An Apple content sales agenda — sell more movies! — was the only reason my pal could figure his girlfriend’s iPad was Flash-less. He was right about one thing: the iPad is a lot better at letting you consume information than producing it. It’s a weakness that might be firmed up in the second 100 days of the product’s life. When there’s about 7 million of them in the marketplace.

But Flash? It’s sort of a hot topic if you have to view it on Apple’s business products — or anybody else’s. Hot as in spin your fan, heat your laptop bottom, slow your user experience down. It’s not the content, it’s the compromise. That’s what drove Flash off iPhones and the iPad. Apple doesn’t want us to get burned by the power demands of Flash.

Want to view the future of a Web without Flash? It’s coming, and it’s arrived first on your iPad screen.

My friend Guy, who runs a bang-up marketing strategy company, said Apple wants nothing to do with technology that will weaken its content sales; thus, no Flash. And yet, there’s a Flash-free Netflix app, producing thousands and thousands of hours of content, approved by Apple for the iPad. Same for ABC TV. BBC. NPR. YouTube. All iPad apps. If Apple was barring the door to content-tech, how’d they let Netflix et al get past ‘em?

Maybe Herr Jobs was washing his turtlenecks that day. (Bah-dump-bump! “Thank you, I’ll be here all week. Be sure to tip your waitress. Try the veal.”)

I don’t miss Flash on my iPad. If I must simply must view it, I curse the laggard content provider and fire up my MacBook Pro. And then keep it off my bare legs. And plug it in after 45 minutes.

You don’t need to be an engineer to know Flash is a performance bog. Flash-happy Farmville starts up on my iMac (Intel Core 2 Duo) and then pegs my CPU at plus-100%. So the Mac starts swapping out to 4GB of memory. Same effect on my battery-powered laptop (Intel Core Duo). Battery life there about 30 percent less, I’d estimate, than with non-Flash use. Farmville has a theme song you can’t turn off — the music of fan RPM.

These days I sigh when I bump into Flash at the front of a website. “Not clever enough to compel me with anything more fundamental and less invasive,” I think. For those hiring Flash developers, I hope it’s at the insistence of their clients. Web design ought to strive for as simple a level of tech as possible. Simpler, more secure tech=more eyeballs, I believe. (To paraphrase Homer Simpson, “Stupid marketers. Be more clever!)

So in contrast, Guy believes the world is so much better on the alternative to iPad/iPhone, Planet Android. There’s plenty of people who claim to understand why Google just killed off its latest Android experiment, the Nexus One unlocked phone.

I love it when anyone outside of Google (myself too!) pretends to know what course that Death Star will take. The world is littered with experiments, flung onto your disk drives and theirs, that Google hopes will stick. Wave. Buzz. Voice. Blogger blogs with FTP posting (my personal gripe; Google is so advanced that FTP blog support has dropped outside its ken.) On and on the brilliant catalog of shooting stars goes — and tracking them is like trying to ascertain the political and economic principles of China. Inscrutable, they both are.

And so there’s Android to admire — but not trust just yet for smartphone mail. According to a writer at InfoWorld, it still won’t support enterprise business-level Exchange: “The newest Android OS’s claims over Exchange support obscure a key fact: It’s not really there.” Froyo is still waiting on support for *secured* Exchange accounts, says Galen Gruman:

“If you’re looking for a smartphone to use at work, forget the advertising and marketing claims. The truth is that you have three viable options: a BlackBerry, an iPhone (though not for highest-level security needs), and a Windows Mobile device. Although Google and its Android allies talk up Exchange support, the truth is that Android is a couple years behind Apple and a decade behind Microsoft and RIM in corporate Exchange support. That means Android is fine for personal use — and for personal use only.”

Gadzooks! Forget advertising and marketing marketing claims? How will we ever decide what to buy, or love, or despise? Oh yeah, there’s that Internet thingy with all those long threads, relating personal experience with products and technology.

Me, I’m satisfied being an iPad owner who doesn’t endure Flash. If only the file transfers were well-designed for this 100-day-old product. I’d put that one at a higher consumer satisfaction priority than Flash support.

Text’nDrive, sold for a hearty $19.95 for the iPhone, reads incoming emails aloud, according to its press release.

