iSwifter will bring Flash-free browsing to the Mac

Apple hasn't shipped Adobe Flash Player on Macs since last October, and the current shipping version of Flash Player has some incompatibilities with Lion that have yet to be fixed. If developer iSwifter has its way, you won't need Flash Player on any of your Apple devices.

iSwifter currently has a Flash-free browser app for the iPad that works in the same way as the Puffin and SkyFire browsers on that platform -- it runs all web content through a server that processes Flash content and then sends the "translated" animation, game, or movie to the device browser. Now iSwifter is planning on bringing its browser to the Mac App Store, although they're not saying exactly when the app will be available.

The company wants to give users a common Flash-compatible browser that looks and acts the same on all Apple platforms. The existing iPad app is available as a free trial, and then charges $4.99 as an in-app purchase to use the browser without limits. iSwifter is planning on using the same process for the Mac app, although pricing may be different.

So what would people use the iSwifter browser for? Mostly for playing Zynga games on Facebook. Over 40% of all gaming time logged on iSwifter's servers is for those games, which include Words With Friends, Farmville, Cityville, and Mafia Wars.

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Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-27076_3-20083241-248/iswifters-fla…

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If developer iSwifter has its way, you won't need Flash Player on any of your Apple devices

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Yuusharo

I've used it on the iPad and it works great. Perfect for watching live streams. I know it used to work with Hulu, but not sure if they managed to block it yet. In any case, seems a little strange for a user to pay for something that's normally free. However, not having flash installed on your system does increase performance and security, so why not?

Though I must say, the new ClickToPlugin (and ClickToFlash) v2.3.1 is a fantastic addon for Safari. It automatically converts flash players from YouTube and other sites into HTML5 players that stream the native MP4 or FLV (Perian required on your system) videos WITHOUT flash. For everything else, it will block the flash content from loading until you explicitly allow it to play. It's great.

Make sure you get the new one, though. The old one doesn't do the HTML5 player stuff:

http://hoyois.github.com/safariextensions/clicktoplugin/

July 26 2011 at 1:00 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

2 replies to Yuusharo's comment

Cowicide

Be aware that using ClickToFlash can cause things to go wonky (some image zooming scripts on websites) and even crash Safari in some circumstances. Via their site: The presence of a beforeload event handler with some content can make Safari crash when handling certain plug-ins. This affects SharePoint websites and LogMeIn.

So, if you use ClickToFlash on production machines, be aware of the hazards. Especially if you do web development, because you may have issues that others do not when testing code on Safari.

July 26 2011 at 2:32 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Diana

I just tried to download that version and several newer ones on my Ipad2 and it says Safari cannot download this file.

January 10 2012 at 2:48 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

evula

...or, if you're going to use a separate browser, you could just use Chrome. For free.

July 26 2011 at 12:44 PM Report abuse Permalink -1 rate up rate down Reply

Fofer

Doesn't iSwifter charge $4.99 PER MONTH? i.e.: it's a subscription, not a one-time upgrade fee, to use their browser "without limits"

http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/01/iswifter-3-0-launches-with-new-subscription-model-and-support-for-facebook-games/

July 26 2011 at 12:40 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to Fofer's comment

Yuusharo

I think they reworked their pricing model after a backlash from users claiming the change was a "bait and switch" tactic. This is according to their iTunes store page:

"Try for free for 30 minutes and if you like what you see, buy the app using in-app purchase for a *ONE TIME* purchase price of $4.99"

July 26 2011 at 12:57 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Fofer

Doesn't iSwifter charge a $4.99 PER MONTH for new users? (i.e. it's a subscription, in order to use the browser without limits.)
http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/01/iswifter-3-0-launches-with-new-subscription-model-and-support-for-facebook-games/

July 26 2011 at 12:39 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Fofer

Doesn't iSwifter charge $4.99 PER MONTH (i.e.: it's a subscription.)

http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/01/iswifter-3-0-launches-with-new-subscription-model-and-support-for-facebook-games/

July 26 2011 at 12:37 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply