Adobe Shows Off Flash-to-HTML5 Converter

[MacRumors]

Adobe's John Nack points to a demo of a new tool from the company that would allow developers to easily convert their Flash projects to a combination of HTML5 and related non-Flash technologies. The tool, demoed at Adobe's MAX 2010 conference earlier this week, is not yet promised for a public release, but it is clear that the company is looking at ways to help developers offer their content in multiple formats.

Are you surprised? Don't be. As I've written many times, Adobe lives or dies by its ability to help customers solve real problems. That means putting pragmatism ahead of ideology.

Flash is great for a lot of things, and this week's demos showed it's only improving. It's not the only game in town, however, and Adobe makes its money selling tools, not giving away players. Let's help people target whatever media they need, as efficiently as possible.

Apple has of course been pushing HTML5 and other standards as an alternative to Adobe's Flash technology, and developers are increasingly getting on board as they seek to keep their content compatible with Apple's popular Flash-less iOS devices. One recent study concluded that more than half of the H.264-encoded video on the Internet is now available in HTML5 format, but with Flash used in many other capacities besides video presentation, Adobe's new tools could help developers of some of these other implementations more easily move their content to HTML5.

Article Link: Adobe Shows Off Flash-to-HTML5 Converter

[antster94]

the end of Flash is on the horizon.

[FFArchitect]

Originally Posted by antster94

the end of Flash is on the horizon.

They are trying very hard to save it.

[cube]

Maybe Flash Player would be faster than JavaScript. Don't complain later.

[Xavier]

Adobe is in denial.

This is the first stage of acceptance.

[KnightWRX]

It's funny that everyone pushes HTML5 and calls Flash crap, yet the only company making good tools to make Canvas apps is the company responsible for Flash itself.

Maybe Apple should use some of its billions to make an HTML5 authoring app before calling other vendors lazy.

[richman555]

This looked like more of an attempt to show how inferior HTML 5 is compared to Flash content. I do bet that flash animation would kill the CPU on most machines.

[Tastic Bycrom]

Pushing this form is what can save flash in my mind. The reason flash is liked is due to it's ease of creating content. Killing the plug-in is what I desire.

[captainjasons]

I said ~6 months ago during all this Apple/Adobe confrontational mess that Adobe needed to either release a good HTML5 authoring tool, or simply make a converter. I do agree that Apple, in all their push for HTML5, should introduce a good canvas application for HTML5. God knows with their iLife Suite, iWeb NEEDS a good solid update/reason to still exist. Glad to see the wheels finally moving.

[richman555]

Originally Posted by Tastic Bycrom

Pushing this form is what can save flash in my mind. The reason flash is liked is due to it's ease of creating content. Killing the plug-in is what I desire.

I agree with you. The problem with flash is the browser plug in itself.

[neilw]

Question: if not for iOS, would Adobe have bothered with this?

[inlovewithi]

It's probably no good because Adobe is lazy.

[Nishi100]

"You don't even need a high powered device, it works on your iPhone" LOL

[CZSZSZ]

Originally Posted by KnightWRX

It's funny that everyone pushes HTML5 and calls Flash crap, yet the only company making good tools to make Canvas apps is the company responsible for Flash itself.

Maybe Apple should use some of its billions to make an HTML5 authoring app before calling other vendors lazy.

I can not agree more. Adobe is a great software company, they do great stuff (CS5,Lightroom). If they will add great tools for HTML5 everyone will use it and adobe can earn a lot selling these great software.

Incidentally the need for this kind of software is driven by apple. I was rather disappointed that iLife 11 didn't improve iWeb.

[dlewis23]

Neat tool but Adobe needs to really just start to faze out Flash. Hopefully this really is the start of that.

[Northgrove]

Originally Posted by FFArchitect

They are trying very hard to save it.

By writing a converter to HTML5?

I'd say they're slowly but surely switching to a model where they no longer have to rely on Flash as an online multimedia company. Flash is, even in Adobe's eyes, now on a irrecoverable downward spiral. And it's not just about Apple. Even IE 9 (!) will support HTML 5 Video and Canvas, for a pretty much complete Flash replacement.

