The Tech Bench

Since the release of the first iPhone, one of the features that has been missing is Flash support.

The mobile Safari browser is great, but so many of the online videos and interactive web content is written in Adobe Flash that the lack of a Flash player for the iPhone takes away from the otherwise amazing mobile web experience.

So far, Apple has been vocal in why we don’t need Flash for the iPhone. Their stance is that Flash is a resource hog and that video and interactive web content can be better delivered with other standards like Java (I mostly agree.)

Flash section of Travelocity on the HTC Hero

Adobe, of course, believes in the Flash standard and has demoed the first Android device with Flash built-in, the HTC Hero smartphone.

The demo shows Flash video, a Flash game and interactive Flash web content. The usability looks great and the ability to double-tap to bring the content full screen is nice. The speed is a little on the slow side.

According to Adobe, this version of Flash (built into the phone’s ROM) will play about 80% of the Flash content out there flawlessly.

If Adobe can get Flash to run well on other mobile devices, Apple may come around to supporting the standard in the iPhone.

With Adobe continuing to put resources into making Flash mobile friendly, combined with the increasing performance of smartphones, I’d say there’s a good chance Flash will come to the iPhone.

[ Adobe Press Release ] [ HTC Hero Flash Demo ]

We see a lot of cracked iPod Touch “screens.”

The screen on the iPhone and iPod Touch is made up of the LCD screen (pictured) and the glass covering known as the digitizer.

The digitizer covers the LCD screen and handles the input of the touch screen.

Often when the screen suffers an impact, the digitizer will crack but the LCD will stay in tact.

This second generation iPod Touch suffered a cracked digitizer and is pictured during the repair process before the screen is cleaned and a new digitizer is installed.

Without a digitizer, the iPod is unable to be controlled so this part is crucial to the operation of the Touch.

Digitizer replacements can bring a cracked iPod Touch back to life and full functionality.

[ MyService iPod Touch Digitizer Replacement ]

Many of us iPod Touch owners have been reluctant to upgrade to the new 3.0 software because of the $9.95 price tag. Now to many that might not sound like much but with the pending September iPod refresh (rumored?) it’s enough to keep many of us uninterested.

Just this last weekend I finally broke down and upgraded my iPod and I am glad that I did, the OS was feeling stale and the upgrade gave new life to my iPod.

Below is a short list of features that really make the upgrade worth the cost:

Upgraded Google Maps app (This one is perhaps most notable for me, features that iPhone users got in OS 2.2 such as Google street view, public transit and walking directions, share location via email, and cache of recent locations are now available. All of this is done via Wi-Fi and works remarkably well if you live in an area with a responsible number of Wi-Fi spots. Note that once you have set a route you don’t need to join other Wi-Fi locations to see your current location, they are instead used to triangulate your location in relation to your ‘known’ Wi-Fi spots.)
Cut, Copy & Paste
Landscape view in Notes & Mail apps
Voice Memo app (memos can be trimmed directly from the app and sync as a “Voice Memos” playlist)
Upgraded Notes app (Finally syncs to the Mac OS Mail application)
Spotlight search
Bluetooth unlock
Upgraded iTunes app (Movies, TV shows, Audiobooks, and iTunes U content can now be purchased directly from the iPod)
Shake to undo/redo typing
Shake to shuffle in Music app

Apple’s iDisk makes securely sending large files easy as email.

Included with the MobileMe service, iDisk is an Apple hosted storage service that allows you to backup, sync and share files using 20GBs of online space.

Here’s how it works:

1. Upload your file (any size up to your storage limit) to iDisk.

2. Log into MobileMe from any computer’s web browser.

3. Select the file and click the “share button.”

4. The pictured drop down will allow you to send a link to the file via email. You can password protect the file and have the link expire after a set number of days.

While there are other online services like GigaSize to transfer large files, the iDisk interface is fast and easy for the recipient to access. If you have MobileMe, this is a great way to securely share files.

[ MobileMe ] [ iDisk ]