[opendtv] Re: Apple dashes hopes of Flash on iPhone
- From: dan.grimes@xxxxxxxx
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 13 Apr 2010 10:05:27 -0700
I have always appreciated how Apple so tightly controlled the early
Macintosh platform and software development. I appreciated it because it
created stable operations.
However, it seems, by articles such as this one and others like it, that
much of the future limitations are more about control, greed and vendettas
than about commerce, performance and consumers. But perhaps I have too
little of information to make an accurate assessment.
Much of today's limits with the licensing of applications and development
of such seems to be based purely on selfishness and not on good business
practices. Does it really help the consumer? Does this really help Apple?
Or is this about control?
My question would be, at what point does a manufacturer have the right to
tell you what you can and cannot do with their hardware? So many of these
licensing agreements basically say that you do not own the software or
hardware and you are basically being granted the ability to use it while
and, more restrictively, how the manufacturer allows you to. I personally
believe there are some rights that are being stepped on here. I believe
there are some just limits to how far a hardware or software solution
provider can go to withhold you from using the product or prevent other
products from working with it as well.
If we were to allow other businesses to operate the same way, we would be
outraged. Should Chevrolets be designed to only use ExxonMobil gas and oil
products? And if you were to use any other, your car could be taken away
from you? Should food products be laced with chemicals so that if you do
not mix the right brands together, it will make you sick, and therefore,
you can only use certain brands together?
I believe Apple is on the edge of this very gray area, or to me, not so
gray. So much so, I am losing interest in Apple products even if they are
wildly popular. It is too bad people are so enamored with Apple products.
Would any agree or am I missing a larger piece of the puzzle?
But don't think that I believe Apple is the only problem here. It stems
much deeper to many areas of our industry and other businesses.
Dan
http://www.rethink-wireless.com/article.asp?article_id=2876
Apple dashes hopes of Flash on iPhone
Bars third party compilers on iPhone and iPad apps, hits Adobe workaround
By CAROLINE GABRIEL
Published: 12 April, 2010
.....But Apple gets more aggressive in its terms and conditions, even at a
time when the iPhone platform has serious rivals for the first time. Its
revised Ts and Cs, as uncovered by blogger John Gruber, are hostile to apps
not written in its chosen languages, Objective-C, C, C++ or Javascript.
The rules now state that "applications may only use Documented APIs in the
manner prescribed by Apple and must not use or call any private APIs.
Applications must be originally written in Objective-C, C, C++, or
JavaScript as executed by the iPhone OS WebKit engine, and only code
written in C, C++, and Objective-C may compile and directly link against
the Documented APIs (applications that link to Documented APIs through an
intermediary translation or compatibility layer or tool are prohibited).
....Gruber points out that the new rules also ban apps compiled using
MonoTouch, which gets Microsoft C# and .Net apps onto the iPhone. He wrote:
"It's unclear what this means for tools like Titanium and PhoneGap, which
let developers write JavaScript code that runs in WebKit inside a native
iPhone app wrapper. They might be OK."
Apple has also famously fallen out with Google...
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