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Adobe Brings Flash-Free Flash To iOS Devices
CWmike writes "At long last Adobe Flash has come to an iPad or iPhone, writes Jonny Evans. Adobe appeared at Europe's NAB equivalent, IBC, this week to introduce Adobe Flash Media Server 4.5 and Adobe Flash Access 3.0. Adobe's solution repackages content in real-time, changing the protocol to suit the target device, HTTP Dynamic Streaming or HLS, for example. This should mean that iOS devices will get much of the advantages of Flash video support, without the processor degradation and battery life cost of the format in use on other devices. 'With Adobe Flash Media Server 4.5, media publishers now have a single, simple workflow for delivering content using the same stream to Flash-enabled devices or to the Apple iPhone and iPad,' Adobe says."
all the vulnerabilities. Not that I am a phanboi, but I think Apple has it right, flash shouldn't be an integral part of being on the damn internet. It is one of the worse technologies in years, right behind banner advertising!
I'm not sure if this is a screwp apple move, or giving in. Will it let me play flash games on the wife's stupid iPhone, or do I still have to pony up $2 each time I'm bored?
It's called "video".
the new adobe flash application now enables the same sort of buggy crashy performance you expect from a windows mobile device on the mac ! true innovation ! only from adobe !
Streaming to iOS devices makes total sense for FMS. Link bait.
This just further cements the notion that Flash use on the web these days is mostly about video.
The truth is though, that most sites already feed the iPad or iPhone h.264 video. And frankly after running various flash blockers and such for a while, I would greatly prefer if websites fed clients that supported HTML5 non-flash video also - I have a plugin that plays YouTube videos only as h.264, and the experience is much nicer than the Flash player.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
But the format will be the same, the protocol changes is all. It will be equally intensive for an apple device to decode the h.264 data or whatever its encoded as. Sorry apple but you can't skip decoding with costing cpu and battery life with a magic leprechaun 'format'
This is a silly, biased article and summary. This does NOT bring Flash to iOS devices. This is merely Adobe spinning out a new version of their video serving software with a new protocol option than plays nice with iOS devices.
The things Flash is really good at -- multimedia experiences that can be delivered to a wide audience via a ubiquitous plugin -- are not emulated here. But way to go timothy for trolling! You wear your bias on your editorial sleeve.
Thats right, this thing doesn't work in ether Firefox nor Chrome.
I rather use HTML5 flash player instead.
(Works with youtube btw...)
flash free video shouldn't be withheld from the rest of us. I guess what I am trying to say is flash shouldn't be forced on the rest of us just to watch a video.
Thats right, this thing doesn't work in ether Firefox nor Chrome.
I rather use HTML5 flash player instead.
(Works with youtube btw...)
If this is really better for video on mobile devices then will it work on Android also? And why not use it on laptops too, they can always benefit from better battery life.
The things Flash is really good at -- multimedia experiences that can be delivered to a wide audience via a ubiquitous plugin
The thing is, Flash SUCKS at that. Can you name a single site that really does that well? The only thing I can think of off hand is the MINIUSA configurator. But even there the site is rife with all the things that make Flash a terror - I can't copy text from just anywhere, sometimes the loading goes wrong, and the site bogs down my DESKTOP never mind what would happen to a mobile device.
Pretty much every other site I've seen that relies heavily on Flash for a "rich multimedia experience" is just awful, non-intuitive and performs very badly. So many sites trying that kind of thing would be so much better serving users simplifying the site into something that would work with DHTML, never mind HTML5 and canvas stuff...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Will it let me play flash games on the wife's stupid iPhone
I'm not sure why you'd expect it would given they wouldn't work on any Android device that supported Flash either.
No keyboard and mouse after all, which just about every Flash game expects...
When you are bored you might try downloading one of the 100k+ free games for the iPhone (some of which are even ports of the Flash games you were looking for to begin with!!)
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
bonch
SuperKendall
How many other Apple sockpuppet/troll accounts do you have loser?
'nuff said.
This: http://www.amazon.com/Developing-iOS-Applications-Flex-4-5/dp/1449308368/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1315630374&sr=1-1
Adobes only goal here is to stop the slow but steady adoption of html5 video formats. By offering this upgrade they tell their clients they no longer have to work in a transition to target the huge and growing iOS user base.
This is good for Apple as most video services are just a server patch away from providing video content to iOs users, drastically diminishing the "it cant play flash video" bashing competitors like to use.
