It's possibly the most persistent myth about the iPad: No Flash support.
Competitors like to trumpet it to let you know that they give you a "fuller web experience." iPad newbies express concern that their new device will be horribly hobbled. People come to jailbreaking forums asking if there's any way to get Flash by jailbreaking.
Let's ignore the fact that Adobe themselves have declared mobile Flash dead and that the majority of the web has already moved on to HTML 5. The fact remains that there are some sites that still use Flash heavily - Facebook games, photo editors, local restaurants that haven't touched their site since it was built in 2004. Are iPad owners really sacrificing this chunk of the web?
It is true that Safari, the built-in web browser, doesn't support Flash. And it was true that when the iPad was introduced, there was no way to get Flash. But the iPad is nearing two years old, and has hundreds of thousands of apps built for it - do you really think nobody thought there was money to be made in a Flash-supporting app? Of course they did, and of course they found a work-around - by running the Flash through their own servers on its way to you.
In truth, iPad owners have several options for Flash browsers (no Jb required):
Puffin - This is the Flash browser that I personally use. To be honest, 90% of the time if I come across a site using Flash I just leave the site and find somewhere else to do my business. But I wanted to give Flash on the iPad a try. Puffin works great for video, and slow but acceptable for editing photos and photo books on sites like snapfish. It seems to have some trouble with Zynga games on Facebook, though, randomly reloading at inopportune times. At 99c, though, it's a cheap way to check out the occasional Flash site on your iPad.
Photon - I haven't tried it myself, but Photon gets very good reviews for speed and handling of a variety of Flash sites, and seems to be extremely popular. Popular enough that according to AppShopper it hasn't once gone on sale since raising its price to $4.99 in August, but if you need regular and reliable Flash it may be a good investment.
iSwifter - Don't let the Free tag fool you - iSwifter only gives you ten minutes of free browsing at a time to check it out, after which you'll need to pay $4.99 in-app for the full browser. I took the free sample for a short spin. iSwifter is designed with Flash games in mind specifically - it definitely handles Zynga better than Puffin. But if you're looking for more general Flash support, it comes up short on websites it hasn't been specifically optimized for.
SkyFire - SkyFire was the first browser to bring Flash to the iPad, and is still popular. However, its capabilities are limited to Flash video, not interactive content. If that's what you need, it's what SkyFire was built to do and according to reviews it does it well. But if you might want to use some interactive Flash content as well sometimes, $4.99 seems like a steep price for a fraction of the functionality of Photon.
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Friday, January 27, 2012
What IS jailbreaking?
Over on the MacRumors iPad forum, someone asked why the authors of jailbreak tweaks don't release their apps to the general unjailbroken public. This question indicates a fundamental misunderstanding about what jailbreaking actually means, one that I think is quite common.
So what does it actually mean to jailbreak your iPad?
When your iPad arrives brand-new from the store, there is only one way to get apps onto it: Apple's App Store. Whether directly onto the iPad or via iTunes, the App Store is the one and only place where you can download apps and install them onto the iPad.
Apple has 100% control over what appears in the App Store. There are good reasons for this - for example, because Apple tests every app before approving it, malware doesn't make it into the App Store Andy thus has no way to make it onto your iPad. But there are certain types of apps that Apple simply doesn't allow, such as those that make system-wide changes or affect iOS itself. And there are other apps that can't be approved for other reasons - for example, VLC is a popular media player on desktop computers. But VLC, and thus the VLC app, is written using code that is covered by the GPL (Gnu Public License), and some of the App Store's terms conflict with the GPL. Thus, distributing the app in the App Store would violate the license its code was written under.
So where does jailbreaking come into this? Well, jailbreaking your iPad does exactly one thing: When you jailbreak your iPad, it adjusts the code so that it is possible to install apps from a source other than Apple's App Store. That's all. Well, and it installs Cydia, which is just an alternate app store. So once you've jailbroken, you can download apps from Cydia that Apple would never approve, like ones to change the appearance of your icons or reassign what happens when you click the home button.
