Why I Don't Like Apple! - And Why I Love Adobes' Flash!

Blueflux Graphic Design

So, after several years of self-teaching on computer science, web design, graphic design on a computer and a few others I decided to start my career in graphic design for the internet.
After looking at everything that was available, Adobes' Flash looks like the obvious choice of software. As I can use it to not only animate my designs, but also allow users to interact with my adverts. Then Steve Jobs decided that he wouldn't allow Flash to run on any of Apples' mobile devices, stating that it doesn't perform well on their iPhones or iPads despite being offered a 'lite' version by Adobe which would've allowed for my work to be displayed.
I made a decision when I first started to design my own website for my business that I wanted a picture gallery that you could navigate both forwards and reverse. I went looking all over the internet for such a photo gallery and quite simply couldn't find one! But I wasn't going to give up because this is what I wanted, and it got me a little curious as to why I couldn't find one. So I thought 'I'm going to make one myself' and I succeeded!! Take a look on my homepage ( with a desktop PC ) http://www.blueflux.eu/index.html .
For those that are unknowledgeable with computers, because of the way that they are designed, computers don't like going backwards very much, which is also the reason that I found it impossible to find a working example of such a photo gallery on the internet.
It's because of my quest for such a photo gallery and the fact that I succeeded that I now have my eyes wide open whenever I see any news or new electronic product releases.

************************************************ You see, not only does my my photo gallery work very efficiently going backwards, but with a little bit of tweaking I can make it do the same going up and down. And this method gives me great control with anything on ANY computer,allowing for some very neat efficient tricks with computer graphics. ************************************************

So, it seems to me that some companies already hold the licenses for this kind of computer graphics manipulation ( and have done for years ) and is probably another reason why it's hard if not impossible to find through an internet search.

Apples' decision to refuse to allow Flash to be displayed on their mobile devices without compromise and stating some particularly lame excuses as to why has set me back years.
Apple likes to portray products as high end by using top quality materials and giving an impression that their software is also high end without stating the truth about other software that has been available for years from other developers.

If I don't see an honest statement about why my career and other Flash developers careers were put in jeopardy by such a decision, I'll never forgive them.

'Flash Is Dead'

Thanks for reading and think again when your holding your mobile or tablet about what's really going on.


You can check out the discussionI had on the Creative Design Pros Group on LinkedIn a while back:
Creative Design Pros Group - Discussion On Flash

21st October 2012 - It seems like things are looking better since I first posted this blog entry ( Flash based Adobe Air is now running on Apples' mobile devices ). Well done..

Martin (aka piKKee - pronounced 'picky' e.g./i.e Here comes the attack - '..leave this to me, I'll pick off all the leaders...')
Like · Comment · Share

Can You See All The New CSS3 Tricks? Or Shall I Use Flash Instead?

There has been some very big changes over the last 6-12 months. The main ones being the new HTML5 standard for web design  and CSS3.
This includes new and modified techniques for things such as video and audio playback, forms and server communication.
But most importantly for me and my new website, css animations.


So, are you using some or any of the new CSS3 or HTML5 techniques that have been released?
I can tell you now that the first thing you need to do, run some tests on every browser you can and don't forget mobile browsers. 

Main concerns - transform: rotate
                               perspective
                              gradient fills ( ok within a canvas, but not directly in css )

I've been trying them out on my website, when I've finished I think it's great. That is of course when it's running on the computer and my favourite browser I'm designing it on!

The next thing I do is try it out on Internet Explorer 9, Chrome 21 or even Dolphin Browser HD  ( which is what I like to use on my Samsung Galaxy Note ).
Some of it works, some of it doesn't....

