Apple iPad Not So Flash

Amidst all the hype of the Sun to Oracle transition over the last week, some of you may have missed a certain announcement by a Cupertino-based firm regarding the imminent release of a computing device they say will fill the gap between netbooks and laptops. The Apple iPad is not, as some onlookers first suspected, a innovative feminine hygiene product, but a tablet device promising to offer (to quote Apple CEO Steve Jobs) "the best browsing experience you've ever had". But "the best browsing experience" does not include web plugins it seems, as despite the iPad's 1024x768 screen, 1Ghz processor, and support for wireless connectivity, it is destined to be bereft of Flash, Silverlight, and (everyone's favourite in this neck of the woods) Java. These omissions, particularly Flash, have caused some degree of controversy online, but why is Apple thumbing its nose at plugins? Since the iPad product announcement the Flash debate has been raging across the blogosphere, on both pro-Apple and pro-Adobe sites. As you'd expect, the Adobe fans point to the prominence of Flash on the web, its use for games, video, and rich interactive content. This is undeniably true -- even Jobs' own carefully crafted iPad introduction quickly stumbled across a couple of examples of missing Flash content as he demonstrated browsing the web, although he was careful to ensure the tell-tale blue Lego logos were quickly scrolled out of vie...

Date: February, 01 2010
Url: http://www.java.net/blog/javakiddy/archive/2010/02/01/apple-ipad-not-so-flash

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