Design Magic

Apple iOS is one of the most popular platforms worldwide, powering the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch devices that have taken the technology world by storm and brought touch devices to the mainstream. It utilises the latest technologies but does not support the popular Adobe Flash platform. This makes perfect sense though when you bring HTML5 into play.

The popularity of Flash is obvious from the following statistics produced by Adobe:

• 98% of enterprises rely on Flash Player.
• 85% of the most used sites use Flash.
• 75% of web video is viewed using Flash Player.
• 70% of web games are made in Flash.

In 2010, Steve Jobs had the courage to question the applicability of the Flash technology going forward.  Jobs made waves and enemies when he banned Flash from use on all iOS devices.  iOS is the operating system from Apple.  Jobs was almost unanimously criticized by the industry.

There are a few key reasons for this risky move:

1. Reliability – Steve Jobs said “We also know first hand that Flash is the number one reason Macs crash. We have been working with Adobe to fix these problems, but they have persisted for several years now. We don’t want to reduce the reliability and security of our iPhones, iPods and iPads by adding Flash.”
2. Security – Flash has one of the worst security records and is vulnerable to attacks.
3. Battery Life - To achieve long battery life when playing video, mobile devices must decode the video in hardware; decoding it in software uses too much power. Many of the chips used in modern mobile devices contain a decoder called H.264 – an industry standard that is used in every Blu-ray DVD player and has been adopted by Apple, Google (YouTube), Vimeo, Netflix and many other companies. The difference is striking: on an iPhone, for example, H.264 videos play for up to 10 hours, while videos decoded in software play for less than 5 hours before the battery is fully drained.
4. Touch capability - Flash was designed for PCs using mice, not for touch screens using fingers. For example, many Flash websites rely on “rollovers”, which pop up menus or other elements when the mouse arrow hovers over a specific spot. Apple’s revolutionary multi-touch interface doesn’t use a mouse, and there is no concept of a rollover. Most Flash websites will need to be rewritten to support touch-based devices. If developers need to rewrite their Flash websites, why not use modern technologies like HTML5, CSS and JavaScript?

So, in conclusion, Flash was created during the PC era – for PCs and mice. Flash is a successful business for Adobe, and we can understand why they want to push it beyond PCs. But the mobile era is about low power devices, touch interfaces and open web standards – all areas where Flash falls short.

On the 24th August 2011, Steve Jobs, CEO and Co-Founder of Apple resigned. In a letter addressed to the board, Steve said “I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.”

An inspiration to many, including myself, I wanted to share some of his best quotes on technology and life in general…

On Technology:

“But it’s a disservice to constantly put things in this radical new light — that it’s going to change everything. Things don’t have to change the world to be important.” – Wired Magazine – Feb 1996

On Design:

“That’s been one of my mantras — focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.” – BusinessWeek – 25th May 1998

On Apple Products:

“We made the buttons on the screen look so good you’ll want to lick them.” – Fortune – 24th Jan 2000

On Life:

“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” – Stanford Commencement Speech – June 2005

The last two quotes are from an inspirational speech given by Steve – This is available to download on iTunes U for free.

Apple has released the latest update to its Mac OS operating system, the software that runs on its Mac computers.

Called Mac OS X 10.7, aka Lion, it’ll cost £20.99 to upgrade and is only available as a digital download from its online Apple Mac App Store. But why make the upgrade?

Apple claims there are over 250 new features in OS X Lion, an upgrade from OS X 10.6 which was also known as Snow Leopard. Many of the new features are inspired by its mobile operating system, iOS used on iPhones and iPod Touches.

All new Apple Mac computers will come with OS X Lion pre-installed. Contact us at Design Magic if you would like assistance upgrading or have any other Mac related queries.

5 best new features of OS X Lion

1. Full-screen applications

Numerous bundled applications now support full-screen modes to help remove distractions when working. You can swipe instantly between full-screen apps using a gesture on the mouse or Magic Trackpad.

2. New Mail application

Apple has updated the bundled mail application for OS X 10.7. It now more closely resembles the Mail app on the iPad, and adds support for a conversation view that groups together replies to the same message chronologically. A new full-screen mode removes distractions when writing.

3. AirDrop

AirDrop is a new feature that allows direct wireless file transfers over wi-fi between two Mac computers, even if they aren’t connected to a wi-fi network. When activated a secure ‘ad-hoc’ connection is created between to computers, though both must be running OS X 10.7 for it to work.

4. Autosave and Versions

Autosave continually saves changes you make to documents as you make them, removing the need to ever manually save files. Versions saves multiple snapshots of work as you go along, allowing you to view your current version and old versions side-by-side to see the differences and revert to previous drafts.

5. Easier migration from Windows

OS X 10.7 Lion has a new migration tool for people who are switching from Windows to Mac. It will transfer documents, contacts, calendars, email accounts (Outlook and Windows Live Mail) and photos stored in Picasa over your home network, adding them to the appropriate applications in OS X.

Apple Mac OS X 10.7 Lion system requirements

To install OS X 10.7 Lion your Mac needs to have an Intel Core 2 Duo, Core i3, Core i5, Core i7 or Xeon processor. Older Macs with Power PC processors will not work.

A minimum of 2GB of Ram is recommended and you must have at least 4GB of space free on your hard drive.

You must also be running the latest version of Mac OS Snow Leopard (10.6.8).

Contact us at Design Magic if you would like assistance upgrading or have any other Mac related queries.

Here is Apple’s introduction to Lion…