Flash gaming may not be available still, but most iOS users are far from game starved. It's video content most iOS users actually complain about.
So, good for Apple and good for Adobe. Who is it bad for? Web standards, and perhaps Android users. Adobe still wants flash to be required anywhere that it can run so it's likely they won't offer the same HTML5 video streams to Android devices. Many of the handsets out there still can't handle flash properly and the ones that do do so with heavy battery penalties.
With this available, it's very unlikely content providers will bother pursuing web standards for the sake of low end Android handsets or users that refuse to install flash in their computers.
It's likely that sooner or later Adobe will provide the capabilities for all clients, but I doubt they have any intentions to do it soon. I do hope im wrong though.
PS: unsure if it's related but have been streaming blip.tv episodes of the Nostalgia Critic on my iPad all night so I guess at least they (blip.tv) already updated.
exemplified by Over 7o yet an0ther United States. OpenBSD. How many
I don't want a dedicated app for every website.
I see you've never used an iOS device.
Seriously, the HTML5 video tag works - just start using it. The problem here is of course dynamic streaming (and a few other things) but the thing is Flash can stream mp4 files just fine - internally it's the same stuff with just the flv container being different. Transcode your video into mp4, if Flash loads play it in Flash (or even better give the user an option), otherwise use an HTML5 fallback. If both of those cases fail direct your users to download a browser that doesn't suck or something.
Oh, and the whole process I just outlined is something you can do easily with a variety of libraries and modules, just search for it. Oh, and cut out the whole trying to stop people from downloading video by wrapping it in 8 different concentric SWF interface wrappers - if you don't want someone downloading your video then don't put it on your website in the first place.
This should mean that iOS devices will get much of the advantages of Flash video support, ...
And what are those advantages, actually? As far as I can tell, the "advantage" is mainly to content producers who haven't updated their skill sets since around 2002. And these tools cost a pretty penny.
Seriously, why bother? This probably isn't going to work for those Flash ads that seem to be 90% of the Flash usage on the web (no loss there!); and for video you can simply encode in h.264 and tell the Flash plugin to pretend it's Flash video for those browsers that can't handle h.264 (Firefox, IE 8, Chrome if Google ever actually follows through). With the proliferation of Android and iOS devices that do h.264 quite nicely, I'd think it's smarter to go that route - which is basically the opposite of the one Adobe is trying to sell here.
#DeleteChrome
Great intro topic; lets see if we can order them:
1. Leaving your machine open to all sorts of opportunistic malware.
2. Attempting to see how much heat your machine can actually generate [ bonus points for 'while actually doing nothing ' ]
3. Bringing a really crappy experience to a larger audience.
I was working for Sun (now Snoracle) when they way dissed the macromedia/flash experience. As an employee, I thought they were being little shits since it got in the way of experiencing the really slow alternative Java offered.
Over time, I agree with Jobs' 'flash is shit' stance. In my office, there are 5 macs, and the only time there is a problem with a machine, it tracks to some stupid flash app. Well, not really, once it was a dead hard drive, but the rotten million don't get to spoil it for the good few.
Adobe knows it is crap, but that isn't going to stop them.
Sure they will run, but if they require keyboard presses how do you control them?
What if they require a cursor hover...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Q: But how does that app render so fast?
A: It doesn't use Flash
I shit you not.
fuck flash and fuck ios.
Wealth is the gift that keeps on giving.
Erm, I meant that the other way around. Serving Flash to devices that support it, and non-flash video to those who don't. In other words, Adobe's own server software doing exactly what you suggest it should do.
And what are those advantages, actually? As far as I can tell, the "advantage" is mainly to content producers who haven't updated their skill sets since around 2002. And these tools cost a pretty penny.
The advantage is that HTML5 video tags do not support anything with DRM, and sadly there are many content producers who will not allow their content to be available without DRM. As a result, there is always going to be video content exclusive to Flash that iOS devices miss out on. I don't actually know how Adobe expects to get around there here (since they are effectively serving up HTML5 video in h.264), but I suspect sites that are concerned about DRM simply won't use this feature.
P.S. I need to go to sleep.
Will it let me play flash games on the wife's stupid iPhone?
On the iPhone you're screwed, but if you really want to play Flash games on an iPad you can use iSwifter.
But I like that they are a disruptive force in the industry. They force change in others - sometimes for the good. I think its healthy when entrenched companies are forced to change their ways. Firefox/Chrome with IE, etc. I predict that if/when Windows goes 50% market share that we'll start seeing some interesting changes in microsoft.
