaction rates, and high demand for iOS devices. That is pretty bad speculation on your part. Flash has not been shown yet to be a huge sales hindrance, and people already know iOS devices don't do Flash. Why would people return a product from an OS that hasn't supported flash since the beginning, a CEO whose written an open letter about his stance on it, I mean c'mon.

Are you a victim of abuse, neglected, unloved, spoiled rotten, no purpose to your life? Help us understand your particular pathology.

Not everyone is a geek. The average Joe probably doesn't even know what Flash is. I didn't know it until the first iPhone came out and didn't have it. Oh, crap, I can't go to startrek.com anymore. Sucko. But I'll put up with it on a phone if it's going to kill my battery.

As far as the letter is concerned, that letter didn't come out until three years after the first iPhone and well after the iPad. But even so, how many consumers are going to read that letter? Try no one.

Jeez, I'm winning every argument tonight. Come on guys, give me a challenge. This is too easy.

You call it trolling, I call it arguemets of logic. Try responding to what I said and not exaggerating and talking to me like a punk.

Dear moderator, notice I did not call anonymoose a punk, I asked him not to talk to me like a punk. I don't think I deserve another point for being punk'd.

Brilliant response. You really persuaded me that I was completely wrong. I'm going out and getting an iPad right now.

As far as getting a life, who is it, besides me of course, that's spending his Saturday night at the Apple Insider forum continuing an argument from yesterday?

You have an iPhone and an iPad don't you? That makes you hip, happening, sexy. Go get your glass gadget, get dressed up and walk down the street and start texting. The girls will dig you. And whatever you do, DON'T look both ways before crossing the street. It will make you look like a SQUARE!!! Ahhh hahahahah.

Mr. Hillkirk, you are losing readers not because of the rise of mobile computing, but because no one wants your content in the first place. Nothing prevents me from going to your site on my iPhone, but I choose not to, because your content is biased and unusable.

Good riddance to the dinosaur media.

- News organizations (online, print, and TV), blogs, and every other reporting outlet didn't get the memo as they have talked/written about the lack of Flash since the beginning. Does the average Joe in your world subscribe or hear to any of the above and/or have friends that also don't?



- Okay, a geek (you) is willing to make such a trade-off. Some other geek had to make the decision for the average Joe who doesn't know what Flash is (according to you) and so made the call to do what was in the best interest of the non-geek at the time. There wasn't a desktop level version of flash for the phone back then and it appears from the recent Macrumors.com story, still doesn't exist.


Consumers? I'm a consumer, and I read it. If it's posted on Apple.com, one of the most highly visited sites on the web, it probable got quite a few more hits than other sites. Reasonable to assume with millions visiting every day that at least thousands would read it daily as well.


Wrong, losing but you just don't know it yet - or refuse to admit publicly.

We both know it's trolling, and that there's no point wasting time "arguing" with you. But, seriously, I'm interested in what makes people like you do what they do. Clearly you like to be the center of attention, so, let's talk about you.

Oh please. The only difference between Glenn Beck and Brian Williams is that one "guise of concern" is thinly veiled while the other is high theater. I'll let you decide which is which, who is sincere, who's being manipulated, and for what reasons.

Fearmongering is the lifeblood of "nooz" everywhere:

• The Earth is warming
• Our financial system is crumbling
• Our schools are failing
• Our children are obese
• Americans are a bunch of gun-toting Bible-thumping bigots
• The Earth is cooling
• There's a hurricane approaching
• Our children are starving
• Liberals are spending us into oblivion
• Conservatives want to revert to the Dark Ages
• Your Prius secretly wants to kill you
• We're running out of oil
• Except for BP
• There's too much caffeine/Alar/Saccharin/Tryptophan/Polyunsaturated fat/Salt/Red Dye #2/Trans-fat/Caffeine/DDT/severed fingers/carbs/milk/ in your diet
• There's not enough caffeine/fiber/monounsaturated fat/water/bean sprouts/milk/ in your diet
• An approaching asteroid will wipe us out
• Some rouge middle eastern megalomaniac has nukes that will wipe us out
• Too much of anything causes cancer
• Except chocolate
• Not enough hurricanes approaching
• There's a flood (George Bush's fault)
• There's a drought (George Bush's fault)
• An approaching comet will wipe us out (George Bush's fault)
• Illegal aliens will wipe us out
• Mosques are being built in your backyard
• Child molesters are moving next door
• Terrorists are everywhere
• The housing market has collapsed

...but those Fox reporters sure are hot. Yowza!

Really simple actually. I'm a normal regular person. I see Apple for what it is. A company. Not my friend or my family. I see Steve Jobs for who he is. A CEO, not a God.

I have a realistic view of Apple and it's products. I think the Mac OS is the best thing they make, iLife is terrific and the iPhone is like my third hand.

But lately Apple has taken a turn for the weird. Glass iPhones, ultra glossy iMac screens, crippled devices like the iPad and so on. I think Steve Jobs has lost his mind lately, either due to his medications (that's my excuse) or because he is feeling his mortality and wants to force another revolutionary product out before the end. He thinks the magical iPad is it, but it ain't. Not by a long shot.

Care to argue the point? As if you could anonymoose.

If I go to a website I expect everything to work. Period. If I click a link to see a video clip of Lady Gaga, I don't want to see some message telling me to download flash when I can't.

If I go to a site that has music samples, I expect them to play. I don't want to see a message saying I need to download Realplayer when I can't.

I stand by what I initially said. The average Joe has no idea what flash is or what it does. Apple has always done a good job of making the underpinnings of OSX as transparent as possible. How many printer drivers came with Leopard? How many fonts? All so you as the end user won't have to be bothered with downloading stuff and you can get on with your life.

Then iOS came along. Horrible hobbled experience. And why you guys want to see it on the Mac and the Apple TV is beyond my ability to comprehend.

We are talking about the iPad, not the phone. As I said twice before and will say again, if Flash is going to suck my battery dry then I don't want to use it on a phone. But an iPad is meant to be used at home with Wi Fi. I have 110 volt plug outlets in my home so all the excuses for not having Flash do not apply to the iPad.

So why can't the iPad have Flash? Because this is a personal issue between Apple and Adobe.

Besides, Safari ain't the best browser in the world anyway. Half the time on my real Mac I get an error message about missing mime plug in's, whatever they are. So I fire up FireFox and get on with business. Can't do that with an iPad, can you?

And why not? Does Steve Jobs hate Modzilla the way he hates Verizon and Matte screens and physical buttons and USB 3 and Blu Ray???

No one visits Apple's website but geeks like us. Everyone else gets their Apple products from Best Buy and Wal Mart.

Sorry for the multiple replies but I don't know how to answer all your incorrect points at the same time. Just call me an attention craving troll if you like.

I am annihilating you tonight.

Seriously, keep it in perspective. Most people don't even know Apple makes computers. They think Apple is that company that makes iPods. Mention Snow Leopard or Time Capsule or even iMac's to the average consumer and they don't know what you're talking about any more than they know what Flash or Real Player is.

Most people I know can barely open an email or find a web page without getting into trouble. All this stuff about people reading Steve Jobs letters is absurd. Look outside your Apple cult world for a moment. There are lots of other people out there in the normal world that exists outside this forum.

I'm thoroughly exhausted from thrashing your posts and I am going to bed now. Have a pleasant night Mr. Talon.