(Image courtesy of Engadget)
It seems inevitable that after a major product announcement like the twin MacBook Air models released by Apple on Wednesday, early adopters always find some bugaboo to complain about. This time it’s a most curious one, since the new diskless models are shipping without Adobe Flash installed.
AppleInsider is reporting that scattered reports are claiming that Adobe Flash is not preinstalled on the new 11.6-inch and 13.3-inch MacBook Air models, a curious omission given that Apple has always shipped their computers with the software loaded and ready to go.
Of course, in the grand scheme of things, the move isn’t all that strange -- after all, as Engadget notes, “Flash doesn’t come standard on a lot of machines, even for Windows.” Given the recent rocky relationship between Apple and Adobe over Flash on iOS devices, we have to wonder if this isn’t another way of Cupertino letting the world know that Flash truly stinks as much as they’ve led us all to believe.
Just because Flash isn’t preinstalled doesn’t mean it won’t work on the new MacBook Airs -- you’ll just have to head over to Adobe.com, download it and install it yourself, and Engadget notes they “are happy to report the Air plays 720p video great.”
We have to wonder how many first-time MacBook Air buyers will load up Safari and see a screen like the one above at their first stop with Flash-loaded pages, thinking something is wrong with their machine?
Follow this article’s author, J.R. Bookwalter on Twitter
BeaMeUp
October 22, 2010 at 12:57pm
Windows machines don't have Flash installed either, you have to do it yourself.
r0ver4g
October 21, 2010 at 1:45pm
Wow, that is so interesting! I can't believe it doesn't come with Flash, but at least it works on it unlike the iPad (lame!). I'd be more concerned with getting internet. Netbooks are basically just for browsing, and the Air has Wi-Fi capability so I would suggest the Rover Puck 4G. 4G is the fastest kind of mobile internet out there, and has no data caps from Rover. Plus, it's prepaid for as long as you want it so you're not locked into a contract. It's worth checking out, whether you are getting a new Air or you just want internet with you on whatever you're using already.
Jamala at Rover.com
Dirk Pitt
October 21, 2010 at 1:14pm
Does Adobe invent in making the Mac Book Air??? No! Adobe thinks they own the internet, why does apple need to install "Flash" I never bought a machine that had it installed. If "Flash" is truly internet base, the install when you buy the machine. But NO the author of this article probably cried when we bought a glass and found out that he need to go get water for it on his own.
WaltFrench
October 21, 2010 at 9:25am
You'll recall that Apple got grief for shipping Snow Leopard install disks with a version of Adobe Flash that had been replaced with an important security update sometime after the disk went Golden Master.
So Apple is bad for shipping Flash, and now it's bad for not shipping it.
The whole thing about Adobe would go away if they would just ship a decent version of it for the various platforms that people actually use to browse the web in 2010.
noibs
October 21, 2010 at 8:29am
There are two ways to respond to this article:
1. Apple owes Adobe nothing and should give them nothing. When Adobe thought they could get away with, they virtually abandoned the Mac during the dark says of Apple. In addition, their software is over-priced, buggy, and has the worst type of copy protection that I've seen. I wish they would fail and if Apple can hasten their failure, then good.
2. Flash is full of security holes. Everyone knows this. There are new versions of Flash released on a regular basis to plug these holes. Whatever version of Flash Apple might include with new Macs would be out-of-date (and insecure) almost immediately. In addition, by including insecure software with new Macs, Apple might be partially liable. It's better to force users to download a completely new version of Flash if that user wants to. I'm a Mac user and I do install Flash; however, I use extensions in all of my browsers so that I have to click on a Flash object in a browser in order to see that object. I end up clicking on about 5% of Flash objects. Personally, I wish Flash would die a fast death along with Adobe
