The Teckki Says

Yesterday Adobe, the maker of Flash software, announced that it was no longer going forward with mobile software development. While this is "eyes glazed over" news to most non-technical audiences, it is one of the most significant developments for users of tablets and smartphones. Apple won the battle over Adobe on whether Flash will play on its iOS (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch) devices, and as the 800-pound gorilla, Apple sways how mobile development will be done on all mobile devices.

This is not a technical battle where your web developer throws in a different kind of poof dust and your website displays with no problems – many businesses, especially those with all or mostly Flash websites, will have to have them redone. In addition, Flash was the best in the business in terms of animation, which is why it was so widely used. Today’s tools aren’t as robust or finely developed, which means many websites will take a step backwards in animation.

So what does this mean to the average business, who wants a very attractive site that attracts loads of customers, requires little maintenance, all at a reasonable price? It means you are still living in a fantasy world, but here are five things you need to know as you look at your future website needs:

(1). Stop insisting on Flash websites. Clients don’t ask for Flash per se, but they ask for Disney-like animation, video and stuff that moves and twinkles. That’s usually Flash. A better question to ask is, "Will my site display on all smartphones and tablets?"

(2). Get used to a new alphabet. Most people I know understand the term HTML, the code used to make stuff appear in web browsers. HTML5 is the new term. It also would not hurt to know video formats, in particular the format of the video you are supplying to your web developer. Then you might know beforehand if you need to shell out additional bucks for a conversion. Some videos are supplied in Flash formats.

(3). Flash will no longer be a selling feature on Android-based platforms. Yes, Droid does Flash, but most websites will want to do iPad and iPhone. Unless you’ve got the deep pockets to do both, you’ll probably want your site to display on Apple devices first. And don't buy into the hype that there are more Droid devices than Apple devices. The surveys are nuanced, with many referring to units shipped to stores as opposed to customers actually using them.

(4). If your website contains a significant number of Flash elements, it will probably have to be redone. One way to find out for sure is to right-click on any element you think might be Flash (hint: it’s probably animated). If you get Flash player information in the popup, you’ve found it.

(5). Open up your wallet. The new technologies will cost money. You could, of course, stick to the old, basic website, and you can probably get a good deal on one from your hosting company. They can be splendid to view, but that’s all they are.

The decision by Adobe is more than a capitulation. It is a sea change for many business owners. Web development can now focus on a single presentation that will work well in most browsers, mobile and desktop. However, Flash-based websites are on the other side of that presentation, and as more developers ditch Flash, or not take it up, it will become a legacy platform on the mobile device that will become expensive to maintain.

My iPad is approximately six months old, and it has changed the way I approach computing. I have to admit that I now have a collection of devices that I depend on for certain things, in the same way one has a number of appliances or tools.

One of the nicest things about my iPad is fast boot up times. My computers are workhorses, and my PC's can take up to 10 minutes to fully boot. Several minutes are also wasted waking my PC's from sleep mode. That’s too long just to read email or surf the web. Using the iPad for this frees up significant time for me, and lets me get to other things faster.

When I am on the road, taking the iPad instead of a laptop is a huge plus. Again, boot up times are shorter, and most of the time, I’m only showing something to someone, not doing project work. For displaying an online mockup, the iPad is perfect, unless it is developed in Flash. Showing pictures? The ooh’s and ah’s from clients are like music. On a sales call? My iPad has in many cases kept me in front of a prospect longer than I would have been otherwise.

As an eReader, my experiences have been mixed. When I am working on projects, it can be perfect as a second screen for reading reference books. However, as a pure eReader, it is heavy, making Kindles and Nooks better suited for this. However, I won’t consider anything smaller for a video screen, making the iPad ideal for viewing movies.

The iPad is a great device for generating ideas and notes. I usually start blog articles on the iPad, but I would recommend that you purchase the Bluetooth keyboard serious typing. For idea generation, a variety of tools, such as drawing and painting, outlining and screenshots give me plenty of ways to record thoughts. Only pencil and paper is faster, but with and iPad, I can use many more colors.

Although I have older kids, this is a great device to keep them occupied when they are waiting around. On the road, I’ll fire up the hotspot on the phone, and hope they don’t use up my data allotment on YouTube. But they get a kick out of it.

After having my iPad and becoming familiar with it, I am ready to take some next steps. I have been using it to upload pictures from my camera. The major issue I have is that there is no filing system, so I can’t categorize and easily offload pictures to another device. I am also using it for a presentation, having worked out the translation kinks between PowerPoint and Keynote. Soon, I will purchase a tablet stylus to write and draw faster on it. I’ll keep you informed on these ventures in future posts.

