Since the launching of the iPhone in 2007 , Apple and Adobe have been prosecute in a inhuman war over the future of Flash on the iOS platform , a conflict that has occasionally warm as the caller and their employees traded shaft . And so , while Friday’srelease of Adobe Flash Media Server 4.5 — which can stream subject to iOS devices — could be construe as a step towards détente , it does n’t yet mark the tearing down of the wall .
Let ’s be clear-cut , first , on what this developmentisn’t , and that ’s “ Flash on the iPhone ” ( or iPad , or any iOS machine ) . As my co-worker Lex Friedman wrote in April , when Adobe first announced its intend Flash Media Server update , the software earmark contented providers to fork up multimedia system message — mainly TV and audio — to a host of platforms , among them iOS . But it action this undertaking by providing that substance in a format that iOS devices already understand — namely , theHTTP Live Streamingtechnology that Apple introduce in interlingual rendition 3.0 of the iPhone software program . HTTP know Streaming transmits television and audio to both iOS devices and Macs travels over the same HTTP protocol that your Web internet browser uses
So , in sum , a content supplier using Flash Media Server 4.5 would have only to spell their media into the and countenance Flash do the heavy lifting of convert it into whatever format the client platform — be it Mac , PC , iOS , Android , or other — want . That ’s a stone’s throw - up from the current spot , where many providers call for to make both Flash and iOS - compatible H.264 streams uncommitted . ( Though it ’s deserving noting that many online streaming picture providers who use Flash — such as YouTube , Vimeo , and Brightcove — have already updated their own players to intelligently switch to HTML5 - base H.264 video streams for iOS clients . ) Adobe ’s adoption of HTTP Live Streaming means that this conversion can happen at higher layer for those supplier who use Flash Media Server .
So why is n’t this “ Flash on Io ” ? Well , aside fromformer Apple CEO Steve Jobs ’s fricative parameter against Flash , there are a lot of capability of Flash that are unrelated to media deliverance : Interactive games , for instance , or Flash - based websites . Just because Flashvideois now easier to deliver does n’t signify that those eatery websites will be any easier to browse on your iOS equipment . ( However , thanks to a duet prick from Adobe — one calledWallaby , which can convert Flash code into HTML5,and the fellowship ’s AIR execution for iOS — that time to come may not be so far off . )
tension between Apple and Adobe have thawed greatly in the last couple of eld , with Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen even read in public that the disceptation between the two caller was over . While the two might not be willing to call bygone bygones , they do at least seem willing to be cordial . But , in the end , the group that will profit the most from these softening relations will be one that found themselves inadvertently view in the crossfire — the users .
Updated 9/13 , 6:47a.m . PT to move out references to Flash Access being update to support iOS devices .
