My ApplNion

It has been almost a week since Apple launched the iPad. Since, there is huges debates around the device itself. People are talking about the fact that it lacks a front camera for video conferencing, or the lack of multitasking. You can read Rob Griffiths article at Macworld as a reference. It even goes to the question as to why the iPad does run iPhone OS instead of a full Mac OS.

But the largest debate, by far more than any of the other, is the support of Flash on the device. Jason Snell said on Twitter.com that now that iPhone is such a popular device, there is now a debate over the need for Flash on the web. Here is what he said 3 days ago:

The people who try to debate me about Flash are just proving what I’m saying. That there’s a debate. And three years ago there wasn’t one.

I totally agree with that. In the past, who cared about the fact that a site was done using Flash, except the fact that you may be asked to install the plug-in. Today, when surfing from an iPhone, all those sites place a blank space in Safari where there is Flash content. As an iPhone user myself, yes, it is frustrating. Sometimes I have to forward the link to myself so I will be able to look at it later on my Mac.

Personally, I do not think we will see the dismiss of Flash content on the web anytime soon. But there may be place where Flash can be left alone and be given another standard technology such as Apple praised HTML5 standard.

For me, Flash should be used in places where it is really require. For example, what it the purpose of having video embedded in Flash when there is so many standards for playing video. Let’s standardize a way to display video on the web that everyone will use, then we won’t have a need to install multiple plug-ins for this, now, simple task.

Also, I can get very annoyed when simple text, publicity or image slideshows are embedded in something like Flash. This is nothing that needs Flash, really. So why use a complex technology to display simple things when it is not really required?

Flash may have its place for things such as Internet web based games. Facebook is full of such games and I do not care if they don’t display on my iPhone, or even on an iPad. Those are not the thing I expect to do on such device. I’ll use a Mac or a PC for gaming if necessary, that said, I’m not really in this gaming stuff anyway. But when I browse web pages for content, I do not want to be blocked by Flash embedded content to reach the information I want to see or read.

I hope we’ll see that happening in a near future…

Finally, the T day, T stands for tablet, was today and Apple announced their tablet computer. It’s not an iSlate, but an iPad. There is basically 6 models based on capacity and 3G capability.

What do I think about it? Nice. Just nice? No, very nice. Just very nice? No, very good… Ok, what I mean is not that I am disappointed by the device. In fact, the little things I saw about it looks very nice. The interface is very polished and the user experience way over the top. But still…

It is very obvious that Apple is placing that device to compete with the Amazon Kindle and all the e-readers that were announced at CES at the beginning of January. As a person who is not a frequent book reader, an e-reader from Apple is not likely to make me read more. That’s a fact, and that is why I have this love/hate feeling about the device.

Where I’m more interested, it is about having a really small and portable device such as a Netbook. Apple have introduced iWork for the iPad too, making it a good netbook for casual tasks. I use my iPhone as my fully portable device for reading emails and surfing the web. But the screen is small and is good for short reading, quick email answers or Twitter.

Will I buy an iPad? I have 60 days or so to think about it. I find it interesting, but considering I already have an iPhone, a MacBook Pro and an iMac, is it too much for my needs? Maybe.

Another thing that let me suspicious, I have not heard of the device being compatible with Adobe Flash. I do understand the iPhone not having Flash compatibility, but a netbook is compatible with Flash for almost half the price of the iPad. Considering that many web sites uses Flash technology, if the iPad does not support it, I’m better putting my MacBook Pro on my knees.

If pre-order was available today, I may have placed my order to keep priority, and still reserved the right to cancel before it shipped. I’ll continue reading on it, and hope I find my “true path” to the iPad. Even pro columnists on Twitter said that they will buy one, but not because they want one, because they need one to write review about it.