iPhone Flash Support In Early Development [Archive]

MacRumors

Jun 17, 2008, 10:40 AM

http://www.macrumors.com/images/macrumorsthreadlogo.gif (http://www.macrumors.com)

During Adobe's quarterly conference call last night, Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen confirmed that the company was working on a version of Flash for the iPhone.

With respect to the iPhone, we are working on it. We have a version that’s working on the emulation. This is still on the computer and you know, we have to continue to move it from a test environment onto the device and continue to make it work. So we are pleased with the internal progress that we’ve made to date.

Apple has been working on a JavaScript framework called SproutCore (http://www.macrumors.com/2008/06/16/apple-adopting-sproutcore-for-web-applications/) that would reduce, but not necessarily eliminate, web application dependence on Flash.

Article Link (http://www.macrumors.com/iphone/2008/06/17/iphone-flash-support-in-early-development/)

thevibesman

Jun 17, 2008, 10:45 AM

Nice, I knew we wouldn't be left flashless forever. I wonder how close to the AppStore launch this will be--I don't know much about the differences between the emulator and the phone, but hopefully that means we will see this pretty soon.

Now if we can get a copy/past rumor I'll be all set.

BrittQ

Jun 17, 2008, 10:46 AM

It will be nice to be able to listen to XM on my iPhone through XM's online player.:cool:

dicklacara

Jun 17, 2008, 10:47 AM

I'd like to see Adobe make Flash work on the Mac, first!

kdarling

Jun 17, 2008, 10:48 AM

Rojo

Jun 17, 2008, 10:48 AM

Finally!

Once it happens, I'll be able to go to my company's homepage on my iPhone and not see just a blue square there anymore!

Woohoo! :D

bigmc6000

Jun 17, 2008, 10:49 AM

I think they should just sell a flash enabled Safari on the AppStore for something stupid like 99 cents (or maybe even free?). I would only use it when I want flash - most of the time I don't want flash as all it would do would be to take pages take forever to load with all their stupid Flash adds but when I want to watch a video online I'd like to have the option...

I also want MMS (yeah, yeah, I know, I know) and the ability to send more than 1 photo at a time - I can't begin to tell you how many times that's annoyed me.

Also, let me save pics from the web as well as e-mail.

aerospace

Jun 17, 2008, 10:50 AM

...for iphone version 3.0 likely lol

6months+ till release

psychofreak

Jun 17, 2008, 10:54 AM

Also, let me save pics from the web as well as e-mail.
Coming in v2.0 :)

mainstreetmark

Jun 17, 2008, 11:00 AM

Coming in v2.0 :)

yeah, but not so far as I can tell (or remember), MMS isn't there, so we'll continue to get those crappy "Someone has sent you a multimedia message..." with two complicated strings you have to remember.

Can't you at least make the link it sends clickable with all the correct information? As it stands, I ignore them all, and act like an idiot when the person asks me if I got that funny thing they sent me.

Anyways, flash would be ok. I understand it'll drain the battery, but at least websites with flash will work properly.

rxse7en

Jun 17, 2008, 11:08 AM

If the iPhone 3g can readily handle 3G and GPS with enough juice to spare why is Flash such a big deal now? Steve's claim that he was concerned with battery life shouldn't make a difference now, no?

rockinrocker

Jun 17, 2008, 11:14 AM

kdarling

Jun 17, 2008, 11:21 AM

i wonder if they couldn't also make it easy to turn on and off?

In the same vein, I'd like sometimes to just have the video playing capabilities.

There are tons of news sites I visit each day that have video reviews and reports I'd like to see without having to go back to my laptop.

bigmc6000

Jun 17, 2008, 11:37 AM

Coming in v2.0 :)

I thought SJ said the ability to save pics sent via e-mail - I want to save them from the web. At least I thought he said e-mail - that'd be good if it included the web...

MichaelLatta

Jun 17, 2008, 11:38 AM

If the iPhone 3g can readily handle 3G and GPS with enough juice to spare why is Flash such a big deal now? Steve's claim that he was concerned with battery life shouldn't make a difference now, no?

