YouTube on the iPad and Dumping IE6

My wife likes to watch YouTube videos. I was thinking of getting her a new Apple iPad tablet, but apparently the iPad lacks an easy way to do this. Why, oh, why did Apple (AAPL) fail to make it easy to access YouTube on the iPad?

A: Even though the Web browser on the iPad can’t play Adobe Flash video files like the ones YouTube typically serves up, Apple did include a special YouTube app on the iPad, similar to the one on the iPhone, that can play loads of YouTube content. In fact, this YouTube app was shown at the iPad launch. The company says the one for the iPad has been rewritten to take advantage of the larger screen, as have all of Apple’s built-in apps. Apple also says when you orient the tablet horizontally, YouTube videos automatically play in full screen mode. However, Web videos using Flash that must be accessed through a Web browser don’t appear to work on the iPad, just as they don’t work on the iPhone.

I have had Internet Explorer 6 as the browser on my home PC for years. Having heard about the security problem with IE6, I wonder if you would suggest that I keep IE6, download IE8 or download another browser.

A: I definitely recommend that you dump IE6, which is outdated and insecure compared to newer browsers. Its latest successor, Internet Explorer 8, has many nice features and much improved security. But, in my tests, IE8 proved slower than its main competitors. So I’d suggest switching to either Mozilla Firefox, Apple’s Safari for Windows or Google Chrome. The latter two are the fastest Windows browsers I’ve tested, but Firefox boasts many more add-ins and extensions that add extra features.

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joenavoa

What about Facebook games? They all run in Flash. 80 million Farmville fans is a huge market. How could Apple overlook this market?
joenavoa

What about Facebook games? 80 million Farmville fanatics can't use the iPad. How smart is that?
theothergeoff

they didn't… it's called a macbook.
foolthrottle

Walt, I would like to hear your opinion on that first question – the real question is: Why do you think Apple has not enabled flash video on the iPad?
slyttleton

Because Flash is cumbersome, requires too much overhead and is basically unstable. It's an outdated technology and there are better solutions.
foolthrottle

All true (at least that's what I hear from Steve jobs). The problem is – a very large percentage of the popular web relies on flash to be fully experienced. Asking the whole web to switch technologies isn't practical, asking customers to do without isn't reasonable, and calling it “the best web experience ever” isn't a fair claim without flash. So I think that while you answered the question, I'm still left looking at Apple saying “really? That's not good enough”. Replace flash with the better solution and THEN take it out.
jojibro

If you keep IE6 fully patched & up to date, what is the real world risk.
I really don't like IE at all, but care for 7 & 8 even less.
Just keep IE6 as a backup browswer.
Actually use latest FF3.6 most of the time.
Thanks
Bastion

Yeah, how's that E85 working out for you? Isn't that your logic — if you put into the market the new and better, while the mass-adopted and inferior product is still out there, people will eventually transition.

Of course, there is the argument that E85 is not a better alternative to petrol.

Regardless, there are plenty of examples of where something lingers much more than it should due to inertia. Because change is hard, and maintaining the status quo is easy.

No, moving from Flash requires, well, it requires a “flash cut”. It requires building a no-Flash platform with such compelling adoption levels that the content providers will follow. And once the content providers are faced with multi-platform releases, they will have to consider how much longer it will be worth it to support a dying tech like Flash.

If no one ever makes a compelling no-Flash platform, well, there will never be sufficient incentive to abandon Flash…
http://www.tofinotime.com Tofino

'the whole web' is going to go where the money is. if you are a content provider missing out on the ipod/iphone/ipad demographic, you have to ask yourself questions about your strategy of putting all your eggs into the adobe basket. we've already seen sites making changes (youtube, vimeo, etc.) others will follow (the money).

then you have to ask yourself if it was practical to let adobe lock you into their proprietary technology and if you'd ever let that happen again.

after that: fire your web developer for not coming up with a strategy in the 3 years the iphone came out.

YouTube on the iPad and Dumping IE6

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