Filed under: Rumors, Internet Tools, Apple, iPhone
Flash coming to iPhone?
With the internets all a-flutter over Mac OS X 10.5.2 arriving on the scene, this tid-bit is in from GearLive -- yes, the very same folks who brought us news of the jiggly icons on the iPhone that we were somewhat doubtful of.This time around, GearLive is reporting that we can expect to see Flash on the iPhone (and one would assume, iPod touch) 'very, very soon'. No doubt, that brings joy to many people's lives -- Flash has long been one of the most in-demand additions to the iPhone -- but some of us Flash cynics can't help but feel that for Flash sites whose usability is perhaps compromised on the desktop, we're happier with it staying off of our handheld devices.
Flash gripes aside, chatting with Andru from GearLive tonight they're mighty confident of their sources and have a good track record. Let's just see how this one runs, shall we?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
erik said 8:39PM on 2-11-2008
FlasH FTW!
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lilguy said 8:38PM on 2-11-2008
i for one do not want flash on the phone. pages load so much more quickly.
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Colin said 8:58PM on 2-11-2008
Don't worry. If Flash really does come to the iPhone, I'm sure we will have an option to toggle Flash off just like we can with Java.
Marcos said 12:46AM on 2-12-2008
Uhm... the iPhone does not have Java.
Cameron Campbell said 9:38AM on 2-12-2008
Marcos, he didn't say there was.
scott said 10:03AM on 2-12-2008
He probably meant JavaScript, which you can indeed disable.
Aloysius Snuffleupagus said 8:42PM on 2-11-2008
Sounds great. Now all I need is copy & paste.
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David Chartier said 8:52PM on 2-11-2008
If this happens, I will certainly be seeking out firmware builds that omit the Flash application and libraries. Flash performs like shit on desktop computers and chomps through batteries like candy. I'll tolerate that on the few sites I *need* to on a desktop because I can usually plug into a power source. But I'm not letting Flash gobble up my iPhone battery in a half hour while I'm out 'n about for the day.
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Bender Bending Rodriguez said 9:02PM on 2-11-2008
Agreed. Though I do like Anonymous' idea below of allowing you to turn it off.
Still, if it's there then sites may feel they can still go heavy with Flash.
Adobe doens't have a decent version of Flash for Intel/PPC OS X or the ARM platform, so I say it will not be coming to the iPhone anytime soon.
David Hildreth said 8:55PM on 2-11-2008
total flash sites are pretty lame, but it would still be nice to have
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anonymous said 8:56PM on 2-11-2008
this would only be worthwhile if it could be deactivated from the settings menu
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Yves Custeau said 9:02PM on 2-11-2008
I hope that this flash player will support Adobe Flex !!
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wayne said 9:00PM on 2-11-2008
Good article funny I reported this yesterday on twitter, from a confirmed flash developer not only flash support but sling media is coming out with an iPhone app too.
http://twitter.com/waynesutton
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Neil said 9:01PM on 2-11-2008
If this was a new version which supported BBC iPlayer then I would be very, very excited indeed.
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jasonkulas said 9:09PM on 2-11-2008
Flash...yuck. Used mostly for flashy, slow-loading, hard to navigate sites that are full of "pretty junk" and very little content. No thanks.
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Vipul Delwadia said 9:29PM on 2-11-2008
What about video? Just about every story with embedded video is flash.
I agree flash for navigation or the entire page is bad, but face it, almost all embedded video these days is flash (and mostly not youtube).
Tyler Darko said 9:37PM on 2-11-2008
it sounds good but the only use i would have for it would be for video sites besides youtube and dailymotion.
Hulu on my ipod sounds sick
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Sam said 1:13PM on 2-14-2008
I'll finally be able to play Scrabulous on Facebook on my Touch!
Victor Agreda Jr said 9:49PM on 2-11-2008
David, precisely right. Every time my wife plays a Flash-based game on her MacBook, it sounds like a 747 taking off. Maybe once an iPhone or two explodes in someone's hands like a firecracker without a fuse, it'll spur Adobe to make a less craptacular version of Flash. Still hard to believe there was a version on Sony Clie's all those years ago (tho it never made it to Palm Inc's devices, go figure).
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russ d said 2:15AM on 2-12-2008
Hmm. My macbook never gets the fans when playing Flash games, or even when running Flash CS3. After Effects, now thats a different story.