Posted: April 30th, 2010 | Author: Foamcow | Filed under: Drunken Ranting, Social Comment, Web Design | Tags: adobe, apple, flash, ipad, iphone, pressrelease | 1 Comment »
This week has seen the argument between Apple and Adobe regarding the absence of Flash from the former’s mobile devices take another step towards a public cage fight between Apple’s Steve Jobs and Adobe’s CEO, Shantanu Narayen. In a press release from Cupertino, Jobs outlines the rationale behind Apple’s decision to keep Adobe’s flagship product away from iPhones and iPads – thus cruelly preventing their owners from enjoying the oodles of top quality Flash content that apparently, in the words of Adobe themselves, “makes up most of the web”.
Well, to be perfectly honest, who actually gives a monkey’s?
No, really. Do you own an iPhone or iPad? Do you actually miss being able to access Flash content?
I own an iPhone and I really couldn’t care less. There is nothing that Flash has delivered to me in the last *cough* years that I can’t live without. In fact, I, like many other web professionals would prefer not to live in a web where Flash is the ubiquitous means for delivering animated “rich” content. I don’t go as far as blocking it with a browser add-on, but I certainly filter it subconciously from my browsing experience.
Actually, I tell a lie. I have recently discovered a must have piece of Flash content – Farmville. Then again the last time I logged in, about 3 weeks ago now I think, I simply dug my farm plots to spell the word “crap” then logged out again. Yeah, I couldn’t have done that without Flash.
In the face of fairness, after all some people do seem to care, perhaps Apple should give customers a choice to install Flash or not. That would be fair wouldn’t it? Personally, I would say “yes, customers should have a choice to suffer at the hands of Flash or not”.
But consider the underlying reason for keeping Flash from marching in the iParade – that of protecting the user experience – it makes sense just to exclude it all together. Why? Because Apple make products for “normal” people, not geeks. These “normals” quite possibly have no idea what Flash is, let alone a plugin. They just want to press a button and go. If Flash was included on iProducts it would need to be “on” by default and so subject the victim user to the performance issues, shortened battery life and instability that have all been well documented by other sources.
Flash just doesn’t fit with Apple’s paradigm of “It just works”.
So where do Adobe go from here? For one, they could fix Flash. Why they don’t do this is really puzzling me. Though in reality I think the iBoat left the iHarbour a long time ago and they are not iInvited on the iTrip. Even if Flash was perfect, I think Apple would resist including it – then again, if it was a better product then perhaps Apple’s and Job’s interests would not be in competeing technologies.
I won’t go into “openness” here. Enough people are arguing about that. At the end of the day Flash is proprietary, inefficient and, on the whole, unnecessary. It is irrelevant. We don’t need it anymore.
Posted: May 15th, 2009 | Author: Foamcow | Filed under: Web Design | | 2 Comments »
I sure I’m not alone in getting annoyed by online advertising. I can tolerate the unobtrusive ads such as Adwords, perhaps even a discrete banner ad but increasingly I’m seeing pages plastered with irritating, animated flash ads.
The worst culprits have pages who’s content is all but obliterated by a plethora of fading, folding and otherwise flapping animations all vying to grab my attention so I grab their product. I never have, nor do I think I ever will.
Yes, I could take steps to block these annoyances, but since I work in marketing I can understand the reasoning behind placing ads and I have nothing against online advertising per se. Besides, why should I!
So, my question to you is this; “have you ever bought anything after seeing, and following an online animated ad?”
Please direct your friends to this post. I’d really like to get a reasonable sample size
Posted: May 6th, 2009 | Author: Foamcow | Filed under: Site launches, Web Design | | No Comments »
A site I’ve been working on for a friend which has been dragging on for about 2 years now has finally gone live!
The site is aimed at the creative community and features a job board, a supplier finder, a course finder for prospective students and an online shop selling those gadgets, gizmos and tat that all designers love.
Go take a look over at Creative Family
Posted: April 20th, 2009 | Author: Foamcow | Filed under: General, Web Design | Tags: blog, writing | 2 Comments »
This is the second “proper” post on my “new” blog.
For the last 24 hours I’ve been thinking about what to write and it’s just not coming to me. A quick 140 character tweet of frustration brought forth some “helpful” suggestions…
noxtonhoj @foamcow stuff n’shit. I couldn’t be easier really
kassy4 @foamcow cows?
natmandu @foamcow If you’re like me, any old shite that you can’t fit into 140 characters.
jaygilmore … [No kidding eh?]
I did quite like Kassy’s suggestion to write about cows but have realised that I don’t actually know much about them. I think I’ll save that for later and swot up on the topic.
But now I think I’ve got it! Yes! At least in principle.
Following on from my previous post on why some sites just don’t need a CMS let’s talk about one of the reasons why that is true – Some people just don’t have much interesting to say.
It’s true. How many millions of blogs are out there, I’ll wait while you count them.
…
…
…
Finished yet? Lots aren’t there!
How many of those are actually worth reading? Not many. If you use an aggregator like I do you’ve probably filled it with quite a few feeds maybe even too many to be manageable but these represent a tiny fraction of what people are slapping online.
So to my effort. In light of the above I have to consider, “is it worth it?”
Hell, YES!
Generally I’m an easy going sort of guy and I pride myself on my “live and let live” ethic but I do have very strong opinions on some subjects which normally manifest themselves as ranting from time to time. Yeah, I rant, live with it. Rantings good for the soul and doesn’t do any harm providing the listener understands it’s just a way to let off steam, clear the mind and solidify ideas. I have some of my best insights into problems while complaining about them. The very act of saying out loud what is on your mind is a great catharsis.
Blogging as therapy? Could it catch on?
The thing is, I feel under pressure to present something witty, informative and interesting but is what I’ve got to say really worth reading? Is it a confidence issue? Perhaps. Although few people that met me in real life would say I lacked confidence.
Sometimes I am guilty of assuming that everyone knows what I do and why I do it while simutaneously thinking that what I know isn’t that great in the first place or that it’s all been said before. I’m sure the topic if this post has been done to death.
Maybe these hang ups will fade in time. Maybe I’ll get into the blogging thing a bit more…
In actuality, I’ve just realised something quite profound. This blog isn’t for you readers, it’s for me! So bollocks to you lot. I can say what I want, when I want and you know what? It doesn’t matter one jot whether it’s worthwhile or not. I enjoy it.
And with that Zen like transendance floating on the air I will assume the lotus position and be at peace with myself.
Ommmmmmmmm.
Posted: April 18th, 2009 | Author: Foamcow | Filed under: Site launches, Web Design | Tags: fantastic machine, site launch, website | No Comments »
I’ve taken the plunge and put the new site page for Fantastic Machine online. It still needs some tweaks and I’ve got a bunch of other pages to add but I’m hoping that by putting it “live” I’ll force myself to fix the glitches and get the rest of the site finished.
For those that don’t know, Fantastic Machine is my little web design and development business. I run that alongside my day job as a web designer/developer at a Gloucester Marketing Agency. Consequently I can only really take on small jobs or those jobs that don’t require a super fast turn around.
Have a look at http://www.fantasticmachine.co.uk.