In reading that HP folded its tablet after one month, I was shocked that a serious and well-funded competitor faltered so badly. This comes with other fumbles: Samsung misjudged the market. Motorola shot itself in the foot with its' pricing, and Verizons’ decision to charge for initial Wifi access. RIM’s Playbook was reviewed so poorly that recommendations basically said leave it on the shelf. The iPad, which had a year's lead, seems to be getting another. I knew that Apple would continue to lead the pack. What I didn't expect that competitors would be so inept as to yield it so willingly. Despite the fact that these tablets have some things that iPads don't, namely the ability to play Flash videos, USB ports, or SD card slots, by the time competitors come up with a viable and worthy tablet to challenge Apple, it won't matter. Cloud connectivity and storage will make USB and SD cards figure less, and many more websites will convert to HTML5 video to accommodate iPads. Those features currently masquerading as "benefits" will no longer matter.

Why did these other tablets fail so miserably? One reason was the geek factor. Tablets were so much trying to be mini-computers that they missed being what they are - tablets. Tablets were meant to be e-readers, web browsers, photo galleries and video viewers. When Apple first introduced its tablet, it was criticized as not having more "computer-like" features. Apple stood its ground. When Motorola introduced its Xoom, Apple brought out dual cameras and a faster processor. Still no USB or SD Card slot. And definitely no Flash. Apple was roundly criticized by many pundits for not including these features on its second generation device, but Apple couldn't keep the product in stock. Wait times for online orders were over a month, and customers camped overnight outside of stores. Xooms, Playbooks, Galaxy's and Touch Pads were always in stock. If SD slots, USB and Flash mattered, you couldn't tell by the demand of this crop of tablets.

Another reason was the price factor. This showed up in two ways. First, competitor tablets were priced same as iPad pricing. Reviewers howled at this, as Apple products were deemed worthy of premium pricing, while other tablets were thought of as PC-like, and the expectation of commensurate pricing. If the plan to overcome this was to convince purchasers they were getting more features, like SD card slots, USB connectivity and Flash for the same price, it can now be considered a failed strategy. Also, tablet pricing was interspersed with laptop pricing. This brings the obvious comparison of should one purchase a tablet or a laptop, and leads to cannibalization within product lines. Apple suffered no such cannibalization, because its PC's and laptops are generally priced above their tablets. Apple's biggest pricing strategy, however, was forcing competitors into a pricing box in the first place. Everyone and I mean EVERYONE, thought that the first Apple tablets would be around $1000 or more. When Apple announced pricing at half of that for its entry level model, everyone, and I mean EVERYONE was stunned! Since consumers had anticipated a higher price, they didn't need to make choices, they could have their iPad, and money left over.

It remains to be seen when other manufacturers will catch up. In some cases, it doesn’t even seem that they have studied an iPad at all. However, that might be due to patent wars that are going on in technology. But to get it so wrong after a year? I’m not putting a lot of confidence that next year will be any better.

About a month ago, Verizon Wireless ended its unlimited data plans for mobile devices running over its cellular network. With AT&T ending its plan a year ago, you can no longer get unlimited data plans from most carriers.

While Sprint is the only carrier to still offer unlimited data, it does not sell the iPad, so hookup is via MiFi. I hook up my iPad to cellular via my iPhone, so this arrangement is not a bad option for those who need it. However, if you spotted the extra $130 for a cell-based iPad, going with another carrier is against the grain.

I recently had the opportunity to question AT&T's Illinois President Paul La Schiazza regarding a statement he made to a business group concerning the explosive growth in phone apps. Apple had just made the announcement that it would be releasing its newest operating system, Lion, via its app store. At over 4GB, anyone downloading it by cell would blow past data caps. His response to me was to reiterate the justification of the pending acquisition of T-Mobile, the fourth largest mobile carrier. His answer was that AT&T needed the spectrum T-mobile now owns, which to me was like needing more highway lanes to handle the traffic, but no mention of lowering the tolls (raising the data caps). Interpretation: Don't cut your landlines too soon.

