Non-apple user has a questions for apple users

jbcohen · 11-18-2010, 09:10 AM

To what extent can apple software make use of indistry standard formats such as epub, TCP/IP, DOC and HTML?

I understand that apple software does not work well with Shockwave, which seems to be industry standard.

xristy · 11-18-2010, 09:26 AM

There's been ample coverage of the issues that Apple / Jobs have with Adobe's proprietary format, Flash. Excepting that major feature of the modern landscape you should be aware that Apple has embraced HTML5 and ePub and so on.

Did I just feed a troll?

vonCZ · 11-18-2010, 09:33 AM

Apple still resisting 1's and 0's, relying on proprietary i1 and i0.

Rob_E · 11-18-2010, 09:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jbcohen

To what extent can apple software make use of indistry standard formats such as epub, TCP/IP, DOC and HTML?

I understand that apple software does not work well with Shockwave, which seems to be industry standard.

epub: There are a number of programs that run on Apple hardware that will display, edit, convert epub files.

TCP/IP isn't file format, but rather it's a network protocol. Apple supports it just fine, as far as I know. Any computer I've used in the last 5 years or so, Mac or Windows, handles networking fairly well behind the scenes.

Doc is specific to Microsoft Office, which has a Mac and a Windows version. .doc files can be opened and edited by either version. The only place it gets tricky is with the newest version of Office, which introduces a new file format that can't be read by older versions of Office, whether those older versions are on a Mac or a Windows machine.

HTML files are read by your browser, and almost all the main browsers that you would find on a Windows machine has a Mac version as well.

Shockwave is, I believe, part of Flash. Apple's mobile devices don't support Flash, but plugins are available for their desktop browsers, just like they are for Windows. There are some people who feel that the Flash plugins that Adobe offers for Apple computers don't work as well as the Windows versions. I don't know if there have been actual tests to show that, but I have no problem visiting Flash sites on my desktop.

tubemonkey · 11-18-2010, 10:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vonCZ

Apple still resisting 1's and 0's, relying on proprietary i1 and i0.

ShortNCuddlyAm · 11-18-2010, 10:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rob_E

Doc is specific to Microsoft Office, which has a Mac and a Windows version. .doc files can be opened and edited by either version. The only place it gets tricky is with the newest version of Office, which introduces a new file format that can't be read by older versions of Office, whether those older versions are on a Mac or a Windows machine.

Pages (from Apple's iWork office suite) can open both .doc and .docx files and save as (well, export to) .doc files - although I've only tried it with 2007 .docx files, not 2010 ones

menevets · 11-18-2010, 11:07 AM

Video playing has decent coverage, but Flash games and apps aren't going to work. Once in a while I get an interactive diagram I'd like to use, like the midterm elections app in the NYT, so I had to wait till I was using a notebook to use it.

I was surprised at the number of sites I could play video in a browser.

See here for a list of sites that use html5 with the iPad in mind:

http://www.apple.com/ipad/ready-for-ipad/

I miss having Flash, but not that often.

Rob_E · 11-18-2010, 11:21 AM

The problem is that the OP just says "Apple."

If they mean "iPad" and/or "iPhone" the answers are different.

I do not feel at all limited on the desktop, but the iPad, does lack Flash support, and there are other limitations that have more to do with the iOS then they have to do with Apple vs. Windows.

John F · 11-18-2010, 12:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rob_E

...

Doc is specific to Microsoft Office, which has a Mac and a Windows version. .doc files can be opened and edited by either version. The only place it gets tricky is with the newest version of Office, which introduces a new file format that can't be read by older versions of Office, whether those older versions are on a Mac or a Windows machine.

...

I thought "doc" was an open standard?

Rob_E · 11-18-2010, 01:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by John F

I thought "doc" was an open standard?

I think its most common, most current usage, "doc" refers to Microsoft Word's default (or former default) format which is not an open standard, although there are many programs that will work with .doc format files, converting files to and from Microsoft's proprietary .doc format.

However, historically there have been other definitions applied to the "doc" format according to the all-knowing Wikipedia.

I assumed the OP was talking about Microsoft's proprietary .doc format because that's the usage I'm most familiar with.

John F · 11-18-2010, 02:00 PM

I was referring to "doc" as in the ",doc" extension for MS office documents. I guess I was using the term "open standard" incorrectly. Maybe "doc" is more of a defacto standard? I guess I don't think of it as proprietary, since just about everything can read/write it, and there are no licensing fees (I think).

Tamara · 11-19-2010, 01:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by John F

I thought "doc" was an open standard?

Doc is a proprietary Microsoft office standard. RTF or TXT would be open standard.

Dylrob · 11-19-2010, 04:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tamara

Doc is a proprietary Microsoft office standard. RTF or TXT would be open standard.

RTF is not an open standard. It too is technically proprietary to Microsoft.

Tamara · 11-20-2010, 02:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dylrob

RTF is not an open standard. It too is technically proprietary to Microsoft.

My bad. I completely forgot that

.

11-18-2010, 09:10 AM	#1
jbcohen Wizard Posts: 3,032 Karma: 11196738 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Where am I? Device: Kindle Paperwhite Signature edition and a Samsung S24 Ultra	Non-apple user has a questions for apple users To what extent can apple software make use of indistry standard formats such as epub, TCP/IP, DOC and HTML? I understand that apple software does not work well with Shockwave, which seems to be industry standard.

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11-18-2010, 09:26 AM	#2
xristy Connoisseur Posts: 54 Karma: 210 Join Date: Sep 2007 Device: iPad	There's been ample coverage of the issues that Apple / Jobs have with Adobe's proprietary format, Flash. Excepting that major feature of the modern landscape you should be aware that Apple has embraced HTML5 and ePub and so on. Did I just feed a troll?

11-18-2010, 09:33 AM	#3
vonCZ Connoisseur Posts: 53 Karma: 286 Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Rakovnik, Czech Device: iPad, iPhone 4	Apple still resisting 1's and 0's, relying on proprietary i1 and i0.

11-18-2010, 11:07 AM	#7
menevets Connoisseur Posts: 88 Karma: 750010 Join Date: Nov 2009 Device: PRS-300/Kindle 4 basic/iPad/iPod Touch/iPhone/Nexus 7	Video playing has decent coverage, but Flash games and apps aren't going to work. Once in a while I get an interactive diagram I'd like to use, like the midterm elections app in the NYT, so I had to wait till I was using a notebook to use it. I was surprised at the number of sites I could play video in a browser. See here for a list of sites that use html5 with the iPad in mind: http://www.apple.com/ipad/ready-for-ipad/ I miss having Flash, but not that often.

11-18-2010, 11:21 AM	#8
Rob_E Connoisseur Posts: 73 Karma: 154004 Join Date: Aug 2010 Device: iPod Touch/iPad	The problem is that the OP just says "Apple." If they mean "iPad" and/or "iPhone" the answers are different. I do not feel at all limited on the desktop, but the iPad, does lack Flash support, and there are other limitations that have more to do with the iOS then they have to do with Apple vs. Windows.

11-18-2010, 02:00 PM	#11
John F Grand Sorcerer Posts: 7,941 Karma: 70583139 Join Date: Feb 2009 Device: Kobo Clara 2E	I was referring to "doc" as in the ",doc" extension for MS office documents. I guess I was using the term "open standard" incorrectly. Maybe "doc" is more of a defacto standard? I guess I don't think of it as proprietary, since just about everything can read/write it, and there are no licensing fees (I think).

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