Hasta La Gadget!

Steve Jobs wasn’t kidding when he said Apple was borrowing philosophies from the iPad to implant into the new MacBook Air. Like the iPad, Apple’s brand new MacBook Air is missing a software plug-in that shipped with previous Macs: Adobe Flash.

I noticed this upon booting up and attempting to watch a Hulu video for the first time on an 11-inch MacBook Air that Apple loaned to Wired.com on Wednesday. Instead of a video, the message “Missing Plug-in” popped up in an empty window.

The lack of Flash on the new MacBook Air is not a big deal, considering you can simply head to Adobe’s website, download the plug-in and install it on the computer within a few minutes — unlike the iPad or iPhone, which doesn’t support the plug-in at all. But the omission of Flash is both interesting and amusing.

Apple’s grudge against Flash is thoroughly explained in a web post written by Jobs in April. There, he explained that Flash wasn’t technically up to par to perform well on mobile devices such as the iPhone and iPad, and supporting Flash would stifle Apple’s ability to innovate. He added that Flash was the No. 1 reason that Macs crash, and Adobe still hasn’t made any major improvements.

“We also know first hand that Flash is the number one reason Macs crash,” Jobs wrote. “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.”

However, Apple failed to completely block Flash from the iOS platform. In September, Apple revised its developer guidelines to allow third-party programming tools to be used to develop iOS apps. That effectively opened doors to Adobe’s Packager for iPhone, a tool in Creative Suite 5 that enables Flash to be easily converted into native iPhone app language. So Flash has made it to the iOS platform in a roundabout way.

Jobs can’t be happy about that: An iOS developer told Wired.com it was likely that the FTC forced Apple to allow third-party programming languages because the restriction reeked of anti-competition. The ineffective exclusion of Flash on the MacBook Air, and presumably on future Macs,  serves as a statement more than anything else: Apple really doesn’t want to endorse Flash anymore.

See Also:

• Why Apple Won’t Allow Adobe Flash on iPhone
• Apple Slaps Adobe’s Flash with iPad-Friendly HTML5 Showcase …
• Apple Promotes ‘iPad-Ready’ Websites Ditching Flash
• Google’s ‘Don’t Be Evil’ Mantra Is ‘Bullshit,’ Adobe Is Lazy …
• Apple Video Shows iPad Flash Support, But Don’t Believe It …
• Apple Eases App Development Rules, Adobe Surges

Photo: Brian X. Chen/Wired.com

You had to know that Steve wouldn’t get away with putting his five minute, competition-slamming manifesto out into the ether without some snap back from the competition. We’ve already heard responses from TweetDeck and Andy Rubin, and now RIM’s co-CEO Jim Balsillie has issued a statement in response to Jobs. Here it is:

“For those of us who live outside of Apple’s distortion field, we know that 7-inch tablets will actually be a big portion of the market and we know that Adobe Flash support actually matters to customers who want a real web experience. We also know that while Apple’s attempt to control the ecosystem and maintain a closed platform may be good for Apple, developers want more options and customers want to fully access the overwhelming majority of web sites that use Flash. We think many customers are getting tired of being told what to think by Apple. And by the way, RIM has achieved record shipments for five consecutive quarters and recently shared guidance of 13.8 – 14.4 million BlackBerry smartphones for the current quarter. Apple’s preference to compare its September-ending quarter with RIM’s August-ending quarter doesn’t tell the whole story because it doesn’t take into account that industry demand in September is typically stronger than summer months, nor does it explain why Apple only shipped 8.4 million devices in its prior quarter and whether Apple’s Q4 results were padded by unfulfilled Q3 customer demand and channel orders. As usual, whether the subject is antennas, Flash or shipments, there is more to the story and sooner or later, even people inside the distortion field will begin to resent being told half a story.”

Sort of a big one, but we figure RIM at least deserves some equal time. Interesting that RIM is fighting Apple’s assertion of surpassing their handset shipments, we’ll have to see how that one settles once we get some “official” numbers from an unbiased third party. Meanwhile, let the mudslinging continue!

RIM’s Jim Balsillie hits back at the Steve Jobs rant, Apple’s ‘distortion field’ originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 Oct 2010 16:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Some might say that you have somewhat of a problem when calling a solid state drive “cute,” but what do they know, anyway? Iomega’s newest batch of external SSDs are easily the most adorable we’ve seen, as these 1.8-inchers can just about slip into any oversized Fifth Pocket that you may have. Available in 64GB, 128GB and 256GB sizes, the diminutive drives support USB 3.0 and are built to be lugged around and occasionally dropped, stepped on or used as a stress-relief tool. Specifically, the metal enclosure is engineered to handle drops from up to ten feet, and the 256-bit hardware encryption ensures that only you and your cronies will see what’s inside. The company’s also tossing in its Protection Suite (loaded with anti-virus, cloning and backup applications), and it’ll be hawking these in early November for $229, $399 and $749 from least capacious to most. Oh, and that noise you hear? A hundred million USB 3.0 flash drives getting all sorts of perturbed.

Continue reading Iomega serves up adorable 1.8-inch External USB 3.0 SSD pocket drives

Iomega serves up adorable 1.8-inch External USB 3.0 SSD pocket drives originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 15 Oct 2010 11:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Color Splash flash adds a splash of color to your flash. It’s a dirt-cheap, plastic flashgun that contains 12 different colored gels. To select a color, just turn the dial and the gels are rotated in front of the flash-tube. You can even split a shot into two differently-colored halves just by stopping the dial between two sections.

Take a look at the gallery below to see what kinds of things you can do. I love accessories like this, or the $12 Diana lens adapter that lets you put crappy plastic Lomo lenses onto your DSLR: For less than the price of a few rolls of film you can jazz up your pictures and get excited about going out to shoot.

There’s one big warning attached to this kit, though. The flash unit is designed for film cameras. This makes it great for your Lomo, it may damage a digital camera. This is because older flash units have a very high voltage across the contact on the hotshoe.

This wasn’t a problem for film camera, as the hot-shoe was essentially a dumb switch. With a digicam, though, you could fry your camera’s innards: the Color Splash has a sync voltage of 270v, whereas the average DSLR is rated for just 10-12v. To avoid trouble, various adapters are available, such as the Wein HSHSB Safe-Sync Hot Shoe.

But at just $30, this is really the perfect companion for a disposable or toy cameras. And even if you don’t want to buy it, you might now be inspired to head out into the gray Autumn day and take color things up with the flash and gels you already own.

Splash Flash product page [Photojojo]

See Also:

• Plastic Flash Filter Kit: Is That a Rainbow in your Pocket …
• Buckle Up! Seat-Belt Camera Straps

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Holding out on upgrading that paltry 2GB microSD card that shipped in your Android device of choice? Hold no longer. Amazon is now stocking SanDisk’s oh-so-capacious 32GB microSDHC card for just $89.73, which is notably lower than what it retailed for at launch. It’s also readily available elsewhere on the web for around the same amount, with the “readily available” part equally as impressive as the “for really cheap” part. Of course, it’s slower than molasses crawling uphill on a winter day (read: Class 2), but it’s not like you’ll be throwing this in your D3S and firing off 11 shots per second. Right?

SanDisk’s 32GB microSDHC card falls below $100, is actually in stock originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 08 Oct 2010 12:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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