Adobe Gives up on Flash for iPhone and iPad - GoFuckYourself.com

Barefootsies · 04-21-2010, 09:24 AM

Quote:

In an indirect yet obvious way, Section 3.3.1 of Apple's new iPhone developers' agreement binds developers to a promise that whatever they bring to the iPhone will be created exclusively for the iPhone. It effectively bans the use of cross-platform tools or middleware like Adobe Flash, by saying anything Apple approves must be coded in the company's own Objective-C, or in C or C++.

If Adobe were to have proceeded with its previous plans to forge an official, working Flash platform for iPhone, that would have been the defiant move. Instead, Mike Chambers, the company's product manager for Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR), found himself yesterday afternoon sounding the retreat.

"We will still be shipping the ability to target the iPhone and iPad in Flash CS5," Chambers wrote. "However, we are not currently planning any additional investments in that feature."

It isn't clear to anyone, including Chambers, exactly how Apple will be able to enforce its provisions. The two possibilities are very strict policing of each and every one of its thousands of incoming App Store entries, or selective rejections that are intended to send a very clear message (similar to the record industry's former strategy of selectively prosecuting file sharers). But as Chambers said yesterday, if Apple were to be selective, the selections that would send the clearest message would more likely concern Flash than Titanium, MonoTouch, or Unity.

Adobe won't stop developers from using the tools the company already baked into its Creative Suite 5, for targeting the iPhone if they so choose, Chambers said. He just warned that if they do so, Apple may make their lives difficult. He said that personally, he'll devote the attention he would have paid to iPhone to the Android platform instead, inviting fellow Flash developers to follow suit.

To that end, in an interview with Fox Business last week, Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen said Flash development for smartphones has reached the point where the latest versions may be released "in the second half of the year." Narayen made clear it won't be Adobe doing the releasing, but rather the companies that handle their respective platforms -- specifically Google, RIM, and Palm.

Apple's insistence on restricting development to its own tools and to an absence of middleware could have a detrimental effect on the quality of the iPhone platform over time. First, middleware such as Unity made it feasible for smaller development shops to get a handle on iPhone OS -- whether they were developing cross-platform or not -- engaged and excited an entire realm of developers who felt they could exploit the power of the platform using tools they could manage.

Unity is perhaps the most popular cross-platform game development tool that supports the iPhone platform. Like MonoTouch, its scripting engine is Mono, the open source work-alike for the .NET Framework funded by Novell. Although that scripting is essentially C#, the object-oriented C created by Microsoft (Objective-C is the object-oriented C originally conceived for the NeXT platform, brought to Apple when it reacquired Steve Jobs' services in 1996), the tools built by Unity around that platform are much more intuitive, and the language as a whole is both more popular and more widely taught. At the time of the iPhone's unveiling, the TIOBE Programming Community Index ranked Objective-C the #38 most popular language in the world, actually declining to #42 by April 2009. Today, Objective-C has risen all the way to #11, though C# (#6 and climbing) picks up new converts at about the same pace.

Objective-C's converts have apparently come rather suddenly, probably in anticipation of Apple shutting the door on approvals for apps built using other tools.

Second, Apple's move forces a decision among professional apps developers and service providers: Should they risk everything on one platform, even if it's a successful one?

That's not a decision that developers enjoy making. As Microsoft Chief Software Designer Ray Ozzie told reporters last November, from his discussions with mobile developers, he saw apps companies preferring to leverage as many platforms as they could, in order to justify the development costs they were putting in. Using widely accepted cross-platform tools helps lower those costs; using a tool that targets just one platform, and that requires specialization, raises those costs and thus reduces margins.

Ozzie foresaw a time when "app phones," as he called them (iPhone being one) were known not just for what features they contained, but what popular apps they were capable of running. And to be a popular app, you need to be available more than one place. (It's notable that Robbie Bach wasn't in the room to hear this at the time.) "If there's a market there, all the apps that count will be ported. Every app that matters will be ported to every one of them, because if there's a set of users and it costs $50,000 of consulting time to have somebody port a little app, it's going to get ported," Ozzie said. "So I just don't think there's going to be significant differentiation at the app level."

Apple's move disallows differentiation at the app level, at least on paper. But that's only if it enforces that differentiation. In a discussion among Unity developers today, developers there are hopeful that as long as their toolset can be used to produce binary code that can then be compiled by Apple's Xcode -- its prescribed iPhone OS developers' toolkit -- they will still be able to use libraries such as Unity iPhone 1.7 -- released just days ago -- to create their products.

The hope here among Unity developers is that Apple's only grievance is with the existence of middleware or JIT compilers or interpreters on its platform, which would enable developers to bypass its strictly regulated deployment channel. That hope could have been brightened last week by the announcement from the makers of PhoneGap, an iPhone app development tool that doesn't use Objective-C, but rather enables apps to be built using common Web app languages such as JavaScript and CSS. Last Wednesday, PhoneGap announced it had communicated directly with Apple, and that it was told its tools were not in violation of Section 3.3.1.

