[The_Engine]

Apple patented multi tasking and will be filing suit against anyone who ever did more then 1 thing at a time.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[avt123]

iPhone is getting multitasking, sky is falling now.

I wonder what the fanboy comebacks will be now?

AVT you must have a really old Mac, my 2 year old intel iMac has yet to ever crash while running ANY flash content, and even while editing photos in Aperture it doesn't make my Mac croak.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

I never said it crashed. I have a brand new MacBook Pro as well as a 3 year old MacBook. A lot of the times flash crashes. Not the Mac.

[infamyx]

Multiple ActiveSync account support was a nice addition as well.

I would say the universal inbox was the biggest announcement since it's so tedious as it is. They added a bunch of new APIs too so now things like Facebook can add events to my calendar.

Apple outright copying Xbox Live all the way down to the names lol

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[JRSCCivic98]

I would say the universal inbox was the biggest announcement since it's so tedious as it is.

I disagree from a personal standpoint. I was jumping for joy when RIM finally gave us the ability to turn off which email accounts the Messages folder shows emails from. I have turned off ALL email accounts from the Messages display and hid the Messages folder. I don't like all my mailboxes combined... I use each one of mine individually. I for one hope this can be turned off on the new iPhone OS or at least not be required to be used.

[Jayhawk-X]

A new web kit browser? Kinda like putting a band-aid on a severed artery.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[infamyx]

I disagree from a personal standpoint. I was jumping for joy when RIM finally gave us the ability to turn off which email accounts the Messages folder shows emails from. I have turned off ALL email accounts from the Messages display and hid the Messages folder. I don't like all my mailboxes combined... I use each one of mine individually. I for one hope this can be turned off on the new iPhone OS or at least not be required to be used.

When you use an iPhone with 5 email accounts every day it becomes INCREDIBLY drawn out, because it picks back up in last email or account when you hit the home key.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[JRSCCivic98]

When you use an iPhone with 5 email accounts every day it becomes INCREDIBLY drawn out, because it picks back up in last email or account when you hit the home key.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

I know, I have used an iTouch with personal accounts like that. I don't have an issue with backing up to each mailbox... to me it makes logical sense and it's like looking in different folders keeping everything nice and separated. A unified mailbox showing all emails from all accounts would drive me nuts as it would look untidy to me.... but that's just me.

If it was me, I would have allowed users to add each mailbox configured to a separate icon on the home screen, dock, etc. I guess Apple didn't think about that one.

[Branta]

Flash is overrated their buddy. I can honestly live day to day and not use flash.... and it is big and bulky and doesn't have a valid place in the cell phone world.

Agreed. I have never seen a page which really needs Flash, AND is usable on a small 2.5" handheld screen.

[Air Force One]

Agreed. I have never seen a page which really needs Flash, AND is usable on a small 2.5" handheld screen.

Steve Jobs, is that you? You forgot to complain that it eats battery. In all seriousness, sorry you still use a 2.5" screen but not everyone still does, or plans to forever.

[ElSteve9]

Ok. They're building a new webkit browser. Does that help?

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

Hahahahahaha

Seriously, Marine One, calm down, man. You're obviously upset, but that's no reason to throw self-control out the window. And I can see that you've done so because the precise thing you're yelling about is changing as the argument develops. You're just trying to stay mad now.
Which is certainly your right, as are all speech issues, but understand that sometimes exercising your rights makes you look like a doofus.

-Stephen

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[qbnkelt]

Agreed. I have never seen a page which really needs Flash, AND is usable on a small 2.5" handheld screen.

awww, no

I run into instances where I can't view content on my phone because it requires it, and it would be convenient to be able to do some things on it that I can't do now. I certainly don't mean to watch a movie or videos on it - I have few few videos on my iPod, mainly music - but some sites I can't access now.

One recent example -while I was on the road recently, I was trying to send Easter greeting cards from the Jacquie Lawson site and couldn't. Had to bring out my notebook. Also something as simple as FB games...can't do that.

I just wish I could do those things from my phone. Wouldn't need to carry my notebook. I look forward to the new webkit because it's my one complaint about Berries, but I thought Flash would also be available. Thinking back, I'm not sure why I began to get this impression...it seems to me maybe someone here (a mod?) mentioned it was coming and I got really excited for it.