Of course, the downside is that since Cydia doesn't have the lengthy approval process of the App Store, there is the possibility of malware or just bugs in tweaks that are system-wide. But it's not too hard to Google a package before you download it to make sure it's legit - and the one time I had one that messed things up a bit, it all went back to normal once I deleted it.
I think that a lot of people hear the "break" part of jailbreak and think that it somehow involves breaking the iPad or iOS itself - it doesn't. The one and only thing that changes when you jailbreak is where you can download apps from - until, of course, you start downloading them and tweaking the things you want to tweak.
So what does it actually mean to jailbreak your iPad?
When your iPad arrives brand-new from the store, there is only one way to get apps onto it: Apple's App Store. Whether directly onto the iPad or via iTunes, the App Store is the one and only place where you can download apps and install them onto the iPad.
Apple has 100% control over what appears in the App Store. There are good reasons for this - for example, because Apple tests every app before approving it, malware doesn't make it into the App Store Andy thus has no way to make it onto your iPad. But there are certain types of apps that Apple simply doesn't allow, such as those that make system-wide changes or affect iOS itself. And there are other apps that can't be approved for other reasons - for example, VLC is a popular media player on desktop computers. But VLC, and thus the VLC app, is written using code that is covered by the GPL (Gnu Public License), and some of the App Store's terms conflict with the GPL. Thus, distributing the app in the App Store would violate the license its code was written under.
So where does jailbreaking come into this? Well, jailbreaking your iPad does exactly one thing: When you jailbreak your iPad, it adjusts the code so that it is possible to install apps from a source other than Apple's App Store. That's all. Well, and it installs Cydia, which is just an alternate app store. So once you've jailbroken, you can download apps from Cydia that Apple would never approve, like ones to change the appearance of your icons or reassign what happens when you click the home button.
Of course, the downside is that since Cydia doesn't have the lengthy approval process of the App Store, there is the possibility of malware or just bugs in tweaks that are system-wide. But it's not too hard to Google a package before you download it to make sure it's legit - and the one time I had one that messed things up a bit, it all went back to normal once I deleted it.
I think that a lot of people hear the "break" part of jailbreak and think that it somehow involves breaking the iPad or iOS itself - it doesn't. The one and only thing that changes when you jailbreak is where you can download apps from - until, of course, you start downloading them and tweaking the things you want to tweak.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
iOS 5 and lovin' it!
With the release of the Absinthe jailbreak, I have finally upgraded to iOS 5.0.1!
I am super-impressed with the new photo album features. I've mentioned before that I do a lot of photo management and editing on my iPad, and now it's going to be twice as easy! I'd been searching for a good red-eye eliminator, and now it's built right in, along with rotating and cropping - all without the annoyance of a second copy of the photo. It's about time! Also long overdue is the ability to create multiple albums, though I'd gotten around that with the Cydia tweak PhotoAlbums+.
Less-intrusive notifications are also nice, but the multitouch stuff I've mostly disabled. With an infant often banging on the iPad, I prefer the gestures provided by Activator - though now I do wish Activator provided a way to switch directly between apps like the built-in multitouch.
Honestly, there's not much else that I find that exciting in iOS 5 - but the photo improvements are enough to make me very happy!
I am super-impressed with the new photo album features. I've mentioned before that I do a lot of photo management and editing on my iPad, and now it's going to be twice as easy! I'd been searching for a good red-eye eliminator, and now it's built right in, along with rotating and cropping - all without the annoyance of a second copy of the photo. It's about time! Also long overdue is the ability to create multiple albums, though I'd gotten around that with the Cydia tweak PhotoAlbums+.
Less-intrusive notifications are also nice, but the multitouch stuff I've mostly disabled. With an infant often banging on the iPad, I prefer the gestures provided by Activator - though now I do wish Activator provided a way to switch directly between apps like the built-in multitouch.
