Anyway… when Photoshop crashes, a dialogue box pops up and asks you to send a report to Adobe to let them know what happened. And some people like to vent.

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Original story on Maniacal Rage

In the red corner we have Apple. Champions of industrial design. Noted control freaks. And, frankly, one of the few companies pushing the boundaries in consumer technology at the moment.

In the blue corner we have Adobe. The people who brought you Photoshop, Illustrator and, of course, Flash.

It’s no secret that the iPhone operating system doesn’t run Flash; it’s one of the reasons Apple had to stop promoting the iPhone (in the UK at least) as running the “entire” web when some wags argued that not using Flash meant this wasn’t strictly true (we could argue the semantics of what constitutes the “web” until the cows come home and life’s too short).

Adobe has never been happy about the iPhone operating system’s lack of Flash and who could blame them? There are 85m plus devices in the world running iPhone OS (iPhones, iPod touches and, now, iPads), Mobile Safari (the iPhone OS’s web browser) is the most-widely used mobile browser in the world and in its first five days of existence Apple sold 500,000 iPads. Not being on this platform is hurting Abobe.

Apple’s argument – which carries a lot of weight in geek circles – is that Flash is a relic of a bygone era, the vast majority of its ‘jobs’ can be carried out in HTML, CSS and Javascript which, unlike Flash, are open technologies that anybody can play with and, to some degree, it’s “our damn system so we’ll do what we like with it.”

That’s the public argument anyway; in private (and occasionally in semi-public utterances), Apple has said what all geeks know to be true – Flash is a resource hog (it eats computing power), flakey as hell (the vast majority of web broswer crashes are Flash-related) and its continued use is stifling progress in web development. (Those that can do, those that can’t use Flash).

So… no Flash on the iPhone then… well…

Adobe got clever and invented a ‘wrapper’ that would turn applications developed in Flash into ‘proper’ iPhone applications. Yes, underneath the surface the application would be Flash through and through but all of this would be hidden from the user behind a thin veneer of iPhone OS acceptability.

“Huzzah” sang a thousand Flash developers. “That’s just saved us a lot of work.”

In principle, this kind of stuff isn’t unusual. A lot of computer/video games are produced in the same way: the developer builds the game and then ‘wraps’ it in some way to allow the game to run across different computing and gaming platforms.

The difference is that Apple don’t want them to do it. And, well, someone at Adobe should have known the first universal truth of working with Apple: if they don’t like what you’re doing, they will stop you. If you don’t like the rules, don’t play the game.

Thursday was the day when Adobe’s little scheme came crashing down round its ears, with the announcement of iPhone OS 4.0, which will be rolled-out to the world and his iPhone sometime during the summer (the iPad will follow in the autumn).

Alongside all the nice new stuff – some degree of multitasking (whoop!), improved email, application folders and iBooks being the biggies – there’s a change to the user agreement for the new SDK (software development kit) which all developers must agree to. To be clear, if you’re going to develop applications for the iPhone you have to play by Apple’s rules if you want your application to appear in the iTunes Store and this change has Adobe foaming at the mouth.

“3.3.1 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 (e.g., Applications that link to Documented APIs through an intermediary translation or compatibility layer or tool are prohibited).”

In English? “Adobe you can no longer wrap Flash up and have it run on iPhone OS.”

Angry? ANGRY? They’re not happy let’s put it that way. Next week is the launch of Adobe’s Creative Suite 5 – the ‘box set’ which includes the latest version of Photoshop, Illustrator etc… and, yes, Flash. This new version of Flash is (or maybe now was) going to include the “Export to iPhone app” ability built-in. Not much point now is there? Yes, you can still ‘create’ the applications but, er, you can’t submit them to the iTunes Store. Which leaves only those people who have hacked their iPhones (the term is ‘jailbreak’) to allow them to run any/all application they chose, not just the Apple-approved ones.

At a conservative estimate, that’s about 14 people.

So why have Apple done this?

(just because I’m listing an argument below doesn’t necessarily mean I agree with it!)