The problem with flash is the amount of CPU demand it creates. All that video is being done in the CPU not on the GPU or other chips. The iPhone uses custom/dedicated chips for video and other things that are very power efficient. Flash video would drain the battery in no time flat. I would be surprised if you got 2 hours of battery life doing flash video. That is why they made the deal with YouTube to re-encode their video in H.264, because hardware decoding is WAY more efficient.

mainstreetmark

Jun 17, 2008, 11:38 AM

i wonder if they couldn't also make it easy to turn on and off? so if you're going to a site that needs it, just turn it on real quick (or just leave it on all the time if you're not concerned about battery).
would that be feasible?

maybe it'll work like an embedded movie where when you tap it, it launches. If there's Flash content on a website, you'd end up tapping it to load and run it.
If you don't tap, it's dormant. That would be the way to go, so you don't have to monkey around with preferences.

Rocketman

Jun 17, 2008, 12:00 PM

"Still on the computer"...

So, just as with TomTom, it sounds like Adobe hasn't gotten a developer on-unit test license yet either.

I mean, it makes a weird sort of sense to limit developer licenses to a broad spectrum of apps at first, but to totally ignore the biggest names in the business?

It does make clear there is an agenda.

Rocketman

razorianfly

Jun 17, 2008, 12:04 PM

I thought SJ said the ability to save pics sent via e-mail - I want to save them from the web. At least I thought he said e-mail - that'd be good if it included the web...

It includes Safari as well. Trust me. :cool:

R-Fly

rockinrocker

Jun 17, 2008, 12:08 PM

maybe it'll work like an embedded movie where when you tap it, it launches. If there's Flash content on a website, you'd end up tapping it to load and run it.
If you don't tap, it's dormant. That would be the way to go, so you don't have to monkey around with preferences.

yeah, that sounds perfect. only having to worry about the specific content you're looking for, and not having to deal with adds 'n other junk along with it.

Zadillo

Jun 17, 2008, 12:49 PM

It will be nice to be able to listen to XM on my iPhone through XM's online player.:cool:

http://www.macnn.com/articles/08/06/11/xm.native.iphone.app/

lazyrighteye

Jun 17, 2008, 01:08 PM

Yeah, but not so far as I can tell (or remember), MMS isn't there, so we'll continue to get those crappy "Someone has sent you a multimedia message..." with two complicated strings you have to remember.

Can't you at least make the link it sends clickable with all the correct information? As it stands, I ignore them all, and act like an idiot when the person asks me if I got that funny thing they sent me.

I agree!
I'm honestly fine with Apple's decision to not support MMS.
But why on earth that annoying message can't be clickable is beyond me.
The fact this has not been remedied might suggest it's more complex than we understand.

Meh.

craigverse

Jun 17, 2008, 01:24 PM

As it stands, I ignore them all, and act like an idiot when the person asks me if I got that funny thing they sent me.

OMG, me too!

troyblinka

Jun 17, 2008, 01:40 PM

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/4A102 Safari/419.3)

I think they should just sell a flash enabled Safari on the AppStore for something stupid like 99 cents (or maybe even free?). I would only use it when I want flash - most of the time I don't want flash as all it would do would be to take pages take forever to load with all their stupid Flash adds but when I want to watch a video online I'd like to have the option...

I also want MMS (yeah, yeah, I know, I know) and the ability to send more than 1 photo at a time - I can't begin to tell you how many times that's annoyed me.

Also, let me save pics from the web as well as e-mail.

You can receive mms images if you tell your friends to text it to your email address on your iPhone instead of your cell number. It doesn't cost more. You could also use your email client to send pictures to cell phones by putting their number followed by their receiving address per carrier, example: xxxxxxxxxxx@vzwpix.com for a verizon customer. Just add that to your friends contact file as a mobile email address.

bytethese

Jun 17, 2008, 01:56 PM

Flash PLEASE. Certain sites I'd like to use, I can't because it's all in Flash. Ugh.

bigmc6000

Jun 17, 2008, 02:02 PM

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/4A102 Safari/419.3)

You can receive mms images if you tell your friends to text it to your email address on your iPhone instead of your cell number. It doesn't cost more. You could also use your email client to send pictures to cell phones by putting their number followed by their receiving address per carrier, example: xxxxxxxxxxx@vzwpix.com for a verizon customer. Just add that to your friends contact file as a mobile email address.

