Flash for iPhone/iPod touch imminent?
updated 10:25 am EST, Tue February 12, 2008
Flash for iPhone soon?
Flash for the iPhone and the iPod touch may be "just around the corner," a new report suggests. The web technology has been in high demand since the iPhone was released in June, not simply for its use in video and animation on many pages, but also for the potential in developing applications and games. Apple has yet to make much public comment on the matter; it is typically said that the obstacle has been battery life, since high activity in the display and processor rapidly consumes energy.
According to the report's source though, the real issue has been "business negotiations," and Flash should thus become available in the very near future. One possibility is that it may be announced alongside the release of the iPhone SDK, which is due later this month. This would give developers much greater flexibility.
The site making the claims is the same that first leaked the v1.1.3 iPhone firmware, demonstrating features such as icon rearrangement and the Google Maps location-finder. The official Apple release proved to be identical.












who cares...
02/12, 10:39am reply
...about the battery life - the whole damned thing is a graphical interface - wth animations and all sorts of things to fuel battery consumption_
Give us a Flash Plugin option_
UberFu
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Oct 2002
apple claims...
02/12, 10:40am reply
that the iPhone is running a full desktop OS - and that the version of Safari running on the iPhone is also a full desktop browser - but not really - without being able to support Flash/ Shockwave - it's not_
UberFu
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Oct 2002
not essential, but nice
02/12, 10:59am reply
Flash is a great way to view media (movies, music, radio stations), it will certainly be a nice addition to the iPhone. Hopefully it will soon be available.
AT&cheap won't like it, since it will be more data access
dynsight
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: May 2005
is it me...
02/12, 11:15am reply
... or is about 95% of Flash on the internet goes for ad banners? Yes, there are some sites that require Flash support, but they are few. All the rest is just abusing Flash to bug visitors with blinking, jumping, swaying and ...ehh... flashing commercials? Do people really need this?
ViktorCode
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Joined: Jan 2006
Why so long?
02/12, 11:32am reply
Essentially the ability for flash on iPhone is evident with the youtube support ... if people are worried about battery life, just give the ability to turn off flash support in Safari ... no different than Javascript switch?
I can't wait.
trevc
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Mar 2000
no flash
02/12, 11:55am reply
Users need to be able to block flash if they want to - those internet ads are horrible. I hope someone comes up with Flashblock for Safari, like Firefox and Camino have. It's great - it puts a button wherever there's flash content, and the user chooses whether to play it or not.
elroth
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Jul 2006
Flash
02/12, 12:14pm reply
Flash is a necessary web technology used in many sites, and not just for ads. With Adobe's new AIR technology Flash development is likely to increase. If you don't want Flash content just remove the plugin, or write Applescript that moves them to the disabled plugins folder. /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/Disabled Plug-Ins/
ClevelandAdv
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Jul 2004
No!
02/12, 12:20pm reply
Flash is completely useless... and a sign of lazy web coders.
Aside from the fact that Flash has been abused by the banner ad community for the longest time, with very few exceptions, Flash sites are mostly c*** - and those sites where Flash might be complementary, the same can be achieved with Ajax and Javascript. This is mostly menu enhancements, cross-fading slideshows, and such.
As for video content - Apple's implementation of YouTube has shown that quicktime works better, and which is why YouTube has been converting their entire library to H.264 -- H.264 content looks better, is smaller, downloads faster, and costs less bandwidth.
Lastly, Adobe has still failed to deliver an efficient version of Flash - for the most part if seriously slows down your browser, when you have more than one Flash element on screen -- if it does that to dual 2GHz Macs, imagine how iPhone running at 600MHz would be affected.
Don't provide it, stay away from it.
ZinkDifferent
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Jan 2005
Flash on the iPod Touch
02/12, 03:04pm reply
We have been clamoring for a Flash plug-in since day one and now that the developer kit is being released by the end of February it is about time. People are using Flash for their websites and video outside of Youtube and other popular outlets. Sure you can use scripts embedded in HTML but they have their limitations. Even CSS was created to enhance HTML and make it more like WYSIWYG. Quicktime is a great format and more superior to Flash but that does not mean it is used by everybody. DiVX is another format that is not astounding but it gets the job done.
No Flash support would just create more unruly customers not willing to buy the iPod Touch because of that limitation.
ApeInTheShell
Senior User
Joined: Nov 2002
games games games
02/12, 09:07pm reply
Who cares about video? I want access to all of the Flash GAMES.
OkieDoc
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Joined: Aug 2001