Control? One of the big selling points for many people of the iPhone is that there is some degree of quality control – only applications that work as they should and won’t turn your phone into a paperweight are allowed on to the iTunes Store. For Apple this quality control also covers how the application is built.

Open standards? For all the people that talk of Apple being control freaks, they’re probably one of the few tech companies to truly-embrace open standards – admittedly when it suits them. If you want to create your own ‘version’ of the Safari browser, you can download the code and play with it. Much of the fundamentals that form the basis of OS X are also free for anybody to play with. Apple spent too long in the ‘dark years’ beholden to the whims of others and my guess is that they don’t want to go back there again. So HTML 5 and not Flash it is then…

Shopping? Does Apple want to buy Adobe? Apple has got, give or take, $24bn in the bank accruing interest but doing little else. Adobe is worth, again give or take, $17bn. Buying Adobe would give Apple, if it wanted, exclusivity for the Creative Suite packages (what design pro worth their salt is going to use a PC?), as well as PDF – the virtual lingua franca for document exchange today – and would potentially put another nail into Windows’ coffin.

And what’s the best way of reducing the price of a company? Reduce the ability for that company to sell its wares.

As for all those people who think that Apple needs Adobe: if you don’t think that Apple has got Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign replacements sat in its development lab ready to be unleashed if needs be then you really don’t know the way Apple thinks.

This one is going to run and run…

So then you’re faced with a blank screen and, of course, nothing in particular to talk about (or rant about, or rave about etc). But herein lies the point. Yes, there is one.

In the fast-moving world of digital marketing, the latest bandwagon is often jumped upon with gay abandon with relatively little thought to how the latest “toy” will actually be used in the real world.

Blogs. Twitter. Facebook fan pages. All of these now play an increasingly-important part in the marketing mix and are, of course, an essential part of a well-thought out strategy. But are they always necessary?

Is there any point in creating a Facebook fan page if it gets left to gather dust? How about a Twitter feed that doesn’t add any value to a brand? Or a blog that’s left to roll around the internet like digital tumbleweed?

If they’re used effectively, all of the above – and more – are fantastic additions to a strategic digital marketing plan. But all can be detrimental to a brand if they’re left to their own (un-updated) devices.

When we’re working with clients we ask them to bear in mind the time, dedication and flexibility required to make effective use of these tools. Task someone with the job of keeping them all up to date, allow the appointed person the freedom (and trust) to use them as they see fit (within certain guidelines of course) and use them not just as tools of communication but as tools of engagement.

Right… better start following our advice then. :-)

* “For those unfamiliar with the expression; it’s often said that cobbler’s children are the ones with the shoes full of holes, as their cobbler father is too busy fixing everybody else’s footwear” – Old Sayings Editor

Prices start at $499 for a Wifi-only model, with higher-priced versions also coming with 3G abilities too.

Sounds like a good deal, an interesting addition to the gadget world; so why are some geeks up in arms?

Well, the iPad runs a version of iPhone OS, that is the operating system that runs everything – think of Windows on a PC – and, like the iPhone, the iPad will only run applications downloaded through the iTunes App Store.

That is, every single application will have been tested and approved by Apple – unlike, say, a computer where a user can buy and install applications for a multitude of sources.

Certain sections of the geek world don’t like this level of control, they prefer “open platforms”, another way of saying they want to be able to control every single aspect of their computer.

That’s fine but the iPad isn’t a computer. It’s an appliance.

That’s the difference between geeks and Joe Public (broad-brush stereotypes on both sides but go with it for now). Geeks think they should be “allowed” complete and unfettered access to every single gadget that comes in their direction.

Joe Public? Couldn’t care less… Does the thing work? Does it do what they want? Is the price right? Super… I’ll have one of those then please.

A computer is like a blank canvas – it can be configured to do anything the owner/user wants it to. From editing videos to writing HTML, producing accounts to entertaining “the world”.

An appliance does one or more jobs – and does them bloody well. Think toaster, think oven, think fridge. We don’t expect to be able to make changes to the way our toaster works – we buy it to do the job it was designed to do.

The iPad isn’t a computer. It’s an appliance.

And we want one. Now.