[afropoika]

"simple" Facebook games and Flash games in general are meant to be viewed and played on a screen with a resolution of 1024x768 at least. Even if there was Flash made for BlackBerry or any other smartphone, screen real estate won't help as there is no resolution to support these games either. Games would need to be severely scaled down, which would make it almost impossible to play FarmVille for example, as it requires precise clicking here and there -- by scaling down the complete interface this would ruin the gameplay experience, not to mention of the horrible resource drag this extra procedure puts on the device.

This is why Mafia Wars for instance, is available as a separate app for the iPhone. Even if the iPhone could do Flash, Zynga knew it would be horrible, which is the reason they developed for the iPhone, to catch more of the audience who are addicted to Mafia Wars. If you have ever played this game both on your PC and the iPhone, compare both interfaces. The same game is controlled from two very different interfaces, the PC one is obiously better suited for PC, while the iPhone version has a much much more optimized game interface.

[qbnkelt]

No, I haven't seen Mafia Wars on an iPhone. Didn't even know they had it....

Gotta say, I was disappointed when I first read the Skyfire statement. Few days out I'm still disappointed but at least I'm not completely deflated. I've carried a notebook all this time, I can continue to carry it. Maybe someday it will happen.

It took the wind out of my sails, but I've come back somewhat, I think...just a bit of a bummer.

[gmkahuna]

I think some of you expect too much from your "phone" and like someone else said here, flash is just not something I need to make all things right in the universe for me.

[qbnkelt]

I think some of you expect too much from your "phone" and like someone else said here, flash is just not something I need to make all things right in the universe for me.

True, true...I'm still upset I can't use my phone to dice up onions....

[i7guy]

A message from Skyfire: Android, Blackberry, and Beyond Android, Blackberry, and Beyond � Skyfire


A message directly from Skyfire themselves. In short Blackberry OS is lacking big time! I hope this inspires the developers over in the wonderful world of RIM to step their game up. Skyfire said that they are waiting until OS 6.0 comes out. Its interesting to me that they raved about Android being a superior device and made it a point of emphasis (twice) to say that BB's are not capable of becoming apart of Skyfire's lineup until RIM makes some changes. You can say what you want but for me this is a wake up call. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE BLACKBERRIES. But if they're other products out there that can do better then I'm going to check it out (*cough* HTC Android for Sprint *cough*) I think this blog post sums up the year Blackberry is really having. Yes the financial earnings are outstanding but what are they "really" doing to advance their company? Swagger can only get you in the door but it takes a lot more to keep you on top... RIM has the swag now let's see them do a lot more to keep us wanting more. Thoughts anyone?

I see this as much ado about nothing.

[rainor94]

I think some of you expect too much from your "phone" and like someone else said here, flash is just not something I need to make all things right in the universe for me.

People expect what others have. When people saw what the Nokia N900 was doing with flash they were impressed and wanted it on their phone. Personally I got sick of waiting for RIM to push out a new browser and there was some other stuff I wanted but BlackBerry couldn't offer (cheaper apps, games, good full screen phone) so I'm moving to Android very soon. Only BlackBerry owners and Iphone owners don't expect new stuff on their phone. Pretty sad.

Also my opinion on flash has always been the same. I want to view web pages on my phone the same way I view them on my computer. I want to watch Youtube on the Youtube website. I don't understand people who want less. All I can say is my almost 10 year old laptop with a 1.13 Ghz processor had no problem with flash games and Youtube. So please people don't make BS excuses about not needing Flash or it's to much of a resource hog.

I remember last year the mods and people in the know kept saying how great this year will be for BlackBerry... So far it has sucked more then the Iphone and Androids. There has been nothing new and not a single new phone.

[rainor94]

I see this as much ado about nothing.

He is saying Skyfire doesn't want to bring over their Browser to BlackBerry because it is too difficult and they have moved over on working on Android. He is saying it's a wake up call because more and more developers will be ditching The BlackBerry platform because it is so hard to code for it for something better like the Android platform. BlackBerry has 5000 apps in their app store when Android added 9000 in March alone.

