Never say never: Adobe Labs is today showing off a couple of Flash applications for the iPhone/iPod Touch platform at its annual Adobe MAX event.
A couple of demo applications made by third-party developers are already available on the Apple App Store and are built using the brand new Flash Professional CS5, of which a public beta with pre-release support for building applications for iPhone is planned for later this year.
You can sign up here if you want to be notified when the beta kicks off for real.
Basically, Flash Pro CS5 allows developers to use Flash technologies to develop content for iPhone and iPod Touch devices that were previously closed to them. The Flash developer tool converts Flash apps into ones that can work on the iPhone, since the iPhone still does not support Flash. So this is a workaround. But developers can write new code or reuse existing web content to build applications for the devices, and because the source code and assets are reusable across the Flash Platform runtimes (Adobe AIR and Flash Player) it is aimed to also give developers a way to more easily target other mobile and desktop environments.
Note that this does not mean you’ll be able to watch Flash-based web content on your iPhone just yet:
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.
More information is available here and soon, also here.
These are the example applications that you can test now if you have an iPhone or iPod Touch (any model):
Direct links:
Chroma Circuit
Trading Stuff
Ficklebox
Just Letters
South Park
That Roach Game
Red Hood
NO! I wanted flash to stay off the iPhone and off the web! HTML5/CSS3 please
HTML5 and Flash are different aproaches. Flash player based applications have a wider range of aplicability and I think it would be best to combine thoose two.
Flash has wider aplicability [sic] than HTML?
Yes… he’s right. Are you going to create complex animations or play online games in HTML? No.
There’s value in Flash, and we can all assume HTML5/CSS3 is on it’s way from Apple.
Boom for Flash game developers! Congrats to those who have already deployed to the App Store.
@chuckstar let’s get rolling.
HTML5/CSS3 is already running fine on the iPhone and has for some time.
What people seem to miss is that this is NOT “Flash on the iPhone”, it is a way of porting existing Flash apps to native apps (presumably compiled with Xcode).
A remarkably sensible approach to porting Flash to the iPhone. Lets face it, Apple will never allow third party plugins to run on Safari on the iPhone. And Flash as a “web technology” needs to die sooner rather than later.
I remember the days when phone use to be for talking to somebody not just playing games….um there is no app for that?
uh, what? I can understand that Flash has no place as a website or part of a website, but what exactly is wrong with Flash for games, animators or video players?
Nothing’s wrong with it for games.
There’s often no need for it for animation – JavaScript, Canvas, and SVG can do a hell of a lot in that respect.
There’s no need for Flash for video in HTML5, nor is there a need on the iPhone even if not HTML5.
If one could ensure it was only used for games, that’d be fine, but you can’t do that. If Flash winds up on the iPhone, so do Flash ads and other obnoxious things – as does the heavy CPU load Flash involves.
So you’re suggesting that technology that has been pioneered, honed, and improved (in Flash) over the last decade or so should be phased out in favor of a standard that nobody can agree on and implemented differently by different browsers with vested interests in competing technologies?
Yeah, I’ll keep Flash.
I’m suggesting that on a mobile device like the iPhone Flash support is a poor, poor option. It’s slow enough on a desktop PC/Mac, let alone a phone.
Uh… it’s fine on Windows. It’s just rubbish on Mac.
Oh and other phones cope with Flash Lite. I guess it’s just because they have better power management.
When are you guys going to wake up?
Last I read HTML5 video wasn’t supported across most browsers. Let alone the same codec. Please post URL that shows how using HTML5 for video is realistic delivery mechanism (now, not in 3 years).
Talking about the iPhone, not the general browser market.
We deliver HTML5 video that is compatible with all browsers:
http://docsniper.com
Do you have any idea how long it’s going to be before the vast majority of users are on HTML5? Flash is going to be here for a LONG time, my friend. To think otherwise is simply wishful thinking.
The vast majority of iPhone users – you know, the subject of the post – will have HTML5 features as soon as Apple brings those versions of WebKit over.
