Anyone who’s ever tried to use their Apple iOS devices to access the Internet knows the frustration of not being able to view Flash-enabled sites on those devices. (It’s happened to me enough times that I want to throw my iPad against the wall.) Thanks in no part to Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ stubborn streak when it comes to Flash technology, the iOS experience has been made that much less attractive because of Apple’s decision not to support Flash.
Adobe Systems, for its part, has been put into a less-than-comfortable position as it strives to find a way to keep its customer base happy while appeasing Apple. But rather than try and get Steve Jobs to change his mind, the company has been developing workarounds for the development crowd.
One method we wrote about in March 2011 – a project codenamed Wallaby that takes the contents of an Adobe Flash Professional file and converts those contents into HTML5, which is supported by iOS devices. Although the technology is still in beta, so far Wallaby is showing some promise.
Another possible solution was previewed at the recent National Association of Broadcasters show earlier this month in Las Vegas. According to a blog written by Kevin Towes, senior product manager for Flash Media Server, Adobe has added HTTP Live Streaming — which is an MPEG2 transport stream used by devices including the iPad 2 –to its Flash Media Server. It sounds like complementary technology to Wallaby, and the two together just may solve the immediate iOS compatibility issues, at least for developers creating new Flash properties.
But what about the plethora of existing Flash-based sites that come across as a blank screen? Ed Van Siclen, Adobe’s vice president of Technology and Partner Solutions, said Adobe is working on a resolution and has “intentions of solving the problem this year. “We will solve the immediate problems,” he said, adding the cryptic caveat, “It won’t be all things to all people.
“Our job is to allow people to be as expressive and creative irrespective of platform and device – that’s what we owe to our customers,” Van Siclen said.
It’s clear Adobe has doing its level best to put its best face on a no-win situation – I can’t think of any company that has gone toe-to-toe with Apple and won. We have to give Adobe its propers for recognizing that sometimes it better to deal with the situation at hand than to try and force a change – at least, not with Apple.
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Welcome to the world of the disabled. Flash is a cancer on the Internet that needs to be cut out of things like menus and other non-multimedia applications (I’d prefer it cut out there, as well). Flash sites generally aren’t keyboard friendly and don’t work well with screen readers.
It’s for this reason that I don’t get angry at equipment on a Flash site (I don’t own any thing from Apple) — I get mad at the site for not degrading well.