On April 12th, rumours started circulating (eg IT World's article) that Adobe was considering legal action against Apple for opting to disallow cross-compiled applications. (My brief summary of that can be viewed [http://bluhalo.com/blog/view/292/cs5-apple-vs-adobe).
One might wonder on exactly what grounds such a lawsuit would be based. Indeed, it’s quite possible that Adobe’s lawyers wondered the same thing (assuming there was truth to the rumour in the first place) given that nothing has since emerged on this subject.
In fact all went quiet until Adobe announced (read the BBC article here) that they were going to cease development on the iPhone packager, with the company instead focusing on Android. In a move that came as a surprise to some (read the Register's Apple on Flash) Apple head honcho Steve Jobs subsequently released a document detailing his views on the subject (which can be read here). He lists a number of points ranging from the proprietary nature of flash, security, battery life and the speed with which the third party software would be updated as justification for his views. The result of this was a 2 percent drop in Adobe shares.
You could be forgiven for expecting a retaliatory response from Adobe; instead they announced (more at The Register) that they were working to implement new API calls available on Snow Leopard to hardware accelerate video in Flash. Given that fairly simple tests indicated that the lack of hardware acceleration was the only reason the video performance of flash fell below that of the HTML setup touted by Steve Jobs, this has the potential to reduce the belief that flash is a performance hog (for video anyway).
Hooray, Apple and Adobe are friends again. What could possibly go wrong now, right? Well, Apple is developing their own Flash alternative for providing Rich Internet Applications. The easily spelt Gianduia was first introduced last June, but is likely going to resurface at this year’s World of WebObjects Developer Conference. Gianduia was written in Javascript and has actually already been used by Apple Retail (read more here from Apple Insider).
It is still not plain sailing for Apple however. It has now emerged that the US Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission are “locked in negotiations over which of the watchdogs will begin an antitrust inquiry into Apple’s new policy of requiring only Apple’s programming tools.” (read more at the NY Post)
This reiterates that Adobe were not the only ones unhappy with Apple’s decision. Indeed, the same article states some are now choosing to finance apps compatible with all of Apple’s competitors, rather than just the iProducts. Although Apple tend to be quite dogmatic in following their roadmap, I can’t help but wonder exactly how much public pressure it would take for them to change their minds…
Nick Nawrattel
Lead Multimedia Developer
Showing posts with label adobe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label adobe. Show all posts
Thursday, 13 May 2010
Tuesday, 13 April 2010
CS5 & Apple vs Adobe
Creative Suite 5 is nearly upon us – so close I am already nudging our resident sys admin to buy us the shiny new apps. Obviously, there are many new features / changes to encourage people to upgrade.
One such that certainly sounds interesting, is a tool providing the ability to export flash as HTML5 Canvas. With IE9 on the horizon too, this will mean all of the major browsers will support HTML5, a step towards making this a viable alternative to the Flash plug-in. More on this here and again with a performance comparison between Flash and HTML5 here.
As you may or may not have heard by now, another eagerly anticipated feature was the ability to export flash apps as iPhone code. Apple have very recently announced that they have changed the way their SDK works – only code written in C, C++ or Objective-C may compile and directly link against the Documented APIs. Cross-compilers, such as that advertised to be in the new CS release, are apparently banned. This will potentially affect a number of other technologies (e.g. Unity3D), but the Adobe link is the most publicised given the public deterioration in their relationship with Apple.
Given this bad blood between Apple and Adobe, the cynical might wonder if the announcement was deliberately timed to dampen the build up to the CS5 launch. It is definitely a blow to the product, and prompted an Adobe employee to post a frustrated response to the move (more here, including links). Steve Jobs has since responded to this (more here) with a customarily curt reply, not giving any hope to those hoping for Apple to change their mind.
Nevertheless, I am still looking forward to trying the new Creative Suite, even without the opportunity to try my hand at iPhone development. More on CS5 here.
Nick Nawrattel
Lead Multimedia Developer
One such that certainly sounds interesting, is a tool providing the ability to export flash as HTML5 Canvas. With IE9 on the horizon too, this will mean all of the major browsers will support HTML5, a step towards making this a viable alternative to the Flash plug-in. More on this here and again with a performance comparison between Flash and HTML5 here.
As you may or may not have heard by now, another eagerly anticipated feature was the ability to export flash apps as iPhone code. Apple have very recently announced that they have changed the way their SDK works – only code written in C, C++ or Objective-C may compile and directly link against the Documented APIs. Cross-compilers, such as that advertised to be in the new CS release, are apparently banned. This will potentially affect a number of other technologies (e.g. Unity3D), but the Adobe link is the most publicised given the public deterioration in their relationship with Apple.
