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Open Standard, Insert Foot

By | August 31, 2010, 5:28pm PDT

Summary: Apple makes everyone’s heads spin in confusion today.


The System, By Rosscott

There are times when some companies just make it too easy to bash them for what is obviously a bonehead comment or blunder. Today, Apple did just that.

“Viewing requires either a Mac® running Safari® on Mac OS® X version 10.6 Snow Leopard®, an iPhone® or iPod touch® running iOS 3.0 or higher, or an iPad™.”

On what planet is the requirement of a specific OS type and version, browser, and hardware platform considered to be open?

I will rightfully criticize anything that deserves it; I have no partisanship towards any particular operating system, or hardware. I personally use multiple platforms in home and business; the best tool for the job is my motto when it comes to technology.

This one just takes the cake. In the past, Apple has been upbraided by many people–including me–for exaggerations, half-truths, and outright lies. This one just makes my head spin.

Open means ALL platforms have access to it. Open means that you can use it on any hardware, any browser, any device. It means that it can be ported to those platforms without restriction.

Apple’s “open standards” are as open as RIM’s encrypted email, where India wants access to the decrypted messages. It’s as open as what goes on behind closed doors at the NSA, what goes on in offshore CIA prisons, and as open as the secret Vatican archives–If Dan Brown says they exist, then that’s good enough for me!

Come on, Apple. You’re just coming off of the fiasco of the iPhone 4 antenna debacle, and now you pull this for your next song and dance–sorry, I mean your next press release event. At least kiss us first this time.

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Open Standard, Scott Raymond

Scott Raymond has been a technologist and system administrator for over 25 years.

Disclosure

Scott Raymond

I am the IT Manager for a high end audio and network systems integrator in northern Califronia. My wife works at Adobe Systems, Inc. Whenever I write an article that might involve Adobe or its products, I add a disclaimer at the top of the article to make sure she is not involved in any way. We have a small bit of stock with AT&T and no other major investments that would cause conflict.

Biography

Scott Raymond

Scott Raymond has been a technologist and system administrator for over 25 years. Starting as a hobbyist in his teens, Scott quickly learned that he could translate his passion and knowledge into a full-time career. He currently works as the IT Manager for a high end audio and network systems integrator in northern California. He has written technology articles for various publications in the past and began contributing to ZDnet as a guest blogger on Jason Perlow's Tech Broiler. Scott and Jason met in New York in the 1990s where they co-managed the New York City Palm Pilot Users' Group.

In his spare time, Scott is a trained chef and avid bicycling enthusiast, as well as a voracious reader of historical, science and horror fiction. He is a huge fan of pop culture, with a wide range of interest in TV shows, movies and games.

Talkback Most Recent of 33 Talkback(s)

  • Don't care about flash myself.. from what I've read
    about it and adobe it seems like bad ju-ju, and I've never had an occasion where i needed it.

    Now what are you complaining about anyway is it Flash? The iPhone 4? Or something else?

    Pagan jim
    ZDNet Gravatar
    James Quinn
    31st Aug 2010
  • RE: Open Standard, Insert Foot
    So when Apple says "open standards" what they really mean is "Our proprietary protocols that only work on Apple products"
    ZDNet Gravatar
    putty.master
    31st Aug 2010
  • "Open" as in
    @putty.master
    ... an open standard that anyone can code to. Only no one really has yet (or so I'm told).
    ZDNet Gravatar
    macadam
    2nd Sep 2010
  • RE: Open Standard, Insert Foot
    Open, just like free, is an overloaded word. Regarding freedom, the BSD people sneer at GPL folks who in turn snipe at proprietary. Dr. Goslin said, with regards to freedom, Sun meant the freedom of developers to run binaries on all, er, many, well, some platforms without modifications. Well, that's certainly a, um, special use of the word.

    The astute reader will note that I changed the subject. I did so because I hope you see my point: when ever any one says we are [fill in warm, fuzzy, and buzzy here], it is usually expressed within a context and from a certain perspective and one advantageous to them.

    And people with different agendas, contexts, and perspectives call them liars.

    Ah, the old ennui. There's got to be some reason why I have to take breaks from the babble chamber here.

    Apple says "we care about the interface and the performance and Flash takes some of that out of our hands." Others say that their priority is allowing users to configure and optimize their own experience (well, I'm not sure the carriers quite signed off on that memo.) You prefer the latter? Lemon drops and cherry pie!!!! You got a phone, shoot, lots of them and a new one every few weeks, waiting for you. How cool is that? (TM) Go Krazy!!

    Apple thinks its customers are different than you. (Certainly not me, because I'm buying their stuff.) If Apple is wrong, and the phones stop selling, they'll adapt. Evidently, they don't see where they've miscalculated, yet.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    DannyO_0x98
    31st Aug 2010
  • RE: Open Standard, Insert Foot
    @DannyO_0x98
    Pretty good take on the subject .. Enjoyed reading your comments.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    kenosha77a
    31st Aug 2010
  • RE: Open Standard, Insert Foot
    Apple limiting their mega media live video streaming event to just Apple devices? Didn't this rather "odd" behavior raise at least one "red flag" around ZDNet bloggers .. Scott Raymond included.