Just as Flash can require a hover, HTML can also require a hover. Otherwise, why would the HTML DOM have the mouseover event and CSS have the :hover pseudoclass? It's a question not of the technology but of what navigation style the developer chose.
So many sites trying that kind of thing would be so much better serving users simplifying the site into something that would work with DHTML, never mind HTML5 and canvas stuff...
Let me know when Strong Bad Emails play in an HTML environment with usable performance.
Fuck games, if the game developer want his game out on iOS device he have to do it the right way: make an app.
In other words, Apple just wants the $649 to put a Mac mini on each developer's KVM switch plus $99 per year from each developer, and it also wants to waste developers' time to rewrite the game from scratch in Objective-C.
Video using a compressed pixels codec can be taken care of with HTML5. How can vector animations (e.g. Homestar Runner) be taken care of? Converting an SWF animation to H.264 bloats it by a factor of ten or more in my tests, which makes a 2 GB/mo plan feel like it's 200 MB/mo.
Apart from Flash video and Flash games, there is a third category of vector animations, which I covered in this comment.
Transcode your video into mp4
Convert vector animation to compressed pixels and it'll become ten times bigger. See this comment.
if you don't want someone downloading your video then don't put it on your website in the first place.
Then how would you recommend that the publisher of a video provide an electronic service with a revenue structure similar to video rental?
As a result, there is always going to be video content exclusive to Flash that iOS devices miss out on.
Then why don't video producers license their works directly to Apple for iTunes rental?
for video you can simply encode in h.264
I mentioned a drawback of that in another comment.
G: You know what that problem is? ....
M: Ah, your adaptors can't overcome the band width limitation of wireless hand helds
G: That's right. Data takes too long to download so your image get so..
M: Image, ah, goes fuzzy
G: - Fussy, yeah, - Ha ha
G: Well, I haven't been alde to sleep all week. Thinkings about the push mechanism in handler. And then it just came to me. It's in the wrong place.
M: - The wrong place. - Yeah
G: The answer is not in the box. It's in the band.
I would advise a "pay per download" model instead
So instead of charging $1 for the privilege to view something for 24 hours, you want video producers to only be allowed to charge $20 for the privilege to view something for the indefinite future. The rental market consists of those home users willing to pay the former and not the latter. This appears to be a sizable market; otherwise, Redbox and Netflix wouldn't be profitable.
Yes, it would still be better than Flash. Thanks.
If I was about to lose a massive amount of market share, I'd reverse-engineer my platform too.
Because the only information you ever provide is that Apple can do no wrong
Actually that is entirely untrue, I've called them out before for bogus patent use and other issues (like a printer system that has never been as good as Windows, not even close).
And it's not just Apple I support, but any well designed technology or language from any company (hence my jumping in to stories about Lisp or Emacs). I've even praised Android on a number of points (like the notification system which they got right from the start [though WebOS was even better]).
Just between you and me, how much does Apple pay you, anyway
Much less than Google Black Ops pays you, in fact the answer is the same null set. I mean, I operate out in the open, you can tell I am merely an average developer and have been posting for many years - looking at history you can plainly see a slow migration from Java to iOS developer.
Yet you, you we know nothing of... so it seems far more likely that if anyone were to be paid, it would be yourself. After all, you reveal not even a user name to be tracked. Very easy for a company to slip you something now and again to keep pressure on pro-iOS posters, and in fact that's all you ever do... the MO of someone misbehaving is so often for them to accuse others of something they do themselves, as it's what they feel the most guilty of. So we can assume you are probably paid in some way because of the slant of your attacks, instead of simply being some bitter post-Nokia developer angry at the world about the loss of MeeGo (now that was doomed from the start).
This is the last response you'll see from me, since lesser minds such as yourself simply repeat inane "facts" they have grabbed onto like an infant with a rattle, and thus there's nothing more to be gained from responding to you. I simply had to point out how flawed your arguments were so your paymasters might direct your efforts to targets where your impact might be greater than...
Zero.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
A week away from the RIM earning call, and you are spouting about the ability of the iPhone to use flash.
I swear the lot of you are barely classified as functionally retarded, and don't realized when you are being used.
This article should have been tossed in the bin.
Twats.
-- I care not for your foolish signatures.
No. He just wants to have a flash player that is separate from the browser, that plays those movies.
That would be AIR. But Apple won't even allow a generic AIR player onto its platform.