[afropoika]

All I can say is my almost 10 year old laptop with a 1.13 Ghz processor had no problem with flash games and Youtube. So please people don't make BS excuses about not needing Flash or it's to much of a resource hog.

I'm a developer, trust me, I know what I am talking about.

Comparison of pure MHz or GHz is not sufficient. A smartphone CPU differs from that powering a desktop computer (or your 10 years old laptop). On a PC you have a CPU with a complex instruction set. In other words the CPU is capable of doing millions of different functions in few clock cycles, as its own source of instructions for each function is very broad and massive. In comparison, a smartphone is powered by a CPU that has a reduced instruction set. This means that the CPU is programmed to do certain functions only (tailor-made for a very specific need) and in order for it to do more complex functions, it will require more clock cycles to do so, whereas a CPU with a complex instruction set could do it in less clock cycles.

All these clock cycles will add up and depending on what needs to be processed, the difference in required clock cycles between a CPU using a complex instruction set and one using a reduced instruction set could be exponential. In addition, the difference between the CPU architectures themselves make up for variances in performance. Personal computers have traditionally used the x86 architecture from Intel and this tradition still continues. Remember when Apple used to power their Mac computers with PowerPC processors from IBM? PowerPC was very different to Intel Pentium at the time and each architecture could perform at certain tasks better, but there was no real winner (since it is hard to measure raw processing power). Our BlackBerry smartphones, like many other smartphones, are powered by processors basing on the ARM architecture; a very different architecture compared to x86.

Therefore for a smartphone the resources needed to process Adobe Flash (or any other interactive content for the matter) are much higher than what a PC will require in order to render the content. Even if smartphones have already gotten past the Ghz mark, the hardware architecture under the hood itself is not optimized for processing content like Adobe Flash.

Hope this helps.

[JRSCCivic98]

I think some of you expect too much from your "phone" and like someone else said here, flash is just not something I need to make all things right in the universe for me.

I think the correct phrase would be that "We're expecting too much from our BBs". There are other capable handsets on the market that don't have an issue providing much needed functionality to the user... just BB can't seem to handle a lot of new-age needed capabilities.

The problem with BB users is that if your phone can't do something, you shrug it off and pretend you don't need that capability anyway. It's your way of justifying the shortcomings.

[afropoika]

@JRSCCivic98: I hope you don't paint me with that brush of yours. Certainly I am not pretending I may not need functionality only because my BlackBerry is not up for this type of functionality. I view everything from a general perspective and from my own developer's perspective. I can think of and see where Adobe Flash type of content would be useful on a BlackBerry (or any other smartphone), but to me the resources required for this from the smartphone CPU and the research involved in order to port Adobe Flash to BlackBerry is not worth it. I rather have this research be done in order to optimize what we have currently and resources be used better for increased battery life.

For me a smartphone means first and foremost a phone I will be carrying with me. If the core essentials are not covered well (phone/SMS) and the battery does not make it through a day or two, then those are reasons enough for me not to look into that certain smartphone. PDA functionality comes next, then maybe e-mail and Internet browsing. Apps and entertainment are rather down on my list, for I prioritize more why I bought this device in the first place and not what I could do with it. Of course this does not mean that I am against the "app phone" model trends currently seem to favor. Actually, I do enjoy playing the occasional game or accessing Facebook from my smartphone, as it does indeed allow me to do things I would normally require a laptop for.

[qbnkelt]

Which forces you into a decision as to what you need to have and what you would like to have. And then there is what is not possible in the foreseeable future.
I love my 9700 today but hate the browser...which was the reason I got my notebook. There is a webkit in the works which will take care of what I don't like. Leaving me with what is not possible in the foreseeable future. I guess for that, I have the notebook.
Would I rather have Flash without those Blackberry features I love? No. So although I would rather have it, it's not the primary feature for which I get the phone. Just as I find that the apps in AppWorld today suit my needs just fine, the platform in general does what I need, especially with the webkit.
I was briefly really disappointed, but after some thought I don't think I'll be going away after all. And since I tried out using a slider again and it worked for me, I'm back to waiting for that.