In comments for that announcement yesterday, however, one independent Web developer whose profile lists cross-platform work, including .NET, advised PhoneGap developers to adhere to the spirit of Section 3.3.1 anyway. "Apple has strict iPhone / iPad Design Guidelines and you should follow [them] as much as you can," he wrote. "Don't do just 'porting,' that's why this Apple vs. Flash fight started and as you can see, Apple is winning! Rethink your app for the Apple devices if you can."

http://www.betanews.com/article/Adob...pen/1271862893

NaughtyRob · 04-21-2010, 09:46 AM

Damnit, I was really looking forward to using that new tool in Flash CS5 for iphone apps. :-(

mayabong · 04-21-2010, 10:05 AM

This seems like a good thing for mobile porn no? Would open up a huge avenue of free porn for the mobile market.

nation-x · 04-21-2010, 10:09 AM

I think this is a very bad move for Apple... they seem to think that flash is a tool only for streaming video when it is WAY more than that... it's an application platform that is perfectly suited for mobile apps.

Waddymelon · 04-21-2010, 10:10 AM

Too bad, i like flash. You will have good luck and overcome many hardships.

SZNY · 04-21-2010, 10:33 AM

Can't wait what comes out of the combi Adobe - Google, hopefully some nice iFlash powered Pad. Apple has MS attitude and that is what I don't like.

fatfoo · 04-21-2010, 10:55 AM

No Adobe Flash for iPhone and iPad. I guess these features and even more features will be added to the devices in the future. I'm sure everything can be added and all the latest technologies can be added to a small device. All kinds of futuristic technologies can be added to a supercomputer small hand held device of some kind. The problem is making it affordable. They have to make an affordable device that has a reasonable amount of features on it. Americans have so much technology that recent newspaper articles say Americans want to go to the Mars planet.

Shoplifter · 04-21-2010, 10:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nation-x

I think this is a very bad move for Apple... they seem to think that flash is a tool only for streaming video when it is WAY more than that... it's an application platform that is perfectly suited for mobile apps.

And that is exactly why they don't want it....

Waddymelon · 04-21-2010, 10:57 AM

The guy that posted above me is more gay that that Adam dude from American Idol. Dont touch hot things.

Juicy D. Links · 04-21-2010, 10:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fatfoo

No Adobe Flash for iPhone and iPad. I guess these features and even more features will be added to the devices in the future. I'm sure everything can be added and all the latest technologies can be added to a small device. All kinds of futuristic technologies can be added to a supercomputer small hand held device of some kind. The problem is making it affordable. They have to make an affordable device that has a reasonable amount of features on it. Americans have so much technology that recent newspaper articles say Americans want to go to the Mars planet.

$50 bucks if you stop posting for a month lmk

Juicy D. Links · 04-21-2010, 10:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Waddymelon

The guy that posted above me is more gay that that Adam dude from American Idol. Dont touch hot things.

American Idol is a reality television competition to find new solo singing talent. Part of the Idol franchise, it was created by Simon Fuller as a spin-off from the British show Pop Idol, of which two series were broadcast between 2001 and 2003. Debuting June 11, 2002, as American Idol: The Search for a Superstar on the Fox network, the show has since become one of the most popular in the history of American television. It is currently the #1 program in the Nielsen ratings and is one of only three that have been #1 for five consecutive seasons, along with All in the Family and The Cosby Show.

04-21-2010, 09:46 AM	#2
NaughtyRob Two fresh affiliate progs Industry Role: Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Inside teen pussy Posts: 29,602	Damnit, I was really looking forward to using that new tool in Flash CS5 for iphone apps. :-( __________________ [email protected] Skype: 17026955414 Vacares Web Hosting - Protect Your Ass with Included Daily Backups

04-21-2010, 10:55 AM	#7
fatfoo ICQ:649699063 Industry Role: Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 27,763	No Adobe Flash for iPhone and iPad. I guess these features and even more features will be added to the devices in the future. I'm sure everything can be added and all the latest technologies can be added to a small device. All kinds of futuristic technologies can be added to a supercomputer small hand held device of some kind. The problem is making it affordable. They have to make an affordable device that has a reasonable amount of features on it. Americans have so much technology that recent newspaper articles say Americans want to go to the Mars planet. __________________ Send me an email: [email protected]

04-21-2010, 10:05 AM	#3
mayabong Confirmed User Join Date: Jan 2010 Posts: 1,952	This seems like a good thing for mobile porn no? Would open up a huge avenue of free porn for the mobile market. __________________ Bitcoin Gambling Sites

04-21-2010, 10:09 AM	#4
nation-x Confirmed User Industry Role: Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Rock Hill, SC Posts: 5,370	I think this is a very bad move for Apple... they seem to think that flash is a tool only for streaming video when it is WAY more than that... it's an application platform that is perfectly suited for mobile apps.

04-21-2010, 10:10 AM	#5
Waddymelon So Fucking Banned Industry Role: Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: The Whitehouse Posts: 17,349	Too bad, i like flash. You will have good luck and overcome many hardships.

04-21-2010, 10:33 AM	#6
SZNY SZNY Industry Role: Join Date: May 2004 Location: Sexy Republic Posts: 2,799	Can't wait what comes out of the combi Adobe - Google, hopefully some nice iFlash powered Pad. Apple has MS attitude and that is what I don't like. __________________ Telegram: sandroanthonio

04-21-2010, 10:57 AM	#9
Waddymelon So Fucking Banned Industry Role: Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: The Whitehouse Posts: 17,349	The guy that posted above me is more gay that that Adam dude from American Idol. Dont touch hot things.