For those of you who don’t know it, Dolphin is a popular web browser that was only available for Google’s Android platform. MoboTap(makers of Dolphin) recently released Dolphin for the iPhone and the iPod Toouch. Well, I am pleased to announce that MoboTap have just released Dolphin for the iPad and is now available in the App Store.
Tag Archives: ipod
Apple’s iOS can finally support Adobe’s Flash video(sort of)
A little bit of background on this one. Before Apple had launched the original iPad in 2010, Apple had tried to work with adobe to get Adobe’s Flash software working on the iPhone and the iPad. Essentially, Adob’e Flash software was originally designed to animate pictures, but was modified to play video.
Apple had said to Adobe: “if you ever get Flash workinig fast enough, then come back to us and let know”. However, Adobe never came back to Apple. When the iPad launched, it never shipped with Flash and Adobe(knowing that it makes sense to have flash on the iPad) decided to “raise a stink about the matter” in the press. Since then, the jailbreaking community have managed to hack the iPad(in the good sense) to try and run Flash. It works for a time, but the experience was bad. Since then Adobe has never made Flash available on the iPad. For those of you who don’t know it, a lot of the video content on the web is only viewable if you have installed Flash on your computer. This has been a bit of a setback on the iOS devices. You would have to download a web browser on your iOS device that would convert a flash video to a format that is playable on iOS, until now.
Adobe has just released an update for Flash Media server. Version 4.5 will let companies serve Flash video in a format that iOS devices can play. It’s about time that Adobe pushed a Flash video solution for iOS. I would really like to see this in action soon.
Personally, I feel thankful that we have a way to get Flash video on the iPad. I don’t think we will have a way to play Flash games natively on iOS for a while. On the other hand, I am sure it won’t be long before we see Flash games on iOS.
Thoughts on iMessages
Welcome to the latest in my “thoughts on” series of articles. On 6th June 2011, Apple held the keynote for their WWDC where they announced new software(see my WWDC 2011 keynote roundup article for more details).
When apple announced iOS 5, there was a feature that caught my attention called iMessages. Essentially, this will allow you to send text messages, pictures and videos to other people for free. It does this over your Wi-Fi internet connection or 3G connection. Essentially, this means that iMessage is Blackberry Messenger for iOS.
However, I think that Apple might have some trouble when getting the 3G side set up with the mobile phone networks. Here is why they might have this trouble. Your mobile phone network will give you an allocation of text messages (SMS messages) a month as well as phone call time. This is a contract that you are signed into for a period of time such as a month or a year or more.
If you are not on one of these contracts, then you are charged for every SMS message you send. When these networks see the iMessaging they are going to be so scared of it. This is because they are going to end up losing so much money because people are going to send text messages over Wi-Fi, instead of using sending SMS messages over their standard GSM network.
On the other hand, the mobile phone networks might not be so scared, because they know that some people will want to use iMessage on 3G, so they may be able to use it as a way to improve the way they advertise their deals.
Apple to offer a free copy of OSX Leopard for those with new iOS devices(so it seems)
So, how many of you out there have recently purchased an iPod, an iPhone or an iPad recently?
Well some of you who have one of these devices may also have a Mac computer. There is also a good chance that some of you are running OSX Tiger(10.4 on your device. This version of OSX was released in 2005, therefore it’s a good chance that all macbooks and imacs between mid-2004 and mid-2007 would have OSX Tiger installed on it. Of course if you buy one of the above devices, you need to have the latest version of Apple’s music management software iTunes. However, the latest version(10.2.2) is not compatible with OSX Tiger. The next move would be to get at least OSX Leopard(the next version up from OSX Tiger). Which is no longer available unless if you are willing to get a copy from Amazon or eBay. According to an article from the newspaper from the guardian(available here), some users are saying that Apple are just trying to make you complain and force you to buy a new macbook, iMac or Mac Pro.
In a recent update to this story, you can call AppleCare(Apple’s customer service division). You will need to give them the serial number of your iPod, iPhone or iPad. If they find that your device is within the regular 1-year purchase time, they will send you a copy of OSX Leopard free of charge. However, I should state that this is an unconfirmed development so please check back here regularly for confirmation of this. If this is true, then this is yet another example of good customer service from Apple.