Monday 26 April 2010

Expression Blend 4 RC Installation – “File is corrupt”

I’ve downloaded Expression Blend 4 RC two times: from Google Chrome and from Download Master. Each downloaded executable behaves the same: it breaks on unpacking with an error “File is corrupt”.

Capture

I’ve googled about it but the only case I’ve found was exactly the same case with Expression Blend 3 installation. The only possible reason for that error was low system memory. I’ve closed all apps and even restarted my laptop but it didn’t help.

What’s the problem, guys?

Thursday 15 April 2010

Opera in AppStore – What’s Next?

firefox_iphone_fakeSo Apple has finally allowed some other browser to enter AppStore. What can be a result of this? When there was only one browser – it seemed fine. But when there are two of them – the third and fourth places are logical to come.

The most probable candidate for next iPhone browser is Mozilla with their Firefox/Fennec. It is now available for Nokia’s Maemo platform only but Mozilla mobile department have nice plans for other platforms too. So why not consider iPhone? Yes, it will be risky, but it will be worth it – iPhone/iPad as a platform is a really nice piece of cake.

Wednesday 14 April 2010

Opera Mini Hits App Store

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Yes, Apple has allowed Opera to push their new mobile browser to AppStore. To be short: it’s AWESOME. Safari loses on every point I’ve checked for about half of an hour. Opera Mini is FAST, has a plenty of options, it can save pages locally and access them without Internet access.

Go get it in AppStore for FREE!

Tuesday 13 April 2010

Apple vs Adobe: Success Story

These days only lazy keeps silent on the hottest ‘companies war’ topic: Apple has completely kicked Adobe out of iPhone/iPad devices. I won’t dive deep into this sole fact as you may read about it here and there:

  1. mashable.com/2010/04/10/steve-jobs-adobe/
  2. billmackin.com/2010/03/can-apple-kill-flash/

The question is: how can this end? Let’s have a look at the best possible (but though realistic) variant. At the end we need two happy companies: Apple and Adobe. What will make Adobe happy:

  1. Adobe Flash on iPhone/iPad – directly or via indirection layer
  2. Access to Mac OS X hardware acceleration API – for Flash Player

What will make Apple happy (keeping in mind same points for Adobe):

  1. Jobs gets his revenge
  2. Mac OS X gets fast and stable Flash Player

This maybe only a shallow view but it covers main points that bother us, users. How can both companies become happy in this conflict? If Apple gives Adobe their p.2, Adobe will provide p.2 that Apple needs. If Apple has nice and fast Flash Player on Mac OS X, why not put it to iPhone/iPad?

The only uncovered point is Jobs’ revenge and it’s the hardest point to answer. Maybe he’ll get satisfied if Adobe products will release for Macs a month before Windows release or some other candy from Adobe that fits his specific taste.

Are these points too hard to match for two mature companies? I think not. So why the hell users suffer the most?