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Help on Flash Enabled Web Browser ?
- Thread starter vish26
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1, forget Atomic - it doesn't support Flash at all.
2, I've very thoroughly tested the currently available Flash browsers: SkyFire, iSwifter, Photon, Puffin and Media2Go. Of them, I've found iSwifter, Photon and Puffin the best. If you want to play back audio (particularly if it's stereo), you'll want to pick Photon.
Here's some of my writeups of these browsers from my dedicated article:
UPDATE (06/13/2012): Frash couldn't run any of the test Flash video / animations I've thrown it at under 5.1.1 (tested on the iPad 3). The test videos included those of QVC (homepage). BTW, speaking of QVC, I've checked the videos with Photon (AppStore), iSwifter (AppStore) and SkyFire (three Flash-enabled browsers in the AppStore). SkyFire didn't recognize videos at all.
UPDATE (06/22/2012): I've conducted another series of tests with THIS video (also see THIS and THIS thread). As expected, Frash didn't work. Neither did SkyFire, the first ever Flash player to hit iOS. Unfortunately, it seems to have pretty low compatibility rate lately and I, therefore, don't recommend it at all any more.
I've found iSwifter and Puffin (of the latter, tested the commercial version (AppStore link) - the free lite version, as opposed to iSwifter, doesn't support Flash at all) the two best players (I'm in Europe so your mileage may vary if you're in the US), followed by Photon.
UPDATE (07/12/2012): today, answering THIS question, I've tested the Java applet compliance of the Flash-capable Web browsers.
Unfortunately, remote emulation-based, inexpensive browsers like iSwifter (which is just a proxy to a server-side Firefox) can't run applets at all. Neither can SkyFire, Puffin or Photon, the other three, known remote desktop and/or stream transcoding-based browsers. That is, your only choice is full remote terminal access. For example, the above-introduced AlwaysOnPC runs the applets at http://java.sun.com/applets/ just fine.
UPDATE (07/14/2012): upon a reader's request (thread), I've tested the subscription-based German sports streaming page, http://www.fohlen.tv/. It works with all three recommended Flash browsers (but, as you may have guessed, not on SkyFire), that is, iSwifter, Photon (this after explicitly switching to Flash mode with the thunder icon) and Puffin.
UPDATE (07/28/2012): helping another user (thread HERE), I've tested the Flash audio players at http://www.theraa.com/media/ and http://music.cbc.ca/ in the Flash-capable browsers. Based on the results, the Flash players' playback quality is in strictly the following order (from best to worst):
Photon: most recommended: it transfers stereo sound as opposed to iSwifter and Puffin!
iSwifter: mono, no problems
Puffin: mono, minor problems (static noise from time to time etc.)
Finally the non-working ones:
SkyFire, as could easily be predicted (after all, it's for video playback only, not the more generic full Flash emulation / streaming), doesn't recognize and, therefore, can't play back the audio tracks.
Media2Go has turned out to be useless as always in my previous tests. It does not support any kind of audio transfer; in this case, the theraa.com/media/ Flash widgets just don't exit the Buffering mode (and there's absolutely no audio with the music.cbc.ca player either, of course).
UPDATE (08/29/2012): I've run tests to find the best browser to watch / listen to TV and radio broadcasts on Finnish Broadcast Company's (still) Flash-only and, therefore, non-iOS-friendly video / audio archive. The results are exactly the same as with the previous update: Photon turned out to be the best. While Puffin delivered the same framerate as Photon when playing videos, it did have audio problems, just as during the previous tests. iSwifter had a somewhat lower framerate when playing videos. SkyFire couldn't recognize the video player at all. Unfortunately, none of the usable (Photon / Puffin / iSwifter) browsers have a local server in Finland; therefore, programs restricted to Finnish audience can't be played back with them, not even with the listener being situated in the country.
It's been some months ago, but by far the best quality I found (suitable for sports which none of the others were IMO) was via OnLive Desktop. Unfortunately it's a subscription service, but you do get what you pay for compared to the other alternatives. Of course it's worth trying them first to see if they're acceptable to you.
As mentioned above, you will unfortunately run into issues with geoblocked programs if you're outside the US, and VPN/proxies won't work on those browsers unlike Safari.
I don't think there's any way at all to get around that on iOS.
As mentioned above, you will unfortunately run into issues with geoblocked programs if you're outside the US, and VPN/proxies won't work on those browsers unlike Safari.
I don't think there's any way at all to get around that on iOS.I thought Puffin is very very slow it lags a lot....About Photon when I compare it with say for e.g a browser like iCab the layout of Photon does not look as simple and intutive as iCab. iCab browser looks simple and non-complicated, Any thoughts on the iCab Browser of I had to choose between iCab and Photon.
All Flash browsers use streaming; therefore, all will lag. In my test, the three has proved to be streaming at about the same speed with slight differences. However, there may be temporal network congestions etc. rendering a particular browser slow for an hour or two. In these cases, you'll want to switch to another browser. (I have all the three on my iPad so that I can quickly switch between them.)
Was just reading this somewhere iCab Browser does not support Flash can anybody confirm this here.
So between Photon and Skyfire You are saying Photon is slightly better than Skyfire ? Right ?
Yup, it doesn't support - as with 95% of the other browsers, except for the ones I've listed.
SkyFire has turned out to be somewhat worse than iSwifter, Photon and Puffin. That is, I'd always start with the latter three. However, there may be cases when SkyFire offers better streaming speed / quality / stability. Nothing can be predicted as, as I've stated, all these four browsers use their own transcoding server, which can become congested / shut down.
So if I go with Photon that should be ok choice according to you if my requirement is Flash Enabled Browser ?
BTW, I've just posted a benchmark comparison video of Photon to AlwaysOnPC to https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=16243806
If you have a fast connection at home, and a computer that is always on.
Splashtop 2 is gold.
Run Chrome in fullscreen on splashtop and it works wonderfully. You can even install addons that make it better for touchscreen, like drag to scroll and so on. It supports sound out of the box.
I have fiber at home, and it works next to as it is running locally on my iPad.
Splashtop program you install on your computer will resize the screen resolution of your computer to your iPads resolution while you use it, so it looks very neat.
I use this all the time, can even use it for videos saved on my computer, or simple tasks inside games like SWTOR.
Splashtop 2 is gold.
Run Chrome in fullscreen on splashtop and it works wonderfully. You can even install addons that make it better for touchscreen, like drag to scroll and so on. It supports sound out of the box.
I have fiber at home, and it works next to as it is running locally on my iPad.
Splashtop program you install on your computer will resize the screen resolution of your computer to your iPads resolution while you use it, so it looks very neat.
I use this all the time, can even use it for videos saved on my computer, or simple tasks inside games like SWTOR.