DISQUS

Joseph E. Davis · 2 years ago

Flash is not something I've been missing from my iPhone browsing. In fact, EDGE is slow enough that I'm happy it's not there.

Robert Scoble · 2 years ago

Joseph: I just did an update to my post where we talk about how Flash could be made to be faster on slow networks. I just want some cool games. Flash is the best way to bring us a whole bunch of games quickly. But figure out how to store them locally and then you get the best of both worlds.

PXLated · 2 years ago

I'm personally hoping they don't put Flash on the iPhone for at least a year (if ever). I like the idea of forcing everyone into web standards. Would like to see some good SVG etc. first.
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Of course my view is from a Mac users point of view and Adobe hasn't been the best at getting Flash optimized for us. Want to set my MacBookPro fans a blaze, surf a bad Flash site.
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And no, I don't hate Flash, I quite like it for certain things.

André Hedetoft · 2 years ago

I really haven't read much about the iPhone since I first heard about it. I probably only read about it in a post or two here. I really don't know what it can do for you and why I should replace my current phone.

But I desperately want to.

I don't know if that says more about me or Apple or both.

Tortilla · 2 years ago

Like Joseph, I'm not missing Flash either. But I'm curious to see how the landscape of iPhone apps would change if Apple supported Flash for the iPhone.

Todd Stryke · 2 years ago

Robert,
Hrm....I hate to say I told you so....

Bess · 2 years ago

Robert,
Go ask Apple if iPhone has Flash. Ask until you get some sort of response. Safari doesn't support everything on AJAX. Flash as alternative can make our lives as developers better. Be sure you post your finding.

Max Pagels · 2 years ago

I personally don't care about Flash support for iPhone other than Flash games, which Scoble rightly pointed out is the best way to quickly get a plethora of games on the phone.

Charbax · 2 years ago

iPhone probably is not powerfull enough for Flash. N800 for example supposedly has flash but the Nokia is not powerfull enough for flash video site like youtube and such.

Ted Shelton · 2 years ago

iPhone doesn't have flash because if it did Flash would rapidly become the default development environment for the iPhone but Apple wants to control the development environment...

Chris · 2 years ago

http://openmoko.com/products-index.html

The OpenMoko went on sale yesterday. Adobe can do anything they want with it as far as installing flash.

A phone you can develop binary software for.

... but only a geek would buy that!!!
I'm ordering mine this week.

Voila, the Altair 8800 of cell phones has come to America!
Beat that Apple.

Chris · 2 years ago

Steve Jobs used to sell phone freaking gear, now he sells airplane blackboxes. The openmoko should be on the cover of magazines, it it's not already. The trolltech phone was a raw deal, this is the shiznit real geeks been waiting for.

Sean McGee · 2 years ago

Bess Said: "Safari doesn't support everything on AJAX."

That's just not true. The fact of the matter is this: Some AJAX developers don't support (or don't know how to support) Safari.

If all Web Developers used best practices and unobtrusive JavaScript, then AJAX applications would work on ANY browser.

As to Flash, the only thing it's good for, IMO, is video and games. That's it. Any other application of Flash technology on the web is downright ignorant and inaccessible. You want cool animations? AJAX can do it. You want scalable graphics? Use SVG. Dynamic Web Applications? Use SSS (Server Side Scripts).

If only we all had the mentality of Jeremy Keith or Dave Shea. The web would be a much better place.

Sofia · 2 years ago

This cyberspace have me trapped.
I have to get my mind out of of here

sofia

http://sofiawinterborn.wordpress.com/2007/07/10...

Joe · 2 years ago

@3
Web standards like...quicktime?

Issam Qadan · 2 years ago

I would like to see Flash support also. But more important I would like to see AD2P support which I think is essential.

Peter Baird · 2 years ago

Quoting Sean McGee: "As to Flash, the only thing it’s good for, IMO, is video and games. That’s it."

There's are far more new brands of applications out there that Flash is powering that cannot be achieved with HTML /AJAX that you're missing out on.

A few examples:

- Interactive Charting (Google Finance, Yahoo Finance)
- Photo Editing (Picnik.com, Fauxto.com)
- Video Editing (Youtube Remixer, MTV Video Editor)
- Word Processing with "real" typography and layout (Buzzword)
- Music Player (Finetune.com)
- Color Customization / Visualizer (Benjamin Moore Color Visualizer, Sherwin Williams)
- Book Design (Snapfish MemoryBooks, Kodak PhotoBooks, Scrapblog)
- 3D Animation / Games (papervision3d).

... just to name a few, many of which I user regularly, and would use on an iPhone (imagine Finetune on a iPhone... now wouldn't that be ironic... listen to all your free music on an iPhone).

Nik Cubrilovic · 2 years ago

Caching will not save you on the first request, only subsequent requests. Browsers and HTTP have long supported local caching even for flash objects, if implemented correctly you should never have to re-download an applet if it hasn't changed (but with only the slightest changes you do)

the iPhone might not need AIR, but it sure does need flash. The reason why it isn't there now is because the first iPhone flash app would be music streaming, which is something that Apple probably don't want

Phillip Kerman · 2 years ago

Possible (because no one here REALLY knows) reasons for no Flash:

--iPhone not powerful enough (could totally be the case... blame iPhone; blame Flash devs...either way, Flash is a bit of a hog which is why they made Flashlite)

--Apple wants control (okay, I sort of get this one except exactly how are they controlling every AJAX app on the web? ... if we were talking about installed apps on the device this would make sense, but I think we're talking about browsing to sites made for iPhone).

--Adobe and Apple can't work out a deal (this could totally be the case but we sure don't know for sure).

--Apple is doing its service to mankind by accelerating the demise of Flash. This one is the most amusing. I mean, I can appreciate if you don't like Flash (perhaps you were exposed to a bad example of Flash when you were a child)... whatever, you don't have to like Flash. But I can assure you that in 100 years when you look at whatever finally did kill Flash (which, very likely will be many years from now) it sure won't be the iPhone.

It's fine for folks to dis Flash here, but how that has to do with the iPhone is odd. Here's an analogy: Let's say I thought all shows broadcast on Fox sucked or were bad for mankind... I'd still want my new TV to be able to tune in to it. The zealots pushing for standards and AJAX SHOULD welcome Flash--let it fail on its own merits, not because it's excluded from some playground.

mdurwin · 2 years ago

I got sick of waiting for Apple and Adobe to sort out the Flash situation on iPhone, which, by the way, would be great for applications and games, so I decided to get Flash on my iPhone no matter what. See:
http://www.fuseideas.com/index.php?option=com_c...

trademark registration · 2 years ago

Even though what he said was off the record, it's great to hear people speculating on future technology and programming. Flash on the iPhone would be a huge improvement to its features.

Lexx · 2 years ago

flash may not be important to you interweb users who clicked on some buttons to make your "space book" pages look pretty, but i put a lot of effort into building a website that has flash menus and pages that I can not even view from my Ipod! This needs to be sorted out.

t-shirts · 1 year ago

Well, I'm hearing many different things about the iPhone. But there really is no reason why Flash shouldn't be able to work properly on it soon. I don't think it would be too much of a bad idea. I haven't tried to see how it works on my HTC though (yet) but I should check it and see how things work.

Fine art paintings · 1 year ago

Aside from the high price of one iPhone, I can’t even retrieve my emails through Gmail. And now you’re talking about Flash which is an excellent question. What else are the things that we have not discovered about iPhone?