Given this bad blood between Apple and Adobe, the cynical might wonder if the announcement was deliberately timed to dampen the build up to the CS5 launch. It is definitely a blow to the product, and prompted an Adobe employee to post a frustrated response to the move (more here, including links). Steve Jobs has since responded to this (more here) with a customarily curt reply, not giving any hope to those hoping for Apple to change their mind.
Nevertheless, I am still looking forward to trying the new Creative Suite, even without the opportunity to try my hand at iPhone development. More on CS5 here.
Nick Nawrattel
Lead Multimedia Developer
Wednesday, 3 September 2008
Do Search Engines Index Flash?
For years the problem with Flash has been that it is practically invisible to search engines. What use was your beautifully designed, interactive web experience when the end user couldn’t find it?
Sure there are best practice guidelines, html tips and JavaScript tricks, but wouldn’t it be better if the search engine spider could just ‘see’ your content?
Well, maybe it can. Adobe recently announced that it has teamed up with major search engines – including Google and Yahoo – to “enhance search engine indexing of the Flash file format (SWF) and uncover information that is currently undiscoverable by search engines”. Google added in their blog that they had already begun indexing Flash content on websites.
Excellent! So now we can embed flash functionality everywhere! Unfortunately, no.
While your SWF files can now be crawled, the spider will only see plain text, labels and links, and there is no detail given on what weight these carry in page ranking calculations. The spider remains ‘blind’ to images, FLVs, vectors and dynamic information. There are no SEO staples like headlines, paragraphs or alt tags, and plenty of Flash isn’t even crawlable because Google won’t execute the JavaScript many sites use to load it. But it can read text, and that’s something.
So the searchbot’s Flash-blindness isn’t entirely cured, but it has received a rudimentary pair of plain-text viewing spectacles, the implications of which should not be underestimated. And let’s not forget those tips, tricks and guidelines either:
Sure there are best practice guidelines, html tips and JavaScript tricks, but wouldn’t it be better if the search engine spider could just ‘see’ your content?
Well, maybe it can. Adobe recently announced that it has teamed up with major search engines – including Google and Yahoo – to “enhance search engine indexing of the Flash file format (SWF) and uncover information that is currently undiscoverable by search engines”. Google added in their blog that they had already begun indexing Flash content on websites.
Excellent! So now we can embed flash functionality everywhere! Unfortunately, no.
While your SWF files can now be crawled, the spider will only see plain text, labels and links, and there is no detail given on what weight these carry in page ranking calculations. The spider remains ‘blind’ to images, FLVs, vectors and dynamic information. There are no SEO staples like headlines, paragraphs or alt tags, and plenty of Flash isn’t even crawlable because Google won’t execute the JavaScript many sites use to load it. But it can read text, and that’s something.
So the searchbot’s Flash-blindness isn’t entirely cured, but it has received a rudimentary pair of plain-text viewing spectacles, the implications of which should not be underestimated. And let’s not forget those tips, tricks and guidelines either:
- Visit the Adobe Flash accessibility page
- Use SwfObject and create alternate content so that everyone can view your site in some form
- Split full flash sites into separate html pages. Use XML and FlashVars to maintain consistency and style.- Use actual text in your movie where possible
- Use xhtml content injection with flashvars to inject html text as variables in your SWF
- Create useful title and meta description tags for the page holding your SWF
- Do not forget the importance of links - see how many major brands use a full-flash site, barely bother with SEO and are still ranked number 1
Yes search engines now index flash, but no, this doesn’t signal the beginning of a new wave of rich-media dominance, or give you an excuse to Flash-ify every part of your content. For most, Flash SEO is essentially the same as before, just a little bit better. And I fully expect it will get better still.
Mark
Thursday, 17 January 2008
Our top ten fat footer sites revealed
This is the week of top 10's. Today it's the turn of the fat footer. With footers in the past being a matter of necessity and nothing more, with the usual t's&c's link, legals and maybe a contact us link, the arrival of the fat footer hasn't come a moment too soon!
A fat footer is simple to build, increases your website's usability, is very en vogue and increases clicks around your website.
So, what's the point, it's below the fold? These days, the average web user is used to scrolling. And let's face it, we scroll a lot! Think about how long it takes you to scroll down your facebook page to get to your wall?!
So, today's top ten features our top ten fat footer sites:
(If you want to improve your site with a fat footer of your own, give us a call on 01252 70 11 11 or email getintouch@bluhalo.com)
1. Waitrose
A fat footer is simple to build, increases your website's usability, is very en vogue and increases clicks around your website.
So, what's the point, it's below the fold? These days, the average web user is used to scrolling. And let's face it, we scroll a lot! Think about how long it takes you to scroll down your facebook page to get to your wall?!
So, today's top ten features our top ten fat footer sites:
(If you want to improve your site with a fat footer of your own, give us a call on 01252 70 11 11 or email getintouch@bluhalo.com)
1. Waitrose
Don't forget, if you want a fat footer of your own, give us a call on 01252 70 11 11 or email getintouch@bluhalo.com.
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