Mossberg: Apple working on Adobe Flash support for iPhone
An impending software update to Apple's iPhone will include a plug-in for the handset's Safari web browser that will finally let users view Adobe Flash media files, the Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg reports.
The technology columnist made the comments in a question and answer piece posted to his web blog, specifically in response to a question regarding the quality of the Apple handset's browsing experience and its current inability to play some web movie clips.
"At launch, the iPhone version of the Safari browser is missing some plug-ins needed for playing common types of Web videos. The most important of these is the plug-in for Adobe’s Flash technology," Mossberg wrote. "Apple says it plans to add that plug-in through an early software update, which I am guessing will occur within the next couple of months."
The columnist also noted having some success in connecting his iPhone to a friend's BMW dashboard system over Bluetooth.
"In my two-week test of the iPhone, I succeeded in connecting it without much trouble to the built-in audio system and microphone on a friend’s BMW. Almost instantly, the over 700 contacts I had on my test iPhone were displayed on the car’s dashboard screen and calls could be made and received through the iPhone," he wrote."
Mossberg added, however, that the iPhone can use Bluetooth to connect only with cars and with wireless phone headsets. "It cannot use Bluetooth to transfer any data to or from a computer, to play music through stereo wireless headsets, or for any other purpose."
The technology columnist made the comments in a question and answer piece posted to his web blog, specifically in response to a question regarding the quality of the Apple handset's browsing experience and its current inability to play some web movie clips.
"At launch, the iPhone version of the Safari browser is missing some plug-ins needed for playing common types of Web videos. The most important of these is the plug-in for Adobe’s Flash technology," Mossberg wrote. "Apple says it plans to add that plug-in through an early software update, which I am guessing will occur within the next couple of months."
The columnist also noted having some success in connecting his iPhone to a friend's BMW dashboard system over Bluetooth.
"In my two-week test of the iPhone, I succeeded in connecting it without much trouble to the built-in audio system and microphone on a friend’s BMW. Almost instantly, the over 700 contacts I had on my test iPhone were displayed on the car’s dashboard screen and calls could be made and received through the iPhone," he wrote."
Mossberg added, however, that the iPhone can use Bluetooth to connect only with cars and with wireless phone headsets. "It cannot use Bluetooth to transfer any data to or from a computer, to play music through stereo wireless headsets, or for any other purpose."
Comments
The Flash plug-in, if it doesn't bog things down excessively, is excellent news.
this is excellent news... in addition to being able to view flash sites, especially video (good) and advertisements (bad), the other significant factor is that this is probably the preferred method to write applications for many developers, especially if the .SWF file can be hosted locally on the phone's memory. speed should not be an issue. with the latest Flash Player 9, the runtime has increased in speed and efficiency greatly, compared to 8... somewhere on the magnitude of 10 times (guess from memory) for certain features. also, since we are talking about comparing speed against RIA applications running in Safari, the Flash runtime should see parity, if not an advantage to speed compared to AJAX / webkit applications.
this will be a great addition to the phone. so many sites i frequent that i can't see without flash...
I bet Apple engineers are rewriting the Flash plugin to be small and efficient on the OS X platform. If so, I have no doubt it will benefit Macs, as well, which would rock!
The flash will be a welcome addition. BTW my 2007 Aura TL accepted instant link with Handsfree Link AND all contacts were transferred to the cars dashboard from my iPhone. Something I had been unable to do with Motorola phones or Palm Treo's. A very seemless procedure.
Note that Walt said Flash Video, not Flash in general. It's one thing to support FLV, and another to port the entire plugin to an ARM processor.
I think people are underestimating what a can of worms supporting Flash would be for Apple. Too many complications with all of the poorly written UIs out there. There's no equivalent to rollover on iPhone. No equivalent to drag and drop. And Flash would probably be a MAJOR resource hog and battery drainer.
I can't see Apple convincing Google to convert the entire YouTube catalog from Flash to H.264, and then coming out with full Flash support two months later, anyway. Why help Adobe push a non-standard proprietary file format, when you can sell enough iPhones to force the industry to conform to open standards? Especially when the user experience of Flash on iPhone will probably be mediocre at best for many sites.
I make a lot of money with Actionscript, but I still think promoting Flash in this way is a bad idea for Apple.
- Contacts syncing
- Calendar syncing
- Ability to use an NMEA compatible Bluetooth GPS
I make a lot of money with Actionscript, but I still think promoting Flash in this way is a bad idea for Apple.
Flash is big part of my business too, but I've actually changed my position on Flash for iPhone. Previously I posted that I thought it was important to have. Now that I've had a chance to actually use the iPhone, I think it is better to leave it off. Absent Flash, it should encourage Flash developers to actually use swfobject with alt content so users will see an image file instead if Flash is not enabled.
The problem is that there isn't currently a Flash runtime for the ARM processor and if there was, how fast would it really be?
there is a flash runtime for ARM running on the N770 and N800. you can even play YouTube videos with it (albeit, with slow video refresh, but the n800 has a less powerful ARM then the iPhone). On the N800 its implemented as an Opera plugin.
Note that Walt said Flash Video, not Flash in general. It's one thing to support FLV, and another to port the entire plugin to an ARM processor.
I think people are underestimating what a can of worms supporting Flash would be for Apple. Too many complications with all of the poorly written UIs out there. There's no equivalent to rollover on iPhone. No equivalent to drag and drop. And Flash would probably be a MAJOR resource hog and battery drainer.
I can't see Apple convincing Google to convert the entire YouTube catalog from Flash to H.264, and then coming out with full Flash support two months later, anyway. Why help Adobe push a non-standard proprietary file format, when you can sell enough iPhones to force the industry to conform to open standards? Especially when the user experience of Flash on iPhone will probably be mediocre at best for many sites.
I make a lot of money with Actionscript, but I still think promoting Flash in this way is a bad idea for Apple.
I agree with you about the YouTube support question. That would seem strange.
But, proprietary or not, Flash is still the most important standard on the web for this purpose. In that sense, it's almost an open format.
Not having some sort of Flash support is a big negative.
Flash is big part of my business too, but I've actually changed my position on Flash for iPhone. Previously I posted that I thought it was important to have. Now that I've had a chance to actually use the iPhone, I think it is better to leave it off. Absent Flash, it should encourage Flash developers to actually use swfobject with alt content so users will see an image file instead if Flash is not enabled.
I don't see the iPhone as ever becoming so important that web developers would switch.
There are several hundred million computers on the internet. Apple would have to sell a hundred million iPhones within a very few years for them to have an impact.
I don't see the iPhone as ever becoming so important that web developers would switch.
There are several hundred million computers on the internet. Apple would have to sell a hundred million iPhones within a very few years for them to have an impact.
I'm not sure if I was clear enough in my earlier comments. I'm suggesting Flash developers should be using swfobject with alt content ALL the time not just because of iPhone. There is no switching involved, it's just the right way to embed Flash especially for IE 7.
m
that will finally let users view Adobe Flash media files
"finally"?? the thing hasn't even been out more than a week
rolleyes