• Temporize
• Web log
  2009
• 05/01/09

Although flash is slowly making its way onto some mobile devices, Flash on the iPhone is still looking as far off as a manned mission to Mars. But with HTML 5 starting to be implemented in webkit and most other browsers, and the advancements in SVGs of late, I’ve been thinking about what roll flash will play on the iPhone, and if it is really needed at all …

At the moment, I find the fact that I can’t jump on youtube and watch my friends latest video a little annoying, but with the <video> and <audio> tag already working in safari 3, how long will it be before these are carried through to the iPhone? And with the wider adoption of such tags, will sites such as youtube continue to use flash as their default media player?

I’m a big fan of Flash, and seeing what Joshua Davis and Hi-Res were doing with the platform back in the late 90’s is what really go me into web design and playing with code in the first place, but now that I’ve had to live without flash on the iPhone for the last few month and counted the amount of times I’ve actually missed it, I’m not so sure it’s the iPhone enhancer I’ve been hoping it would be.

Following on in the ever exiting (and disappointing) ePaper advancements,  Plastic Logic have just announced the next step in electronic readers. Their as yet unnamed decive uses the same technology as Amazon’s Kiddle, but thankfully comes looking a little more like a newspaper and less like a brick. With a screen that is twice the size the Kiddle’s, Logic’s device claims to be able to provide a newspaper like layout which can be continually updated via a wireless link, storing and display hundreds of pages of newspapers, books and documents.

TG Daily has some good pics.

I was just reading through a article over at Web Monkey about what they consider does and doesn’t work on the mobile web, which has listed magazines and newspapers in the ‘doesn’t’ category due to screen restrictions and battery limitation.

The interesting thing I find here is that the services that are listed in the ‘doesn’t’ category as see as things “the mobile web isn’t, and perhaps never will be, very good at”, which I find  unimaginative and  short sited. While the battery limitations is one that faces any mobile device, what about the screen size? Yes, I know its no DPS, and I’m sure reading the small text on the go may give you a headache, but no more than reading a novel on the tram might. And while magazines as we know them might not suit current portable devices, as we have seen in recent years, magazines have a knack for re-inventing themselves in order to take advantage of whatever distribution methods are currently available. ( this is a magazine, PDF-mags )

Back to printing world, and Andrew Losowsky over at Magtastic has done a great write up on MagCloud, a POD (print on demand) website for magazines. While POD has been with us for a while, and is currently utilised for magazines such as the Boicozine zine, this is the first POD service that caters specifically for printing magazines. Though, as Andrew points out at $4.00 for 20 pages, or around $9 for 44 pages, it’s currently a little expensive for the average self publisher.

A little while ago (about a year) I published a little article on my take of the future of digital publishing. Since then there has been a number of advancements in digital paper and eReaders. While not a huge step forward, The Kindle from Amazon is one such product that shows us the direction the publishing world is headed. I wouldn’t go as far to say its the iPod of eReaders, but for a company such as Amazon to invest in such a product definitely shows that this is an area in the future of publishing that warrants serious attention.

But, if you’re like me, then a big white brick with a mono display (and a stupid name) is not really what you what to be reading your novels on, let alone a magazine. Where are the eBooks that are exactly that, A book? with actual pages? Thankfully researchers at Maryland and Berkeley Universities in the US have been working on such a device and developed a prototype eBook with two displays that simulate the turning of pages. While still a bit on the chunky side, this humanising of  technology is what is needed to successfully move the publishing world forward in the digital arena.

As well as my email, calendar, site statistics, photos and instant messaging, the nice folks over at Google are now handling all my RSS feeds as well, which gives me the option to share any and every post that pops into my browser.  There is even a  handy little notifier to let me know when my RSS reader has been updated …

I’ve recently been helping a friend set up an old Singer Memo-matic knitting machine, and was thinking how great it would be if you could hook the machine up to a computer and knit from digital files as opposed to the old punch card that it comes with. Well that exactly what Magdalena Kohler and Hanna Wiesener from the University of Arts in Berlin have done. Using a laptop running Processing and connected to 24 servo-motors, Gelsomina transfers individual vocal melodies to the knitting machine which are reproduced as knitted patterns. (link and images via we make money not art)

Experimenta is Australia’s leading contemporary arts organisation dedicated to commissioning, exhibiting and promoting media art. This years show ‘Playground‘, which is on display at the Art Center, is comprised of a fantastic collection of interactive artworks (one of which I helped out on), video installations and short films. I was really excited to see Philip Worthington’s Shadow Monsters included in the show this year, as I’ve read a lot about it but didn’t actually think I’d ever have an opportunity to see it … If you are in Melbourne before the 23rd of September, I’d definitely recommend checking out the show.

Last post I mentioned Network Neutrality and how AT&T and most other leading telcos in the US are opposed to it. Briefly outlined here, Network Neutrality is basically about keeping the internet open, and out of the hands and control of companies such as AT&T.

This rather unnerving article about DPI (Deep packet inspection), is what Network Neutrality is all about stopping (a long article, but worth a read). DPI gives ISPs the ability to read and identify every piece of information sent and received from your computer, be it email, P2P traffic or a Skype phone call, and block it according to whether you have paid for that particular “service”. As well as being another way for the telcos to charge people even more to access the internet, it also raises a lot of issues relating to privacy. Not surprisingly, the companies who develop DPI technology currently make a living by selling to software to international governments who like to keep a closer eye on what their citizens are up to.

The most frustrating thing is that all of this is happening with little or no public awareness, and that if Net Neutrality fails in the US, it won’t be long before the effect filters through to the rest of the globe.

Google have stepped into the ring to take on the US telco giants in the upcoming government auction of radio space. Outlined more specifically on Machinist, the online superpower is offering up 4.6 billion in attempt to keep wireless America ‘open’, as announced on their blog. While companies such as AT&T claim that adhering to Google’s demands would be damaging for the internet, I’m not really going to believe anything that comes from the CEO of a company who is opposed to Net Neutrality.