Apple removes display of Adobe Flash content from iPad promos
Following an AppleInsider report that highlighted two pieces of promotional iPad material showing the display of Adobe Flash content, Apple has removed the offending images from its Web site.
On Friday, misleading content that implied the inclusion of Adobe Flash in the iPad's Safari Web browser was noted. In an image and a video on Apple's Web site, content from The New York Times Web site that could only be displayed in Flash was shown on the iPad.
But this weekend, Apple updated its Web site, removing an image that showed a Flash-only photo slideshow, and modifying a video that showed the Times Flash video player load on the iPad.
The image on the front page of Apple's site has been changed from the Flash photo slideshow to a story about the 1,300th anniversary of the city of Nara, Japan. Previously, it showed a picture from the story "The 31 Places to Go in 2010," with a Flash-only image of a beach in Montenegro.
In addition, a video intended to demonstrate real-world use in a first-person view has been modified to remove the display of Flash content. Previously, the iPad promotional video had shown the Flash-powered Times video player load properly on nytimes.com. Now, it correctly shows a missing plugin icon in its place.
The changes confirm that the previous pictures with Flash support were merely renderings, and did not in any way imply that Apple intended to add Flash support to the iPad before launch. At the product's unveiling Wednesday, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs did a live hands-on demo with the product during which Flash content from the Times Web site did not load.
Apple has famously shunned Flash, with the Web plugin having no support in the iPhone or iPod touch Safari browser. Apple has even encouraged developers to "stick with standards" and use CSS, JavaScript and Ajax instead of Adobe Flash. Apple has instead moved towards alternatives such as HTML 5.
For more on why Apple isn't likely to support Flash in the iPhone OS -- including the iPad -- read AppleInsider's three-part Flash Wars series.
On Friday, misleading content that implied the inclusion of Adobe Flash in the iPad's Safari Web browser was noted. In an image and a video on Apple's Web site, content from The New York Times Web site that could only be displayed in Flash was shown on the iPad.
But this weekend, Apple updated its Web site, removing an image that showed a Flash-only photo slideshow, and modifying a video that showed the Times Flash video player load on the iPad.
The image on the front page of Apple's site has been changed from the Flash photo slideshow to a story about the 1,300th anniversary of the city of Nara, Japan. Previously, it showed a picture from the story "The 31 Places to Go in 2010," with a Flash-only image of a beach in Montenegro.
In addition, a video intended to demonstrate real-world use in a first-person view has been modified to remove the display of Flash content. Previously, the iPad promotional video had shown the Flash-powered Times video player load properly on nytimes.com. Now, it correctly shows a missing plugin icon in its place.
The changes confirm that the previous pictures with Flash support were merely renderings, and did not in any way imply that Apple intended to add Flash support to the iPad before launch. At the product's unveiling Wednesday, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs did a live hands-on demo with the product during which Flash content from the Times Web site did not load.
Apple has famously shunned Flash, with the Web plugin having no support in the iPhone or iPod touch Safari browser. Apple has even encouraged developers to "stick with standards" and use CSS, JavaScript and Ajax instead of Adobe Flash. Apple has instead moved towards alternatives such as HTML 5.
For more on why Apple isn't likely to support Flash in the iPhone OS -- including the iPad -- read AppleInsider's three-part Flash Wars series.
Comments
Want 75 million iPhone OS users visiting and using your site?
Dump Flash or provide alternatives.
Adapt or lose.
My company uses HTML 5.
I guess Apple expects its users to eat its garbage.
http://www.bmson.is/bin/iPad/
Why would website allow iPad users to access their website if they can't display their ads.
They are no better than adBlock users, also known as bad consumers.
Flash is like a dinosaur dragging around a full, shitty diaper behind it. The code is ancient, bloated and inefficient. Can you image your battery life on your phone with Flash running on it?
My company uses HTML 5.
I agree, but if the vast majority of the web uses flash, how can Steve Jobs boast a great web experience on the iPad? When is HTML 5 going to be universally adopted? in a year? 2 years? 5? I think half the value of iPad is the web experience on a screen larger than my iPhone's.
