Adobe Flash player for iPhone due 'soon' if Apple approves
Adobe is nearly done with a version of its Flash Player for the iPhone that could be released 'in a very short time' if it passes Apple's App Store screening process, an Adobe official said this week.
Speaking at the Flash On The Beach (FOTB) conference in Brighton, Sr. Director of Engineering at Adobe Systems Paul Betlem was asked by an audience member for an update on Flash support for iPhone users.
Betlem reportedly responded by saying his team is "working on Flash on the iPhone" but given that the iPhone is a closed and closely guarded system, Apple will have final say over whether the application makes its way onto the App Store.
Should Apple approve the software, it would be available "in a very short time," Betlem added.
In March, Adobe chief executive Shantanu Narayen publicly confirmed that his engineers had begun work on a version of Flash for the iPhone. Three months later he said he was pleased with the ongoing progress. Therefore, the only new information to come from Betlem's comments is word that the first version of the software is nearly ready for submission to Apple.
Betlem offered no further details, leaving several unanswered questions , such as how the player would function within websites given Apple's current iPhone developer guidelines, or how it would prove useful in accessing Flash media as a standalone application.
Earlier this year, Apple chief executive Steve Jobs panned Flash on the iPhone, arguing that its fragmented architecture offered no middle ground suitable for use on his company's mobile products.
Specifically, he said Flash Lite "is not capable of being used with the web" because it doesn't support the same types of Flash media accessible by the traditional version of Flash player on the PC. On the otherhand, the version built for PC was dubbed a resource hog that "performs too slow to be useful" on the iPhone.
"There's this missing product in the middle," he said.
It remains to be seen whether Adobe's most recent efforts are suited to fill that gap.
For more on Apple's broader resistance to embracing Adobe's Flash technology, please see AppleInsider's three-part series: Flash Wars.
Speaking at the Flash On The Beach (FOTB) conference in Brighton, Sr. Director of Engineering at Adobe Systems Paul Betlem was asked by an audience member for an update on Flash support for iPhone users.
Betlem reportedly responded by saying his team is "working on Flash on the iPhone" but given that the iPhone is a closed and closely guarded system, Apple will have final say over whether the application makes its way onto the App Store.
Should Apple approve the software, it would be available "in a very short time," Betlem added.
In March, Adobe chief executive Shantanu Narayen publicly confirmed that his engineers had begun work on a version of Flash for the iPhone. Three months later he said he was pleased with the ongoing progress. Therefore, the only new information to come from Betlem's comments is word that the first version of the software is nearly ready for submission to Apple.
Betlem offered no further details, leaving several unanswered questions , such as how the player would function within websites given Apple's current iPhone developer guidelines, or how it would prove useful in accessing Flash media as a standalone application.
Earlier this year, Apple chief executive Steve Jobs panned Flash on the iPhone, arguing that its fragmented architecture offered no middle ground suitable for use on his company's mobile products.
Specifically, he said Flash Lite "is not capable of being used with the web" because it doesn't support the same types of Flash media accessible by the traditional version of Flash player on the PC. On the otherhand, the version built for PC was dubbed a resource hog that "performs too slow to be useful" on the iPhone.
"There's this missing product in the middle," he said.
It remains to be seen whether Adobe's most recent efforts are suited to fill that gap.
For more on Apple's broader resistance to embracing Adobe's Flash technology, please see AppleInsider's three-part series: Flash Wars.
Comments
Nothing against Flash, but Flash is a platform for bad programmers to eat up CPU usage like crazy. My CPU (C2D) goes to close to 100% when I visit some websites. Even youtube.com requires about 800mhz to 1Ghz to play.
And I have not missed Flash a bit on iPhone.
No!
Nothing against Flash, but Flash is a platform for bad programmers to eat up CPU usage like crazy. My CPU (C2D) goes to close to 100% when I visit some websites. Even youtube.com requires about 800mhz to 1Ghz to play.
