Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Also Apple refuses Adobe access to the hardware that would allow Flash to be efficient.

I know that was the case with Apple computers and Flash in the past, but I thought Apple relented a little in the past year or so and gave Adobe the API's or whatever they are called to access the hardware for GPU acceleration which is what something like Flash needs to run good. and why not use it if it's there?

I've no idea if they are doing the same thing with the iPad, Deliberately holding back what Adobe need to make it work, or actively helping Adobe, giving them the info/help they need to make it run and make the iPad a more complete product for the consumer.

After all, it's only the consumer who is the one that suffers in the end.
 
Are we blaming the wrong people here?

Flash was developed years ago when computers were not as fast as they are today. Over the years Flash has advanced, and I guess become a more rich environment to work and create in, at the same time computers have become more powerful to support this.

With of course the aid of direct GPU access to speed up the graphics of what Flash can offer the user/consumer.

So all was well with the world.

Then a manufacturer (apple) created a new product, the iPad which was a very slow and low powered device, by PC standards of the day, and we expect Adobe to magically make their product run on it.

That's a bit unfair don't you think?

It's not Adobe's fault hat the iPad is such a low performing device compared against the devices that Flash was originally created to run on.

That's like blaming Adobe for the fact that Photoshop won't run on the iPad.
It's not Photoshop's fault the iPad is too slow a device is it?

Flash was never designed to run on something like this in the 1st place.
Perhaps we should look for the iPad in future years to grow in power up to the point where it can support Flash as opposed to looking at it the other way round as we are doing now?

I'm not knocking the iPad, I'm just stating facts.

We don't blame other software products for the fact they can't be recoded perfectly to run on the iPad, we accept that the iPad is not powerful enough to run them.

Hopefully in time, perhaps iPad4 or iPad5 the tablet will be up to the task of running Flash well.

If tablets from competing companies sell well and run Flash without battery drain or security issues, Apple may have to reconsider its position. Otherwise, it is up to Adobe to decide whether and how to modify Flash to work with the iPad. And if non flash alternatives work just as well or better, that's the direction that everyone should move towards.
 
i've had an iPhone since launch and iPad since launch and not once come across a site where i have needed flash. the only flash i encountered that didn't work was flash ads, which is a bonus for me! :)

Apple told Adobe to make flash work better on Apple devices, Adobe hasn't as yet, therefore the ball is still in Adobe's court.

Hmmm that's interesting because flash has been running just fine on my Evo for over a year now, I use it to stream live TV at work all the time. It also runs flawlessly on my Xoom, so your argument is completely baseless.

Sent from my Xoom using Tapatalk
 
Hmmm that's interesting because flash has been running just fine on my Evo for over a year now, I use it to stream live TV at work all the time. It also runs flawlessly on my Xoom, so your argument is completely baseless.

Sent from my Xoom using Tapatalk

what does your evo have anything to do with my post? did you actually read it? lol:rolleyes:

Plus i stream live TV on my iPad and iPhone flawlessly without flash.....
 
You know what I've love to see, and it would be amazing.

Apple to fully support Flash, get Adobe fully onboard and spend time, with programming teams from Apple and hardware in the new CPU/GPU's for future iPads specifically to support Flash acceleration, and to be the only one tablet that fully supported flash and ran all flash code at full speed.

That would be amazing, and would leave all other tablet makers struggling. :D
 
BBC specifically have an app that allows the viewing of their shows on the iPad in html5 format.

So please don't use the BBC as an example as they have both flash and non flash versions of their tv service and have done for many years.

There are over 2 million bits of video or audio on the BBC website. Less than a thousand work on iOS.

Phazer
 
While there may be thousands of clips from news stories etc in formats like flash and real ..... They are not however part of the iplayer system that the poster was referring to.

So please don't try and mislead the readers with information that is wooly to say the least. And again, the iplayer taylored for iOS has almost the same amount of (if not the same) as the iplayer which is flash based.

Have you thought about maybe getting a motorola xoom ? That's a tablet that claims to do flash (very badly acording to most reviews) but again, you want flash .... This is one of the best on offer so far.
 
Yeah, club penguin is a good example. It's impossible to use this site/game on an iOS device. There are 2 ways it could work though:

1. A native version of the game, connecting to the same network. No real downside (other than the work involved), and it would run perfectly. But of course the company needs to spend a lot of time + money to make it work.

2. Flash on iOS. How well would it run? A quick search for club penguin on android doesn't look promising, but I didn't find anything conclusive. Anyone have an android tablet with flash to test it?
 
Flash is a third party software layer out of Apples control

Which still doesn't change the fact that the reason it's not available, in fact, has nothing to do with battery drain or technology.

Steve Jobs gave 6 major reasons for not having Flash on the iPhone. And the most important one was that Flash is a third party software layer out of Apples control.

Steve Jobs said:
We know from painful experience that letting a third party layer of software come between the platform and the developer ultimately results in sub-standard apps and hinders the enhancement and progress of the platform. If developers grow dependent on third party development libraries and tools, they can only take advantage of platform enhancements if and when the third party chooses to adopt the new features. We cannot be at the mercy of a third party deciding if and when they will make our enhancements available to our developers.
[...]

