Instead of one sentence explanations buried in emails to obscure customers, Steve Jobs has finally written a proper open-letter that explains Apple’s position on Flash. Frankly, I’ve had an iPad since launch day and have yet to miss Flash.
Apple has a long relationship with Adobe. In fact, we met Adobe’s founders when they were in their proverbial garage. Apple was their first big customer, adopting their Postscript language for our new Laserwriter printer. Apple invested in Adobe and owned around 20% of the company for many years. The two companies worked closely together to pioneer desktop publishing and there were many good times. Since that golden era, the companies have grown apart. Apple went through its near death experience, and Adobe was drawn to the corporate market with their Acrobat products. Today the two companies still work together to serve their joint creative customers – Mac users buy around half of Adobe’s Creative Suite products – but beyond that there are few joint interests.
I wanted to jot down some of our thoughts on Adobe’s Flash products so that customers and critics may better understand why we do not allow Flash on iPhones, iPods and iPads. Adobe has characterized our decision as being primarily business driven – they say we want to protect our App Store – but in reality it is based on technology issues. Adobe claims that we are a closed system, and that Flash is open, but in fact the opposite is true. Let me explain.
I have zero musical skill, unless you count tapping plastic buttons on my Rock Band Stratocaster, which I don’t. I suspect I am not alone. Yet, despite my inability to create music with an instrument, I have a deep love of listening to music. This passion has, over the years, found me exploring various software programs in the hopes of uncovering some shred of dormant ability. I’ve tried just about every program, from the light and fluffy DJ MIX to the hardcore Propellerhead applications and a little of everything in between. I had varying degrees of success, enough to inform me that I have an ear for music but not much else.
Then, Looptastic HD for iPad entered my life. The clouds parted. Rainbows danced. Kids frolicked with passive tigers. Finally, here was a piece of software that spoke my language by not speaking a language. It presents itself as a simple interface, begging for tactile interaction. You start moving sliders around and within seconds you’re making music, ready to put a “DJ” in front of your name.
Simple, Yet Deep
I can’t review Looptastic HD from the perspective of a professional. I can’t fully appreciate what a pro’s needs may or may not be with a musical application of this sort, so I’m not even going to bother. I assume since Keyboard magazine is impressed, that should be good enough for the experts. Instead, I can only discuss Looptastic HD from the perspective of a frustrated, yet eternally curious lover of electronic music who wishes he could create tunes. From that angle, Looptastic HD is a complete success.
Now more than ever, average people need to take steps to gain control over their financial situation. With the world’s economy teetering on the brink, it has become imperative that people understand their finances and, more importantly, the numbers they face. Our entire reality has been built upon numbers and those numbers have become increasingly complex, putting most people in a passive position, unable to calculate their way out of a problem.
A wonderful and incredibly powerful calculator called powerOne Financial Calculator for iPad hopes to change that. Think of this app as a secret weapon, a code book of sorts, able to penetrate the often obscure language of mortgage lenders and real estate agents. Now when they spit out numbers encased in acronyms, explaining your potential financial obligations, you can meet them on the battleground with an equal footing. “Excuse me chump, while I validate your numbers.”
From the If You Can’t Beat ‘Em, Join ‘Em Dept., it has been revealed that Barnes & Noble will release a Nook reader app for the iPad and, later down the road, iPhone. With Amazon on-board with their Kindle app and now Barnes & Noble, along with Apple’s own fledgling iBook app, the iPad has fast become the e-reader of choice.
The demo was conducted in an in-store Barnes & Noble Cafe, and a couple of tables away from us, a patron was flipping through a few magazines he’d borrowed from the nearby magazine rack as he sipped coffee. At another table, a customer was using B&N’s free Wi-Fi to surf the Web on his iPad, which begged the question, when would we see a new B&N eReader iPad app?
The answer is May, though no specific date was given. Barnes & Noble reps said the new iPad app is completely redesigned from the ground up. Interestingly, the company is also working on a totally new iPhone app, but it will come out after the iPad app and be offered as separate download for iPhone and iPod Touch users. Unlike Amazon’s Kindle iPhone/iPad app, the B&N eReader will not be a universal app (you’ll have to download the specific version for the specific device).
All in all, this is good news for Nook owners, as the device they bought starts to fulfill more of its potential and works out the kinks that were highlighted in many early reviews. We’re still waiting for a weather app, but at least the games, as basic as they are, show some of the possibilities. If you’re wondering exactly how the whole gaming thing works, you use the touch screen to move your pieces in chess, and those moves are reflected on the larger playing board on the e-ink display. It’s a little awkward at first playing in this manner–especially if you’re used to using a large touch screen device like the iPad–but you get used to it after a bit.
In what has to be one of the more impressive hacks for the iPhone (and inevitably the iPad), a man has figured out how to get the Android operating system to run on Apple’s iPhone.
Pre-built images and sources at http://www.mediafire.com/?xqjzn12igfn. Read the README. For generic openiboot instructions, there’s plenty now that you can search for.
It should be pretty simple to port forward to the iPhone 3G. The 3GS will take more work. Hopefully with all this groundwork laid out, we can make Android a real alternative or supplement for iPhone users. Maybe we can finally get Flash.
You’ve just spent a boatload of money on Apple’s new iPad and now the time has come to show it off to friends and family. They expect to be impressed and wowed, so you had better deliver a quality presentation that really shows off its various strengths. What follows are 12 excellent apps covering a wide-range of areas, from games to utilities, that should do an excellent job in justifying your new technological wonder.
Warpgate HD
If you’re old enough to remember the glory days of space-trading sims like Elite and Privateer, then you’ll feel right at home with Warpgate HD. This is a beautifully realized, very polished real-time space exploration, combat and trading game offering a mammoth universe, tons of combat, excellent graphics, great sounds and oodles of missions. Warpgate will show off the processing-power of your iPad as well as its brilliant use of touch-controls to navigate the streamlined interface. Warpgate HD is $7.99 on iTunes.
Pocket Legends
I’ve probably put more time into Pocket Legends than any other game currently available for the iPad. This is an excellent game that will remind many of Diablo, featuring 3D graphics that are lush with details, fast-paced gameplay and seamless multiplayer. If you thought you’d never see an MMO on the iPad, then Pocket Legends explodes that theory and promises a great future for the genre. Pocket Legends is free to download and play, though you won’t be able to progress past level 13 unless you pay $1.99 for an expansion pack. Pocket Legends is Free on iTunes
Words With Friends
Words With Friends won’t impress from a technical standpoint, but it will illustrate one of the many strong-points of the iPad, namely turn-based multiplayer games that you can pick up and play at any moment. Words With Friends is basically Scrabble with a different name, but the game is essentially the same. However, one big selling point that Words with Friends has over its competitor, EA’s Scrabble, is that you can have 20 concurrent games running at any time. Once you dive into the world of Words with Friends you will become hopelessly addicted. Words With Friends is $2.99 on iTunes read more…
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(Ratings Average: 4.00 out of 5)
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