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General discussion

Flash on Apple iPad

Jan 30, 2010 8:22AM PST

Most people that have an iPhone know that there is no flash. The new iPad did not say that it would include flash either. Many websites use it and if the iPad is suppose to be better at surfing the web then it should have it.

My question is: How hard is it to enable flash for a device? Does it just require apple to write more pieces of code or does it take additional hardware?

Flash support seems to be the only thing holding me back from buying one. I want something to surf the web on casually in my home.

With unlocking and jailbreaking of the iPhone is there anything that can be downloaded to get flash support? If so that might work on the iPad and then it would actually do something well.

Discussion is locked

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iPhone, iPad, Flash and Apple
Feb 4, 2010 9:08AM PST

Apple does not like Flash on it's small devices because the version of Flash produced by Adobe, for the Mac, is atrocious.
It's big, bulky and a resource hog.

Apparently Adobe were asked to produce something worthy of the iPhone, back in the day, and they could not.

Flash on a Mac is much worse than Flash on Windows.

The Day's of Flash are probably numbered anyway, with the advent of HTML5. YouTube have converted most of their library to HTML5 or QuickTime which is why the iPad/iPhone/etc can view YouTube video

P

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true
Feb 9, 2010 4:11AM PST

true but many smaller websites cannot afford to convert their library of flash media to HTML 5. Understandably flash is not great on the mac (I have not had problems with it being a resource hog, although on a mobile device it is a whole different beast.) but it is very unfortunate to have such a huge limitation on the device.

Flash support is mainly software centric. (The hardware seems to be up to par for flash).

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Flash,
Feb 9, 2010 5:47AM PST

Not sure I see where the expense is coming from there. What do you have to convert your Flash content to, in order to use it with HTML5?

The lack of Flash on this device, along with the iPhone and iPod Touch, is nothing new and is not just an Apple thing.
The Zune HD has no Flash, the Palm Pre has no Flash, and the newly introduced Nexus One has no Flash also.
The iPhone demonstrated that there really wasn't a real need for Flash and a lot of sites that used it, created a version of their site specifically for the iPhone, with no Flash.

Flash is no longer necessary as most of what it could do can be achieved by using HTML standards or Java instead of relying on proprietary code like that from MS and Adobe.

Flash is on the way out and, just like old soldiers, will just fade away.

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the expense
Feb 9, 2010 6:17AM PST

The expense is from having to host a second set of servers for the HTML 5 version of the content. Also the conversion of content requires man hours and programming talent to implement into a website. It can be costly for some smaller sites.

But I agree that apple has shown the lack of need for flash. Its not a deal breaker but it does hinder certain features of the web.

And flash will not fade if adobe has anything to say about it...

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If Adobe has anything to say about it
Feb 10, 2010 10:06PM PST

well of course, note who is the major instigator of the "we must have Flash" movement and who stands to profit from it remaining.

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What I think we all need to respect
Feb 11, 2010 2:13AM PST

is that apple is the one company that has consistently has the cajones to challenge technology standards that they don't like. They did it with DRM, broadcast companies, countless others and in this case Adobe. This can either mean Apple is the best proponent for technological advancement, or that they are building themselves a seat of power with which to rule all other technology companies...

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Interesting, but note,
Feb 11, 2010 3:51AM PST

those things that they have challenged, they have either had removed completely, DRM, or have had them replaced with something that was a standard and not a proprietary system. (AAC)

Google is the one that needs watching when it comes to building themselves an Empire.

Remember, if there were no challengers to things, we would still be running DOS, listening to vinyl and have nowhere to post this thread.

Happy

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Good point
Feb 11, 2010 3:57AM PST

Google is slowly becoming a international superpower, so you are very correct. Happy

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Flash on Apple iPad
Mar 25, 2010 2:18AM PDT

Sorry folks, but you're all wrong.

There's a simple reason... Well actually two reasons why Mac is looking to dump Flash.

The reasons ---> [mouseover] and [mouseout].

Apple is embracing touch screen and this seems to be the future for home computers. In the future we'll see 17" iPads with a full OS centered on touch screen technology.

Flash has no way of determining if a finger is lingering over a button or not. And since [mouseover] and [mouseout] commands are an integral part of "Lingo" and are virtually embedded into every Flash program.

There's the bottom line. Jobs want's Flash to die. And, like he says, HTML-5 does a better job on a lower processor budget.

What's going to have to happen is for all these sites who use Flash based technology to get off their arses and rewrite their stuff using HTML-5.

These are the same lazy programmers that have fought Mac development of any sort because they're too lazy to do the job.

Stand behind Jobs. He's doing a good thing for us with this one.

JusSayin


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True...
May 16, 2010 2:21PM PDT

It's true, Jobs seems to be plotting the murder for Adobe's Flash. The way he pounds on it is beyond me, but hey, he's right there are replacements (such as HTML-5 and h.264) that run better on the mobile devices. In fact they work seamlessly on mine, no problems, ever. But introducing Flash could change that...
I liked your post, you really hit it on the head.

"In the future we'll see 17" iPads with a full OS centered on touch screen technology." Where did you get this one?.

"Stand behind Jobs. He's doing a good thing for us with this" This deserves a hearty applause. YES!

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Re: Flash on Apple Tablet PC
Nov 15, 2010 8:13PM PST

"My question is: How hard is it to enable flash for a device?"

I don't know much at all about this, but ask the people at Motorola. Their Flash implementation on the Droid2 is awesome.

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It's not hard to implement Flash on a device,
Nov 15, 2010 9:03PM PST

but it needs to be something that works well.

The current version of Adobe Flash for mobiles does not work well and is a resource hog.

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Interesting
Apr 14, 2011 4:42AM PDT

So the reason the iphone has no flash is that it hogs up resources? I understand why they would not have it standard, but what about having an option for people that really wanted it? With the understanding that it would run slower/not as smoothly as on a non iphone? This would let me access pages that I really need!

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But that would mean that Apple
Apr 14, 2011 12:56PM PDT

would have to sell a device that did not perform to their specifications.
I note that Adobe have release something that converts Flash to HTML 5 in a stream.
Let's see where that goes.