Steve Jobs hates you, and so does this error page
By Tim Stevens 
posted May 27th 2010 8:55AM
posted May 27th 2010 8:55AM
Daring, controversial, and effective? More like busted, as this doesn't actually detect Safari Mobile. It instead is triggered by any browser that doesn't support Flash. In other words, installing this little redirect on your site is a great way to really piss off anyone on Android (pre 2.2, natch), Windows Mobile, Opera Mobile, Lynx... you get the picture. Steer clear.If someone visits your site on a Flash enabled device/computer your home page will load fine, as it always does; but if someone visits your site on an iPad or iPhone, instead of the current blank or error page coming up, your site will greet them with this special message page.
Update: We got a good news / bad news update from the SOS crew. Good news: the script has been updated to only show up for iPad and iPhone devices. Bad news: they were told that the image they were using had to be "modified slightly," resulting in a new image that shows rather more black box than CEO. If only there were some place that still showed the original image...
This could be a win if is supported Safari Mobile,
Otherwise GTFO.
@mackenziepricee What are you saying? The website redirect?
I think http://www.sosapplesos.com/restrictedexample.html would load just fine in Mobile Safari, I have no clue what your point is.
@juanvaldez
I think he meant if it worked the way it should - as described in the post. If it only showed up on mobile Apple devices. Though he did a poor job at wording his comment, if that's what he meant.
@mackenziepricee I have an iPhone and yes about 1% of the time it would be nice to have flash, but judging by the constant flash update popups and video freezes on my new Dell Studio 1745 laptop and my older Toshiba laptop, I can do without flash and not lose I minute of sleep over it. I'm trying to be open minded about all this net being open BS, but I can't get past the fact that Flash is owned and controlled by 1 company and has known stability issues on all platforms.
@Mikeserena
But you're OK using the iPhone, which is owned by one company that has known control issues?
Muy interesting
@tikigawd I guess you didn't read my post, I'm saying that everyone is posting comments on Engadget is complaining about iPhone not offering Flash, "because we want the Internet to be open". Flash is wholly owned by Adobe, not knocking Adobe, They have some incredible top notch products that Im proud to use, but flash is buggy software.
@Mikeserena
It's not about OPEN tech, it's about being able to see any site you want. The only reason I can't see Flash on iPhone or iPad is because Jobs says I can't. Is he championing the little guy or just swinging his dick?
Awesome!
And people said Microsoft was evil?!
Wait and see what evil does.... Jobs and the Google bunch are gonna EFF up the tech world.
@YanivC
what the hell are you trying to say here.
@Punisher Plum
Please tell me you're being sarcastic and I will laugh; otherwise.... Lord... please help these lost soulless sheep.
@YanivC No I think he was saying that what you said made no sense...
@serenn
What I said was that people will soon see how evil Apple and Google really are. 10 years ago everyone complained that M$ was trying to take over the world. Today we see 2 companies that are trying to dictate exactly how you should experience the web.
Makes more sense now?
@YanivC
Well...with Apple, kinda, I guess?
...though the Google part sure as hell doesn't.
@Phoenix
Really? You dont think so? I dont know.. I think Google needs to be monitored closely. Look at everything they've got their hands into.
Its easy to see that they use bully tactics in business, and in some way I suppose that fine. This is America, land of the free, home of the entrepreneur. So if they use their money to bully other businesses around or gobble them up, I'm fine with that. But..... when their practice starts to dictate the direction a person can take due to limitations because they are the only ones left.... well... something is wrong there.
Do you know that if you're on Android and Google mail and Google voice you're pretty much stuck. Imagine how much information they have about you... and to top it all off now they want to provide telecom services too? Dude... that's insane.
All I'm saying is....... Google needs to be monitored closely VERY CLOSELY.
@YanivC If something does happen it will probably not be in our lifetime and I really don't have anything "top secret" that they might be interested on
@YanivC
Google's software, platforms, everything do everything to be able to support all formats in all situations for all hardware. They just ask you to use their software for free, give you a good package, and give you all the options you want, whether as a user, or as a developer.
Frequent, free, and seamless updates (except on andriod so far) keep everything working and keep it at the head of the competition.
That's how they want to take over the world, make billions while giving you everything you want out of your electronics. They're earning it.
Now, does Google need a chemist? And how do I apply?
This made me smile so I'm going to say win.
I love it.
