Flash player

Unfortunately I get the feeling there probably won't be. Jobs put out his perspective on flash and it sounded more like he expected the rest of the world to get on board with touch screen computing (with which flash does not work very well).

I absolutely love my iPad, but this gap is really frustrating. I am a huge tennis fan and watch A LOT of matches on live stream. NONE of them work on the iPad. Even some "live score" sites use flash.
It is frustrating to have one thing missing from the iPad..

Here are Jobs "Thoughts On Flash"..

http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/?sr=hotnews.rss

Not likely

If you use the search box on the right you will find that it's unlikely the iPad/iPhone will ever have flash.

I am very disturbed by Apple's censorship of Flash based web content on the iPad. Most major news amd education sites use Flash for maps and other interactive diagrams. Blocking Flash content on the iPad makes it close to useless for many users.

It is not the place of hardware makers to impose censorious standards on content providers and I look to Apple to reverse its present position on Flash content on mobile devices.

I am very disturbed by Flash-based content on the web. Many major sites use obnoxious Flash animations to eat processor cycles and to annoy users. That makes the web close to useless for many users.

It is not the place of Flash developers and greedy advertisers to impose their intrusive, battery-draining Flash sites on mobile devices and I look to Apple to maintain its ban on Flash.

This is not censorship. This is a commercial and technical decision. You want Flash, get something other than an iPad or iPhone. There are plenty of netbooks, Android-based phones and other forthcoming devices that will run Flash.

It's pretty offensive to people who suffer genuine censorship to bracket the inability to run one particular bit of software on one particular with their experience.

I mean I want to run Final Cut Pro under Windows 7 and I can't: Microsoft is preventing me from running industry standard video editing software on its operating system.

And I guess the 2 million people who've bought iPads are too blind or fanatical to see that it's close to useless.

I think you need to look up the meaning of censorship... in no way does it apply to Apple's choice of not allowing Flash.

You have other choices - make use of one.

Apple censors nothing. Adobe hasn't even shipped a full version of Flash that runs properly on mobile devices, and unless and until they do, Apple is well within their rights not to allow such a buggy, performance-draining component on their devices.

If you need Flash support, buy some other device. Before you do, though, you might want to read this:

http://www.electronista.com/articles/10/05/24/faster.android.hurt.specifically.b y.flash/

Then it may be a bit clearer why Apple isn't supporting Flash on the iPad or iPhone right now.

This isn't censorship, it's the free market. If you don't like the capabilities of Apple's device, don't buy it. I don't say this to be snarky, but as genuine advice -- there are other devices (such as netbooks) that are portable and will play Flash. For me there is no question that all the things the iPad can do hugely outweigh the ability to play Flash (indeed, for me the lack of Flash is mostly a plus, since it gets rid of intrusive ads). If on balance you find that Flash is more critical for you than other iPad functionality, don't buy it.

(Do be aware, though, that it seems more and more sites are moving away from Flash, which may mitigate this problem for you somewhat.)

The lack of Flash is a real pain in the short term. Many sites like the BBC, sports results, various news services, etc. use Flash, and we can't get that content on Apple's mobile devices.
I support Apple's stance on this, but it still is a pain in the short term.
Only good news is that I see the BBC are talking about moving their news services away from Flash in the future. Can't come soon enough!

In my opinion Steve Jobs is right about the disadvantages of Flash. It's not an open format and to just use it as a video player just because the browsers don't support certain video content is a bit overkill.
However as a developer of a complex web applications the alternative he gives, HTML5 / Javascript, would be not a pleasant option for me.

First of all they are a bit too open. It is all 'human' readable text which is totally unnescessary. When the HTML is generated/cross compiled from an application server it gets so messy that it's in fact not readable anymore and just eating network bandwidth/memory/cpy cylcles --> energy --> co2 emission and so on. Add it all up for the entire planet for a decade and see what kind of figure comes out... A Flash swf is compact and efficient, but a 100% decompilable alternative would be better.

Second, Javascript is not a practical language. It does not support class/type inheritance, in fact it does not support types. So when writing code you won't have anything 'under the dot'. (My app works with complex data structure maps with many inherited types created on a server, then transferred over the network in to Flash/Flex which then uses it)

When Javascript 2.x finally gets out there it might get better, but that still leaves problem #1 and this one:
It does not compile, so all the errors only appear when you try to run the program. It's not just as advanced as Actionscript 3 or C#.

Then finally there is the problem with Javascript that it has always been a pain in the ...any organ you like, to get it working exactly the same on Internet Explorer and all the other browsers on all other os-ses.

If someone comes up with a open source solution that works with a language at the level of Actionscript or C#, is supported on all platforms and browsers, and can at least do what Flash/Flex or Silverlight can do, I'll be the first to start using it. Maybe Moonlight has a shot. I like the concept ( http://www.mono-project.com/Moonlight)

Message was edited by: Sander Postma

Sander, welcome to the forums!

Sander Postma wrote:
If someone comes up with a open source solution that works with a language at the level of Actionscript or C#, is supported on all platforms and browsers, and can at least do what Flash/Flex or Silverlight can do, I'll be the first to start using it.

You mean like Smokescreen? This effort looks pretty darn promising, at least as a bridging technology.

I understand why steve jobs is opposed to flash and I don't really mind that the iPhones don't support it. However The iPad is WAY too similar to a computer to not have flash. What is next, not allowing flash on iMacs? I'm fine with not allowing safari to support flash because of all the reasons stated in steve jobs article about why he does not like flash. However, for those of us who still want to torture ourselves with flash, we should be allowed to download a browser that will support flash. Apple is treating customers like babies, and it is insulting.

When I use safari, I feel like it is broken. If google comes out with a pad that supports flash, I'm all over it. And I'm a die-hard Mac guy, I've NEVER owned a PC.

PrivatePile wrote:
If google comes out with a pad that supports flash, I'm all over it.

And if Flash is that important to you, that would be a rational choice.

My guess, though, is that by the time there is a Chrome OS-based tablet (which is likely 6 months at the soonest), Flash will be much less of an issue -- fewer sites will use it, and those that do will offer workarounds like Smokescreen.