Honestly, there's not much else that I find that exciting in iOS 5 - but the photo improvements are enough to make me very happy!
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Decisions, decisions
For those of us with jailbroken iPad 2s running iOS 4.3.3, things are a bit precarious right now.
See, a jailbreak of iOS 5.0.1 was released for devices with A4 chips (iPad 1, iPhone 4, etc) last week. But it doesn't work for our A5 devices yet. We don't know exactly when the A5 jailbreak will be out. Why is this a problem?
Well, when it does come the jailbreak will almost certainly also be for 5.0.1. But now that this version has had one JB, Apple will be rushing to update to 5.0.2 (or possibly 5.1?) as soon as they can close whatever hole the JB uses. Once Apple moves on to the next version, 5.0.1 won't be available, so anyone still on 4.3.3 will have to either stay there and continue missing out on iOS 5 features or upgrade to a version that won't be jailbroken for quite a while, if ever. But upgrading to 5.0.1 before it's jailbroken means losing your current jailbreak, with no actual guarantee that anyone will definitely find one for A5 devices on iOS 5.
Just the other day, jailbreaker p0sixninja tweeted a somewhat cryptic warning - he says that everyone, including A5 users, should upgrade to 5.0.1 now. But he hasn't elaborated - does he know that a jailbreak is imminent? Or that 5.0.2 is imminent? Or is he simply guessing that 5.0.2 will be coming soon due to the A4 jailbreak, and that 5.0.1 will be jailbroken fairly soon (or at least before 5.0.2 is)?
For now, I have downloaded 5.0.1 but not installed it. I don't know exactly how these things work, but I've read that once Apple releases the next version, they'll keep signing the old version for a short time - maybe a day? not sure - so if you're quick you can still install it and back up your SHSH blobs with TinyUmbrella. So right now my plan is to install it as soon as either a JB or new version is announced - and I really, really hope this won't mean losing my current JB for more than a few days!
Update: The plot thickens
Now a second jailbreaker, pod2g, has taken to Twitter to announce that we could see a release within a week, and he, too, suggests upgrading to 5.0.1.
See, a jailbreak of iOS 5.0.1 was released for devices with A4 chips (iPad 1, iPhone 4, etc) last week. But it doesn't work for our A5 devices yet. We don't know exactly when the A5 jailbreak will be out. Why is this a problem?
Well, when it does come the jailbreak will almost certainly also be for 5.0.1. But now that this version has had one JB, Apple will be rushing to update to 5.0.2 (or possibly 5.1?) as soon as they can close whatever hole the JB uses. Once Apple moves on to the next version, 5.0.1 won't be available, so anyone still on 4.3.3 will have to either stay there and continue missing out on iOS 5 features or upgrade to a version that won't be jailbroken for quite a while, if ever. But upgrading to 5.0.1 before it's jailbroken means losing your current jailbreak, with no actual guarantee that anyone will definitely find one for A5 devices on iOS 5.
Just the other day, jailbreaker p0sixninja tweeted a somewhat cryptic warning - he says that everyone, including A5 users, should upgrade to 5.0.1 now. But he hasn't elaborated - does he know that a jailbreak is imminent? Or that 5.0.2 is imminent? Or is he simply guessing that 5.0.2 will be coming soon due to the A4 jailbreak, and that 5.0.1 will be jailbroken fairly soon (or at least before 5.0.2 is)?
For now, I have downloaded 5.0.1 but not installed it. I don't know exactly how these things work, but I've read that once Apple releases the next version, they'll keep signing the old version for a short time - maybe a day? not sure - so if you're quick you can still install it and back up your SHSH blobs with TinyUmbrella. So right now my plan is to install it as soon as either a JB or new version is announced - and I really, really hope this won't mean losing my current JB for more than a few days!