One thing that’s a little more difficult to do is check my email while I’m stuck in rush hour traffic on my way to work. And if you commute in California, I know you feel my pain. If you hate wasting that time like I do however, I highly recommend you take a look at Textn’Drive. This is an application that will read your emails out loud to you as they come in (Hands free ,I might add!) and let you reply. It’s a great way to stay safe on the road while staying caught up with work.

You may need advanced driving skills to be able to concentrate on traffic and your mail at the same time. The hands-free aspect of multitasking solves only part of the challenges in controlling a car at 60MPH while you review your correspondence. But if the prospect sounds enticing, you can cruise to the iTunes app store for more details and a chance to drive your communication longer and faster.

“In a warehouse, your travel time to pick orders is 50 percent of an employee’s time,” says Tim Markley, president of Elkhart (Ind.)-based Markley Enterprise, a 75-person firm that designs marketing displays for stores and trade shows. “We put pedometers on our people and we actually saw steps decrease by 30 percent with the iPad,” he says.

The BusinessWeek site also has confirmation that much larger companies, such as Wells Fargo, are adopting Apple’s large-format business tool.

In addition to complimentary registration, we’re offering exclusive summer special pricing on Apple-related products for Macworld registrants only. We’ll offer one product special a day.

This event is the best way for a small business to research and evaluate new products, especially those that don’t have an ad budget or strong outreach to the business press. You can register at the website and learn a great deal just off the show floor, but adding sessions to your show package is well worth the extra $100 or so.

TARMAC is billed as the first professional provisioning tool tailored specifically for the Apple platform. Medium to large enterprises can use it to securely set up and manage their iPhones and iPads over-the-air.

“TARMAC is a milestone for the use of the iPhone and iPad in businesses,”said equinux CEO Till Schadde. “We’ve tailored TARMAC specifically to [Apple's iOS mobile] platform rather than for a myriad of other devices. TARMAC is the only dedicated solution for the iPhone and iPad, making no technical compromises.”

Businesses can use TARMAC to remotely set up their iPhones and iPads without needing to manually connect them to a machine. TARMAC Server operates within a company’s network and using an existing directory service to automatically create personalized user profiles.

TARMAC is installed as middleware on a company’s network, and supports directory services in Active Directory, Open Directory, Open LDAP and MySQL databases. The configuration settings available in TARMAC guarantee safety in provisioning iPhones and iPads.

To install a profile on their iPhone or iPad themselves, users simply log in to the TARMAC web interface via the company’s intranet or over a secure internet connection and follow a few simple steps. Installation requires an Intel-based Mac running Mac OS X 10.5 or newer (Client and Server). TARMAC is being moved into reseller channels now, as well as via Apple consultants. For more information via a whitepaper, visit the equinux website.

As a portable office, the iPhone/Touch version of these apps were a marvel, but something only the most stranded of business users would rely upon. The software’s reach just didn’t fit in the tiny iPhone screen. If you were stubborn enough, you could use the spreadsheet for taking down figures.

On the iPad’s spacious geography, the software opens up and gives you a great alternative to $30 worth of Apple’s Pages, Numbers and Keynote for the iPad. Everything that Quickoffice creates can be used in Microsoft’s Office applications on the Mac.

Quickoffice has designed a unique interface to take advantage of the iPad’s multitouch abilities. The developer says the app also includes

Power Edit Mode – Easily make edits across your entire document or spreadsheet with our Multi-Edit Toolbox. Quickly format text, numbers, paragraphs, backgrounds, and cells without opening and closing multiple menus. Great for power users and beginners alike.

Single Screen Viewing – Experience the easiest and most intuitive way to navigate horizontally and vertically through your folders and files, and conveniently review file information within a single-screen view.

Advanced Touch Control – Enjoy managing your files with our simple-to-use touch, tap, and drag controls in our advanced Connected File Manager. Scroll in any direction and drag and drop to e-mail, move, copy, and delete files on your iPad or in your remote storage account.

Smooth Page Scrolling – Amazingly cool, single-touch navigation lets you preview page thumbnails and jump to any page in any size document.

Although the iPhone was roundly hooted at when Apple introduced its first enterprise features — such as the ability to handle Microsoft Exchange mail on the iPhone’s Mail client — the phones have become a staple of business users around the world. IT managers have learned they can’t keep iPhones out of company networks, so they’re resigned to admitting them and are now employing them as IT tools.

