Goodbye Flash for Mobile

Flash for Android mobile devices is being discontinued, beginning with Android 4.1 — new installations of Flash to be disabled on August 15. Maybe this will hasten adoption of HTML5.

Adobe’s statement to developers:

HTML5 is now universally supported on major mobile devices, in some cases exclusively [...] that makes HTML5 the best solution for creating and deploying content in the browser across mobile platforms.

Steve Jobs was right.

Posted: August 14th, 2012
Filed under: Handheld, Mobile, Software Tags: , | No Comments »

PayPal Here

PayPal is rolling out a mobile payment option—PayPal Here—apparently to compete with Square’s mobile card reader.

PayPal claims:

  • Will work with iOS and Android
  • 2.7% transaction fee (Square charges 2.75%)
  • Accepts VISA, MasterCard, AMEX, Discover, checks, invoices and PayPal accounts
  • Funds are immediately available in your PayPal account
  • Free card reader and mobile app (like Square)


Posted: March 16th, 2012
Filed under: Finance, Free (or low-cost), Handheld, Hardware, Innovation, Mobile, Software Tags: , | No Comments »

A Brief History of Computing Platforms

For a fascinating illustration of the trend towards mobile computing, check out the short video (28 sec) below showing the history of some popular computing platforms, starting in 1975 and running up to the present. It includes some oldies like the TRS-80, Amiga, Atari, NeXT and Apple II as well as the now familiar Windows PC, Mac, Android, iPhone and iPad.

Originally posted in The Rise and Fall of Personal Computing, an excellent bit of analysis by Horace Dediu at Asymco.

Note the last few seconds of the video where Android, iPhone and iPad rocket to the top.

Posted: January 18th, 2012
Filed under: Apple, Mobile, Windows Tags: , , | No Comments »