Apple teams up with Adobe for iPhone Flash

[Saladinos]

Maybe it'll only be available on the iPhone 2,1 - it'll give it some marketable features, and Apple can claim that it's technically necessary to limit availability due to the faster CPU+GPU and better battery life in the new model.

I hope to God they don't do that.

 

[addicted44]

Are people really that stupid?

Complaining about how flash will cause "poor performance" and "reduced battery life" when the whole point of the article is that Adobe and Apple are working together to create an optimized version of Flash for the iphone!!!

In case you didn't know, optimized in this context is the exact opposite of reduced batter life, and poor performance.

If they dont achieve it, Flash wont be on your phones... If they do, then at least another several thousand useful sites become more accessible to people.

 

[wrldwzrd89]

I'm not too keen on having Flash support on my iPod touch...

Here's my reasoning: Most Flash apps, games, and movies do not scale well to this platform, due to screen resolution. (The same argument can be applied to the iPhone.)

 

[SPUY767]

I don't see what's the big deal of having Flash Lite. Works fine on my Nokia devices. Stevie needs to put down his pipe and just let it happen.

Apple doesn't want "lite" they want a feature complete version that doesn't run slow as molasses.

 

[Saladinos]

Hyperbole!

Sure, Apple have some closed systems, but so does MS. But, Apple is far more likely to use an industry standard than MS.

Apple use H.264 and AAC. MS designed and use WM.
Apple use CalDAV. MS use Exchange.
Apple provide open-source WebKit and OpenDarwin. MS? Not so much.
Objective-C? Not designed by Apple. C#? Designed by MS.

Not sure what you mean by "proprietary, closed, and non-compliant".

Don't forget widespread use of XML and PDFs throughout the system, bundled Apache webserver, widespread use of OpenGL and OpenAL (and soon, OpenCL), expanding support for ZFS, and support for MS Office formats in bundled apps like TextEdit.

 

[Jayomat]

Complaining about how flash will cause "poor performance" and "reduced battery life" when the whole point of the article is that Adobe and Apple are working together to create an optimized version of Flash for the iphone!!!

In case you didn't know, optimized in this context is the exact opposite of reduced batter life, and poor performance.

If they dont achieve it, Flash wont be on your phones... If they do, then at least another several thousand useful sites become more accessible to people.

thank you for saying that!

 

[gnasher729]

That's interesting. I was also thinking of an f-word, but it wasn't that one.

Let me be clear: I hate Flash. Hate it with a vengeance. Hate it with a passion. Hate it with a passionate vengeance. Hate it with a vengeful passion. I want to see it shuffle off this digital coil. I want it to die a fast, painless, non-interactive, non-multimedia death. I want its life to flash before its very eyes if only because I love how apropos that statement is. I want every last bit in its wretched code base to be sucked away into that special kind of digital oblivion that beckons technology that goes from being a simple and incremental improvement to being the favorite crutch of every developer who lacks the creativity and intellectual curiosity to explore ideas other than the most popular or the one that earns them the most points with their company's management. In other words, bring me the head of Adobe Flash. I want to drink wine from its skull at the party where we celebrate its demise.

Agree completely except for the word "painless".

But seriously: There is a power game going on. Flash is strong in the computer market. The MacOS X version is weak, which puts Apple at a disadvantage, but Adobe has no intention of fixing this. On the other hand, the iPhone is the leader in its market, and not having Flash on the iPhone puts Adobe at a disadvantage - web developers aiming at mobile devices quickly learn how to live without Flash so that things work on the iPhone. And Apple has no intention of fixing this.

I'd say the biggest technical obstacle for Flash on the iPhone is the low quality of Flash for MacOS X. And until that is fixed, I'll take any press release from Adobe as wishful thinking.

 

[eRondeau]

I wish Adobe would "optimize" it for my new iMac first. It is by any standard an amazingly powerful computer, until a colorful little Flash banner on the top of my local newspaper's website brings it crashing to its knees. Does Flash know how to use multi-touch? Does Flash know how to read accelerometers? Does Flash know "play nice" with the iPhone's other features? Probably not.

In my experience, Adobe Flash is the worst computer software not developed by Microsoft and our world will be a better place when it is eventually replaced by something much better. Let's hope Apple's skunkworks think the same.

 

[jaw04005]

My MacBook can't run flash on places like YouTube for 10 minutes within the fans revving up.

It's ridiculous. I'm sure Flash support will be an optional feature, and intend to exercise that option.

 

[fishmoose]

My MacBook can't run flash on places like YouTube for 10 minutes within the fans revving up.

It's ridiculous. I'm sure Flash support will be an optional feature, and intend to exercise that option.

Haha yeah same for me! My MacBook fans sounds like jet-engines when watching youtube movies, at first i thought something was wrong with the computer but it only happens on flash objects so...

If they release flash for the iPhone a lot of people will get there hands burned that's for sure!

 

[techfreak85]

if only...ill believe it when i see it. the whole flash thing has gone around to long.

 

[branjosef]

I wish apple would team up with her and bring a much faster iphone to the market

 

[0098386]

Please keep flash off my iPhone... Please. I hate it on the desktop too.

I'm with you. I hope there's a way to completely disable it, or at least have some kind of allow list so I can watch TV and video streaming flash sites.

Flash adverts, flash games, good god no.

 

[0098386]

My MacBook can't run flash on places like YouTube for 10 minutes within the fans revving up.