The fact that you can see this on other devices, like Android pre-Froyo, is actually a bonus as many more people can view the page and get a good chuckle. I know I did.
@whySoSerious Pre Froyo? *chuckles* My Droid Incredible with 2.1 and flash lite begs to differ. And with Dolphin Browser HD, it actually doesn't suck.
I thought the Alt section was going to be about "alternate" stuff. This article could have been placed on the main page.
@bc8240 Yeah, but I do like the stories they've been posting and they show on the main page (for now?). If they just provide more stories in this manner, more of an opinion/non-gadget thing I can live with it as long as they show on the main page. If this is just temporary and things like this will get buried on alt I'll surely be disappointed.
@nando2323
Wow, that's a very intelligent statement...
Steve Jobs all said and done has a point flash sucks on os x, how can abobe be trusted to supply a decent version for less powerful devices
@bex753
Yeah, I know Steve Jobs hate that proprietary plugin called Flash and wants the web to be open. So I surfed to http://trailers.apple.com/ expecting some wonderful HTML5 videos. Instead, I had to install Quicktime and it was asking me to install iTunes and Safari too. Oh, how wonderful. Thank you, Steve.
@BigKing I hate Quicktime like most people hate flash. When I use my old laptop, and given the chance, I download clips and replay them with VLC before using Slowtime (I know, I'm cool /s, downrank me).
@juanvaldez I think Quicktime needs to die before flash....hell, it needed to die ages ago...
@BigKing And what would you expect to find on Microsoft's web site, if you looked for videos? HTML5? No! You'll need to install Microsoft Silverlight in order to watch those videos.
@JacaByte
Ya but Silverlight is GOOD...
@trealtp Lolno.
@Dig Deep "
This sort of tactic do more harm to Flash than god. If someone sees the warning, they have either bought an Apple device (and are therefore invested - at least for the next few years) or they're using a browser without a Flash-plug-in. That's exactly the vulnerability of plug-in architecture. Besides, isn't THE point of a web site NOT to piss off visitors? Web site authors should not get into politics, leave that to the honchos at Apple and Adobe. The tools are not a replacement for the message.
@Canucker keep god out of this
@Canucker The only point I can agree with is " isn't THE point of a web site NOT to piss off visitors? " though I'd use the phrasing to "offer them a positive experience" - my phrasing would definitely be interpreted by more than a few to actually exclude flash from the build but that's a non-starter, so moving on...
This is not politics, no, this is actually web-design. Web authors should probably have more than one rendering option, but maybe there is reasons why they don't such as resources or what-have-you.
Also, I'd say this doesn't really do harm to flash, even if this only gets viewed by 100% avid fanboys, it won't make any difference, their minds are set. Obviously it'll get seen by a lot more than that and there are plenty who are invested in Apple hardware who want flash. Lastly, there are those who aren't even in the know, and they will be the ones who wont go and blame Adobe, but will blame either Apple or the site (again, I basically agree with that premise and that there are alternatives that many websites can bring for these type of customers and the 1st & 3rd groups as well).
@Canucker
It's his web site, he can do what he wants. You see, that's called free will, something Jobs is intent on destroying for his profit. This author chose to use the error as a teaching opportunity, since many casual users don't know that it's Steve's personal vendetta that is stopping them from using flash.
@wraith404 it's not steve's personal vendetta.
You see, flash sucks. My macbook pro (15", core i7 8GB RAM) had gone since the launch day without turning the fans on (by this i mean audible-on, so u can hear them) not even by world of warcraft.
yesterday i installed flash, because my sister wanted to see some videos on youtube, and she hated the html5 beta. 1hr into youtube video browsing the fans went on, loud, xbox 360 loud! i uninstalled it today :) no more flash for me :)
BTW, i love adobe, just not flash, hell i use all CS5, bought legitimately :)
Hahahaha clever.
Does this also come up if you don't have flash installed?
@TheAmazingWJV
Yep, my install of Chrome on Windows 7 showed this post.
@Bixmen Ha! That's pretty lame...
I mean I like the error page, but it should give you the option to download Flash.
I dunno, I think those with Flash enabled sites should still use it. Think about it. If you're viewing the error page from a MyTouch or an HD2 or something, the error page isn't wrong in saying Steve Jobs wouldn't want you to view the site with an Apple device.
The only thing that might npt be right about it is if the person viewing it doesn't have a new Apple device. The message does't technically assume that you're viewing the site from an Apple device. Though, it does, of course, imply that you are.