    I suspect that this is simply a trial run of technology that Apple will use in a future product and/or service and what better way to perform a "shake down cruise" than to limit this trial to optimized Apple equipment and software.

    Did this idea ever occur to you, Raymond? Or did you just want to go for the "cheap shots"? Perhaps that's "way unfair" but really, your bias against Apple shows .. Just as my bias towards Apple products shows. It will be interesting to see if my insight might prove correct tomorrow. At any rate, I'll probably watch at least some segments of this event on my iPad .. Just to satisfy my curiosity over how live media events can be viewed on my iPad .. Both over my home WiFi and then over my 3G AT&T service.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    kenosha77a
    31st Aug 2010
  • RE: Open Standard, Insert Foot
    @kenosha7777 - are you for real? I've seen some Apple apologists in my time, but I think you take the biscuit.

    Rather than accept that Apple's behavior is becoming increasingly distasteful, as evidenced by their handling of the iPhone4's antenna issue and now this "you can only watch the live webcast if you buy one of our devices", you try to defend them with some fabricated excuse?

    Live webcasts are not a difficult thing to implement these days. There's no need to run a "shake down cruise" of your bi-annual press conference & product tour because there are any number of companies who'd be only too delighted to stream the content of your event world-wide to ANY computer able to talk TCP and able to render video encoded in any one of a number of standard formats.

    Sorry, but I much prefer Apple when it was the David to the industry's Goliaths rather than assuming it was the second coming.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    De-Void
    2nd Sep 2010
  • Hold on...Open Standard is very different from Open Source
    Open Standard actually means anyone is allowed to adopt it as a certified standard for it's purpose. So Scott you know what to do with your own foot.

    MPEG2 (DVDs) is an ISO/IEC Open Standard
    WebM is Open Source
    H.264 (Blu-ray) is an ISO/IEC Open Standard
    OGG Theora is Open Source

    Apple is talking about the IETF HTTP Streaming Protocol which I believe uses the MPEG2 transport mechanism, they will be using it to stream the event live. It is an open standard or soon will be. I believe it is now going through the IETF standards process as we speak.

    If no one else is supporting this open standard yet then what are you going to do? They will. Same thing happened with USB and Firewire.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    CowLauncher
    31st Aug 2010
  • ZDnet has come to this -
    The guy openly (pun intended) says - 'open means all platforms have access to it' - really? what is a portable application then?
    ZDNet Gravatar
    iravgupta
    1st Sep 2010
  • RE: Open Standard, Insert Foot
    @ravi16aug - Firefox is available on pretty much every platform. As is Opera. And Chrome. And Gimp. Heck, even Microsoft Office is available for Windows and Mac.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    De-Void
    2nd Sep 2010
  • You're calling MS Office an open standard???
    @De-Void
    nt
    ZDNet Gravatar
    macadam
    2nd Sep 2010
  • RE:"the fiasco of the iPhone 4 antenna debacle"
    After using an iPhone 4--without a case of any kind--for a month, I can tell you that the media-fueled "debacle" was a total load of hooey (aka BS)!
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Userama
    1st Sep 2010
  • Scott Raymond.. get a clue.. how far is your foot down your throat?
    Is HTML 5 an open standard? YES. does that mean i can use any browser to view any HTML 5 compliant content.. NO! The browsers need to be updated to actually use and adhere to he standard.. open means anyone is fee to use the standard if they so please.. your criticism demonstrates complete and utter ignorance of this subject area.. in future please write about thing you know about or you'll again end up looking like a complete fool.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    doctorSpoc
    1st Sep 2010
  • RE: Open Standard, Insert Foot
    @doctorSpoc . I agree with most of your post except the first part (unfortunately it seems that the remainder is based on the first premise...so...). HTML 5 is not a standard. It's still changing, it's still in the review process and will continue to dangle there for a few more years (2020?). It's like saying "this is a standard meter" and two weeks later someone walks by with a slightly shorter "meter". Oops, let's remeasure that map again!

    HTML5 is still evolving, and has just recently (as in "mere weeks ago") settled down on a streaming technology. They're still debating about dozens of other features. In the meantime, the web is still evolving, CPU's are still doubling in capability every 24 months, memory is still growing. And all the while Flash is still the best tool for creating top notch interactive content in a production environment. It's the only thing out there that truly is independent of platform - even more so than HTML5, or anything apple ever built.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    rock06r
    1st Sep 2010
  • well we can't wait forever for these guys...
    @rock06r - 802.11n was ratified like last year or something... and yet ever wireless router manufacture just built as best they could to the draft n spec for many years now.. and they worked very well in the interim.. a few small incompatibilities here and there, but the world moves on with or without ratification.. you don't.. you can't wait for complete ratification to start implementing, by that time the tech will likely not even be relevant anymore.. you work with the draft.. work with other devs and when they cross the last "t" and dot the last "i" you wiggle your code to match.. not ideal, but it is what is done.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    doctorSpoc
    1st Sep 2010
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