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lucidmedia

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Oct 13, 2008
702
37
Wellington, New Zealand

MacRumors

macrumors bot
Apr 12, 2001
63,287
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Adobe Demonstrating iPhone Applications Built Using Flash



While Apple's iPhone has notably been left out of Adobe's new initiative with Flash Player 10.1 to bring an integrated Flash experience to browsers on smartphones and other platforms, TechCrunch notes that Adobe has also been using its Adobe MAX 2009 conference to show off capabilities found in the company's forthcoming Flash Professional CS5 that will allow developers to build Flash-based applications and then export them to the standard .ipa format used for native iPhone applications.
The new support for iPhone applications in the Flash Platform tooling will not allow iPhone users to browse web content built with Flash technology on iPhone, but it may allow developers to repackage existing web content as applications for iPhone if they choose to do so.

Flash Player uses a just-in-time compiler and virtual machine within a browser plug-in to play back content on websites. Those technologies are not allowed on the iPhone at this time, so a Flash Player for iPhone is not being made available today.

Flash Professional CS5 will enable developers to build applications for iPhone that are installed as native applications. Users will be able to access the apps after downloading them from Apple’s App Store and installing them on iPhone or iPod touch
Applications created using Flash Professional CS5 meet all iPhone .ipa and SDK requirements, allowing them to be included in Apple's App Store via the standard iPhone Developer Program. Adobe has even featured seven current App Store applications that were built using a pre-release version of Flash Professional CS5.

Article Link: Adobe Demonstrating iPhone Applications Built Using Flash
 

overanalyzer

macrumors 6502a
Sep 7, 2007
909
0
Boston, MA USA
It's great to see a rich development toolset landscape evolving for the iPhone, including alternative development environments to XCode and Objective-C. That can only serve to enrich and grow the platform in the long run. I thought MonoTouch (http://monotouch.net/) was really interesting too when I saw it. It allows C# .NET development for the iPhone, much like Adobe Flash CS5 allows Flash/AS development.
 

supremedesigner

macrumors 65816
Dec 9, 2005
1,070
907
Eh, we'll see. I am happy not to have flash on my phone because javascript and css does a better job. I know flash is a power-hungry for the iPhone/iPod batteries and does lag/slow down bad.

I'm not quite happy with Adobe lately. Their CS3 and CS4 software have become bloated and garbage lately so I hope the CS5 will be 64 bits and less bloated. (see adobegripes.tumblr.com for more information)
 

raygungirl

macrumors member
Jun 14, 2009
83
3
Arizona
I'd much rather have flash for Safari on the iPhone/iPod Touch than Flash in apps.

It's not like I love Flash or anything, it's that some idiotic but indispensable-to-me companies (i.e. Disney) still code 99% of their websites in Flash. And if you can't view Flash, sucks to be you.

A friend of mine almost missed out on buying tickets to a very exclusive, never-happens-ever tour of the Walt Disney Archives, all because her iPhone couldn't handle the Flash on their website, and her only other computer was out of service at the time. She ended up having to drive to a public library to access the website.

Not saying that's really Apple's fault... Just saying, there's a good reason to need Flash. And to smack Disney's web-design department upside the head a few times. :p

P.S., this is coming from the point-of-view of a regular user, who knows nothing about how bloated Flash is or anything like that. From a developer's POV, I'm sure Flash sucks. I'm just saying it's widely used.
 

Xian Zhu Xuande

macrumors 6502a
Jul 30, 2008
941
128
I'd much rather have flash for Safari on the iPhone/iPod Touch than Flash in apps.
"Flash in apps" could be a little misleading. It sounds like this is just a feature for CS5 that will allow an application to be created in the Flash environment, and exported to Apple's format for submission to the App Store.
 

sarahbau

macrumors newbie
Sep 19, 2009
8
0
Hopefully being compiled helps with the CPU usage. Even a basic flash file can take 100% of one of the cores of my Mac Pro. There are two things I like about Flash - it isn't multithreaded (I'm sure it would take all 4 of my cores then), and isn't on the iPhone.
 

BillyBobBongo

macrumors 68030
Jun 21, 2007
2,535
1,139
On The Interweb Thingy!
...I'm sure Flash sucks...

You seem to be sitting on the fence there...or are you just too scared to voice your real opinion in front of the Fanbois around here!? It's okay to like it! ;)

Flash is a great tool. I'm very excited that as a Flash developer I'll be able to make applications that will be able to help the companies I work for...and might be able to get a bit of extra cash into me pocket!! :D

P.S. I can't see the large media companies stopping using Flash for their sites. It allows for a really entertaining browsing experience and well...even if it hurts their search engine ranking...I'm pretty sure you know their URL anyway! ;)
 

wilycoder

macrumors 6502
Aug 4, 2008
337
0
You seem to be sitting on the fence there...or are you just too scared to voice your real opinion in front of the Fanbois around here!? It's okay to like it! ;)

Flash is a great tool. I'm very excited that as a Flash developer I'll be able to make applications that will be able to help the companies I work for...and might be able to get a bit of extra cash into me pocket!! :D

P.S. I can't see the large media companies stopping using Flash for their sites. It allows for a really entertaining browsing experience and well...even if it hurts their search engine ranking...I'm pretty sure you know their URL anyway! ;)

As long as you recognize your own bias....