Well sure but that's not really the point. I shouldn't have to tell all my friends "hey, when you send MMS send them as an e-mail to me because my phone doesn't do that. I can use GPS to track my position down to a 20 foot radius, I can check e-mail, I can watch YouTube, and I can access virtually any site on the internet but I can't get MMS." WTH??

inkswamp

Jun 17, 2008, 02:12 PM

I'd like to see Adobe make Flash work on the Mac, first!

Hell, let's make it work properly everywhere first.

I've never been a fan of Flash because I seriously dislike the idea of an entire environment existing within my browser that doesn't behave as if it's part of the browser. For example, you can't open a Flash link in a new window/tab because Flash doesn't know about the browser. I have the same complaint about Java applets. Flash supersedes the browser's settings and therefore the user's wishes. Beyond that, it's overused, often thrown in arbitrarily where a little DHTML know-how would have sufficed and it's bloated enough to where a site with one or two Flash ads will utterly kill Web surfing on an older machine. That's ridiculous.

I sort of liked the idea that the iPhone would shed the need for Flash. With AJAX and some of the newer HTML/CSS effects, Flash is overdue for a swift death.

troyblinka

Jun 17, 2008, 02:15 PM

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/4A102 Safari/419.3)

I don't think it is too hard to ask them to send it to your email, not as an email. But you are right and it should be fixed. In time...

TalkAboutApple

Jun 17, 2008, 02:45 PM

It's good news but of course it would be best if Flash disappeared off the face of the Internet, going the way of those pesky Java applets.

sebastianlewis

Jun 17, 2008, 02:54 PM

I know sometimes Daniel's blog gets a little crazy with the ideas and it's quite easy to not read them right (and to be honest, his article is a little misleading), but SproutCore is independent of Apple and is like any other open source project Apple contributed to. Please rewrite that misleading footer, after the Macrumors link to RDM yesterday, there's no need to confuse your readers any further.

Apple has been working on a JavaScript framework called SproutCore that would reduce, but not necessarily eliminate, web application dependence on Flash.

nagromme

Jun 17, 2008, 03:17 PM

We all know Flash's flaws, but it ALSO has some amazing strengths that have NO competition. Namely: unmatched animation tools, a GUI-plus-ECMAscript rapid development environment with a LOT more power than consumers realize, a huge base of developers available who are skilled in it (and making money with it), and wide compatibility with many browsers, even older ones (which SVG etc. cannot claim--and which nothing can claim when it comes to widespread video delivery without asking users to install stuff).

I've seen people called "lazy" for doing things in Flash if they can be done another way. But if my client pays me for four hours' Flash work making an animated menu, I'm not going to take that money and spend twelve hours (turning down two other paying projects!) using a more "open" method that is less widely compatible and offers less sophisticated visuals.

So I'll be very happy to see the iPhone and iPod Touch gain Flash support--if it happens.

The demand is NOT going to go away. I understand why it hasn't happened yet (power drain etc.) but Flash WILL have a place on the Web for a very long time to come. I hope to see other things evolve to replace it for many/most things, but it will be a long time before anything can match the specific advantages of Flash.

razorianfly

Jun 17, 2008, 03:18 PM

I hope if/when flash does come, Apple also adds an option under;

Settings > Safari

to turn the damn thing off. :)

R-Fly

obliterations

Jun 17, 2008, 03:31 PM

How much is this gonna cost anyway? Download flash for 9.99!

I don't care. Id pay for it.

mickhyperion

Jun 17, 2008, 03:35 PM

nagromme

Jun 17, 2008, 03:44 PM

If the iPhone can handle the intense graphics of a video game like Super Monkeyball, why would handling a Flash banner or video on a webpage be an issue? Or are these processes handled entirely differently? This is a serious question because I really don't know.

They're handled differently in at least 2 ways:

Monkey Ball is 3D, using OpenGL and leveraging the 3D capabilities of the GPU hardware, while Flash is its own 2D vector engine.

Monkey Ball and OpenGL are not made be Adobe. Flash is :o And Adobe has long allowed Flash to be less efficient on non-Windows platforms. That needs to change.

I hope if/when flash does come, Apple also adds an option under;

Settings > Safari

to turn the damn thing off. :)

R-Fly

Yep--a necessity. Both for sites with annoying ads, and for battery savings, and potentially for security if some bug should be discovered in Flash again. I expect Apple would indeed allow plugins to be disabled, just like with desktop Safari.

