YouTube dumps Flash for HTML 5 as standard for video playback

Photo by Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla exclusive to Canadian Reviewer

Flash was created during the PC era – for PCs and mice. Flash is a successful business for Adobe, and we can understand why they want to push it beyond PCs. But the mobile era is about low power devices, touch interfaces and open web standards – all areas where Flash falls short

--Steve Jobs, 2010

Today was a milestone for Internet video. YouTube will stop using Adobe's Flash as a default video player for its videos and will now use HTML 5 as a playback standard. YouTube now uses its HTML5 video player by default in Google’s Chrome, Microsoft’s IE11, Apple’s Safari 8, and in beta versions of Mozilla’s Firefox browser. YouTube introduced HTML 5 support in 2010, possibly to support smartphones like the iPhone and tablets like the iPad which famously never ran Adobe Flash. 

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OS X Yosemite 10.2.2 now available, fixes WiFi connectivity issues

Apple has updated OS X Yosemite to version 10.2.2 which is available through Software Update. The update brings a variety of fixes, most notably issues with WiFi connectivity, slow performance in loading webpages, and a security issue with loading remote Mail in Spotlight. iCloud Drive content can now be browsed in Time Machine, the company's local backup solution for OS X. On my MacBook Pro with Retina Display, the update was a sizeable 554 MB download.

Apple issues iOS 8.1.3 update now available OTA

Apple released the iOS 8.1.3 for iPhones, iPads and iPod Touches that brings a number of bug fixes and improvements. It reduces the amount of storage space required for a software update as well as fixes to the Spotlight search feature. The update should be available to users via over-the-air Software Updates on their devices.

Tim Cook: Apple Watch coming in April

Apple's anticipated entry into the wearable devices space will happen in April. Apple CEO Tim Cook confirmed the date during today's Apple Earnings call where the company announced its most profitable quarter in history due to successful sales of its iPhone and Mac products. The Apple Watch, which is expected to start at a price of US $349.99, is the latest product category to come from Apple since the iPad was launched in 2010. 

"We are incredibly excited about Apple Watch and other great products and services in the pipeline for 2015," Cook added.