All of this reminds me of two sore points that Apple has been criticized for: Not allowing Flash to play on its tablet, and that of one of its newer features, Facetime, to be WiFi only amongst its tablet, phone and Touch devices. We'll tackle Facetime first. As a video chat, you know this app is going to be a data hog. When my daughter first got her iPod Touch, she downloaded Skype and spent several hours chatting with friends. Had she been on a cell network, I would have been a very unhappy parent when that bill came. Since it was over WiFi, my bill was the same as it always was. Although my carrier placed caps on broadband a couple of months ago, she still would have come significantly under the cap, which is about 75 times greater than most cell plans.

Flash is another story. It's not phones that users have to worry about, because if performance is dismal, which it is on underpowered phones, people will avoid the website. On a tablet, Flash plays like it does on a larger computer. As a web developer, the only protocol one follows when designing a Flash piece is that it works. Most developers don't have formal training, and aren't taught to think a 2MB movie can work just as well as 10MB one. If you don’t know, all it will take is a couple of phone bills for your site visitors to realize that surfing you is the one costing them money, where you will see minimal traffic or outright avoidance take place.

If you want to know what cellphone companies are thinking, all you have to do is remember the launch of Motorola's tablet, Xoom, earlier this year. It had mixed reviews, but was seen as worthy competitor to the iPad. Then Verizon did something extraordinary, sure to sour sales right from the gate - it charged $20 to unlock WiFi, something unheard of with any WiFi-capable device. Motorola also incensed potential buyers by charging nearly $800 for its 32MB tablet, pricing it exactly the same as the 64MB model from Apple. Other competitors have learned from these mistakes, but these missteps have given Apple another years’ head start on top of the year it already had. Still, the cellphone companies trudge on. Verizon is offering plans that are $5 more than AT&T's plans. Gotta feel for you guys that purchased Verizon iPads.

These developments make the case for two things - one, don't cut your broadband cord. You'll need it to do the big tasks that cellular will make you pay dearly for. Two, keep you map of hotspots handy, because at the end of your billing cycle, you're going to need it.

As the author of a blog, I am aware of how quickly comments can turn into commentary that detracts from a post, and begin to focus on negative issues. I routinely ban comments that will detract from my readers enjoyment of the blog, and as the owner, I get to be the sole determinant of what detractions are.

Blogging has become a very important part in online newspapers as it gives readers the opportunity to comment on individual stories. This element is very important, as it takes its place beside Op-Ed and Letters to the Editor sections as an important part of community discussion.

However, in too many instances, blogging has become more than that, and a good deal of it negative. Stories that involve race, crime, poverty, education, immigration and other issues that benefit from a healthy public discourse have been hijacked by those who view these issues in narrow, often divisive positions. In anonymity, these “commentators” feel free to tell the world what they would never tell their friends, relatives, neighbors, coworkers, employers, community members and such how they really feel. In many respects, I feel some blogs allow misunderstanding, fear and hate to masquerade as discussion and discourse.

I used to work as a columnist for a community newspaper. There were two issues I concerned myself with as I penned my columns. The first was how it might be edited to say in essence what I said, but not quite what I meant. Editors do "edit" columns as they proof them. A sentence edit could change a whole point of view. With my name on the column, I couldn't say I didn't write it.

The other issue was how it would be perceived by the readers. I was sometimes stopped on the street to discuss a point, or disagreement. Sometimes, my wife and kids could rescue me from a dicey situation, as in, "we need to be going." Other times, I was on my own.

The point is that I understood the impact of what I was saying and who I was saying it to. I also considered that I was going to be interpreted by both an editor and reader base, and that they both knew who I was. Unlike many bloggers today, I wasn't throwing rocks and hiding behind usernames and avatars. I was accountable for what I wrote, and often, held accountable by the readers.

I applaud what the major Chicago newspapers have finally started to do, which is monitor their blogs and crack down on very offensive comments. It has not been easy, but the level of blog commentary is much more readable than in the past. In many cases, the Chicago Tribune doesn't even open commentary to articles they deem will probably result in overly negative commentary, and the SunTimes routinely blocks comments and bans repeat offenders.

Some would call this censorship and stepping on first amendment rights. I call it bringing standards back into mainstream journalism. I've written letters to the editor, and have had them printed. After my letter, I got a phone call from the paper to confirm I wrote it. After it was printed, I'd get calls from friends and relatives saying they saw it. I exercised first amendment rights, and had to deal with first amendment consequences and benefits. "I'm just saying..." needs to have a real name attached to it.

For those who operate blogs, this is where the work comes in. If you have a cause, you can't just let comments flow freely to spice things up. When they get out of hand, you have to shut things down. In some cases, you have to ban users. If you don't, visitors just won’t ignore the comments, they'll ignore the blog entirely.