By the way, if anyone thinks the "death of Flash" (not happening anyway) would be an end to obnoxious banner ads, they are crazy.

The problem is not Flash, the problem is advertisers... and they are the problem that pays for your Web, so they're not going away.

If Flash were gone, advertisers would STILL need to get your attention, and they would do so by other technologies. With the same obnoxious results.

Saying Flash is a "problem" and the absence of Flash is a "feature," just because of ads, makes no sense. Take away Flash and the same ads would be back overnight.

In fact, if the iPhone keeps taking off and Flash does NOT arrive, then sites will start to target iPhones with non-Flash ads. (Sproutcore? Animated GIF? .H264? Whatever.) Using the absence of Flash as an ad-blocker cannot last forever.

In which case, give me my Flash games and my Flash menus and my Flash video! :) They don't even have to load slowly--that expectation comes from a few bad apples. (The problem there is BADLY done Flash. And any other technology can be implemented wastefully too.)

kobefan234

Jun 17, 2008, 04:07 PM

finally FLASH SUPPORT COMING!

and there is no flash on the mac? how do you watch youtube?:apple:

swarmster

Jun 17, 2008, 04:35 PM

finally FLASH SUPPORT COMING!

and there is no flash on the mac? how do you watch youtube?:apple:

There is barely flash on the Mac. Try watching a flash video on a G4 and...you'll.....have.......to.........watch...........it.............like...............this.

And don't even think about going to a site with the precious flash navigation menus mentioned above.

Now try doing any of that on a 1GHz PC from the same era (or even earlier), and it runs just fine. Totally inexcusable.

EagerDragon

Jun 17, 2008, 04:58 PM

nagromme

Jun 17, 2008, 05:46 PM

Apple does not want Flash in the iPhone

That, I think, it assuming a lot.

There is no Flash existing now that Apple would find acceptable on the iPhone. (Nor iPhone users for that matter.) Battery life and performance and compatibility (meaning no Flash Lite!) have to be solved.

And Apple doesn't directly care a lot about having Flash on the iPhone. It's a zero priority or they'd be helping Adobe with it more.

And in general, Apple and Adobe are in competition in some areas--it's not all a rosy partnership.

But I don't think you can go further than that and say for sure that they specifically want to keep Flash OFF of the iPhone, even a new, efficient iPhone-specific version. Maybe they do, but I don't see the evidence to be so sure.

Apple has nothing to compete with Flash, and therefore are not going to make Flash go away no matter what they do. I think they know that. (And that could change, but not quickly--the Flash developers of the world are not going to jump on some future Apple tool overnight.)

And Apple has shown that they WILL sometimes jump on board with competitors' technologies when the demand is there--look at Exchange support for instance.

So I think it's highly likely that Apple WILL allow Flash on the iPhone (not work hard to make it happen, just allow it) IF and only IF Adobe can make it perform the way it should.

I don't see the SDK terms being a barrier. Apple can waive those in specific cases if they want to.

I seriously doubt that Apple has secretly decided "we will never allow Flash on the iPhone no matter what." How would that benefit them? I think they're playing wait and see.

(And I hope we get a better OS X plugin out of this process too! Although recent Macs are so fast it no longer matters.)

fishkorp

Jun 17, 2008, 06:06 PM

Niiro13

Jun 17, 2008, 06:06 PM

If the iPhone 3g can readily handle 3G and GPS with enough juice to spare why is Flash such a big deal now? Steve's claim that he was concerned with battery life shouldn't make a difference now, no?

Battery life wasn't the only issue. The iPhone's specs can't handle the current Flash for desktop computers...at least not in the way some people wanted them to (like veoh, flash games, etc.)...it was laggy and slow.

And Flash Lite is terrible compared to what the iPhone could handle.

So now here's Flash in between.

The main concern too was that Adobe wasn't able to really go for embedded Flash or Flash in the background because of the SDK agreement. I'm guessing they're doing it like Apple does YouTube where if you tap a YouTube link, it opens Flash player? =/.

