Ooh, thanks for the upgrade report Una!

Honestly, not having Flash on the iPhone doesn't bug me - I don't expect my phone to give me the entire internet.

Flash missing from the iPad is a bigger deal because the form factor implies a certain level of...computer-ness. And Apple supports Flash on their laptops, so it definitely feels like something *missing* from the iPad in a way that it doesn't on an iPhone or iPod Touch.

That said, I just spend about three hours playing with my sister's iPad (technically it belongs to her boss since she bought it for work, but it lives with her) and OOOOOH, SHINY. I still really don't want to pay for one (blah blah first generation Apple product) but damn if every time it was put down on the couch if I didn't want to pick it up. It's compulsively usable.

Now reporting from my iPad and Goodreader? Is awesome.

meara--if I have any further issues with the upgrade I'll let you know!

I still really don't want to pay for one (blah blah first generation Apple product) but damn if every time it was put down on the couch if I didn't want to pick it up.

Yesterday I saw one for the first time and played with it for 30 seconds. Today I'm almost regretting not buying one, even though I had not ever seriously considered buying one when it was first released.

Flash missing from the iPad is a bigger deal because the form factor implies a certain level of...computer-ness. And Apple supports Flash on their laptops, so it definitely feels like something *missing* from the iPad in a way that it doesn't on an iPhone or iPod Touch.

Yeah, this. I expect it, because of price and size and such, to be more...functional. I want to be surfing the WHOLE web. From my couch, and my coffee shop, and what have you. And if all I've got is wifi...then it can't just be mobile versions of the web. Which means not having flash...sure, sometimes is just "gee, that annoying page's intro won't load, no big", and too many pages overuse it anyway. But sometimes that means I can't even get PAST the first page. And that's something pages ought to fix, yes...but also something I shouldn't be at home on my iPad and go "Oh, guess I have to go over to the REAL COMPUTER for this site!". If I want to watch Hulu on the iPad I feel like I ought to be able to or whatever, man...

One could easily remote to their other computer, even away from home and browse from there.

Until a hack for flash is done...

Last week, there was a symposium at the NERD building in Cambridge titled "Looking at the Next Open Web Platform" where folks from the W3 Consortium and elsewhere talked about SVG, HTML 5, CSS 3, and other future standards. I couldn't make the actual talk, but the slides were made available and I read through them. Bottom line: audio, video and vector graphics are going to be a part of the W3 open standards. I don't see how Flash can survive if browsers will soon be able to support the same functionality natively. So while it's annoying now, maybe Apple is probably figuring that eventually major web sites will stop using Flash and no one will care?

I think it is a very calculated move that Flash is not on the iPad. Apple is making a power play. Basically betting the iPad will sell like crazy and force developers to abandon Flash if they want to work on the hit new device. My guess is that within 18 months the percentage of sites depending on Flash is going to drop significantly.

I was so shocked that youtube did it. I figured that should signal something serious to the Adobe Flash people.

I think it is a very calculated move that Flash is not on the iPad. Apple is making a power play.

Oh, I agree completely. I just wish it didn't have to mean the consumer getting caught in the middle.