Archives for posts with tag: Internet

The Adobe vs Apple fiasco and where I stand

April 13, 10 //
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Apple recently announced a change in their SDK agreement not allowing third party applications that use other technologies such as Adobe’s Flash to build their applications and transcribe them for the iPhone. It has generated a lot of rage from developers and designers who use Adobe as their building platform for iPhone/iPad applications and web services.

iPhones and iPads have not supported Flash from day one, limiting a designer’s ability to reach a broader audience and guarantee the same experience on all devices. Such a move by Apple seems like a deliberate stab against Adobe and their dislike for Flash as a web technology. Being an Apple and Adobe fan, it’s very hard to to come to terms on the subject. With the very recent release of Adobe’s CS5, many of their features were aimed towards streamlining Flash development towards mobile devices, making these upgrades obsolete due to Apple’s move.

As a designer I despise Apple’s decision by making us change the way we work just to meet their obsessive control tactics. There has been several recent projects that I’ve had to redo from the ground up just to comply with Apple’s lack of support for Flash. As stated before, Adobe made several strides to make iPhone app developing much easier through Flash. In today’s world small time designers such as myself have to adapt and learn to develop not just for the web but for mobile devices as well, I am not a developer and I don’t have the time and energy to learn new programing languages such as C++. The new tools from Adobe would have allowed me to do such a thing with little effort and relatively fast. But that is all in the past now.

Apple needs to open up the iPhone and iPad to support Flash. Whether they like it or not, Flash is a web technology that’s here to stay.

Terry Ranson said it well from the I’m with Adobe Facebook Fan Club:

Both Apple and Adobe are big companies and I don’t see either one yielding to each other. I just hope there’s a compromise soon or this debate will just keep dividing us.

PBS Digital Nation Documentary

February 2, 10 //
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Watch this great Frontline film that raises many of today’s questions about technology and the internet. How competent are we really as multitasking our daily activities becomes the norm? How do we solve and embrace the growing short attention spans of students? Can virtual worlds and gaming allow us to connect with others or only alienate us further?


(Click on image to watch documentary)

I found this film very personal and intriguing as it connects to many aspects of my life. As millions of others, I cannot live without being connected at all times. It made me realize how just this morning I wake up and my iPhone is not next to me, I start going crazy looking for it as I have this insatiable need to check my emails and messages. A morning ritual that’s so second nature to me that never existed in my life a few years ago. I hope this documentary is an eye opener for everyone as it was for me. Technology is rapidly evolving and we are too, we just have to embrace it with an open mind and not let it take over.

Craigslist’s Post Gone Wrong

March 26, 08 //
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I flipped on the news today (yes, my actual television, not sure why) and the big story was Craigslist gone wrong. Someone placed an ad on Craigslist saying that anything at a home in Jacksonville, Oregon was up for grabs. People responded, and carted away most of the belongings of resident Robert Salisbury. He arrived home to thirty people picking over the last of his stuff. Even the man’s horse was taken.

It’s common for people to offer stuff for free on Craigslist, as long as you come and pick it up. It’s a bit of a stretch to imagine that people would think that an entire home’s worth of belongings would be given away on the site, but that’s a post for a different day. It’s worth pointing out, though, that this isn’t the first time something like this has happened.

I spoke to a couple of attorneys this afternoon about the potential liability of Craigslist for stuff like this. The victim has little recourse, other than insurance (I’m betting he has none) and a possible civil case against the person who posted the listing should he or she be caught. Could a litigiously minded individual find a winning argument to get Craigslist to pay for the damages? Perhaps, said the attorneys. And there are certainly plenty to lawyers who’d consider taking the case on contingency, hoping for a quick settlement/shake down to keep PR exposure over this to a minimum.

But what I really think is that Craigslist is just a mirror, and we have to take the good with the bad. Countless connections and transactions are made on the site, and the vast majority are of benefit to everyone involved.

Sure, mainstream press feasts on the occasional accident scene, making it seem like the site is a den of predators waiting to strike at anyone who drops by. Craigslist has it all – Sex, drugs, humiliation and more.

But for the most part Craigslist is just a really good place to find a job, or a boyfriend, or buy cheap furniture for your dorm room. The situation today is simply an exception that proves what an important place Craigslist has taken in our culture. I feel bad for Mr. Salisbury and I hope he gets all his stuff back (especially his horse). But pointing the finger of accusation at Craigslist for what happened is not what should happen next.

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Oh no! Here come the MySpacers!

December 3, 07 //
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Is it just me or is Facebook getting a bit too crowded? Ever since they opened its doors the public and with the addition of their 3rd party apps it seems like flocks of MySpacers and migrating to Facebook. It’s great but the site but I feel like MySpacers and Facebookians come from two different mentalities. Being on both social networks, I feel like hardcore MySpacers should stay on MySpace with their highly saturated useless content profiles and leave Facebook alone. I am seeing the same trends on arise on Facebook just as they did on MySpace, people adding lots of crappy applications to their profiles. I mean c’mon, when I takes me like 5 minutes just to find your damn Wall then we got a problem. I think it’s time to jump ship and find the next thing…once again…