Posts Tagged ‘Apple’

Canadians Hosed by App Store Gift Card Policy

Thursday, May 20th, 2010

No App For You! That’s a Joke Eh?

I meant to write about this sooner but you know how it goes. As I have mentioned before I have a iPod Touch and so does my sexy wife. For Christmas 2009 I decided to get her a gift card for the Apple App Store. I went to Walmart and picked one out and even asked the lady in the electronics section if it was good for the app store not just itunes music store. She said yes, I bought it and wrapped it up all pretty like. When my wife went do use it though she couldn’t figure out how to redeem it in the app store. Well I got on there and because I was sure she had missed something, arrogant me but I couldn’t figure it out either. So I jumped on good and did a quick search on how to redeem and low and behold I found out that you can use gift card in the app store in Canada. I was pretty ticked, but she said she would just use it for music and let it be. I am from the states and the first thing I thought is what would happen if this took place in the US? Riots? LOL, likely.

Apple Blames Canada for Gift Card Policy

The most bewildering part of the story is that members of the Canadian government have made public statements that they know of no law that denies Canadians for using gift cards in the app store. I haven’t heard any top level comments on this from Apple, just read emails other have posted on their blogs. Hundreds maybe thousands of Canadians have been screwed by this policy. So if there is no reason to bar gift card from the app store then what is the motivation? And if they think they are following the law, how come they didn’t make it more public. Uh, that’s a no brainer – so Canadians would still buy gift cards.

Fine Print

Unfortunately Apple has been careful to cover their backside. There is mention that gift cards can’t been redeemed for apps in the fine print of the Canadian user agreement. In my opinion it should be in bold on every itunes gift card.

Just another case of BLAME CANADA.

PS. Apple you can make this all good if you send me 2 iPads. Cuz my wife needs one too.

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Adobe Fires Back at Apple

Friday, May 14th, 2010

Adobe has now release it’s own open letter saying Apple is trying to control the web and in not open unlike Flash. They letter reeks of vagueness and is more hollow than the headless horseman’s head unlike Steve Jobs letter that was clear and concise. PC World really nails my sediments. Adobe should retreat from the mobile fight until they have some real ammo, not just name calling. Like being able to actually demo Flash on a mobile device that doesn’t crash, have security issues and doesn’t eat through battery power. Mobile apps will be better with Flash no doubt but not in it’s current state.

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Adobe vs. Apple: The Flash Question

Tuesday, May 11th, 2010

When I received my iPod Touch last Christmas I was really excited. I never had an ipod before. I had always been a PC kinda guy. But I really liked it, still do. The one thing that puzzled me was that Flash was not supported. “Hmmm” I thought. There was speculation on the web but nothing really solid.

Then in April Steve Jobs wrote an open letter regarding Apple’s decision to exclude Flash from its mobile devices. That was an eye opener and clarified Apple’s reasoning. After reading the letter it does start to sound as though flash in on the way out. Sorry Adobe, but is is true that the majority of the things that Flash is commonly used for are now being done with open source technology like AJAX, JAVASCRIPT HTML5 and CSS. I am sure when Adobe purchase Macromedia it wasn’t thinking that Apple, it’s long time friend would be the one to hinder it’s progress. Jobs in his letter mentions that Adobe has been working on this issue for a while and it doesn’t sound personal. Adobe has made noise that Apple doesn’t want Flash based web apps to compete with Apple’s app store, which it probably doesn’t but Jobs makes some very convincing points that swayed me that even though this may be a factor it is not the overlying reason.

Now another embarrassment for Adobe makes it way into the light. Jeff Croft was moderating a panel at FlashCamp Seattle and was witness an anecdotal but insightful moment.

…the keynote speaker, Ryan Stewart, a Flash Platform evangelist at Adobe, demoed Flash Player 10.1 running on his Nexus One phone. When I realized he was going to show it, I got excited — I’ve been wanting to see how well Flash really works on a phone for years…

The smart phone crashed twice and when he tried to show an intensive Flash website. He then asked if there was another website the audience wanted to see. The reply was HULU which he then had to admit didn’t work either (but to be fair was likely an issue on HULU’s side not Flash) but still had an impact.

Taking all things into consideration it is seems clear to me that Adobe’s Flash is diminishing, not only because it is not suitable (yet) for mobile devices but also due to the numerous alternatives that exist now and that are in development. Flash is still really great at doing specific things but those applications are eroding quickly. If Adobe wishes to remain a player in Web 2.0 and beyond it needs to invest in creating tools that exploit open source technology. No longer will web developers be held hostage by a single company. Platform wars are for video games and media storage, not the web.

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