Why no flash on the iPad?

[alfredo]

hint: it has to do with touch screens.


http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2010/02/20/an-adobe-flash-developer-on-why-the-ipad-cant-use-flash/


An Adobe Flash developer on why the iPad can’t use Flash
February 20th, 2010

Daniel Eran Dilger

Morgan Adams, an interactive content developer who knows a lot about building Flash, wrote in with an interesting perspective on Flash and the iPad. The remainder of this piece is his comments on the subject.

Inside Apple’s iPad: Adobe Flash
.
I’m biased. I’m a full-time Flash developer and I’d love to get paid to make Flash sites for iPad. I want that to make sense—but it doesn’t. Flash on the iPad will not (and should not) happen—and the main reason, as I see it, is one that never gets talked about:

Current Flash sites could never be made work well on any touchscreen device, and this cannot be solved by Apple, Adobe, or magical new hardware.

[PBS Poll-435]

1. The iPad is maxed out?

:evilgrin:

[alfredo]

2. Oh, that's baddddd.

[ananda]

3. ananda's stupid questions

Why can't you just add a portable keyboard and external mouse
to the iPad when needed?

They do that for laptops with track pads. So why not with
tablets?

Yours truly,
ananda

[TCJ70]

4. There is an external keyboard you can get...

...as for the mouse, there isn't even a cursor for the mouse to move.

[TCJ70]

5. HTML 5.0 is on the way as well...

...perhaps Flash is on the way out?

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

16. HTML5 has its own set of problems.

And there's just so, so much legacy Flash content out there that even if HTML5 totally eclipsed Flash for current development, supporting Flash for legacy purposes would still be important for the foreseeable future.

[anonymous171]

6. And that is why Jobs has declared war on flash.

[Stephanie]

8. This is all so insidery and interesting

Apple has declared war on Flash? Fill the rest of us in...

[anonymous171]

12. Here you go:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/00d0df52-1f52-11df-9584-00144feab49a.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2010/feb/19/apple-stevejobs-ipad-flash

[Stephanie]

15. ty!

[lbrtbell]

22. I hate Crapple and its MacIntrash computers

And I hate Microsoft more for trying to imitate them. Everything Crapple does is about forcing people to buy more and more expensive crap--Microsoft is bad enough in this respect, but at least they don't pretend to be this fabulous alternative.

That's why I use Linux. Screw 'em both.

[Jeroen]

7. Why not build in a virtual trackball / touch pad for Flash applications?

Similar to using a laptop without a mouse. Not very convenient but probably acceptable for some Flash applications / websites

[alfredo]

26. That still doesn't address the burden flash puts on the CPU. Flash is not free

and is owned by a company not known for being the "good guy." Apple prefers HTML5, a newer open, and free technology. From what I have read, it is less of a resource hog than flash.

I'm sure there are many developers that would rather not have to deal with Adobe.

[sudopod]

9. No.

It's because Apple won't let any unapproved code run on the device. Ergo, no language interpreters allowed. No Flash, no Silverlight, not even a Commodore 64 emulator, because I suppose someone could write a nasty BASIC program that they don't approve of. They're quite open about this, it's not a secret.

[Political Heretic]

11. It's one of the reasons I'm not a huge fan of Apple.

Their iNazi attitude drives me nuts.

NO FLEXIBILITY FOR YOU!!!!

[alfredo]

18. Yeah, the unapproved code like what you see on Windows, you know the

ones that steal your important info or use your box for a zombie?

Google is pushing HTML5. they might know something about the future of flash.


Apple likes to keep things simple. the iPad is about the iTunes Store, just as the Kindle is for Amazon.

[Kablooie]

10. The iPad doesn't need a flash because it doesn't have a camera.

Ba-dum! Clash!

[PBS Poll-435]

13. Grinning

:D

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

14. Um... it works perfectly well on current multitouch mobile phones.

This is a nonsensical argument. The iPad doesn't have flash for the same reason that the iPhone doesn't - Apple doesn't want people writing applications to run on its device without their explicit approval, and flash enables that.