The icon better look good on the home screen =P.

djrobsd

Jun 17, 2008, 06:41 PM

It will be nice to be able to listen to XM on my iPhone through XM's online player.:cool:

One of the negative things about the Sirius and XM merger is the lack of additional development for either platform until the whole merger is sorted out... So, after they merge I'm sure you'll see something, but until then, sit back and be patient. LOL

EagerDragon

Jun 17, 2008, 06:53 PM

That, I think, it assuming a lot.

There is no Flash existing now that Apple would find acceptable on the iPhone. (Nor iPhone users for that matter.) Battery life and performance and compatibility (meaning no Flash Lite!) have to be solved.

And Apple doesn't directly care a lot about having Flash on the iPhone. It's a zero priority or they'd be helping Adobe with it more.

And in general, Apple and Adobe are in competition in some areas--it's not all a rosy partnership.

But I don't think you can go further than that and say for sure that they specifically want to keep Flash OFF of the iPhone, even a new, efficient iPhone-specific version. Maybe they do, but I don't see the evidence to be so sure.

Apple has nothing to compete with Flash, and therefore are not going to make Flash go away no matter what they do. I think they know that. (And that could change, but not quickly--the Flash developers of the world are not going to jump on some future Apple tool overnight.)

And Apple has shown that they WILL sometimes jump on board with competitors' technologies when the demand is there--look at Exchange support for instance.

So I think it's highly likely that Apple WILL allow Flash on the iPhone (not work hard to make it happen, just allow it) IF and only IF Adobe can make it perform the way it should.

I don't see the SDK terms being a barrier. Apple can waive those in specific cases if they want to.

I seriously doubt that Apple has secretly decided "we will never allow Flash on the iPhone no matter what." How would that benefit them? I think they're playing wait and see.

(And I hope we get a better OS X plugin out of this process too! Although recent Macs are so fast it no longer matters.)

You seem to be assuming also, even assuming that Apple will set aside the SDK License and disregarding that Apple have their own solution for an open source methodology to do a lot of what flash does.

But everyone has the right to their own opinion.

Luveno

Jun 17, 2008, 06:56 PM

If the iPhone 3g can readily handle 3G and GPS with enough juice to spare why is Flash such a big deal now? Steve's claim that he was concerned with battery life shouldn't make a difference now, no?

Even on a c2d mbp, some flash files (i'm looking at you, video) peg my cpu. I think if flash can man-handle a full blown machine that much, it would likely be able to kill battery pretty quick for some folks.

nagromme

Jun 17, 2008, 08:51 PM

You seem to be assuming also, even assuming that Apple will set aside the SDK License and disregarding that Apple have their own solution for an open source methodology to do a lot of what flash does.

But everyone has the right to their own opinion.

I'm not assuming it's certain--in fact I DO think it's possible Apple permanently opposes Flash, already at this early stage (shame that they haven't told Adobe if so). But I believe it's most likely they don't, since I see no evidence for why Apple would want to block it, and plenty of evidence for why Apple would want to allow it.

Many seem quite certain in the other direction, but I don't see the cause of their certainty. (Some, I think, wish to defend the iPhone as it now stands. No need--it's already a fine platform without Flash.)

Roller

Jun 17, 2008, 08:51 PM

You seem to be assuming also, even assuming that Apple will set aside the SDK License and disregarding that Apple have their own solution for an open source methodology to do a lot of what flash does.

But everyone has the right to their own opinion.

The comment was made by Adobe's CEO during a conference call with analysts. So it's unlikely that this represents some minor proof-of-concept tinkering by an engineer or two. Does it mean that Adobe has Apple's blessing? Not necessarily, although I suspect there's been a lot of back-channel communication between Apple and Adobe on this.

Personally, I'd like to see some sort of Flash support on the iPhone. Say what you will about its overuse on the Web, but the fact is that many Web pages currently don't work without Flash.

nagromme

Jun 17, 2008, 09:43 PM

The comment was made by Adobe's CEO during a conference call with analysts. So it's unlikely that this represents some minor proof-of-concept tinkering by an engineer or two. Does it mean that Adobe has Apple's blessing? Not necessarily, although I suspect there's been a lot of back-channel communication between Apple and Adobe on this.

My suspicion--seeing as how Adobe hasn't even been let into the SDK beta!--is that Apple is giving Adobe no attention at all. And that this announcement, vague as it is, is partly to keep pressure on Apple, by keeping the public aware that Adobe is at work on this.