And I have not missed Flash a bit on iPhone.
So, that doesn't mean that everbody else should not have the option to have it. Many of us want it. And there are bad progammers that don't use flash besides.
No!
Nothing against Flash, but Flash is a platform for bad programmers to eat up CPU usage like crazy. My CPU (C2D) goes to close to 100% when I visit some websites. Even youtube.com requires about 800mhz to 1Ghz to play.
And I have not missed Flash a bit on iPhone.
Adobe is nearly done with a version of its Flash Player for the iPhone the could be released 'in a very short time' if it passes Apple's App Store screening process, an Adobe official said this week.
Speaking at the Flash On The Beach (FOTB) conference in Brighton, Sr. Director of Engineering at Adobe Systems Paul Betlem was asked by an audience member for an update on Flash support for iPhone users.
Betlem reportedly responded by saying his team is "working on Flash on the iPhone" but given that the iPhone is a closed and closely guarded system, Apple will have final say over whether the application makes its way onto the App Store.
Should Apple approve the software, it would be available "in a very short time," Betlem added.
In March, Adobe chief executive Shantanu Narayen publicly confirmed that his engineers had begun work on a version of Flash for the iPhone. Three months later he said he was pleased with the ongoing progress. Therefore, the only new information to come from Betlem's comments is word that the first version of the software is nearly ready for submission to Apple.
Betlem offered no further details, leaving several unanswered questions , such as how the player would function within websites given Apple's current iPhone developer guidelines, or how it would prove useful in accessing Flash media as a standalone application.
Earlier this year, Apple chief executive Steve Jobs panned Flash on the iPhone, arguing that its fragmented architecture offered no middle ground suitable for use on his company's mobile products.
Specifically, he said Flash Lite "is not capable of being used with the web" because it doesn't support the same types of Flash media accessible by the traditional version of Flash player on the PC. On the otherhand, the version built for PC was dubbed a resource hog that "performs too slow to be useful" on the iPhone.
"There's this missing product in the middle," he said.
It remains to be seen whether Adobe's most recent efforts are suited to fill that gap.
For more on Apple's broader resistance to embracing Adobe's Flash technology, please see AppleInsider's three-part series: Flash Wars.
[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]
Hmmm... I think flash already runs on the iPhone.
http://www.matterofpark.com/2008/07/...ne-coming.html
Inside source from Adobe said back in July when I asked him about Flash on the iPhone "It's ready to go but it's up to Steve (Jobs) to release it"
In the long term believe me, your better off without it.
The more people realize this, and start to look at alternatives, the quicker the transition will happen.
... the reality is that most computer users use Flash to view content.
the "real" reality is that most computer users need flash to watch movies on the web only. If not for that, most people could turn off flash entirely and never look back.
Since there already is a cross-platform, standards compliant way to view videos on the web, the real solution is to convince web designers to use that instead of Flash. Not having Flash on the iPhone is a part of that effort to persuade web designers to stop using Flash for movies. Ergo, if Flash *does* come to the iPhone, it will be a giant step backwards for cross-platform compatibility and web standards.
if Flash *does* come to the iPhone, it will be a giant step backwards for cross-platform compatibility and web standards.
Absolutely
screw flash, i cant believe how many people think having flashing is beneficial.
In the long term believe me, your better off without it.
The more people realize this, and start to look at alternatives, the quicker the transition will happen.
Hey... I can get the real version of Frogger for free as a Flash app, in the app store it's $10 for a crappy version
Besides, if Apple puts a Flash on/off switch in the Settings then why not? just leave it off.
I work in the corporate training world... Flash is our primary means of developing mobile learning content. Most of the authoring tools we use put content in Flash. Everything could be done in HTML, but thats not the right solution either for dynamic content. Neither is requiring training and development people to learn C so they can use the iPhone developers kit.
Flash SHOULD BE AVAILABLE - and i agree with the other person that said the solution would be to treat it like a "You Tube" link, requiring you to click on it.
