Suitcase Nuke

There is one specific reason why Apple refused to support Flash in the iPhone's browser. It's the same reason Apple has ignored other media platforms like Windows Media or Real Player. They continuously push the open H.264 codec that is fully supported in QuickTime. When it came to Adobe's Flash, they recognized Adobe's push to close large parts of the web to a proprietary platform. They argue that you can accomplish the same task using open standards. Just go to Apple's site. Not one bit of Flash anywhere, but you wouldn't guess it.

When it came to the iPhone, Jobs argued that the regular variant of Flash was too bulky and bloated (following in Windows' footsteps) to be useful on a mobile device. He didn't spell out that he really believes Flash is unnecessary. But some people like their "Skip Intro" fun. He continued to point out that the mobile version used by many others was so stripped down it's basically useless.

I have hardly noticed Flash's absence aside from not viewing Strong Bad's emails . However, my aunt just surprised me by buying an iPhone for herself. And the uninformed AT&T clerks told her she would have no problem doing her online classes on the phone while she has downtime at work. Maybe she didn't explain how her school's system works, but it's a closed system that uses Flash for all interaction. So no dice.

Obviously it's a critical mistake to make web content only available on certain platforms or browsers. I still recall the early days of online banking when so many places wouldn't support anything but Internet Explorer, and sometimes not even IE if it was on a Mac.

It's hard to predict where this all goes in the future, but now it looks like Apple and Adobe might be working something out after all. You can read about it here at Appleinsider.com.

A text gets it done so much quicker in those situations. And the treatment it gets on my iPhone makes it so much more useful, storing the conservation thread so you can follow discussions, including dates and times. But there is one drawback: carriers are fleecing us with unnecessary charges. Apple forced 200 free messages to be included in the original iPhone's contract. Most customers aren't so lucky. And many of us have jumped over that number, only to pay $.10, $.15 or now often $.20 per message. For a brief time, I even chose the $10/month option to have 1500 messages.

But it turns out, Short Message Service is a simple, almost free burden for carriers. You see, the messages are carried on the bandwidth already reserved for control channels. As long as they're short, they aren't taking up any space. A quote from the linked article states that there really is no difference for a carrier to handle 1 million messages or 100 million. But carriers keep cranking up the fees.

That's not really that important to you, what is important is that NBC is making some TV episodes FREE for you! Some premiere episodes, some good ones from previous seasons. Shows like 30 Rock, The Office, Psych and others in SD and HD. Just hit up iTunes and download them. Shows like 30 Rock and The Office are always good for a re-watch, so it's worth the lengthy HD download. They've also thrown in some special pricing for some seasons, and ABC is getting in on the action with HD TV shows and special pricing, too. Use caution, though. It's easy to blow a nice chunk of change (not to mention bandwidth) in the iTunes store. Impulse buying loves a comfy desk chair!