Matt Alexander, writing for The Loop:

Simply put, Mobile Flash has been an excuse of a “feature” for platforms in the face of iOS.

[…]

Having pushed Mobile Flash as such a key differentiator, they’re looking at dealing with a whole host of confused and misinformed consumers.

That assumes most consumers will hear this news (they won’t) and that Android tablet manufacturers will stop bundling Flash, even as it ages and doesn’t get updated beyond security fixes (they won’t). I think it will be a while before the Flash bullet-point is dropped from the spec list of most Android tablets.

ZDNet:

Adobe is Stopping development on Flash Player for browsers on mobile.

More elaboration:

Our future work with Flash on mobile devices will be focused on enabling Flash developers to package native apps with Adobe AIR for all the major app stores. We will no longer adapt Flash Player for mobile devices to new browser, OS version or device configurations. Some of our source code licensees may opt to continue working on and releasing their own implementations. We will continue to support the current Android and PlayBook configurations with critical bug fixes and security updates.

In case no-one realises, this is Adobe throwing in the towel for Flash being a viable general web technology. With this announcement, Flash just became Director: an authoring environment for apps and—until native web tech catches up—elaborate interactive desktop embedded web-page components (including games). Anyone who argues otherwise is deluded, given that browsing is rapidly transitioning to mobile and yet Adobe’s now exiting this market when it comes to Flash.

Still, Apple and its stupid decision to not support Flash on the iPhone and iPad, eh?

Update: Adobe Featured Blogs now has a post up on the company’s decision to quit making Mobile Flash.

Gary Marshall for TechRadar on the hypocrisy of government-led, court-ordered website blocks:

The other night I tried and failed to find a legitimate pair of Sennheiser headphones on eBay. There were fakes everywhere.

Would it be reasonable for Sennheiser to demand that the Post Office doesn’t deliver any counterfeit headphones to anyone in the UK, or that ISPs block eBay? Of course not – but that’s effectively what the BPI wants BT to do with the Pirate Bay.

From Macworld, quoting Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg:

People like to talk about war [between tech companies]. There are a lot of ways in which the companies work together. There are real competitions in there, but I don’t think this is going to be the type of situation where there’s one company that wins all the stuff.

Google in some ways is more competitive and is certainly trying to build their own little version of Facebook.

Pretty clear Zuckerberg’s trying to disparage Google+, but he’s missing the point. Many people use Facebook now purely out of habit, not because they enjoy doing so; in fact, quite a few people I know absolutely despise Facebook and they only stick around because their friends are doing the same.

Facebook might be secure in that. It might think that social bonds are enough, and laugh in the face of competition from the likes of Twitter and Google+. I’d just like to remind them that MySpace and Friends Reunited thought precisely the same thing, but, abruptly, lots of people fled when they became bloated and rudderless, which is precisely what’s happening to Facebook today.

Zuckerberg has recently spoken about his mentoring from Steve Jobs. Perhaps he should take a leaf out of Jobs’s book, examine Facebook, and figure out how to make it beautiful and simple, rather than a mess of information fighting for users’ attention. Because sooner or later, there’s a good chance it’ll be too late.

Polls are wonderful when they lack details about who voted and also their understanding of the subject. It’s precisely for this reason that the British should never be let anywhere near a referendum on EU membership, because, in part through the idiocy of the national press, the country would shoot itself in the foot and cast itself into the wilderness, due to dumb stories about illegal bananas.

But anyway, today’s slice of stupid is reported in The Guardian, which provides the non-shock that people who don’t use social networks would be happy for them to be shut down during times of social unrest:

A poll of 973 adults carried out for the online security firm Unisys found 70% of adults supported the shutdown of Twitter, Facebook and BlackBerry Messenger (BBM), while only 27% disagreed.

Three-quarters agreed that governments should have open access to data on social network users in order to prevent co-ordinated crime. Support for action against social networks was strongest among over-65s and weakest among 18 to 24-year-olds, who are the heaviest users of the online services.

This to me suggests those polled skewed not just to old people, but old people who haven’t yet discovered the internet. Sadly, there’s crossover there with MPs, who seem quick to slam Iran and China for restricting their people’s access to the web during times of strife, but who are nonetheless all too quick to suggest the British do the exact same thing. Presumably, it’s OK for the British to do this, because we have a good government, which can be trusted, unlike all those foreigns. Shit, sorry, I APPEAR TO BE CHANNELING THE DAILY MAIL. *punches self in face*

Unsurprisingly, The Guardian’s take is heavily biased towards online freedom, quoting heavily from people who believe social networking should not be curbed. And as the recent riots unfolded, my Twitter feed was full of people trying to help, not hinder. Again, this is something that people who don’t use social networks fail to understand: they are just a means for communication. They can be used for good things and bad things. I note, however, that the government and non-techies have yet to suggest television should be shut-down during times of social unrest, despite 24-hour news channels inadvertently providing ‘advice’ on where rioters should strike.

Sadly, this kind of attitude pervades throughout our entire society. When I recently interviewed Graham Linehan for .net,  he suggested there are almost two ‘levels’ of people now, which are those engaged in social media and those who decide they want nothing to do with it—and the latter group includes plenty of people in the media industry:

I’m talking about people who still get the majority of their information from four or five newspaper columnists. To me, they’re the people who you meet at parties, who say things like ‘Oh, I’m sorry, but I don’t want to know what you’re having for dinner!’. They still use these clichés, but everyone else is playing Vulcan chess.