Update: The plot thickens
Now a second jailbreaker, pod2g, has taken to Twitter to announce that we could see a release within a week, and he, too, suggests upgrading to 5.0.1.
Sunday, January 1, 2012
Dear Wordpress
Dear Wordpress,
I hate your "Tablet formatting" for your blogs. Why? Because I use my iPad in landscape mode 95% of the time, and your design is completely unusable in that orientation. You know, the orientation that most iPad stands hold the iPad in? Every time I click on a Wordpress blog, I have to turn my iPad to the side, scroll down, and click "View standard site" to read it. Or, more commonly, I just hit the back button because I don't feel like dealing with it. I'm sure your users would rather not lose potential readers because you don't understand how people actually use their iPads, so please make this landscape-compatible - or at least put the standard site link at the top so I can click through quickly and easily, without turning my iPad around.
No love,
Brandy
Saturday, December 3, 2011
iPads and Gift-Giving
As we navigate the shopping aisles leading from Black Friday to Christmas morning, many people are posting on iPad forums wondering if they should give an iPad as a gift. Or perhaps you've already got an iPad owner in your life and are wondering if there's any associated gear they'd appreciate. Opinions, of course, are like belly buttons (or other body parts), but here is my take on where the iPad stands this holiday season.
Green light: The iPad is a great choice!
- Anyone who has specifically asked for one, of course (except little kids - see red light).
- Retirees who aren't technophobes, but might find their main computer frustrating.
- Expectant or new moms.
- College or grad students who are looking for something to take class notes and do readings on.
- Anyone looking for something for web browsing, e-book reading, watching videos, playing games, and light content creation like blogging, photo editing, etc.
- Anyone who's been complaining about their laptop's bulkiness. (Not necessarily to replace the laptop, but to free them from it for the above uses.)
Yellow light: Check whether the iPad truly meets their needs
- College/grad students in need of something to write papers on or do other more intensive work on. They might be good with an iPad with Pages and a Bluetooth keyboard, or they might need a real laptop.
- People looking mainly for an e-book reader, plus light web browsing and a few games. An iPad might be overkill; a Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet may meet their needs for half the price. They would likely still love the iPad, but they may prefer something else with the extra money.
- Retirees who are technophobes. If they've expressed interest and you're willing to help them figure things out, it may be a great way to read books in large print and see the grandkids' Facebook photos. If not, it may be a wasted investment if they have no interest in learning to use it, no matter how much you wish they would.
- People who already own both a laptop and an iPhone. Some of these people will find the iPad fits right in between, some will find that it replaces one of these devices, and some will find that they have no use for the iPad.
Red light: The iPad is unlikely to be a good choice.
- Kids, younger than high school or possibly middle school age. I personally would not recommend spending the money on an iPad for a child. If they want games, an iPod Touch or handheld from Nintendo or Sony would probably do. If they're a bookworm, a regular Kindle or Nook. For small children, Leapfrog now has a tablet with educational games on it. And for the kid who really wants a tablet but probably wouldn't get full use out of an iPad, a Fire or Nook Tablet will leave you out a lot less money if they break or lose it. There are probably a few kids who would benefit from their own iPad (for them I'd recommend a used iPad 1), but for most it's more than they need and a LOT more money than you need to put at risk.
- Anyone who has specifically asked for another tablet. As much as you may love iOS, they have their reasons for wanting what they want. Not getting something you asked for is a bit disappointing; knowing that someone spent a lot of money on something you didn't want at all is frustrating. If you think they were just trying to save you some money by asking for something cheaper, ask if they'd be interested in an iPad before sinking the money into one.
Bonus: Gifts for iPad owners
- iTunes gift cards. You can never have enough apps!
- Particularly for students, a Bluetooth keyboard and/or stylus for notetaking.
- A pillow-type stand like the Wedge-E.
- A camera connection kit (Apple branded or otherwise).
