[opendtv] Re: Apple dashes hopes of Flash on iPhone
- From: dan.grimes@xxxxxxxx
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 15 Apr 2010 13:42:04 -0700
I think it is good to think back to about a decade ago when Flash was not
prevalent. Remember how a website had to have Quicktime and Windows Media
and Real media on their website to reach everyone? I know that we here at
UNLV started using Flash so that the player could be embedded in the
website, with decode/playback software available to both Macs and PCs,
allowing most computers to play Flash media. It seems to me that this is
one of the reasons Flash became popular, problems and all.
While it might sound like I am opposed to what Apple is doing as an end
user, it is really opposition as a content provider. Without the support
of Flash on these new technologies, we must go back and provide multiple
formats and go through multiple distribution outlets to get our media into
them. Mind you, these technologies could use the popular media format but
have chosen not to. (If someone were to argue that these new technologies
are not technologically able to use them, then I question the
sophistication of these new devises.)
I realize this a simplistic view, but it is my gripe of the situation.
So I ask, will HTML5 be the open standard that is ubiquitous? I kind of
doubt it. I don't have in-depth knowledge of HTML5 so I hope I don't sound
too foolish here. But I doubt that a decoder and player will actually be
programmed within the HTML5 language. I imagine it will actually use
another application to do the decoding and playing. So the question is,
will the application that does the decoding actually be ubiquitous and
fully open? I kind of doubt that, too. To me, Apple is purporting this
with HTML5, but perhaps not.
If HTML5 is capable of being the media saviour of the world, perhaps I
could get behind Apple. But since I cannot even develop an HTML5 web page
without learning yet another language set, we must either go back to doing
what I had to do a decade ago or accept that these Apple products will not
be able to see our media. Since our customers are students and our student
content creators want to reach the students who so readily adopt these
products, we are taking a lot of criticism to why our media is not
available to them. The students believe we are the ones not
technologically advanced to handle Apple products! Looks like I have yet
another task to add to my workload, thanks to Apple. Back to iTunes, back
to RealPlayer? (By the way, can one stream live on either of these? I
have some more research to do on this.)
I know, I hear the violins singing in the background, too.
Dan
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