How do I get flash player on iPad.

and I hope the end of this thread. It has degenerated into a whining and moaning contest over how evil Steve Jobs was to speak out against Flash on mobile devices. When in fact it is now proven he was correct as usual.

Allan

Allan Eckert wrote:

.....a whining and moaning contest over how evil Steve Jobs was to speak out against Flash on mobile devices. When in fact it is now proven he was correct as usual.

Allan

He may well have been right, in which case why is Flash still so prolofic throughout the web where other plugins like RealPlayer have died? Why am I and my kids still unable to use a lot of the web on my iPad, 2 years after Mr Jobs' open letter against it? How long do I have to wait before Flash goes the way of RealPlayer - 1 year? 2 years? 3 years? Forever?

And, no I don't own an Android device, nor do I want one. Thanks.

As far as I'm concerned, Flash is already dead. Website owners have to realize that now NO mobile device users can view their content (unless you want to try one of those third-party Flash app solutions). Adobe has dropped support for mobile Flash completely- all platforms. It's a matter of those websites bringing their sites up to par.

Give Flash time. It told Realplayer years to die. I am confident Flash will follow Realplayer.

Allan

Allan Eckert wrote:

Give Flash time. It told Realplayer years to die. I am confident Flash will follow Realplayer.

Allan

Allan, I hope you're right. Then I can get rid of a secondary laptop that does nothing much more than run Flash websites for my kids..

@stevejobsfan. Sorry, but even the most ardent Apple fan cannot say with a straight face that Flash is dead when so many websites continue to use it. Dying, sure. Dead? Doesn't seem to be. I can only think of two reasons why this is:

- HTML5 isn't mature enough to cope with website functionality that developers are achieving with Flash.

or

- Although everyone on this thread is inherently interested in the topic, maybe people using iPads simply don't represent a large enough slice of the web audience for the sites that use Flash. Maybe there is no business justification for website owners to spend the money to upgrade to HTML when they are making money from PC/Mac users.

It doesn't matter if every website in the world used Flash. No new mobile device owner can view it. Because Adobe, WHO DEVELOPED FLASH, is NO LONGER supporting it on any mobile device. When its creator kills it, it's dead. The number of websites still using it does not matter.

Stevejobsfan, your excitement is infectious but there are two problems:

i) the websites that have not bothered moving away from Flash have never worked on iOS and never will do.

ii) Adobe has not stopped supporting Flash on desktops/PCs meaning those websites will continue to work for the audience that currently choose to browse on Macs and PCs.

Therefore, from the perspective of this discussion, the fact that Adobe have discontinued Mobile Flash remains irrelevant to all those websites who have already decided that it doesn't really matter that their sites don't work on iPads.

Given we've been in this situation for over 2 years and have seen other plug-ins disappear virtually overnight (Silverlight anyone?), I'm still interested why Flash isn't going away faster.

Lord Harding wrote:

Given we've been in this situation for over 2 years

It's been 5 years since the first iPhone.

It's been 5 years since the first iPhone.

True, which kinda drives the point home.

But, personally, Flash on iPhone was an irrelevance as I, and a lot of other people, don't use it for intensive browsing. It was an interesting technical debate but I never really cared whether iPhone supported Flash or not.

Flash based sites these days tend to be ones where you want to spend a bit of time. The iPad is used much more for that sort of invested browsing. Since I got my iPad, it's where I have noticed the lack of Flash support hurts the browsing experience. It used to be 'just one of those things' and the expectation would be that Flash would get rapidly killed off with the iPad becoming the primary browsing device in our home. But it just hasn't happened and I'm interested why, given how popular the iPad has become.

Stevejobsfan, I think you need to post more clearly. "When the creator kills it, it's dead" is not clear. The use of Flash is not dead, but the production. By the way, was there really a 7 year old kid on here?

Macintosh290, it's not only slow and buggy, but I have heard that when it comes to security holes, it's like Swiss cheese.

I think it is very possible that people looking for flash support on an iPad keep getting directed to this thread from google and make this thread alive forever. I am one of those people for now.

Its not about who wins the war or who is right, Jobs, Apple, Adobe, Flash. It's also not about whether mobile Flash has been terminated, it's about these users who still find themselves in need for flash support on iPad and keep being told "you don't need flash" or "there are other ways around" by Apple or it's advocators. Sure I can go ahead and keep 30 apps in my iPad to get access to 30 websites that majorly use flash, but how about other websites that use flash and don't offer an app? Or in the first place, why should I compromise to the policy of certain company (apple) or companies (apple + adobe) and not being able to enjoy full webbrowsing experience as I was on my desktop and laptop? Yes, Jobs just changed world whit his own word, not the way I want it. It comes down to the fact that, I don't care if flash is dead, or if it even existed. I only care about user experience, in this case, my experience. When I have to go to app store and look for the app of a website that just failed me because part of its feature requires flash. Even worse, it ain't got any app.

As long as there are still people get directed here, complain, get told that "flash is dead", turn away, and accept the theory such as "I probably shouldn't be using that website because it still uses flash" or put down his/her iPad to get to his/her computer, there is too much compromise from us to technologies and technological changes. Jobs defined technologies, and technologies defined us.

Lastly, we certainly always need to compromise to changes, just like in the past. Maybe flash was to fade away after all, and HTML5 come along. But, does this need to be pushed by a company or at least catalyzed by? Some may see Adobe's announcement as a victory for Apple, but I see it as a tragedy. It means that Flash mobile is killed while plenty of desktop Flash uses are still alive. It means that plenty of the websites will still move toward HTML5 at a rate that's barely positive. It means that in the near future, when we are trying to get to certain website on-the-go and finding the website needs flash support, we can't pull out another mobile device to use as a substitute. The death of mobile Flash happened while desktop Flash is still vividly used and while HTML5 is not at all widely used.

What's about to come is gonna come, I just hope that people do realize we would be better off with a gradual technological change rather than a radical and tyrannical boycott to a certain technology.

Well said, it's nice to see a rational, non-fanboy opinion posted on this thread. At the weekend, my daughter came to me with another web site she wanted to access. It was a brand new site built on Flash. No, there wasn't an App available. Yes, the laptop got booted up even though I had the iPad on my lap.

Sadly, I suspect this thread will still be alive and kicking in 2014.

You're apparently missing the point. It doesn't matter whether or not websites still use Flash. It doesn't matter if you want to use websites that require Flash. There is still no Flash for iOS and never will be. That's not a "fanboy opinion". It's a simple statement of fact. You can post here all you want about why there should be Flash on iOS or how website will be using Flash for the foreseeable future but it will not change that fact one iota.

Lord Harding wrote:

Sadly, I suspect this thread will still be alive and kicking in 2014.

Unfortunately, it will be - a lot of decent, professional (non-gaming) sites like http://dpreview.com/ are still relying on Flash and are useless on iOS.

Nevertheless, we have iSwifter, Puffin and some other streaming-based solutions, along with remote desktop providers like AlwaysOnPC (see http://www.iphonelife.com/blog/87/how-you-will-want-watch-flash-only-videos-and- use-dynamic-flash-content ). While they in no way offer the same speed, quality, resolution and easiness of operating the Flash controls locally, at least they offer some workaround.