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

19. It's almost shocking that it was Apple who ran the iconic 1984 ads.

Given Apples current authoritarian approach to approved software/hardware.`

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

20. I actually don't blame them in this case.

The major problem in mobile phones is that people expect them to, yes, "just work." And that isn't ever the case. They're just tiny computers, with all of the same compatibility problems as big computers. Bad apps create customer service headaches not only for the hardware vendor but for the carrier (in this case AT&T in the US.) So when some jackass releases a fad-of-the-week app that crashes the phone, it's a nightmare for those guys, and they hate it. Worse yet, there's the potential for a rogue app to hose the carrier's cell network. Add to that the fact that there's a *lot* of personal data (SMSes, e-mails, passwords, etc) available and potentially network-accessible on a mobile platform, and there is a potential for a rogue app to do something really bad. So in this case at least I understand Apple's paranoia.

[pokerfan]

21. I need a new irony meter

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

17. Jesus. After reading the article, I'm gonna take their examples to the woodshed.

* Video players where the controls appear on mouseover and hide otherwise. (This seems to be the norm, in fact. Whereas a click on the same video does something different: usually Pause. Try Hulu for instance.)

This *already works* on Flash for mobile devices. Tapping the screen brings up the controls. From there you can pause (usually another tap instigates a pause.) This is implemented natively in Flash already on mobile devices. This is a bullshit argument.

* Games where you steer with the mouse without clicking (extremely common).

Has this person ever used or heard of an iPhone, or an Android phone, or a Palm phone? You can steer with the accelerometer. It's (extremely common) on these devices to have games that function in exactly this way. Furthermore, all modern touchscreen phones can distinguish between a tap gesture and a tap-and-hold and a tap-and-hold-and-then-move gesture for this purpose. There is no fundamental technological limitation here. This is a bullshit argument.

* Menus that popup up subpage links when you mouse over a main button, vs. going directly to a main category page when you click.

Again, something like press-hold-release on a touchscreen can function effectively as a replacement for mouseover where lazy-ass Flash developers have put mouseovers all over the place and cluttered the fuck out of the UI. This is a bullshit argument.

* Buttons that have important explanations/summaries on mouseover, which you need to understand before deciding what to click.

No. You're doin' it wrong. If you need to have tooltip text to explain what the fuck your UI is doing, you designed your UI wrong. This is a bullshit argument.

* Functions that use mouseover to preview and click to commit; such as choosing hair colors for an avatar: you mouse over the colors until your character looks the way you like, and then you click to commit.

Again, all of this can be very easily accommodated by a touchscreen gesture (as described above) and has ALREADY been demonstrated to work perfectly well in Flash. This is a bullshit argument.

* Maps and diagrams that don’t use click at all, but pop up info as you mouse around.

Blah blah gestures see above. This is a bullshit argument.

* Numerous other custom mouseover functions that “just work” with a mouse and need no explanation.

Like what?

None of these things can work right with a finger (or traditional stylus)

Yes they can. Furthermore they've been demonstrated to work.

because on a touchscreen, pointing at something without clicking isn’t a mouseover

Uh, it can be. If you, y'know, program it that way.

it’s just holding your finger vaguely in the air. The device doesn’t even know it’s happening

I think this person has either never used a multitouch device or at the very least never bothered to think about how they work. Also, his or her obsession with mouseover as the solution to every problem is BAD UI DESIGN and that's totally irrespective of Flash.

[MilesColtrane]

23. Flash is a CPU/power hog.

Bring on HTML5.

[Atman]

24. This is the real reason.

Flash is extremely processor intensive. Adobe had written a version of Flash for the iPod, but Apple sent them back to the drawing board because it sapped every bit of power and made battery life unacceptably short. Think of most of the Flash sites you visit...they have that "loading" status bar, which is fine on a big, powerful CPU, but mobile devices like the iPod have limited power. Besides, Flash is soon to become a dinosaur. It simply isn't needed anymore.

[alfredo]

27. Read this article on Flash.

http://www.cringely.com/2010/02/no-flash-in-the-pad/

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

25. You know what would be nice for the iPad? Remote desktop access.

Then people could tap into a powerful or fully capable desktop PC or Mac via wifi.
Apple could effectively give it's ipad the storage or processing power of a complete computer.

Touch screen scrolling and navigation with the handy on screen keyboard when needed.
The resolution of the iPad isn't phenminal, so flash could be run on a desktop and streamed to the device.