UTclassof89

Jun 17, 2008, 10:06 PM

I asked the fine folks who answer the Apple store chat board if the 3G iPhone will support Flash. Two different people gave an unequivocal "yes". (admittedly, these are not always the brightest bulbs, nor is their info always accurate). Tonight I asked a third person who refused to answer ("that's a product that's in 'prerelease'" she said, so she can't comment on the final feature set).

And to those who wish Flash would go away, I'm sorry you've been subjected to ill-conceived Flash content, but don't impugn the technology because some people don't know how to use it (I recall some awful JavaScript usage in the mid nineties)

rockinrocker

Jun 18, 2008, 01:07 AM

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/4A102 Safari/419.3)

Personally, I can see a standalone Flash app and when you hit a site that has an embedded Flash video, the link would be like flash://URL just like maps, phone numbers, etc. That way Adobe stays within SDK terms and users get Flash.

i like this idea. similar to the "tap on an icon for each instance of flash on a page". we get the flash content we want without the lag/battery drain of what we don't.....

sounds ideal.

zarusoba

Jun 18, 2008, 01:08 AM

Now if we can get a copy/past rumor I'll be all set.

There's no copy/paste on the iPhone?? :eek:

TheNightPhoenix

Jun 18, 2008, 06:06 AM

I agree!
I'm honestly fine with Apple's decision to not support MMS.
But why on earth that annoying message can't be clickable is beyond me.
The fact this has not been remedied might suggest it's more complex than we understand.

Meh.

Mine is :p

But I'm guessing you on AT&T, I'm on O2 in the UK.
They send a link with a 4 letter pass code. It's works rather well, but i prefer to use...

http://www.iapps.co.uk/o2mms/
YOu sign up with your passcode and they have a iphone webapp for loggin into o2 and emailing the MMs to yourself. Very neat.

sjo

Jun 18, 2008, 07:11 AM

I'm not assuming it's certain--in fact I DO think it's possible Apple permanently opposes Flash, already at this early stage (shame that they haven't told Adobe if so). But I believe it's most likely they don't, since I see no evidence for why Apple would want to block it, and plenty of evidence for why Apple would want to allow it.

you don't see evidence for why apple wold want to block it...

My suspicion--seeing as how Adobe hasn't even been let into the SDK beta!--is that Apple is giving Adobe no attention at all. And that this announcement, vague as it is, is partly to keep pressure on Apple, by keeping the public aware that Adobe is at work on this.

but you see evidence of apple blocking it.

something's not quite right here...

Mac6272

Jun 18, 2008, 12:47 PM

Apple needs to quit screwin around and add mms its a joke we dont have it, to all of you who say who uses mms? Alot of people do theres a reason its on pretty much every single phone you buy today, end of story add mms quit screwing around.

pete01010

Jun 19, 2008, 02:28 AM

They're handled differently in at least 2 ways:

Monkey Ball is 3D, using OpenGL and leveraging the 3D capabilities of the GPU hardware, while Flash is its own 2D vector engine.

Flash 10 (http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flashplayer10/releasenotes.html#features) will support GPU Compositing.

stevegut78

Jun 20, 2008, 01:17 PM

get a blackberry... Problem solved :) LOL had to do it!

batchtaster

Jun 22, 2008, 08:25 AM

You seem to be assuming also, even assuming that Apple will set aside the SDK License and disregarding that Apple have their own solution for an open source methodology to do a lot of what flash does.

But everyone has the right to their own opinion.

I think what is being said is, give Apple the benefit of the doubt. That is, the same philosophy behind "innocent until proven guilty". Until Apple comes out and says they are actively blocking or opposed to, or replacing Flash, or are otherwise proven to be, it is more fair to say that they have no opinion whatsoever. Rather than that it hasn't happened yet, so therefore they must be opposed. If copy/paste hasn't happened yet, does that mean they're opposed to that too?

For example, they have indicated they are actively blocking unlocking and jailbreaking, so you know where they stand. But when they don't give an opinion, you can't assume one for them.

People love to go to "OMG!!1! [company name] IZ STOPING ME FROM [insert something here]", and propose deliberate, active intervention. The answer is probably far more benign, and even dull. (See also: Occam's Razor (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam%27s_razor) and Grampa vs. Sexual Inadequacy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grampa_vs._Sexual_Inadequacy))