Well even android 2.1 supports flash light so you probably wouldn't see this error message and on my WM phone I just use skyfire on flash pages so I wouldn't see it either.
@nando2323
Yeah! I hate viewing a majority of web video too! I'd much rather Get all of my mobile internet video from a YouTube app that brings only compressed quality and sorrow!
@Levi
You're missing the point. Those videos should not be in a format controlled by one company. Let's say worst came to the worst and Adobe just went out of business in 10 years. What then? We are left with billions of videos all over the world needing to be converted.
In many ways H.264 being controlled by MPEG-LA doesn't resolve this issue but Flash is not the solution we should stick with. Do you think that people will migrate if the same old excuses keep arising like 'most of the world uses it, so let's keep using it'?
Imagine if people said that about IE6.
Everyone is lazy, not just Adobe and we choose to take the path of least resistance but we shouldn't. HTML5 is a better standard to use and we need to actively encourage people to move to it by taking away the other options.
@TinWard
I'm so sick and tired of the Flash vs HTML5 argument. HTML5 is too far away to be argued for right now. The fact that Flash will be around as the major video content delivery system for quite some time is reason enough to continue support. Because guess what? I don't care. I really don't care. There, I said it. Someone had to.
I don't want to wait 2 years for a standard to standardize, and for a large enough quantity of web content to switch over to that new standard. I'm not dedicated enough to The Cause to sacrifice a significant portion of potential enjoyment out of my mobile computing experience just to make sure that the somewhat less closed standard is supported. I don't care; I just want to be able to watch the video that my friends link to in our e-mail group. I just want to be able to watch the neat videos Enadget posts instead of seeing a blue fucking Lego piece. As a consumer, I DON'T CARE.
Furthermore, these changes should come from necessity. And we don't need to change this right now. We've been fine with Flash for years, now all of a sudden it's terrible and awful to support it because it's closed. WE'VE BEEN FINE WITH IT. The ONLY reason people are beginning to whine about this right now is because they read Jpb's crap, maybe the Wii entry for HTML5, then they think they know everything there is to know, and Flash becomes a terrible mutant zombie flesh eating virus of a plugin.
Everyone loves to talk about how bloated Flash is, when really, it's the full screen 720p video decoding that is eating up their resources; it's the overload of vector graphics that's eating up their resources; it's the abundance of animated ads that are eating up their resources. This will all still be there with another standard! Too many ads, computers can only decode HD video so efficiently, vector graphics in Petville and Farmville are very taxing...
FURTERMORE, nobody has been giving Adome a chance to improve their product before verbally raping them! 10.1 has been demonstrated many times on 1GHz phones with 512mb of RAM. There are videos of the previous mobile version of Flash (Lite) being compared, side-by-side, to 10.1, and they are MILES apart in performance. Adobe is clearly improving their product, and it is definitely a viable means to an end.
I'm so tired of this discussion. In the end, what it really comes down to, is that our phones are now very capable of handling web video, and there's a dumb fight between companies and know-it-alls on the internet that prevent us from enjoying that web video on these fully capable devices. We should support what is right, yes; but we shouldn't limit ourselves just to fight the good fight.
So I have to see Steve Jobs everytime i visit an flash site which is auto-blocked by flashblocker.... Great!
Though I think iDevices should change their stance on flash to fill the gap until people transition to using straight HTML(5 or otherwise) and jQuery to add flashiness to their site (In 99% of cases its enough), this really doesn't accomplish anything, most people at this point are well aware their iDevice doesn't run flash. Most sites who care enough to capture the iPad/Phone audience will deliver an alternative flashless site for those users or ditch flash altogether.
IE6 on the other hand needs to die die die. Using this is perfectly acceptable for IE6 users: http://www.thedonutproject.com/2009/05/22/overly-judgemental-ie6-splash-pages/
@SAN66
In truth. Jobs did not have to show is true stripes. if he truely
believed all of the nonsense he's spouting, he simply could have
given enough rope for Adobe to hang themselves. He did not
need to be a jerk and play the role of platform tyrant. He could
have left the issue open and allowed Adobe to drop the ball.
He simply didn't need to play the role of the megalomanical
monopolist just yet. He really didn't need to show his hand.
Although it's significant that he thinks can get away with it
at this point.
LOL. the picture cracked me up
LOL. the picture cracked me up