Filed under: iPad
HP attacks Apple iPad over Flash
During CES 2010, HP gave the public a slight tease of its upcoming slate device. The touchscreen device, which runs Windows 7, sports a form factor similar to Apple's iPad, as well as similar uses; it supports eBooks, music, videos, and of course, the Internet. But wait, there's more. According to a post on HP's Voodoo blog, the device will give you a "full Web browsing experience," not a "watered-down Internet" with "sacrifices." In other words, the HP slate device supports Flash and, well, the iPad doesn't.
While the blog posting didn't mention the iPad by name, it was fairly clear that the statement in question was an indirect jab at it. Accompanying the post is a short, 30 second clip. The highlight of the clip, which occurs toward the end, shows the user going to Hulu.com and watching a Flash-based video.
The reason that the clip is only 30 seconds long, and the Hulu portion is at the end of it, is that running Flash may have drained all of the device's batteries before all footage could be shot. (Just kidding! I couldn't help myself).
On a serious note, while the lack of Flash on the iPhone, and now the iPad, has its drawbacks, these drawbacks have been muted to a degree. The advent of the App Store created a non-Flash, potentially monetizable, playground for the creations of developers and content creators to play in. In addition, HTML 5 is emerging as a potential Flash development alternative.
via [AppleInsider]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)
Jordan said 10:49PM on 3-10-2010
I dunno, my feelings of the iPad aside, when it comes down to Hulu or the App store.....I'm gonna have to go with Hulu.
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Chris said 11:17PM on 3-10-2010
You should watch TV less and troll TUAW blogs less. It would do a lot of good.
Jeffbbs said 1:08AM on 3-11-2010
Seriously. You are some kind of miracle robot troll. How could you possibly have the first (and of course always contradictory of the article) comment on almost every single post of TUAW?
Chris said 2:38AM on 3-11-2010
I think Jordan has + and - bots patrolling TUAW, too. Jordan is just a very disgruntled Apple customer. Oh, well...
cjschrissouth said 2:55AM on 3-11-2010
Maybe because this blog is now filled with fanboys. HTML5 is a different thing to Flash! HTMl5 can do video but what about games, flash animations (swf not flv) and more! Yet day after day you bash it because your mac wont run it as expected! dont blame the oil, blame the car (i made that up, as you can see)
leniamonio said 3:16AM on 3-11-2010
I think people are honestly confused about the whole issue. Slate PCs have always been virtually unusable except in very specific kinds of contexts and functions. I think the fact that people are talking about Flash support instead of the basic usability of the OS and UI is a sign of naivete. Not that Flash support on a tablet wouldn't be great -- will a slate PC be useful for anything other than watching videos and playing Flash games? That's the real question. Opinions: http://bit.ly/hp-slate-reactions-impressions
Kelmon said 4:03AM on 3-11-2010
...or Hulu on the App Store? That sounds like the most likely outcome and should suit everyone (apart from Adobe) down to the ground.
George said 5:51AM on 3-11-2010
Adobes representatives give good clear explanations on the second video:
http://scobleizer.com/2010/03/10/adobe-smacks-back-apple-over-ipad/
doug said 7:00AM on 3-11-2010
Jordan, I don't agree with your views often, but I'm glad you're here (especially after that climate change debate).
While we haven't any real info yet about HP's performance or practical limits, aside from video and simple click or click and drag, how will you be able to use flash in one of these devices? I think roughlydrafted did a good job describing the problems with flash on this device. That aside, if html5 will be able to replace flash's functionality and be less resource intensive, then this is typical Apple trying to move the world forward (ala removal of the iMac floppy).
Also, if the decision were between flash based hulu in the browser or a native optized hulu on the ipad, I'll take the ipad.
Urbz said 10:33AM on 3-11-2010
I agree with Jordan on this one. I'm sorry, but HP is right and most of you are too blinded by Apple to see that. The internet on the iPad is NOT the whole internet without plugins like flash, and if I need to carry around my MacBook to be able to watch TV, I might as well forgo the iPad altogether. I love my MacBook Air and don't see the iPad coming close in many situations, as much as I want it.
Dan Mosqueda said 10:33AM on 3-11-2010
@Jordan is going to have a very long list of misguided iPad quotes to point and laugh at, along with his pitiful quotes on other Apple products.
Steve said 5:07PM on 3-11-2010
Flash is different? No flash needed for this: http://www.mugtug.com/sketchpad
PsycoMonkey said 10:59PM on 3-10-2010
yeah flash drains battery AND it can be unstable... but can we atleast get an option to toggle it on or off?
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Darayz said 11:02PM on 3-10-2010
That's what I want. I'm not the biggest fan of Flash, but at least give me an option to turn it off ...
Level 5 said 11:21PM on 3-10-2010
Using Firefox, you can turn Flash off under the Add-Ons menu. That works on a Mac/Win/Lin.
Videofyle said 11:42PM on 3-10-2010
I like the idea, but how about this; instead of a blue lego showing up in Flash's place, how about a "Load Flash Object?"
This way it's not all or nothing - we can load what we want without obnoxious advertisements draining our batteries and slowing performance without permission.
Dan Woods said 2:21AM on 3-11-2010
You won't have the option to toggle it on or off when every single App designed for the device requires its use.
If you increase compatibility with non-native code in your niche operating environment, nobody will write native code. That is one of the reasons that there is so much native iPhone Apps while MacOSX still has Java, Carbon and X11 Apps being developed for it.
When BeOS was dying, a group of BeOS developers decided that the best way to ensure the long-term survival of Native BeOS Apps was to create a BeAPI-Win32 bridge. Developers could write BeOS Apps and they would be guaranteed to work on Windows Machines too. (The project failed, but that's beside the point).
cjschrissouth said 2:58AM on 3-11-2010
But that would require multitasking.
Oh i forgot!
sockatume said 7:10AM on 3-11-2010
It runs Windows, I doubt all that many apps are going to require Flash to operate. As far as the "placeholder" idea goes, you can just install the Flashblock Firefox extension which does exactly that.
Running Win7 on a tablet is madness, but it does add a certain flexibility to dealing with problems like this.
Chris said 11:09PM on 3-10-2010
HP is junk. HP has no business criticizing other companies. HP should fix its own massive QA problems before criticizing other companies.
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