As for Flash, it’s not on the iPhone, so how it’s going to be there for a LONG time is beyond me.
HTML5 being offered as salvation can’t then be just an option only for iPhone for web sites. The point of all of this is dev once, deploy everywhere. Otherwise we need to do BOTH flash and iphone or only serve iphones. Those people saying html5 is the answer as iphone safari can push it out eventually are missing the point that nobody wants to write for the entire market, then AGAIN for iphone. HTML5 isn’t here, not even close. Flash will be on every major phone, tv and browser except iphone in 9months. It is already on virtually every browser. Thus the freaking point. Apple is the behemoth. They are the brute. They are the new Microsoft. They are keepign flash out to keep control of their precious app store and itunes marketplace. And they are burning everyone in the process. How long do you think it will be until other prettier and more reasonable options come along? Far too long, but the rest of the market is patiently waiting. It shall not be much longer.
Old standards die hard, my friend.
Are you kidding me? Have you seen how primitive most HTML5/JavaScript apps and games are, compared to what Flash can do?
Yeah, Flash gets misused, but so too will the technologies you’re pushing for when they get mass adoption 10 years from now…
It’s not Flash on the iPhone. It’s a *native* iPhone app that has created in Flash Pro CS5. All it means is that Flash developers can now use their existing skills to create iPhone apps. Nothing to fear but your own paranoia dude.
I agree with Derry Quinn that from a technical viewpoint HTML5/CSS3 is a better/cleaner solution for web applications. Why do we need all kind of third party technology to solve simple problems as animation, sound and film these days?
The problem is that most browser vendors and those involved in W3C/WHATWG or are not interested at all in developing HTML5/CSS3 a real alternative to Flash/Silverlight/Quicktime. Adobe, Microsoft and Apple would just should themself in the foot.
Google is one of a handfull who is really interested and hopefully able to develop HTML/JavaScript into a platform that doesn’t need Flash/Silverlight. The fact that they where able to develop a browser which is much better than IE is a sign that IE isn’t a top priority at Microsoft.
But Flash does way more than these “simple solutions” you list. Have you even seen any Actionscript 3 demos from the last 5 years?
FINALLY! (sorta)
BYEAH!
Aditya Bansod is a wonder worker.
YEAH! But please don´t use more battery
crashing starts now!
It’s not Flash Player for iPhone – it’s Flash source code that compiles down to an iPhone app.
People. Pay attention. This isn’t Flash running on the iPhone. This is using the Flash IDE to compile Flash apps down to native Objective C.
Hey, what’re you doin here? I said it first!!
Since TC doesn’t display seconds, it appears we both posted at the same time. We’ll just have to call it a tie Todd. We can arm wrestle for it at CfinNC
Damn, that’s no fair. You’re bigger then me
Thank fuck!
So what?
Does this mean I dont have to learn objective-C anymore? I use Actionscript 3 to make flash games. If I dont have to learn Objective-C, that would be awesome!!!
Just went to adobe’s site, this is awesome! I can now make games and apps using AS3.
Will this export to iPHone app also be in Flash Builder 4 (Flex 4)?
Rumor is there is going to be hooks betweet Flash Pro and FB4 somehow. Stay tuned for more.
what about android!! whattttt aboutttt andrioddd!!!!????
daymmit we were suppose to win that race!!
Flash Player 10.1 will be released on Android (and 18 other smart phones) in early 2010.
http://labs.ado...0/features.html
Don’t quote me on that date actually. I thought they said 2010 in the livecast, but the labs says it’s now available. I’ll try to get clarification. Where’s Ryan Stewart when you need him?
It’s not available now. We’ll be doing a public beta I of some OSes for Flash Player 10.1 before the end of the year but I’m not 100% which ones.
=Ryan
ryan@adobe.com
wtf man, that’s like… ultimate fail.