The iPhone is a very powerful tool... having Flash available will help to expand the use of this tool in the corporate world.
Sorry if that opinion offends some of you programming prudes.
Nothing against Flash, but Flash is a platform for bad programmers to eat up CPU usage like crazy.
I love when people come up with terminal opinions like that...
Any language is a platform for bad programming, whether it's Smalltalk, Java, C++, Cobol or Ruby. Bad programming is a skill that exists outside of any programming language.
My CPU (C2D) goes to close to 100% when I visit some websites. Even youtube.com requires about 800mhz to 1Ghz to play.
Yes, and most game are slow like a snail on my PIII-700, this shows how bad C++ is as a programming language...
Really, the problem is with your computer, not the platform. You have to face it, the web as evolved. Flash, properly used, allows you to create real applications on the web - "RIA". Real applications need power. Moreover, there is always a tradeof between security, programing speed and optimization. I would rather buy a faster CPU than lose on security or increase costs by slowing the development process. CPU power is dirt cheap right now. That is the current trend with all the current languages - Ruby, Java, C#... Actually, Smalltalk (and Objective-C) started that trend.
I have done enough C++ to know I'm not going back in the 20th century...
And I have not missed Flash a bit on iPhone.
I do. Flash is a fantastic platform for corporate programming. Flex is an incredibly productive tool and it lets developers work within a *real* platform, with a real architecture, unlike the struggle you have to do in Javascript to achieve anything remotely elegant.
Perhaps it runs differently on the Mac, and hopefully it will behave differently on the iPhone. But because of the other things that I have seen Adobe do with their other applications, I don't have any confidence in anything that Adobe does. Having said that, it will probably behave better on the iPhone than on the PC at least, because you are less likely, I would assume, to have background processes running on an iPhone, or to have two browser windows open at once. If it turns out that Flash does not disrupt the overall behavior of the iPhone, it will likely have more to do with how Apple has implemented the run-time environment than with anything that Adobe has managed to do correctly. In particular, if the run-time environment is such that an application that stays in a tight loop polling for input or for some notification event from the OS can disrupt the overall behavior of the platform, then you can pretty much take it for granted that it will be a disaster, because it is evident from the things that Adobe has done that their programmers do not understand or have an appreciation for the event-driven software paradigm, as opposed to applications that simply spin in tight loops while waiting for input and notification events.
the "real" reality is that most computer users need flash to watch movies on the web only. If not for that, most people could turn off flash entirely and never look back.
Since there already is a cross-platform, standards compliant way to view videos on the web, the real solution is to convince web designers to use that instead of Flash. Not having Flash on the iPhone is a part of that effort to persuade web designers to stop using Flash for movies. Ergo, if Flash *does* come to the iPhone, it will be a giant step backwards for cross-platform compatibility and web standards.
I could see you being somewhat correct. Being a college student majoring in Graphics Arts, I always wonder about what I will use in the future. I don't think that Flash is the right solution for every web application. It only benefits Adobe, which has been half-assed to Apple from the get-go. However, Flash does make it easier for web developers to make all kinds of interactive web sites - along with the rest of the Adobe Creative Suite. Therefore, it will be very hard to wipe clean from the face of the earth. What I really meant to say interactive content, not just content.
....Perhaps it runs differently on the Mac, and hopefully it will behave differently on the iPhone....
It's a little better on the Mac, because you can almost always force-quit Safari alone when (not if, when) it makes it crash.
I don't understand why all the people complaining about Mobile Safari crashing all the time would want something that will make it much worse.
(On the Mac, it's customary to blame Safari for incompatibility with Flash, but Firefox screws up just as bad. However, if you have infinite patience and can wait, wait, wait for the beachball to stop spinning to view every page, it works. As long as you don't forget you're on a Flash-heavy site and do something stupid like hit the "back" button!)
Die, Flash, Die!