iPad-ready? Not really.
Featured iPad-Flash NewsPublished April 1, 2010 at 9:46 pm 4 CommentsNice try Apple, but the approved list of “iPad ready” sites are still full of holes where flash should be, because Flash does a whole lot more than just play video. As for the rest of the internet, as David Pogue experienced: “thousands of Web sites show up with empty white squares on the iPad — places where videos or animations are supposed to play.” This, according to Apple, is the “best way to see the sites“?!?
On a quick survey we found the following examples of “holes” in the “iPad ready” sites:
CNN quizzes
New York times – interactive features
Vimeo – toys section
Major League Baseball – interactive parking guides
Flickr – online photo editing
People – games
Update: now that iPad has been released, our speculation of last thursday has been confirmed. Not only do these interactive features not work, a fair amount of video on the “iPad-ready” sites is also not compatible, according to Gizmodo
Needless to say, THIS site uses no flash and is standards complaint – so we submitted it to the “growing list” above. Our wagon will be hitched to the Apple hype-juggernaut when it shows up!
These sites will obviously serve HTML5 pages to the iPad. Just not normal browsers.
Not having an iPad handy to test how the pages would look (if only…), I followed Apple’s instructions for simulating their appearance in Safari by disabling the plugins. The thumbnail screenshots in the image above are what I saw on the various pages. I am confident that they will appear just as broken on an iPad.
Apple’s point is that the sites will serve HTML5 video, which is correct, and frankly as long as video works, HTML5 can replace flash, that’s fine! If video works just as well with straight HTML, then there is no reason to use flash. I think we enter the Apple spin zone when they announce that a site which uses flash for a number of different functions is “iPad ready” just because it provides an HTML5 video option.
My point is that the sites in question also have custom interactive flash features that will be much more labour intensive to replace with HTML5 than video. Flash currently does this sort of thing better and easier than any other technology on the web, and it would be a downgrade, in terms of interface quality, if it was no longer used.
The apple business model for the iPad is heavily geared towards the app store. Flash shatters that entire model. In light of this browsing the internet is very much of a gimmick to the iPad and not where it aims to make its money. Apple however are not the only ones capable of developing a tablet computer, and it is only a matter of time before someone else releases similar technology that supports flash. Then and only then, when apples hand is forced, will it seriously consider supporting flash. The whole notion that they have an allegiance to web standards is just a convenient distraction, as is the attack against plugins, the apple sdk is just as proprietary as the flash player. The truth is that it is innovation not standards compliance that drives the web forward.
Apple is full of shit. They need to stop pushing an OS model where they act as a gatekeeper, preventing users from accessing applications with great merit such as InfiniDock, Winterboard, iBlacklist, AutoSilent, LockScreen, SBSettings, and many more!
http://cydia.saurik.com/