HTML5 alternative to Flash slideshows?

Powderkeg

I have plenty of Flash slideshows embedded in my RW site but clearly this is not the way of the future. Are you working on HTML5 slideshows? Or is there a plugin that will enable me to ditch Flash from my site?

kbbrux

Look at the symNivo plugin

Ken.

I wouldn't count Flash out of the game yet and not for a long time. HTML5 is not a standard yet and may not be for years. What's not being looked at is what happens if you have an HTML5 slideshow now and it's viewed in a browser that does not support it.

kbbrux

agreed with Ken on the point of Flash not disappearing soon. Trust me making something cross platform compliant is not as easy as it sounds

Powderkeg

on 1271515299:

agreed with Ken on the point of Flash not disappearing soon. Trust me making something cross platform compliant is not as easy as it sounds

Thanks, I'll try the plugin you suggest. I am sure you are right that Flash is not going to disappear any time soon, but with iPhone and iPad there are already two important platforms out there that don't and won't support it, and I would rather be compliant with the latest standards than worry about compatibility with outdated browser software.

goinup

there is also weaverpix and a lot of other Stacks out there that do slideshow/photo stuff. you might be interested in those as well. (full disclosure.. i make weaverpix )

Ken.

Taking this perspective out a bit further, you would also need a style sheet to rescale the site to these smaller screens. This is relatively easy where text is concerned. It just rewraps to fit the container. It's complex where images are concerned. Remember JPEG's don't scale well (SVG's do but are largely unsupported). So what size do you work to? The smaller screen or have the end viewer scrolling in all planes? Moving images, such as Flash and video will need players that have intelligent downscaling. I can see all sorts of wackiness.

Going further into the more practical aspects - like the cost to the end viewer of actually viewing "heavy" content. Remember, cell carriers charge per megabit downloaded. Then there's bandwidth issues. WIFI is not an issue but even a static website over 3G can be slow.

There's more hype than reality here. I've seen what Adobe can do. Flash is just one aspect of media content creation that they've mastered. I don't for a second believe the Flash bashing going on. The timing is too perfect and, quite frankly, I haven't had a Flash problem. Portable devices may always have OS limitations. That doesn't make the technology that can't run on them "bad" or the technologies that do run on them "good".

I'm not taking a good or bad, right or wrong, pro or con stance here. I'm taking the practical perspective. While these new "smart", content consumption devices are big news and a trend that will continue across the board they are an evolving technology. In the greater scheme of things they represent a very tiny percentage of the internet capable market. I can just as easily put a static page with a few samples and refer the the viewer to the larger desktop site for a complete viewing experience.

J. Scott Anderson

Ken, before you just drop in a very limited mobile site and just refer them to a desktop version (i.e. treating mobile users second class) take a look at the demographic of those high-end mobile device users. I can't speak for the rest of the world, but in the States, those are usually the more affluent users who don't mind spending money and trying new things. If they have a good experience on your site, they are more likely to buy something. I can't tell you how often I see people popping out their Android, iPhone/iPod touch, and now iPads, at a coffee shop or while walking the mall, and then watch them go ahead and purchase things right there. Even when in people's homes, more often than not people pull out their smart phone to access the web for whatever reasons rather than going to their desk computer to do it.

If the person owns an iPhone or Android phone, I see it far more often than the Blackberry phone (they suck on the web). That is a side not and a bit off topic.

Anyway, I've quit using Flash and really haven't noticed any problems from doing so. My clients have been happier since most of them will check their site on their mobile device and they like how it is not breaking due to Flash.

Anyway, Flash is fine. No flame war intended here, but my browser is *finer* without it. It doesn't crash since I've installed ClickToFlash. So I'll come down on the side of HTML5/CSS/PHP/javascript and stick my Flash tools onto an archive disk. Not to say I won't pull them out if a client needs them, but they are no longer active for me.

Ken.

I agree completely. I don't dismiss them completely, I just weigh the pros and cons for my own needs. Right now it's a concern, but not a major one. I'd rank it somewhere along the lines of IE6 users not being able to view my sites correctly.

Smartphones and browsers are evolving at a crazy fast place. With Google getting behind the very large and powerful Adobe and Flash you have to wonder what's going to happen in the next 6 months. It's also not that hard to go from Flash to a movie format in Adobe. It's just another way to play content.

My long, tired, post was meant to open the discussion and take it out to a larger perspective. Jumping to HTML5 solves the problem - maybe. HTML5 is still in draft - a beta. What works today can either evolve or be changed.

David DelMonte

Yep, we're likely going to have to program for every platform, device and protocol..

Woohoo.