[tundrabuggy]

Originally Posted by antster94

the end of Flash is on the horizon.

I would agree with you; however, after attending Adobe MAX, Flash is definitely the future as well as the present. The new Flash player and 3D engine is not only ridiculously optimized as demoed on the new MacBook Air 11 inch, but also the 3D engine rivals PS3 and XBox. There was so much momentum there with Google, Motorola RIM, Intel.....it was incredible, I'm sure you will be seeing Flash on Apple mobile products in the near future....as a matter of fact....bet on it! Motorola gave all 4600 of us Droid 2 phones to develop Flash apps ....Google gave us all Google TVs to develop Flash apps.....Your future has Flash in it like it or not, I guarantee it!

[Wurm5150]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7)

Apple trashed Adobe on Flash so they'll get off their lazy asses and do something. I guess Jobs calling Adobe out was a good thing. Jobs said Adobe should concentrate on creating HTML5 authoring tools instead of criticizing Apple. Now Adobe is starting to do what Jobs suggested Adobe do.

[GeekOFComedy]

I think adobe is doing this because their platform is easiest to work on due to their gui interface than css3 + HTML5 so people will still buy their product but just export for HTML5 etc.

[tundrabuggy]

Adobe Max proved that Flash is once again the future.....there is absolutely zero effort to abolish Flash, it is only getting better. As a die hard Apple fanboy, I can say that Flash will come to the iPhone/iPad before Flash goes away.....mark my words. It will happen!

[Shasterball]

Smart. So very smart....

[rorschach]

Originally Posted by tundrabuggy

Adobe Max proved that Flash is once again the future.....there is absolutely zero effort to abolish Flash, it is only getting better. As a die hard Apple fanboy, I can say that Flash will come to the iPhone/iPad before Flash goes away.....mark my words. It will happen!

Considering Apple just announced they are no longer including Flash on any Macs going forward, I highly doubt it.

[currentinterest]

If Flash is indeed being optimized and becomes usable on mobile devices, it will be a long overdue change that was precipitated by Apple and Jobs. I have no problem with Flash being on iOS devices if it is a very efficient and economical way of providing content. When that is achieved, Apple will likely include it on their devices and declare a well deserved victory over past implementations of the technology. The old lazy Flash implementations will indeed be dead, Apple will have succeeded.

[lucidmedia]

Originally Posted by antster94

the end of Flash is on the horizon.

Because there are so many other visual tools that allow us to compose animations within a canvas tag?

Don't confuse the Flash player with Flash the development environment.

Many designers want a tool that allows them to compose/animate content visually and enables them to integrate scripting and interactivity. In the future that tool will probably output to HTML5/Javascript or Flash Player. It *might* still be called Flash.

Its the tool that most designers care about, not the "platform". Give them a tool that enables them to do 60% of what the Flash Player does in HTML/Javascript and people will happily use it!

In order to see widespread adoption of some of the more dynamic elements of HTML5/AJAX designers need better, more integrated, and *more visual* tools for content creation. People can knock Adobe all they want (justifiably so in many cases), but I don't see too many other companies stepping up to the plate to develop tools for the development of creative content.

I see this as a positive step.

[jayducharme]

Originally Posted by captainjasons

Apple, in all their push for HTML5, should introduce a good canvas application for HTML5. God knows with their iLife Suite, iWeb NEEDS a good solid update/reason to still exist.

I absolutely agree. I'd love to use a program that would allow me to create rich multimedia in HTML5. But so far nothing (except for a few buggy betas) exists to do so.

I'm not a big fan of Flash. The interface and Action Script have gotten more and more incomprehensible since Adobe's acquisition. Catalyst is a poor attempt to simplify the interface. There are other companies making software (such as Quickmovie and eZedia) that have really simple interfaces but cumbersome plug-ins. If Adobe could make Flash more intuitive to use and also output as HTML5, it would continue to be one of the most sought-after tools in the industry -- rather than continue its slide into irrelevance.

Maybe Microsoft can help.