Apple, Adobe and Google
When two dogs are fighting over a bone, the third runs away with it? Is that what is happening with the Apple/Adobe/Google fight over Flash and video on the (mobile) web?
A good read on what the business reasons may be for Apple to keep Flash off its iPhone, and Adobe's reason to try to save Flash as a platform is here
The whole idea of Apple is to create closed, proprietary platforms and make money from it. And they do make real pretty and revolutionary products. Adobe missed the Mobile boat, like Microsoft missed the Internet boat in the beginning: simply by underestimating it.
My feeling is that Flash (or Air) as a development platform has had its days. HTML(5) will replace it over time.
If the rumors are true that Android 2.2 (Froyo) will be the first mobile platform to support Flash, what do we make of that? Adobe lost the iPhone, and is now desperately seeking a mobile platform.... sure, but what's in it for Google? Why would they do this? Maybe Google is betting on multiple horses and let time decide what will win. My guess is that Adobe had to pay most of the development cost of moving Flash to Android.
Flash as a development platform is dead. It's only relevant for video now. And again that's where Google seems to betting on multiple horses: H.264, VP8 and Flash (as a container). Maybe wise of them. Anyway, having Apple and Adobe fight, can only be good news for Google. Maybe they will win the web application platform bone in the end. Looking forward to hearing the strategy of Google today and tomorrow at Google I/O
A good read on what the business reasons may be for Apple to keep Flash off its iPhone, and Adobe's reason to try to save Flash as a platform is here
The whole idea of Apple is to create closed, proprietary platforms and make money from it. And they do make real pretty and revolutionary products. Adobe missed the Mobile boat, like Microsoft missed the Internet boat in the beginning: simply by underestimating it.
My feeling is that Flash (or Air) as a development platform has had its days. HTML(5) will replace it over time.
If the rumors are true that Android 2.2 (Froyo) will be the first mobile platform to support Flash, what do we make of that? Adobe lost the iPhone, and is now desperately seeking a mobile platform.... sure, but what's in it for Google? Why would they do this? Maybe Google is betting on multiple horses and let time decide what will win. My guess is that Adobe had to pay most of the development cost of moving Flash to Android.
Flash as a development platform is dead. It's only relevant for video now. And again that's where Google seems to betting on multiple horses: H.264, VP8 and Flash (as a container). Maybe wise of them. Anyway, having Apple and Adobe fight, can only be good news for Google. Maybe they will win the web application platform bone in the end. Looking forward to hearing the strategy of Google today and tomorrow at Google I/O
Viewing from a distance: the Euro Crisis
Now that I'm in the US for a week to visit Google IO later this week, I get the feeling that the Americans understand the European Euro crisis much better than we Europeans do ourselves. Really great interviews on CNN (with the PM of Greece!) asking real questions, better coverage in the newspapers, and even on stage yesterday, they made jokes about the euro in a way that shows real understanding.
In Europe, it seems most people do not understand the full depth of the crisis and the impact this will (or: should) have on our daily lives. They mostly see the latest problems as merely a problem with the Greece being fraudulent. It is not very well known (nor understood) that
In Europe, it seems most people do not understand the full depth of the crisis and the impact this will (or: should) have on our daily lives. They mostly see the latest problems as merely a problem with the Greece being fraudulent. It is not very well known (nor understood) that
- all of the accounting tricks Greece did, are actually used by all Western governments too (including The Netherlands)
- if you bail out the banks by lending them money the governments don't have, it is to be expected that these are the next in line to get into trouble (who is now funding these 750 billion euro? won't these be the next?)
- the E750B rescue plan is aimed only at the stock markets, not at the root cause of the problem (debt) and therefore can only have a short time effect and is a waste of money
- the E750B plan from last week was necessary as last week Friday the trade in all European government bonds came to a grinding halt (not only Greece, but also Dutch, UK, German!!) causing an IMMEDIATE system failure and a possibility of a cash flow problem for the entire European Union
One reporter here said that this may be the first of the signs that the European welfare state that is so costly and has spent more than it earned for decades now, is coming to an end. Yes, maybe a bit of Republican view, but still not far from the truth I guess. It also means that more and more we have to look toward the countries and continents that actually make money, and the Second Era of the West has come to an end: the Third Era with the reign of the East has just begun.
Scared? Now: excited to be part of this. As long as you keep your eyes focused and know on which train to jump
Problems with Wordpress
I used to use the Blogger FTP service to upload my weblog to my own web server. This allowed me optimal control of the layout of the site, and ensure it works seamlessly with the rest of the web application.
Since May 1st, Google no longer supports this method. I wanted to try to use Wordpress on my own server, but ran into terrible installation and configuration problems (and I am supposed to be an architecture expert...). Really frustrating. I wanted to at least be able to blog something because next week I'm at Google IO in San Francisco and as I'm speaking there, a link from their site is back to my weblog. Wanted to show something to possible new visitors...
Finally got something working by changing to this subdomain, and was able to sort of keep it in the same layout and style as the rest of my site. Still need to work on the layout and comments, but for now I can at least post again :-)
Since May 1st, Google no longer supports this method. I wanted to try to use Wordpress on my own server, but ran into terrible installation and configuration problems (and I am supposed to be an architecture expert...). Really frustrating. I wanted to at least be able to blog something because next week I'm at Google IO in San Francisco and as I'm speaking there, a link from their site is back to my weblog. Wanted to show something to possible new visitors...
Finally got something working by changing to this subdomain, and was able to sort of keep it in the same layout and style as the rest of my site. Still need to work on the layout and comments, but for now I can at least post again :-)