Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Apple, iPhone
Adobe backs off iPhone Flash statement
If you were one of those people who were excited that Adobe was going to apparently fight to get Flash on the iPhone, get ready to be unexcited: Adobe has decided that despite what they thought earlier, they're not actually going to be able to get Flash on there using only the SDK from Apple. Nope, Adobe has admitted that they need Apple's help to get it working (not a big surprise there), and since Apple isn't really keen to help at all, odds are it's just not going to happen.Adobe then announced that they didn't need your iPhone anyway, Apple, and that they hate you, Apple, and that you never let them have any fun, and that they wish you'd just die! And that they'd never been born! Then they ran to pout in the corner for a good 20 minutes, only to be seen a little while later playing with their trains like nothing had happened.
[Via Engadget]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
mcg said 9:48AM on 3-21-2008
It does bug me that I can't view Flash web pages on my phone; I really do wish Flash support would come. However, there are a lot of Flash-based web sites out there that really don't *need* Flash---and could actually do *better* with a judicious use of DHTML, AJAX, etc. I know it's wishful thinking but perhaps some of the these sites will move away from Flash to insure compatibility with iPhones and other devices that may not support Flash.
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a ham sandwich said 11:45AM on 3-21-2008
true, but then again the solution to not having flash on the ipone shouldn't be "well, then change the webpages". it should be the other way around.
Michael Grant said 12:33PM on 3-21-2008
You are right, of course; like I said, it is wishful thinking. But even on my desktop computer I find that web sites that use Flash for navigation are a pain. For one thing, they're often a fixed size; and even worse, some forcibly resize or maximize my browser. If it weren't for the prevalence of Flash-based embedded video---the one thing it really does seem good at---I'd be inclined to remove Flash from my system.
krye said 9:53AM on 3-21-2008
Like I said on the last post, you won't see anything for a year. Adobe is the so slow at rolling out software. Besides, by the time they do get flash ready for the iPhone, it will be obsolete/replaced. We've made due without it for a year already, so it can't be that important.
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viro said 10:05AM on 3-21-2008
so in other words its apples fault we won't be able to see flash. and to the people that think flash will be replaced it won't its been around forever. you can' have a the full internet without flash you can't embed video with ajax. thats the number one use of flash embed video and don't say we have youtube built in because i still can't see the embed video
and there are other video places other than youtube like say hulu.com and think that every one should make site that play nice with you device is stupid your(my) device should live up to the term full internet
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Kizorblade said 10:30AM on 3-21-2008
Could you make your sentence a little more coherent? A little?
B. Waite said 10:06AM on 3-21-2008
When Jobs commented on Flash, he simply said that the current Flash offerings (the full-featured desktop version and the light mobile version) were inappropriate for the iPhone.
To make a long story short, the desktop version is too heavy for the iPhone, and the light version is an anemic substitute. Neither of these options are going to give iPhone users the 1st class experience that Apple expects.
My hypothesis is that Apple is trying to strongarm Adobe into creating a custom version for the iPhone.
Flash is just too useful for any intelligent person to discount. We'll see Flash for the iPhone eventually. Just wait and see.
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rutger said 10:22AM on 3-21-2008
Flash is already slower on a mac than on a PC. So on a less powerfull, mobile device like the iPhone, it's likely to be just unusable! It's up to adobe to optimize the flash player for the mac in general first, before Apple thinks about getting the plugin for the iPhone.
However, with Adobe releasing the AIR SDK, the need for a flash player on mobile devices gets bigger and bigger. It's a double-edged sword....
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fatal said 2:38PM on 3-21-2008
Thank god there's no flash on iphone...
I can gladly renounce all these dumb flash ad banners on websites... flash would make the phone totally unusable in the first place
Nicholas Arvanitis said 10:35AM on 3-21-2008
What a horrid and childish posting. Honestly.
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alumis said 10:47AM on 3-21-2008
Indeed.
One more post like this one, and I plan to have one less RSS feed to worry about.
rutger said 11:05AM on 3-21-2008
I agree with that. Didn't except that from TUAW...
G_Pitney said 12:25PM on 3-21-2008
Message to all those people who keep threatening all the time to quit visiting TUAW because the site isn't what it was in its best days (whenever those were): will you just hurry up and make good on your promise, so we don't have to listen to you constantly bitching and moaning all the time about how TUAW isn't what it was and so you won't, therefore, be coming here anymore? Thank you.
Todd Sieling said 1:40PM on 3-21-2008
The tone might be a bit much but it's a point well taken that Adobe has acted like a brat over Flash on the iPhone. The word from Apple isn't hard to understand and it's not evil: Flash is not currently in a state that makes it viable on the iPhone/Touch.
I feel that this decision is mostly about the user experience of the entire device. Of course Apple knows that the blank spots appearing in place of flash content hurts the mobile Safari experience, but they must think that running Flash would do more harm than good for the entire device (processor cycles and battery power, maybe?).
For Adobe to take that criticism and stomp its little feet by saying they'll get it on there because they want to, on day one, no less, is the truly childish moment. For my reading time, this post captures the Adobe tantrum pretty well.
Gordon said 11:13AM on 3-21-2008
I like choice. If you're a Flash anti fan, it is very easy to disable Flash and stare at the gray boxes. I want to see the iPhone do more including rendering Flash and Java content. Everyone should realize that a Flash enabled iPhone would hurt Apple's music and movie sales. Apple's iPhone does not provide a complete Internet experience and their PR department should stop advertising that they are giving us the entire web.
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Todd Sieling said 1:50PM on 3-21-2008
Then why does Safari on the desktop support Flash and Java since forever? I would have expected that more video is purchased, and quite likely played, on desktop machines or Apple TV.
DMD said 11:29AM on 3-21-2008
I thought it was pretty funny post. Flash is such crap IMHO. Its a closed spec and a huge resource hog that isn't used right by 90%+ of its developers. Its inaccessible for the most part. A few tools exist to create content that is more accessible but nobody ever uses them.
I'd like to see SVG support for the iPhone before flash support.
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vandy1997 said 12:42PM on 3-21-2008
I am embarrassed that the iPhone does not support flash, when Jobs said that the internet on the iPhone would be a true desktop internet experience. On my desktop, I don't get blank screens where flash video belongs. If I choose to turn it off, thet is fine. I have been embarrassed on more than one occasion when I am showing the iPhone to a friend and he goes onto a site to check something, and a blank page appears or it says that flash needs to be downloaded, but that such a download cannot be performed on this phone. It is awkward for me to say how awesome this phone is, and I am not even able to get onto a stupid internet page. And it's not as if it cannot be done, because I have been able to do it if I hack the phone to download and convert that flash page or video - it is solely because Apple chooses NOT to do it; and that is pure bull! If Apple makes a better product, then get website admins to change the way in which they build their sites. But don't decide NOT to offer something on the phone that is currently a standard. That is baloney!
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Jon said 3:58PM on 3-21-2008
What should apple help get flash on the iPhone??!
It's not like their customers want it or anything!
F**K Apple!
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Roderick Silva said 2:23AM on 3-22-2008
Flash is like every tool on this planet. If you give a hammer, chisel and piece of marble to a monkey he will make a mess. If you give the same tools to an artist he will make a masterpiece.
The best solution would be for the Flash options to work like pop-up blocker options. Have the iPhone remember which sites you want to turn flash off on and which site you want to enable Flash. I would keep it off for most sites and switch it on only when absolutely necessary.
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