Absolute Manage has a single feature that can sell it to any company using Apple’s mobile products. An administrator can wipe a computer or phone’s data off the device if it’s been stolen or lost. iOS 4 devices (which could be any 4G or 3GS phone) can also be locked with a remote command in an emergency, or have their passcode cleared for data protection.

These iOS 4 devices can also be used, with the Absolute Manage software, by IT managers to

• Manage user profiles
• Manage provisioning profiles
• Inventory installed third-party applications (custom developed, or from the AppStore)
• Gather device lifecycle management information from the devices

“We are extending our long-standing focus on lifecycle management for Apple products to include robust management for iPhone,” said the company’s CEO John Livingston. “With our forthcoming solution, IT will be able to address brand-new challenges such as managing in-house applications and managing iOS device configuration.”

The Absolute product suite goes beyond the management of Apple’s desktop and mobile products; companies can also use the software to manage PC Windows devices. Absolute said the iOS 4 support is scheduled to arrive in Q3 of 2010.

If only the new iPad could be so lucky to be so well protected. We’ve been using the tablet since its release, but nary an update is to be downloaded to advance the device’s security.

The 10.6.4 version of Snow Leopard, which is a 17-minute download on a middle-fast DSL line, introduces new protection to prevent back door attacks on Macs through the iPhoto software that ships with every system. A new feature called XProtect gets an update that keeps hackers from installing malware by fooling users into thinking iPhoto is at work, when damage is being done.

An update of a Mac’s operating system for security reasons — that’s a good idea. But Apple doesn’t have a practice of identifying security holes they patch with a new release. And sometimes a new OS version will make software stop running on a Mac. This is why backups are a vital complement to any security updating.Apple has brought out four updates to the Snow Leopard version of its OS now, updates that cover just a nine-month period. Not every one had a security benefit. But the state of security is so tenuous now that your Adobe PDF software, browser, and OS should be considered at risk if you haven’t seen an update in 90 days.

Browsers and Adobe software are the chief targets for hackers, since they cover so many more victims than just Apple’s products. More than 360 million people are using Firefox as a browser, for example, on both PCs and Macs. Adobe’s Flash and Acrobat readers run on hundreds of millions of systems. Adobe just introduced a 9.3.3 version of Acrobat to improve security.

As diligent as Apple and Adobe might be (some say Apple’s sluggish at best about security plugs), the vendors can’t do a thing to help secure your business if you don’t install updates. The rule of thumb was once “don’t install if you don’t need” an update. But security issues are much more serious by now. You can balance the time spent downloading and upgrading, the checks of your applications afterward, against the dangers of running an unprotected system.

About 30 minutes of downloading and watching mysterious messages — things like “optimizing” or “unpacking packages” or “moving items into place” or “registering components” — plus a reboot, and my iMac was running 10.6.4. I did the usual first step after an upgrade — started all the apps that matter to my workplace.

The Apple apps don’t need checking — Apple’s done that in its own labs. But the likes of Adobe CS apps, QuickBooks 2010, Microsoft Office apps and even reliables like Eudora, an antique mail program. 10.6.4 updates Apple’s Mail, as it turns out — so my add on Mail Tags software needs to be updated.

Mail checks get easier

Apple’s Steve Jobs waltzed around onstage for more than 90 minutes this morning, much of it showing off the soon-to-be-shipping iPhone 4 at the Apple WorldWide Developers’ Conference. While the new phone is 24 percent thinner than the current iPhones, the most impressive business feature comes from the new iPhone OS. Apple has renamed this operating environment iOS, because it runs the iPods, iPads, and the phone.

iOS 4 makes a distinct difference to Apple’s Mail program on the iPhone and the iPad and Touch iPod. Instead of breaking down your mail checking into multiple tries, Mail now consolidates your different accounts into a single “All Inboxes” menu item.

The current state of affairs is frustrating if you use more than one mail account, which is the case for so many small businesspeople. Your personal email goes to a separate account — or at least a separate email address. The new iOS 4 understands that you’ve got multiple personalities for mail.

The iOS 4 will be available to the iPhone and iPod Touch users later this month. The new environment brings things like a $4.99 iMovie, a choice of search engines including Microsoft’s Bing (take that, Google) and a PDF viewer that’s going to make long documents easier to read on Apple’s mobile devices. The Reader will be worked right into the iBooks application.