Yes, it’s clearly ultimate fail to be shortly able to view all existing Flash content on Android…
Great news
As someone who has built one of the first games (Just Letters > http://itunes.c...pps/justletters) using this new technology let me say this:
For a Flash Developer this is great news as it allows you to leverage existing skills. This is not ‘Flash’ as you know it, these are native iPhone apps. Do you really care what language it was coded in? Sometimes I really don’t understand the hate…
HTML5 will have support for Flash you know
The hate is really childish and often driven by some other personal agenda.
Stefan – how much access to iPhone APIs does Flash give you? GPS for example? I note that the accelerometer is mentioned.
Or is it just a straight export of your web ready Flash file?
Ha! I love reading all the comments about how HTML5/CSS should be chosen over Flash.
So many misinformed individuals spewing nonsense from their mind, its hilarious. To all the commenters above that fall into this category: Just because you read TechCrunch, doesn’t mean you know anything about the Web or Web Standards. Not only that, but you wouldn’t know when to pick which technology if someone spelled it out for you.
Idiots
Great job to Adobe to pushing the limits again, as all the others scramble to keep up.
That’s a good one, everyone scrambling to keep up with, wait for it… Adobe.
This isn’t going to amount to anything, just because you can use Flash to develop an iPhone app doesn’t mean it will be as good as if you had developed with XCODE–it won’t. OTHO, Apple doesn’t mind CS5 trying to limp along and generate code, so long as it’s not FLASH code, but OC code.
I tried all the free offerings of the flash based games that are already available on the App store (Red Hood, Trading Stuff, and That Roach Game), and the performance is abysmal. A screen fade in the roach game looked like it was going 5-10 FPS for example.
Don’t know if it’s the programmers fault or the flash layer of development, but if there is a big performance hit from using the flash route to make games, all the polishing in the world will give you just that- a shiny piece of poop.
Yeah, that is what I was going to ask here…what about performance. I know they are ‘converting’ Flash apps into iPhone apps but what sort of extra layer(s) are involved (if any). Does it generate respectable objective-c code? I would surmise it could be pretty limited in certain regards.
Non-high frames-per-second apps would probably be best.
Jarson: What iphone/touch are you running?
Harry “otherwise, it looks cool” Wang
I used the lowest common denominator for testing, the 4GB iPhone first gen.
I got rid of my iphone… best decision I have made in over 2 years. The phone is a piece of shit
I don’t know much about flash programming or the tools offered by Adobe. But if this means that every flash programmer out there is automatically an iPhone app developer, this is HUGE.
Yes, everyone with a copy of Flash Pro CS5 will be an iPhone developer.
Crapp Store anyone?
Want animated/video ads all over the fucking place? There’s an app for that.
You’ve missed the point. This doesn’t allow you to run Flash on the iPhone, it allows you to write native iPhone apps using Flash Pro CS5. Get it?
How does one access the native iPhone API? ExternalInterface? Or will there be some sort of bridge that will be included? For example, what if I wanted to save a photo, or access the camera, or access the playlist, how would I do this in Actionscript?
congrats adobe for achieving this….we are now going to see a rush of flash apps running on iphone…time to make one now!!!!
Mot a good news
the only reason why apple is still blocking flash is to protect the apps store. if the iphone could run full flash the app store would die. apple doesn’t want to be a the hardware equivalent of a dumb pipe.
Well I think the app store would be fine. Not all developers want to adopt actionscript 3 and the Flash platform to create applications. Ideally, all developers would be able to release apps for the iPhone platform, using the tools they know and love. But again this demonstrates the problem with a closed platform that is as successful as iphone is (for now).
Sweet! Staying up to date with the Flash for iPhone seminar via an Adobe employee.
He’s @DestroyTwitter on Twitter if you want live updates
As long as it doesn’t chugg my battery life, I welcome it with open arms.
What they’ve show is nothing more/or less than what the Mono guys did a few weeks back.
This is giving a broader group of developers the ability to code for the iPhone in whatever language they want (be it Obj-C, C# or AS).
This is a good thing, in general.
However, it better not be a precursor to having REAL Flash on the iPhone.
I don’t want Flash sucking additional cycles and power and slowing down the browser and crashing the computer – whether its on my computer on my smartphone.