-For the iPad gamer, a joystick could enhance their experience for a fraction of the cost of the full iCade (which is also an option if you've got the cash).
- I wouldn't give a case as a gift unless you know the person's specific needs. Someone looking for a folio case won't be happy with a smart cover and vice versa.
Green light: The iPad is a great choice!
- Anyone who has specifically asked for one, of course (except little kids - see red light).
- Retirees who aren't technophobes, but might find their main computer frustrating.
- Expectant or new moms.
- College or grad students who are looking for something to take class notes and do readings on.
- Anyone looking for something for web browsing, e-book reading, watching videos, playing games, and light content creation like blogging, photo editing, etc.
- Anyone who's been complaining about their laptop's bulkiness. (Not necessarily to replace the laptop, but to free them from it for the above uses.)
Yellow light: Check whether the iPad truly meets their needs
- College/grad students in need of something to write papers on or do other more intensive work on. They might be good with an iPad with Pages and a Bluetooth keyboard, or they might need a real laptop.
- People looking mainly for an e-book reader, plus light web browsing and a few games. An iPad might be overkill; a Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet may meet their needs for half the price. They would likely still love the iPad, but they may prefer something else with the extra money.
- Retirees who are technophobes. If they've expressed interest and you're willing to help them figure things out, it may be a great way to read books in large print and see the grandkids' Facebook photos. If not, it may be a wasted investment if they have no interest in learning to use it, no matter how much you wish they would.
- People who already own both a laptop and an iPhone. Some of these people will find the iPad fits right in between, some will find that it replaces one of these devices, and some will find that they have no use for the iPad.
Red light: The iPad is unlikely to be a good choice.
- Kids, younger than high school or possibly middle school age. I personally would not recommend spending the money on an iPad for a child. If they want games, an iPod Touch or handheld from Nintendo or Sony would probably do. If they're a bookworm, a regular Kindle or Nook. For small children, Leapfrog now has a tablet with educational games on it. And for the kid who really wants a tablet but probably wouldn't get full use out of an iPad, a Fire or Nook Tablet will leave you out a lot less money if they break or lose it. There are probably a few kids who would benefit from their own iPad (for them I'd recommend a used iPad 1), but for most it's more than they need and a LOT more money than you need to put at risk.
- Anyone who has specifically asked for another tablet. As much as you may love iOS, they have their reasons for wanting what they want. Not getting something you asked for is a bit disappointing; knowing that someone spent a lot of money on something you didn't want at all is frustrating. If you think they were just trying to save you some money by asking for something cheaper, ask if they'd be interested in an iPad before sinking the money into one.
Bonus: Gifts for iPad owners
- iTunes gift cards. You can never have enough apps!
- Particularly for students, a Bluetooth keyboard and/or stylus for notetaking.
- A pillow-type stand like the Wedge-E.
- A camera connection kit (Apple branded or otherwise).
-For the iPad gamer, a joystick could enhance their experience for a fraction of the cost of the full iCade (which is also an option if you've got the cash).
- I wouldn't give a case as a gift unless you know the person's specific needs. Someone looking for a folio case won't be happy with a smart cover and vice versa.
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Stylus holders
If, like me, you partially got the iPad to write on and don't like writing with your finger, you probably own a stylus. And given how few cases come with stylus holders, like me you probably don't use it as much as you'd like to because it's hard to keep it with the iPad.
Zoogue is now offering "free" stylus holders - the true cost is only $2 shipping. Of course, they are made to work with Zoogue cases, and so they may or may not work with yours. But $2 is a pretty minimal investment to find out, and now that I've got mine I can copy the design with a thinner sheet of plastic that will fit in my case.
Zoogue is now offering "free" stylus holders - the true cost is only $2 shipping. Of course, they are made to work with Zoogue cases, and so they may or may not work with yours. But $2 is a pretty minimal investment to find out, and now that I've got mine I can copy the design with a thinner sheet of plastic that will fit in my case.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)