So AIR on the iPhone after all?

I just came across this post on Gizmodo which seems to indicate that using the iPhone packager might now be allowed. Anyone from Adobe care (or dare) to comment?

Having just created my first Flex/AIR based Android app using the embedded SQLite database in about 45 minutes, I can say that it would be awesome to apply that kind of productivity to building iOS apps.

Someone noticed the worm in the Apple

I can't say I am surprised at this investigation by the FTC. I wonder if Steve Jobs is? I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that someone at Adobe may be grinning on the inside about this.

Lets not forget that the iPhone can have buggy apps when built natively too

There seems to be a trend with the people backing Apple in their decision to prevent Flash from being compiled to the iPhone. Many developers have been saying that that capability will cause a whole wave of poorly designed/developed applications from get submitted which would be a huge burden on the App Store review process.

Am I the only person who has my iPhone lockup or crash when using native apps?

I doubt it. Bad developers are bad developers regardless of what language they use. The fact that a bunch of new app submissions is going to bog down the review process speaks more about the review process than the apps. What if for a whole new generation of Objective-C developers comes out of the woodwork? Wouldn't that slow down the review process too? Wouldn't you get just as many poorly written applications? The fact of the matter is that the whole concept of a review process is ridiculous. If Apple wants to maintain quality, then have the review process be optional. Then let the consumer choose whether they want to download apps that don't have the Apple approval.

There are probably a hundred different compromises that could be made that would benefit both developers and consumers while at the same time protected the Apple brand experience. The real problem is Apple's lack of willingness to compromise.

Apple pours salt on Adobe's wound...

In a further attempt to crush Adobe, Steve Jobs has announced that starting Monday (coincidentally the same day as the Adobe CS5 launch event) you will no longer be able to dial the number 5 from your iPhone. Steve Jobs states that the number 5 is buggy and has lead to 92% of all iPhone crashes.

This couldn't be true right? Of course not... but it is only slightly more ridiculous than his decision to prevent the use of the Flash iPhone packager. There are a lot of developers out hear that didn't want to have to take sides in the Adobe/Apple war... but we are taking a lot of shrapnel from Apple's F-You grenades.

I for one will be focusing on AIR development for every other phone and if I have to learn Silverlight to support Windows Phone 7, then I will.

This certainly doesn't make me want to go spend $3000 on a Mac, then pay for the privilege of becoming an "iPhone" developer, then spend a ridiculous amount of time learning a language that's only other use is for supporting a single minority (talking Mac vs. Windows here) platform, then spend tons of time building the next great mobile application which will need to ported to Flash anyway to support all the other phones, only to have it take forever to be reviewed by the App Store nazis and finally get rejected because Steve Jobs doesn't like the color Red (or some other undisclosed reason).

Ok... I'm done ranting for today. Now I will go back to checking out the HP Slate

Did Steve Jobs Just Kill the iPad

In case you are living under a rock you may not be aware that Apple and Adobe have there... differences. This article on Slate asks whether Steve Jobs' decision to keep Flash off the IPad will "kill Flash".

There have been many "Flash Killers" over the years which have faded into obscurity, so you could easily ask whether this decision will be worse for Apple than Adobe. If you think about all the great things that the iPad would be great for (video, mobile video conferencing, games, presentations) you will see that most if not all of them are currently solved with adequate success using Flash today. So, as an iPad user you will probably eventually be able to get all those things on the iPad, but my expectations (and those of many gadget users) are that any new device should add value on top of what I have today... the iPad doesn't (at least not in the way I want it to).

So the argument needs to focus on which technology meets the needs and expectations of the target audience. I just don't see how Apple's latest device will do that. It just isn't as revolutionary as the iPod or iPhone.

Worst UI Ever - Another Error Message

Its been a while since I last posted a Worst UI Ever entry. It seemed like most of my posts were about error messages and here is another one for the list.

This was an error message I received when activation a gift card. The form itself could not be much simpler, but the error message left a lot to be desired. What lead me to the error message was another seemingly simple set of instructions. In order to fully understand the situation, here is the quick back story. Stay with me, I'll be quick. As you have read on my blog I recently bought an IPhone. When I did so, my wife and I both switched to AT&T. When we got our phones we got gift cards in the mail as rebates for some accessories we each purchased. So we each got a gift card in the mail today.

The instructions said that you needed to go to this website and enter the card number and you will need to use your phone number ending in 8... yes that's right, the phone number ending in 8. Now, I'm no statistician but it seems fairly likely that you may have two phone numbers in a family that both end in the same digit... as was our case.

Given the situation, one of my phone numbers was correct, the other was wrong so I was presented with this form with a 1 in 2 chance of "failing". My first flip of the coin was incorrect, resulting in the error message. The first problem with this process is the failure of the system to understand users beyond the data associated with the card. It is true that the card in question was associated with a specific phone number ending in 8, but there is more to my and my account with AT&T than just that. If that level of consideration could not be built into the system, then at least the system that prints the letter that is mailed with the card should give you more than the last digit of the phone number. Using the last two digits would dramatically reduce the liklihood of getting this error.

The second, more obivious problem was that the error message was obviously written by a programmer. The fact that there is nothing on the screen labeled as a PassCode is more than a little confusing. Here is a rule for anyone involved with delivering a software product:

"Don't let programmers write text that is presented to the user."

Chances are, they don't want that responsibility anyway.

Handy IPhone app for... Flex/ActionScript developers?

Mike Chambers released a cool little reference guide for Actionscript for the IPhone. Now, to me, there seems to be something wrong with using an IPhone app to create RIAs that won't run on the IPhone. Plus, if I am in Flexbuilder working on a Flex app, the Actionscript reference is only a key (ok... two keys Shift + F2) away.

But, since I have a new found love for my IPhone, I will probably install this to check it out anyway.

For more info, visit Mike Chambers' blog or you can find it on the App Store.