Apple’s thoughts on Flash couldn’t be clearer.

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.

The avalanche of media outlets offering their content for Apple’s mobile devices demonstrates that Flash is no longer necessary to watch video or consume any kind of web content. And the 200,000 apps on Apple’s App Store proves that Flash isn’t necessary for tens of thousands of developers to create graphically rich applications, including games.

New open standards created in the mobile era, such as HTML5, will win on mobile devices (and PCs too). Perhaps Adobe should focus more on creating great HTML5 tools for the future, and less on criticizing Apple for leaving the past behind.

— Thoughts on Flash, Steve Jobs, April 29, 2010

Apple’s recent patent activity shows a clear interest in bringing Near Field Communications (NFC) to your iPhone (and any other iPhone OS devices, including iPod touch and iPad).

This patent describes how travelers might use their iPhone to:
* make travel reservations
* purchase tickets
* check-in, including luggage
* prove identity
* pass through security more quickly

It’s fascinating to watch this broad vision being implemented piece by piece. NFC is about to explode onto the world in surprising ways, from controlling your living room entertainment center to buying concert tickets.

And those many scenarios will help to promote the iPhone still further: imagine you’re waiting at the ticket counter in the airport and you see someone walk up, wave their iPhone over a piece of machinery—beep, beep—and walk away, job completed, while you’re still in line. Or you attend a concert and your friend shows you afterwards in the parking lot that she has already downloaded the new music you just heard.

First you’re going to think: How did they do that?
And then: How do I get an iPhone so I can do it too?