An Adobe blog post back in November revealed that in the future Adobe would be be concentrating on HTML5 rather than Flash as it is now universally supported by a wide-range of devices and is considered the best solution for deploying content on the web.

So does the iPad 3 / iPhone 5 need Flash? There is no easy answer for this, the huge success which previous iPad and iPhone models have seen suggests that it is not a necessity, but Apple’s reasons for snubbing Flash technology are dubious to say the least. Many believe that there could be an ulterior motive as the reasons explained in Steve Jobs’ open letter titled ‘Thoughts on Flash’ mainly mention security and power consumption as Apple’s reasons for not offering Flash support in iOS. A lot has changed since then, Adobe increased the rate at which new Flash versions were rolled out, which ensured that software bugs and security holes were squashed far quicker than before, also with each new Flash build there were optimizations made to ensure power consumption was as low as possible – Apple don’t seem to mind that plenty of apps and games available drain battery life quickly do they?

We think that if Apple was planning to bring Flash to iOS it would have happened in 2011, now that Adobe has revealed that the future lies in HTML5, not Flash, there’s even less reason to support it. Many believe that the reason behind snubbing Flash in the first place was more to do with the fact that there’s thousands of free Flash game sites on the web (Kongregate is one of these) which would have been fully accessible via the iPad / iPhone’s browser, this could have affected App Store sales which Apple earn commission from – so could this be the real reason behind it? We’ll never know.

Now that Adobe has revealed that HTML5 is the way forward we believe that throughout 2012 more and more web designers and software developers will begin utilizing this tech instead of Flash, in-time this will mean that people won’t come across as many sites which utilize Flash and thus not desire it as much, also let’s not forget that you can watch Flash videos on your iDevice by using Skyfire!

So there you have it folks, we strongly believe that no iOS-based device will ever boast Flash support, but what are you feelings towards this? We find it a little worrying that Apple is in such a strong position that they can pick and choose what sort of content its devices can display – surely if Microsoft did something similar there would be antitrust issues.

We would love to hear from you if Apple’s lack of Flash support affected you quite seriously, did it make you jump ship to Android? Did you have to learn to develop using HTML5? Will no Flash support result in you not buying an Apple device in 2012? We’d love your answers in the comments section below.

Currently the iPhone 2G, 3G, 3GS and 4 have never been able to view true Adobe Flash content, nor has the iPad, iPad 2 or any iPod Touch variant and this is said to be because Apple doesn’t like the way Adobe’s Flash products are 100% propriety and also in terms of security, reliability and performance Flash leaves lots to be desired. These are all good reasons to snub Flash, but the deciding factor seems to be that Flash does not have a good effect on battery life – something that Apple takes very seriously.

So why could Apple’s new CEO, Tim Cook, change things? Well Apple concerns on Flash were posted in a letter which was written by Steve Jobs – since it was published (April 2010) things have changed massively, Jobs is no longer at the helm and we at Product-Reviews have noticed less hype for the iPhone 5 than we did for the iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS (so far) – could this mean that people are now seeing Android and Windows Phone 7 options as better options? It certainly seems that way.

We think that if Apple announced the iPhone 5 and listed Adobe Flash support it would be a massive hit, over the last year or so we have heard few reports of Adobe Flash security concerns and the fact that so many mobile devices have Flash capabilities today shows that Adobe has probably been working on Flash heavily to reduce battery usage and to improve security – perhaps the time is right for Flash to come to iDevices.

To be honest with you, your guess is as good as ours as to whether this will actually happen, but we would love to see Apple offer Flash support for iPhone 5, even if it is an option with some clear warnings stating why Apple think that you shouldn’t install it – surely this would be a massive step in the right direction and perhaps win over some potential customers, what do you think?

Skyfire is by no means new, in fact the only reason we are giving it a mention today is that Skyfire Labs will let you buy the app for just $2.99 for a limited time, usually it costs $4.99 so if you have been considering buying this app today is a good day to do it. The app uses its patent pending technology to compress and convert Flash video almost seamlessly to give iPad users the content they want to see quickly and easily.

You can find out more over at iTunes (where you can also buy the app), we do not know when this offer will end and we highly recommend this app to anyone who has ever want to view Flash videos on their iPad, please note that Flash games and apps are not supported.

Skyfire has won plenty of awards and accolades and is currently the top utility app in the US AppStore, it is not a one trick pony either as it features a great user interface and all of the features which we would expect from a modern-day mobile web browser.

Did you buy Skyfire? If so, are you impressed so far?

A recent study by the New York Times has shown that the majority of people viewing a video on a mobile device do so on an iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad. According to an article on TUAW by Michael Grothaus, the iPhone and iPod Touch account for thirty percent each with the iPad having twenty percent.