Probably one of the worst things that I noticed is the lack of support with IE9 ( and lower versions ) for css animations. Here's a quick example:

<html>
<style type="text/css>

#rotation{
position:absolute;
left:10px;
top:10px;
height:100px;
width:100px;
background-colour:#333333;
animation-name:myRotate;
animation-duration:3s;
animation-timing-function:linear;
animation-delay:2s;
animation-iteration-count:infinte;
animation-direction:normal;
animation-play-state:running;

-webkit-animation-name:myRotate; /*Chrome and Safari*/
-webkit-animation-duration:3s;
-webkit-animation-timing-function:linear;
-webkit-animation-delay:2s;
-webkit-animation-iteration-count:infinte;
-webkit-animation-direction:normal;
-webkit-animation-play-state:running;

/*add the prefixes for Firefox, Opera and IE10 in place of '-webkit-' : -moz-, -o-, -ms-.*/
}
@keyframes myRotate{
0% {transform: rotate(0deg); top:10px; left:10px}
100% {transform; rotate(360deg); top:10p; left:10px;}
}
</style>
<body>

<div id="rotation"></div>

</body>
</html>

I have a small animation running in the top left corner of my homepage which uses the same method, so this is one thing I need to fix before I can launch the site.
So far I've looked at finding some Jquery plug-ins and have come across the same kind of problems. What works for one browser, doesn't work for all browsers.

Ok, so why not use a variety of different plug-ins so that it works on every browser? Well, head over and read one of my other posts that explains one of the reasons why these new standards were brought out in the first place.

Three different plug-ins = 3 more requests for my web page.

As you can see, I'm hitting plenty of hurdles when trying to finish my website and having it running smoothly and efficiently.
My primary concern is graphic design and animation, so I need to have the least amount of hurdles to jump when someone is downloading my homepage ready for viewing.

You can also see that I have Adobes' Flash Technology running on my site, and there's more to add. I'd like to put some stunning animated visuals on my site for obvious reasons, so continuously running into problems as I am with css animations is becoming a bit of a nuisance.

Take my new page, which hasn't been uploaded for viewing yet so take a look at the image below:

The object on the right of the page is going to be a flipbook filled with various objects. I've already tried it with css but have hit a snag when trying to place bookmark tabs into the binder.
The page just doesn't know what to do with what I've tried because of the confusion between layers and table cells, which is why I'll be using Flash to build it instead, and fortunately for all you Apple boys and girls you'll be able to see it when it's finished via flash based Adobe Air...

When l started to test and practice these new methods l decided on making a single web page that contained the most useful methods to me.
It hasn't been updated for a while but it' s worth a look just to help illustrate my point, head over to view it and try all the major browsers - HTML5.

You see, although the new standard has been out for a while, the majority of browsers and some of the popular ones have yet to catch up or just perform badly!
So I'm just waiting and watching....

l like to use my Samsung Galaxy Note for general browsing.

I've got a variety of browsers that l can use when testing my site, here's a list:-
-Default Android Browser
-Dolphin Browser for android (easily my favourite )
-Firefox (the latest beta release for android)
-Opera
-Googles' Chrome

As far as my homepage goes, I've designed a small but effective animation in the top left corner.
The animation consists of two bursts of sunrays and some basic cloud highlighting followed by a silhouette of a small orbiting planet. This fits in with the theme of my site nicely.

But....it  lags badly on Firefox and Opera. So far, Dolphin Browser is way out in front along with Chrome for Android and Androids' default browser. The latter all have the rotation animation running nice and smoothly.

Have a look at my homepage using Firefox from a laptop. Take a look at the moon rotating at the top left. The clouds are rotating too but you can see the moon skipping from frame to frame and it looks bad, it's even worse on their mobile browser.

AND!! I've got a question mark icon on the left-hand menu with a rotating contour. Have a look at this with all of the major browsers...what?!! It's going left to right and up high in Opera, but looks ok with their mobile browser and has stopped working altogether with mobile Firefox!!?

So, I've gotta just hang on in there until all the developers do their thing and l get to push as far as l can on a webpage (mobile devices included).

Or I can use Adobes' Flash or Air for all the nice little bits..........

Thanks for reading!
Martin