This becomes even worse if the third party is supplying a cross platform development tool. The third party may not adopt enhancements from one platform unless they are available on all of their supported platforms. Hence developers only have access to the lowest common denominator set of features.
[...]

Flash is a cross platform development tool. It is not Adobe’s goal to help developers write the best iPhone, iPod and iPad apps. It is their goal to help developers write cross platform apps. And Adobe has been painfully slow to adopt enhancements to Apple’s platforms.

It doesn´t matter if Adobe fixes the performance, decrease the battery drain or make it touch friendly. Adobe will never be able to overcome Jobs´sixth objection.
 
There's absolutely no disadvantage to having it available (even as a separate download/install) and the fanboys can't argue there is. If you don't want it, don't turn it on and stop dicking it up for those who do.

There is at least one disadvantage. It makes it more difficult to kill Flash on all platforms including Windows and OS X.

Some of the most annoying web sites out there use Flash for navigation and animation.
If there are fewer Flash developers there will be less Flash navigation and animation. = better
Making animations in HTML5 is currently more difficult or resource intensive therefore it will not be done as often = better

Flash has been sold as a cross-platform developing tool. When at least one of the major browsing platforms (iOS) does not support it, Flashes loses its raison d'etre.

For me it is not about battery life or performance but about killing off Flash completely. I do not want applications developed by cross platform tools. I want all developers of applications on iOS to be iOS-developers and to use the native tools of the platform. To be as close to the hardware as possible.

Why? I believe that creates better applications than cross platform tools.
I also don´t want Java or Silverlight.
 
Last edited:
Apple is never going to allow Flash on the iPad. The only way that happens is if a competing tablet with Flash becomes an even bigger success than the iPad.

Apple has not lied to anyone about their stance on Flash. You can either live with it or buy a different product, simple as that.
 
There is at least one disadvantage. It makes it more difficult to kill Flash on all platforms including Windows and OS X.

Some of the most annoying web sites out there use Flash for navigation and animation.
If there are fewer Flash developers there will be less Flash navigation and animation. = better
Making animations in HTML5 is currently more difficult or resource intensive therefore it will not be done as often = better

Flash has been sold as a cross-platform developing tool. When at least one of the major browsing platforms (iOS) does not support it, Flashes loses its raison d'etre.

For me it is not about battery life or performance but about killing off Flash completely. I do not want applications developed by cross platform tools. I want all developers of applications on iOS to be iOS-developers and to use the native tools of the platform. To be as close to the hardware as possible.

Why? I believe that creates better applications than cross platform tools.
I also don´t want Java or Silverlight.

So, I see, it's all about what YOU want.
 
Most of you are deluded fanboys. I recently bought an Asus Transformer tablet and it runs flash great. It's so nice being able to play flash video right on the page like on a real computer instead of loading some app to play it. I can actually go to restaurant sites and view the menu.

I'm not too fond of android overall though and I like the experience of my iPhone 4 better. If iOS had file system access and flash I would have gotten an iPad 2. Too bad Mr Jobs is a little baby and won't allow flash though.

My boss has the iPad 2 and he wishes it had flash and when people ask him if he recommends the iPad he says only if you are not a professional because lack of flash really hinders what he can do.
 
HTML5 is the next thing.

HTML5 will be the next thing once someone makes a good authoring tool.

I have yet to see an app that can make HTML5 content the way you can make flash content.

I like HTML5, it has promise. And i don't like flash all that much, but until it becomes easier to make stuff with HTML5, it won't progress that fast.
 
Most of you are deluded fanboys.

Not a fanboy. Took me a long time to actually buy my first Apple product. Still exclusively use PCs for daily computing.

AND, I've HATED flash since the first day I had to install it. Never liked the concept of having to install plug-ins to play web content. At the time we didn't have a choice. Now we do. Give me all my content in one browser w/o any crap plug-ins and I'll be much happier. That includes all plug-ins, not just flash.
 
My boss has the iPad 2 and he wishes it had flash and when people ask him if he recommends the iPad he says only if you are not a professional because lack of flash really hinders what he can do.

So true! Just the other day, I had someone ask me if I would do some freelance work for them.

I immediately declined, telling them that they really wanted someone who could view pizza menus and play Farmville on their tablets.
 
At the time we didn't have a choice. Now we do. Give me all my content in one browser w/o any crap plug-ins and I'll be much happier. That includes all plug-ins, not just flash.

really?
You have a choice?

Feel free to tell us what you use to view all content on an iOS device.
 
Apple has a tendency to drop older outdated tech for newer more useful tech.
When apple added USB to their computers they dropped the old ports. and people whined about it, but it was a good move to make.

Feel free to tell us about what newer Apple tech supports all the features of flash.

And I mean ALL of them.
Not SOME of them.
 
really?
You have a choice?

Feel free to tell us what you use to view all content on an iOS device.

The choice is to not buy an iOS device. Given the number of people who are not making that choice, I think you have an idea of how (un)important Flash is to most people.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.