The Android platform meanwhile accounts for around nineteen percent of video views, with one percent for the rest. Some have said in the past that the iPhone having no Flash owners were not getting the full internet. There were even some who said that it would spell the end of the device, but we are aware now that it doesn’t make any difference at all.

A majority of videos on the most popular websites have videos available in multiple formats, which could be down to the iPhone. It’s the iPhones popularity which leads to many video publishers to encode or iOS first, and then on to the rest.

Does it bother you that the iPhone doesn’t support Flash?

Steve Jobs and Apple have a strong stance on Adobe Flash support, you can see their thoughts on Flash here, to summarize they think that Adobe Flash being closed and 100% proprietary to Adobe means that Adobe has too much control, whereas an open standard like HTML5 is not controlled by one company, also let’s not forget that Flash is not great for portable device’s battery consumption.

With the BlackBerry PlayBook, Motorola Xoom, HP Touchpad and the LG G-Slate all offering Adobe Flash support in 2011 we wonder if this will sway people’s decisions away from Apple’s new tablet, however let’s not forget that Apple’s iPhone 4 has done very well in the high-end smartphone despite never offering Flash support, whilst Android smartphones do.

If you buy the iPad 2 there is one solution, if you use the Skyfire web browser Flash content is automatically transcoded into HTML on Skyfire’s servers, this is not a perfect solution, however it is a workaround if you need to view Flash content on a certain website when using your iPad.

Does the lack of Adobe Flash support bother you?

On February 24th Verizon will begin selling the Xoom, it ships with Android 3.0 Honeycomb and will set the standard for other Honeycomb to follow, we thought it would come with Adobe Flash 10.1 pre-installed, however we are now told that Flash will arrive for the Xoom in Spring 2011.

If you head over to Verizon’s Xoom listing you will notice some smallprint at the bottom, below we have embedded an image showing this smallprint clearly saying “Adobe Flash expected Spring 2011″, spring 2011 starts on March 20th and ends on May 3rd, therefore anyone who buys the Xoom on its release date will have to wait at least one month for Flash support.

It is unclear as to why Flash 10.1 will not come pre-installed, we can only presume that it was unstable or perhaps had an adverse effect on battery life, as Engadget point out at least there will be no Flash ads for a while, which will please a lot of people.

Does the lack of Flash support out of the box put you off the Motorola Xoom?

The guide comes to you courtesy of BGR, as they have compiled a list of steps which will enable you to watch flash content from websites such as Daily Motion, Vimeo and Megavideo.

As BGR rightly points out, there are already various ways to watch Flash content on iOS devices, but most of them require jailbreaking, which isn’t very convenient for the average iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad user.

Below are the steps which you’ll need to follow to get this working:

1. Navigate to http://iosflashvideo.fw.hu/ in Safari on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch
2. Hit the + button (replaced by the box/arrow icon on some iOS builds), select Add Bookmark and tap Save
3. Open your bookmarks and tap Edit
4. Choose the new iOSFlashVideo bookmark
5. Delete everything before “javascript:” and tap Done

We have given this new method a test spin and we can personally confirm that it works. If done correctly, you’ll see videos which previously didnt work, start playing via Quicktime – just like they would with YouTube videos. Try it out for yourself and let us know if it works for you.

In terms of security this is good as it forces the end-user to install the latest and most secure version of Adobe Flash, however I can’t help but feel that this is another way for Apple to take a dig at Adobe (we all know that there is no Flash support for the iPhone, iPod and iPad).

Apple has also stated that all future Macs will not come with the plug-in as standard, interestingly when Safari reports that there is a missing plug-in the link does not take you to Adobe’s website.

Obviously it is up to Apple what software they bundle with their products, however I very much doubt this is all because of Adobe Flash security worries.

Do you think Apple snubbing Adobe Flash is justified? Or are they just becoming petty?

Source: Engadget

This is great news for Flash developers who have not been able to submit their apps to Apple, and should ultimately mean that iPhone/iPad/iPad Touch owners will have more choice in the future.

This recently revealed Flash support has confused a lot of people as they think it wil allow them to view Adobe Flash content whilst browsing the web, however this is not the case.

The fact that Apple have budged a little suggests that they may perhaps be backtracking on their plans to offer no Flash support whatsoever, I can’t help but think that Google Android 2.2′s Flash support may have played its part in this decision.

Will Apple offer full Flash support for iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad in the future?

Source: BusinessInsider

The experimental video only works in Chrome, and I must admit it is pretty impressive, it cleverly collects images from Google Street View and puts them into the video, the images are joined together to create a seamless view of your surrounding area. Towards the end of the video the Street View images with new trees sprouting up left right and center.

It is thought that the same sort of video could have been created with Adobe Flash, however the load on your PC would have been greater, perhaps this is why Apple has snubbed Flash.

Check it out for yourself here, come back and let us know what you think of the HTML5 demo.

Source: Cnet