Those that say otherwise are fooling themselves as A LOT of people are using Flash blockers. Why? because Flash is to invasive!
I love the ease of creating apps.
I also hate the ease of creating apps. There are already quality issues, and clients think all iPhone apps are created the same so far. This could really muddy the waters. If you can’t code right – do it in flash.
The genius of the App Store, IMHO, is that they CAN block really bad apps. Not necessarily very WEAK apps (that don’t do much), but certainly anything with stability issues. I don’t think Apple would pass it to the app store if it had quality issues.
There are apps that don’t DO much, but not ones that have huge stability issues (some related to OS updates, but those are generally updated pretty quickly).
You’ve all missed one thing:
There are 85,000 apps out here. 82,000 are cr*p. If every Flash developer becomes an iPhone developer, that mean 1,885,000 cr*p apps on the app store.
Yup, Apple will now be bombarded with “app” submissions — apps that really should just be websites. But because Apple won’t allow the web plugin the only way developers can get their flash based content compatible with every other smartphone and the web, is to package it up as an app and submit to Apple.
And most of these apps will be free. Nothing really in it for Apple. But they will have to be the gatekeeper and pay the overhead of administering all these Flash created apps. Even going through them and rejecting them takes time and slows down all the other submissions that Apple actually likes.
This is bad news for Apple, great news for Flash designers and developers. But someday they will have to allow the Safari plugin or pay the cost of their control issues.
Sounds good
Folks PLEASE read the FULL story before you start commenting!
As Stefan says this is NOT Flash running on the iPhone. This is using the Adobe tools to deploy to the Arm iPhone byte code as a native app and not the Flash player.
This becomes a native application just like one you would code with XCode. Using these tools you can also create an OS X DMG file in just the same way, a native Apple OS X DMG file.
This is huge for both Adobe and Apple and the end of the day the iPhone users are going to benefit from all the diverse skill and talent the Flash community has to offer.
Best news from Adobe since the launch of AS3!
This is a fantastic achievement for the Adobe team, great news for developers, and very bad news for Apple (at least if you’re a conspiracy theorist like me).
http://www.dont...-for-flash.html
I really wish that Apple can realize that by not including Flash, the probability of losing customers who view their devices as possible video screens as well is inevitable to Windows Mobile phones. Personally I was mislead to buy the Iphone in hopes I could view videos such as Justin.tv then got duped when I found flash wasn’t applicable.
Way to misrepresent the actual technology.
There are already something like 80 thousand apps for the iPhone. Now it looks like that might just be the start. Creating games with Flash is an easy intuitive way for those with limited skills to create games.
I foresee an explosion of new games for the iPhone.
Just willing to see what’s going to come up of all this. Flash is good for animation but I’m not so sure it’s the best way to develop iPhone Apps…
I’m also eager to see how Flash Developers are going to fix things like memory leaks. I fear that some of them will just be stuck in the apps validation process without knowing what to do.
Will there be support for conventional web-based flash apps?
Sorry, I should have read the article before commenting. Everyone has their D’OH! moments. Us people with ADHD seem to have them more often than most.
Flash is like a surgeon’s knife.. it can be used to save a patient or other way round????
Flash has been doing things from past decades which now people are thinking to bring them in HTML5 after a decade…..
smart move for both Adobe and Apple
Great news for Flash developers. For the Flash haters who say that Flash should be eliminated and the same things can be built with HTML5 or Javascript, you seriously need to get with the times. Have you been under a rock for the last ten years or something?
I hate south park avatars. It’s a freaking fad. I hate it, it’s makes dick’s hairy balls look like a work of art. Why do people still do it. I REALLY(in all caps) HATE the smiles! WAS I PUT ON THIS PLANET TO SEE A STUPID LOOKING SOUTHPARK AVATAR TO LOOK AT ME! WHY? It pisses me off. I hate those black triangle as an excuse for a smile. I willing to wage warfare against these idiots and their southpark avatar, anyone want to join?