Personally I'm not a fan of flash.
 

andiwm2003

macrumors 601
Mar 29, 2004
4,382
454
Boston, MA
uh, my current experience with all flash things is quite bad. it's slow, crashes, takes forever to load and is often misused for overblown effects, doesn't run on many machines to begin with.

i hope they did a better job for iphones and i hope iphone developers don't use it too often.
 

Erwin-Br

macrumors 6502a
Feb 6, 2008
603
62
The Netherlands
uh, my current experience with all flash things is quite bad. it's slow, crashes, takes forever to load and is often misused for overblown effects, doesn't run on many machines to begin with.

i hope they did a better job for iphones and i hope iphone developers don't use it too often.

It runs perfect on Windows.
 

PindaKaas

macrumors newbie
Aug 21, 2009
2
0
Noordwijk, The Netherlands
I think it's disturbing Flash needs a just in time compiler and a virtual machine inside a plugin while it's only showing fancy ads on some pages...

I know, flash can do so much much much more, but come on.

Please move on to HTML5 faster!
 

holmesf

macrumors 6502a
Sep 30, 2001
528
25
This will bring a ton of new applications to iPhone.

It will also hurt existing iPhone developers a lot, especially game developers. Why? Because it further lowers the barriers to entry and adds a huge pool of new developers to an already saturated market. As a game developer I'm glad I've already left the market -- it's about to get real nasty with flash games in the store.

Now I'm not saying consumers won't benefit from this -- they absolutely will. But it's bad news for developers who've invested their time in learning and applying Objective-C / OpenGL ES and platform specifics, and who will have to compete their products against a barrage of flash apps made under quicker development cycles.
 

kdarling

macrumors P6
I think it's disturbing Flash needs a just in time compiler and a virtual machine inside a plugin while it's only showing fancy ads on some pages...

I know, flash can do so much much much more, but come on.

Please move on to HTML5 faster!

What's wrong with a JIT compiler or a VM?

I thought even the iPhone browser now has Squirrelfish just-in-time compiling for Javascript.
 

jettredmont

macrumors 68030
Jul 25, 2002
2,731
328
You seem to be sitting on the fence there...or are you just too scared to voice your real opinion in front of the Fanbois around here!? It's okay to like it! ;)

Flash is a great tool. I'm very excited that as a Flash developer I'll be able to make applications that will be able to help the companies I work for...and might be able to get a bit of extra cash into me pocket!! :D

P.S. I can't see the large media companies stopping using Flash for their sites. It allows for a really entertaining browsing experience and well...even if it hurts their search engine ranking...I'm pretty sure you know their URL anyway! ;)

Anecdotally, the #1 effect of a large media company using Flash for their site is that their site never gets another visit from me unless there is something INTENSELY compelling to bring me there. Hulu, for instance, brings me back, even though every moment I use their Flash video player a kitten dies. And Hulu's just about the best of breed for online video players (ex: CBS.com and its propensity for audio and video to lose sync, and MyLifetime.com with its super-power-hungry low-quality video which refuses to stay full-screen).

Granted, a HUGE factor in this is that Adobe continues to cripple its Mac Flash player (for years they argued that PPC was just incapable of running Flash like x86 hardware could, just like now they way iPhone hardware is incapable of running Flash well, but things didn't get any better with the Intel switch, even though today's Intel hardware absolutely runs circles around the Pentium chips Flash ran on ten years ago ... Adobe's Mac BU is just either wholly incompetent, hamstringed into producing inferior software, or intentionally crippling Mac users. I can't decide which is more plausible.)

Sorry, Flash developer. But, at least to me, you've got one huge strike against any website you develop.
 

dlewis23

macrumors 65816
Oct 23, 2007
1,149
1,827
Am I the only one that really doesn't give a hoot wether Adobe brings anything flash related to the iPhone?

Flash is a pig on OS X, and piglet on Windows. I can't imagine that it will ever run really well on anything let alone a mobile plat form.

Besides, HTML 5 and CSS3 are doing most of the things you would want flash for anyway.
 

zweigand

macrumors 6502a
Oct 19, 2003
626
89
I'd rather hulu for HD QT instead :D Flash sucks big time on Snow Leopard when you set on full screen mode :\
Yeah, no kidding. I've switched to just zooming in with OS X (control + scroll wheel) to get "fullscreen" without the performance issues.
 

infiniteentropy

macrumors regular
Sep 9, 2009
232
986
I myself am not one (an Adobe developer of any kind), but I'm impressed with Adobe helping its developer community to come to the iPhone, even if it is not fully native or however they end up implementing this. Still props to Adobe for putting forth so much effort!
 

Shintocam

macrumors regular
Aug 15, 2005
108
0
Canada
Eh, we'll see. I am happy not to have flash on my phone because javascript and css does a better job. I know flash is a power-hungry for the iPhone/iPod batteries and does lag/slow down bad.

I'm not quite happy with Adobe lately. Their CS3 and CS4 software have become bloated and garbage lately so I hope the CS5 will be 64 bits and less bloated. (see adobegripes.tumblr.com for more information)

I'm asking this question seriously. How do you "know" that "flash is power-hungry for the iPhone/iPod batteries and does lag/slow down bad" when flash is not available on the iPhone/iPod. How have you tested this?
 

libertyforall

macrumors regular
Mar 28, 2006
186
0
Flash, don't go away mad, but flash, just go away! ;-)

Seriously, CSS Animations and HTML5 should make Flash unnecessary!
 
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