Oh yeah, and there’s that multitasking thing in the new iOS4, too. Palm hammered Apple on it all of last year until the Palmsters had to sell themselves off to HP. It was not a big enough deal to save the Pre, but Apple’s got the feature now. It’s probably best used with the newest Apple mobile devices, though — for reasons below.

Using iOS 4, there are now folders to organize that mess of apps so many of us have on our Apple mobile devices. But perhaps the best news of all for business phone users involves battery life. The new Apple chip just made things last a lot longer.

The Apple A4 processor made its debut on the iPad this spring, and for us it’s made battery management while surfing the Web a non-issue. Of course Apple’s made the A4 a crucial part of the new iPhone 4. Jobs claims 7 hours of talk time (3G), 6 hours of Web surfing (3G.) And 300 hours of standby.

The multitasking becomes possible because of A4 — which is not inside your 3GS phone, or the 3G, or the Touch. The new iPad’s got the A4, though, and multitasking is headed there, too.

Apple is hitting the Android/Google competition in the most vulnerable spot. Android phones roll kill off their batteries in under a day’s Web use. The ability to take a phone on sales and client calls, use it without regard for performance, and return to base at day’s end without a recharge required in an automobile charger — well, it’s going to take a specialized chip in Android phones to match that. Even with the latest Froyo version of Android’s OS.

FaceTime between Steve and Jony

There’s a front-facing video camera for conferencing over 3G on the new phone, FaceTime video calling. The app only works over WiFi connects for now, something of a black eye for ATT and its 3G network. It works with both front-facing and forward-facing cameras; you can see an Apple demo of it around the 45-second mark of this video on YouTube.

FaceTime was the “one more thing” that has become a trademark of a Jobs keynote. It’s the most forward-leaping feature of the new iOS 4, but it was demonstrated calling top Apple designer Jonathan Ives, as well as a video between family members. Not strictly a business feature, but expect it to be used for more business two-person meetings and face-time. Thus the name, of course. FaceTime requires the new iPhone 4.

The iOS 4 becomes available June 21, and it’s a free upgrade to users of the iPhone all but the oldest iPod Touch devices. (No word on the iPad availability, but expect it to be simultaneous.) The iPhone 4 goes on sale June 24, and ATT will let anyone with a contract that expires during 2010 upgrade their phone.

And that 3GS, still the leading iPhone lineup until the 24th? Starting that day, the device introduced just last year sells for $99 — and you don’t have to buy it at WalMart to get that price.

A slide-by-slide summary of the Jobs keynote at the conference is online at Engadget’s website. CNET has a darn good summary with pictures, too.

Picking a browser is like choosing a home repair store. You develop a habit of using one and stop thinking about the alternatives. Chrome is definitely a faster browser than Firefox in our use, delivering a payoff in the “time is money” formula. If you browse a lot, Chrome could be an upgrade. (Safari’s performance is much closer to Chrome’s)

But Chrome’s got some steps to catch up in other areas. In the Mac version we downloaded this week, some Web sites aren’t working completely. Our TypePad account editor (where we publish the 3000 NewsWire blog) won’t let us resize graphics for posts in Chrome. The editing features at the Constant Contact email site also won’t perform with Chrome for the Mac, either.

This puts Chrome in a category with the iPad: very fast and slick for consumption of information. Not so good for creating messages and more. As for the death of Firefox, that obituary shouldn’t be written yet. 350 million users won’t expire overnight.

The Firefox obit is based on the browser’s development resources, according to Infoworld’s writers. Firefox has said it will be releasing fewer interim security fixes in the future. Infoworld predicts that Chrome users will see more fix releases since it’s more open.

Security is important, even crucial to some kinds of business. And attacks through your browser are becoming commonplace now. But Chrome has no more defenses for scripting attacks than Firefox today. These are the hardest to engineer against. I wouldn’t hold the Firefox security against it at the moment.

Incredible Start Page

Chrome’s got a wide array of extensions available. One of the more interesting is the Incredible Start Page, billed as “A new, customizable start page for Chrome. Easily find your favorite bookmarks and closed tabs. Take notes as you browse.” This is the sort of customization that Firefox won’t have, it appears. Whether you find everything that you’re already using in Firefox, or your extensions for Safari, remains as an exercise. We’ve gotten the Xmarks bookmark synchronizer installed on Chrome — a good first step in making a browser transition.