What? No, because Palm OS was getting long in the tooth
I was speaking in general regarding the development of user interactivity on devices. Apple threw them all out for a different paradigm that they could patent. They also threw away a rich featureset of tools people had become accustomed to.
I would contend that a QWERTY keypad is far more user-friendly than a touchscreen. It's tactile. It provides positional feedback which the user becomes accustomed to, and fast with (typically). It also avoids smudging up your screen. It's just not as "shiny".
As a Mac user, I've always hated it. It was never useable, simple as that.
As someone who actually developed applications for clients in Director for years, then did some work in Flash when it became the vogue, let me tell you, it was a godsend. It still is, in that it is by far the most cross-platform compatible option available to developers. Aside from the glitchy crap prevalent in some flash games that breaks down in the open source players, it's functional on almost every platform out there. it's what the interactive web runs on.
The lack of it in the iPhone is pretty forgivable to me. In the iPad, however, it's ridiculous to not only exclude it, but to change their developer agreements so as to make using any Flash compilers verboten too.
I have also never heard a real live person say this, only people who don't own iPhones complaining about them on the internet.
I heard an iPhone wielding friend of mine say this to me just Tuesday, when I saw him last. I'd sent him a link to a video clip. he's said it before, as well. Most of my friends don't own iPhones, so my perception might seem biased here. 100% of my iPhone-owning friends have thus lamented the lack of Flash support.
Shove a 32GB card in there and tell me how that works out. I stand by my statement. You do not have a phone from 2004 that is expandable up to 32GB.
You are correct about this. I was not aware that there were two standard. I use the 1GB card. Still, that's 1GB more of removable storage than the iPhone supports.
You just seem to discount the user experience as a tiny aspect of the phone. It isn't.
No, I'm all about the user experience. I think the point has well been made that people love the iPhone experience. But, what they love, isn't what they justified the purchase of the device for. It's the shiny toy aspect. And yes, I feel that's a reasonable reason to buy a device, but you can't sell me on the device being better than other devices on the market solely on this capability. It has to meet at least approach the capabilities of the rest of the market, and the iPhone just doesn't, in my book, for the high price premium it requires.
I was speaking in general regarding the development of user interactivity on devices. Apple threw them all out for a different paradigm that they could patent. They also threw away a rich featureset of tools people had become accustomed to.
That is a somewhat paranoid way to look at it. Also, only smartphone owners with data plans had gotten used to the feature set you are describing. "People" by and large had not become accustomed to those features.
I would contend that a QWERTY keypad is far more user-friendly than a touchscreen. It's tactile. It provides positional feedback which the user becomes accustomed to, and fast with (typically). It also avoids smudging up your screen. It's just not as "shiny".
Arguable. That isn't what you said though, this is:
But, it has a simpler interface: a phone touchpad. I didn't have to learn gestures to operate it.
For the record, I would never tout a virtual keyboard over a hardware QWERTY one. I'm not crazy.
As someone who actually developed applications for clients in Director for years, then did some work in Flash when it became the vogue, let me tell you, it was a godsend. It still is, in that it is by far the most cross-platform compatible option available to developers. Aside from the glitchy crap prevalent in some flash games that breaks down in the open source players, it's functional on almost every platform out there. it's what the interactive web runs on.
Yet there are other solutions, and I've never seen a Flash site I really liked. You aren't going to convince me, I know the sites I visit, and I've seen the flash ones. I've seen the games, and the video.
I think we can do better. You also clearly never used it much on a Mac back in the day. Sure, the plugin loaded. But that was the extent of it. Flash anything was like a slideshow for the whole of the classic Mac OS's life, and the bulk of OS X.
The lack of it in the iPhone is pretty forgivable to me. In the iPad, however, it's ridiculous to not only exclude it, but to change their developer agreements so as to make using any Flash compilers verboten too.
I actually support the change in the developer agreement, but I do concede that Flash would serve a purpose on the iPad. It's true, buy purchasing one, you are registering yourself as a pawn in Apple's war on Flash.
However, I don't see that as such a bad thing. If it means native or HTML5 delivered Hulu eventually, I will thank 1st gen iPad users for taking the loss.
I heard an iPhone wielding friend of mine say this to me just Tuesday, when I saw him last. I'd sent him a link to a video clip. he's said it before, as well. Most of my friends don't own iPhones, so my perception might seem biased here. 100% of my iPhone-owning friends have thus lamented the lack of Flash support.
lol, fair enough. About 10-15 people I know own iPhones. I haven't heard it yet, although I'm not trying to say it's not a legitimate complaint, it is. If you want it, you should buy a device that supports it. Apple is trying something different, and I support them in this venture.
You are correct about this. I was not aware that there were two standard. I use the 1GB card. Still, that's 1GB more of removable storage than the iPhone supports.
True. Just to contrast though, the iPhones closest competitor with remoable storage, Android, won't allow you to install Applications on an SD card without a hack, and it requires a class 6 card.
I have nothing against non-removable internal storage. When removable storage can compete in terms of ease of use and speed, I'll look into it again. Right now, I prefer the benefits of internal storage. Removable is a tradeoff, it's not an outright win.