Do you long for a simpler time when Minesweeper was the cutting-edge of games and overlapping program windows were a revelation?

You need the Windows 3.11 emulator :-)

Why people spend hours doing these things is beyond us sometimes… but we’re glad they do.

And all done in javascript… not even a whiff of Flash. Good work fella.

Well, apparently, the hacking was made possible because of a problem with Internet Explorer.

Internet Explorer, the bane of every web developer’s life, is truly a nightmare to work with – in regards to security, reliability and rendering (that is how it interprets the instructions in HTML which define how a web page is meant to look).

And now it’s been banned by the French and German governments.

Well, not banned as such… but when a government advises its citizens not to use a web browser because it’s as safe as a chocolate fireguard and has more holes than the finest emmental, then it’s the next best thing.

Unlike previous security problems with Internet Explorer, this one affects all versions kicking around and across every version of Windows. So those of you running Internet Explorer 8 on Windows 7 – you’re no safer than someone running IE6 on Windows 98.

Joe Wilcox of Beta News put it best: “it’s time to stop using any version of Microsoft’s browser — IE6, IE7, IE8 and forget someday releasing IE9.”

So what are you waiting for?

We’re quite liking Google Chrome at the moment, though many in our number are fond of Firefox and you may even find you’re fond of Apple’s Safari. Whatever web browser you use… it will undoubtedly be a much nicer experience for you than any version of Internet Explorer. And a lot safer too.

The results speak for themselves:

• 40 per cent decided not to hire after reading a candidate’s social networking site
• Over a third said a profile proved a candidate had lied about their qualifications
• 13 per cent said a potential employee has made “discriminatory comments” on their Facebook page
• And nine per cent said “provocative or inappropriate” photographs had been posted on the account

And the scariest statistic of all?

• 28 per cent of employers fired someone for content found on a social networking profile

The solution is simple: privacy settings. If you don’t have your privacy settings adjusted to only allow people on your friends’ list to see your content… be very careful about what you post on Facebook.

Don’t get us wrong, technology in music is a fantastic thing; Matt Bellamy (guitar) and Chris Wolstenholme (bass) of Muse – for example – couldn’t make half of the wonderful noises they do without a little technological assistance along the way.

But, these effects are created through processing the sound made from a “traditional” four or six string guitar.

We’re not luddites – far, far, far from it – but maybe some things are beyond the pale?

(You could of course also be from another country, so welcome to our little corner of digital Britain).

I remember the winter of 1981 extremely-well because that December in the middle of the peak of the worst weather, my family and I moved house, into a nice new home at the top of a rather steep hill.

Automotive technology not being where it is now (and my father’s pockets for such ‘luxuries’ as quality cars being rather shallow), the only way we could make it up the hill was for my brother and I to bounce for all we were worth on the back seat to improve grip in the rear-wheel drive car. Or, at least, that’s what Dad told us. :-)

So, fast-forward almost three decades and what’s changed? The snow’s falling, the roads are getting gridlocked and the number of no-shows at companies up and down the country isn’t helping us climb out of recession.

But one thing that has changed – for us at least – is the role of technology in our everyday working lives and how it’s made the snow less of a pain to deal with and geography much less relevant than it was even two years ago.

Client meeting to demonstrate a new piece of technology? Face to face is great but screen sharing using a technology such as GoTo Meeting makes the process of demonstrating simplicity itself.

And for in-house conferencing, Skype frankly cannot be beaten.

Quick, simple, lean over the shoulder and ask questions? Everybody in the team uses Macs, so we utilise Adium which allows us to connect to MSN Messenger, AIM, Yahoo! Messenger or any of a dozen or so instant messaging systems through one single application (for the PC users amongst you, Trillian does the same thing).

At one point following a lengthy conference call with client, we even left the Skype connection open for a bit after the client disconnected to occasionally exchange typical office conversation… the silence occasionally peppered with “it’s still snowing over here” or “did you see the football last night?”.

So – what’s next? How about the virtual reality conference call or office, where everybody present is represented by some kind of avatar? If the human interaction element can be ’synthesised’, who needs to spend an hour or more in a metal box to simply share a post code?