I love the thought of getting on the web quickly without powering up my laptop or desktop. But not being able to watch a TV show on Hulu or a video on CNN, what's the point? I'm just tired of Jobs peeing on my leg and telling me it's raining. It's not a great user experience if half the web is unavailable to me.
Regardless, they corrected the deception, and now it's clear to those might have been duped that the iPad does not 'provide the very best web surfing experience'.[/CENTER]
I believe this kind of deal is very, very possible.
Microsoft wants to kill Google, Apple wants to kill flash .. You see?
Can you image your battery life on your phone with Flash running on it?
Having owned phones with Flash support in the past, I can. The affect on battery life is negligible since the only time it consumes power is when you're browsing a website. Even a heavy browsing session isn't likely to last more than 30 minutes on a mobile device.
I remember this same excuse being trotted out when Apple left GPS off the original iPhone. It's dumb.
This Flash "controversy" as well as the confusing value proposition of the iPad in general is making me think that Apple's hubris is once again spiraling out of control. It will be the company's slow and steady downfall -- they need someone internally to keep them tethered to reality. They're losing touch and becoming too cult-like in their belief in their own greatness. If the iPad is a big flop, I think it'll be good for Apple in that it'll ground them and make them focus once more on the customer experience and not just marketing. That would be, as Jobs would say, "phenomenal."
What if Apple structs a deal with Microsoft, Bing for iPhone OS devices, in exchange for full support of HTML5 Video on IE .. Apple would kill two birds with one stone!
I believe this kind of deal is very, very possible.
Microsoft wants to kill Google, Apple wants to kill flash .. You see?
That's a very clever idea man
I love the thought of getting on the web quickly without powering up my laptop or desktop. But not being able to watch a TV show on Hulu or a video on CNN, what's the point?
The problem with that argument is that you still couldn't do it if Apple put Flash Lite on their iPhones. Some things to consider...
- Flash Lite can't play video from the popular sites you mentioned.
- Flash 10.1 looks to only be available for the Maemo on N900 right now, and that may still be in Beta.
- If it's Apple fault that Flash wasn't on the 2007 iPhone then why isn't Flash slated to arrive on Android, WebOS, WinMo or Symbian until mid-2010, 3.5 years later? Surely that can't be Apple's fault too.
- Flash 10.1 is going to require Android OS v2.0, leaving out a great many new Android handsets.
- Netbooks with 1.6Ghz Atom processors and 1-2GB RAM can't play Flash videos from these sites without them being choppy so Flash 10.1 has got to be great for these videos to stream on 400-600GHz ARM processors with only a 128-512MB RAM. I have doubt.
- Even if your goal is for Flash games, not video, how would one navigate since the controls won't work. The developer would have to rewrite Flash to accommodate the touchscreen device. Seems like a work for nothing.
The simple fact is that it's Adobe that dropped the ball a long time ago. They are the ones to blame for Flash not being available in 2007 or in 2010. You will see sites like Hulu change how they distribute video because they don't want to lose the potential customers of the quickly growing smartphone market. That doesn't mean they are dropping Flash from their sites for desktop OSes,Apple has also used some photographic magic on their site to make it look like the iPad's screen is a silky, beautiful matte instead of the hideous glare magnet that it actually is. I love being able to watch videos on my Touch, but the constant struggle to keep the screen held at an exact angle to avoid reflections is absurd. I'd be much more prone to pick up the cheapest iPad (for on-the-couch web reading only) if it had a matte screen.
This Flash "controversy" as well as the confusing value proposition of the iPad in general is making me think that Apple's hubris is once again spiraling out of control. It will be the company's slow and steady downfall -- they need someone internally to keep them tethered to reality. They're losing touch and becoming too cult-like in their belief in their own greatness. If the iPad is a big flop, I think it'll be good for Apple in that it'll ground them and make them focus once more on the customer experience and not just marketing. That would be, as Jobs would say, "phenomenal."
I agree with the second half with regards to Apple's hubris, especially with their adoption of the whole "Magic" thing. It's very quickly becoming a turn off for me.
I feel like the lack of flash on a small device like the IPHONE/POD is acceptable but hardly so on a 10" device such as the IPAD. It will be very interesting to see how the general/non tech pubic reacts to this exclusion when these things hit the stores in two months.