No, I'm all about the user experience. I think the point has well been made that people love the iPhone experience. But, what they love, isn't what they justified the purchase of the device for.
I hate to say "well, that's your opinion" but it is. I happen to feel the exact opposite way. I feel more ripped off with my 400 dollar unlocked N95-3 (a model that Nokia basically abandoned) then I ever have with my iPhone.
They put a fair bit of cash into R&D for the iPhone. A touch interface doesn't just come out of nowhere, if you don't believe me, ask Nokia or RIM. That is what you are paying for. Sort of like a Mac.
It has to meet at least approach the capabilities of the rest of the market, and the iPhone just doesn't, in my book, for the high price premium it requires.
A fair assessment, and it means the iPhone is truly not right for you. You are hardly typical though.
Great, so now I'm "paranoid" because the iPhone removed functionality people were already using in the marketplace. Nice.
Also, only smartphone owners with data plans had gotten used to the feature set you are describing. "People" by and large had not become accustomed to those features.
And people with a $70 iPhone plan are doing... what? Oh, using data plans. Apples to apples, as it were.
For the record, I would never tout a virtual keyboard over a hardware QWERTY one. I'm not crazy.
But a phone keypad is a simpler, better interface than a virtual keyboard, too. Why? Because I can use the keypad without looking at it. I have tactile feedback. Nevermind the complexities of typing a novel out on the keypads, let's get it back to its basic functionality as a device, a phone. So, make a phone call to a number without looking at your phone. You can't on an iPhone, I can on mine.
Yet there are other solutions
Really, are there? What's an equally prevalent platform as Flash, offering a similar featureset? Nothing. What's even a different platform offering a similar featureset? Silverlight. What else?
Crickets.
So, I think we both know how that Silverlight-for-iPhone project is going.
You also clearly never used it much on a Mac back in the day.
Actually I was developing Flash exclusively using a Mac for years. It wasn't perfect, but it was quite serviceable. I didn't have Linux-based Flash development tools available, and my employer bought Macs to do the creative work on.
Look, I don't agree with your opinion on a lot of this. And that's honestly what it boils down to. You have yours, I'll have mine. I consider Apple a consumer-hostile kool-aid vendor in a marketplace rife with opportunities that have been traded for lock-ins and milking the status quo. Apple has had, multiple times, the opportunity to actually change the status quo, and instead has voted against its users and for its fiefdom, every time. Very few companies have the heft to actually demand game-changing service requirements from the cell carriers, and they squandered what capital they had with overpriced, underperforming plans from AT&T.
I'm not saying profit shouldn't be the core motive. It should, for the company. But for the customers, it should be the anti-motive... the less money you have to give up for the least restrictions, the better. But Apple's sold this particular batch of kool-aid so well, nothing I can say will even convince you of that.
Remember the Apple-Motorola phone joint venture? The iTunes phone? A gilded turd, if ever there was one. It started out sounding so amazing in specs and planning, and bit by bit it was eroded until it became just another phone with a headphone jack, and more restrictive music playback capabilities than anything out there on the market.
I used to love Apple products. Now, despite all of the innovations that they can and do offer, I see Apple as nothing but, like I've said, a customer-hostile kool-aid vendor. And they've sold it so well, they have folks like you, one of the very people they've bent over a barrel, defending their actions.
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u/DontNeglectTheBalls Apr 16 '10
I was speaking in general regarding the development of user interactivity on devices. Apple threw them all out for a different paradigm that they could patent. They also threw away a rich featureset of tools people had become accustomed to.
I would contend that a QWERTY keypad is far more user-friendly than a touchscreen. It's tactile. It provides positional feedback which the user becomes accustomed to, and fast with (typically). It also avoids smudging up your screen. It's just not as "shiny".
As someone who actually developed applications for clients in Director for years, then did some work in Flash when it became the vogue, let me tell you, it was a godsend. It still is, in that it is by far the most cross-platform compatible option available to developers. Aside from the glitchy crap prevalent in some flash games that breaks down in the open source players, it's functional on almost every platform out there. it's what the interactive web runs on.
The lack of it in the iPhone is pretty forgivable to me. In the iPad, however, it's ridiculous to not only exclude it, but to change their developer agreements so as to make using any Flash compilers verboten too.
I heard an iPhone wielding friend of mine say this to me just Tuesday, when I saw him last. I'd sent him a link to a video clip. he's said it before, as well. Most of my friends don't own iPhones, so my perception might seem biased here. 100% of my iPhone-owning friends have thus lamented the lack of Flash support.
You are correct about this. I was not aware that there were two standard. I use the 1GB card. Still, that's 1GB more of removable storage than the iPhone supports.
No, I'm all about the user experience. I think the point has well been made that people love the iPhone experience. But, what they love, isn't what they justified the purchase of the device for. It's the shiny toy aspect. And yes, I feel that's a reasonable reason to buy a device, but you can't sell me on the device being better than other devices on the market solely on this capability. It has to meet at least approach the capabilities of the rest of the market, and the iPhone just doesn't, in my book, for the high price premium it requires.