It's ridiculous. I'm sure Flash support will be an optional feature, and intend to exercise that option.

Flash is just a player there, the Macbook would be running a H.264 video AND Flash.

Also, how old is that MB? I've been watching DVDs and YT vids on my unibody MB without the fans kicking in.

 

[hobbbz]

haven't got flash at the moment and i haven't missed it
i really don't see it as a big deal

the other thing, i'm not sure why people are SO obsessed about it either. surely there can't be that many flash videos you want to watch? and if it's because you think flash apps will be all-singing all-dancing, then you're mistaken. why do you think it's taken them so long and why they are now collaborating on making it? their capability on the iphone will be restricted probably beyond the restrictions that are on apps built with the SDK

http://www.thefwa.com

 

[=MuLti-CeLL=]

This from 9to5mac.com

"Bloomberg reported this weekend that Adobe Engineers are working diligently on getting Flash down to an acceptable level of power usage and performance to work on the iPhone/iPod touch architecture. The bad news? Don't expect this technology to become available in the first half of 2009. According to Adobe's press release on the matter:

The joint technology optimization is targeted for the ARMv6 and ARMv7architectures used in the ARM11™ family and the Cortex™-A series of processors and is expected to be available in the second half of 2009. The partnership stems from the Open Screen Project, a broad Adobe sponsored initiative of industry leaders - including ARM - to deliver a consistent runtime environment across multiple devices by taking advantage of Adobe Flash Player and, in the future, Adobe AIR. The initiative is set to address the challenges of Web browsing on a broad range of screens, and remove the barriers to publish content and applications seamlessly across screens. For more information, visit www.openscreenproject.org .

By the second half of 2009, the iPhone 3.0 Operating System will be around. So will new iPhone ARM Cortex A(8?) series hardware that will likely be able to handle the intensive CPU requirements that Flash takes to perform well. Will Apple back port it to older hardware? Perhaps but it is unclear how it will perform."

So new iPhone announced in June, released in July? Hence the "second" half of 2009?

Not so sure I'm THAT excited for Flash but who knows, if we see a new more powerful phone this summer it may not be that bad.

And I'm with the others as far as wanting that on/off toggle switch. That would be key.

 

[=MuLti-CeLL=]

I wish apple would team up with her and bring a much faster iphone to the market

Not quite sure what you meant by that but...yea...anything involving her will be fine with me!




Btw, who is that?

 

[branjosef]

Not quite sure what you meant by that but...yea...anything involving her will be fine with me!




Btw, who is that?

some college student

 

[daihard]

Not so sure I'm THAT excited for Flash but who knows, if we see a new more powerful phone this summer it may not be that bad.

And I'm with the others as far as wanting that on/off toggle switch. That would be key.

Agreed. I'd definitely want an ON/OFF switch if I were to accept Flash on my iPhone. I'd also want the Flash runtime to be as small as possible.

 

[Jayomat]

no problem with flash for me, im using firefox3 + adblockplus and noscript ..

 

[kas23]

I wish apple would team up with her and bring a much faster iphone to the market

+1!

 

[kas23]

some college student

You are so wrong (and are probably going to go to hell for it). Isn't that Leryn Franco, Olympic javelin/model from Paraguay:

Update: Oopps, I'm wrong! But, I'm not going to hell since I introduced another hot girl to a boring thread.

Girl is Allison Stokke, freshman polevaulter at Berkeley:

 

[dvkid]

I have a hard time believing this.

1) Allowing flash will allow developers to circumvent the apps store and offer many iPhone-targeted flash programs online. Losing App-store revenue (and making the App store less important) are not things Apple wants.

To me, it seems that the timing is excellent. The app store has already been established as a great solution. Now, Flash can exist in Safari without filling the gap. If you want to develop a free app, you'd have better performance and access to the hardware (accelerometer, etc.) via the App Store and you can still "sell" you app for free. And the cost to joint the dev program is less than what it costs to buy Flash. For those that want to make money off of their work, the App Store will still be the only option.

2) When Apple updates the iPhone hardware, app-store programs will continue to work, so people go out and buy the new phone. But if flash-programs become popular, it's probable that many flash programs won't work perfectly on new hardware without a re-write. You know how a new Mac OS comes out and many people won't update until the new Phtoshop/Word/whatever comes out? That doesn't happen with the iPhone right now. If flash-programs become popular, watch and see that "I'll buy it later" philosophy come to new iPhone launches.
[/QUOTE]

Do you have the same though whenever you update your web browser? Flash is a piece of software that runs on your computer, in coincidence with your browser. That won't magically change because its on the iPhone. At least in the case of desktop iterations, the Flash plugin isn't picky about what hardware its installed on and its designed to run consistently on all hardware. That's why its so reliable in terms of reproducing the same animations and interfaces for all customers.

 

[wrldwzrd89]

Ignore this post, it's no longer necessary.

 

[kastenbrust]

Its fairly obvious why flash doesn't run well on the iphone, it maxes out CPU's on the Macbook and Macbook Pro, and most other computers running OS X, and the iphone runs a cut down version of OS X, so if OS X struggles to run flash on proper computer I can see why Apple need a faster version for the iphone. That said I really dont want my phone freezing up and the CPU maxing out every time a get an advert for viagra pop up when browsing a forum or website, so hopefully Apple will have the intelligence to include a disable feature. I've got a feeling due to afore mentioned things this Flash update would only be available on a new model, more powerful iphone, probably coming out after WWDC (June) if there is going to be one this year.