Adobe Reader for iPad has recieved a great update and now allows users to fill out PDF forms, and mark them up with sticky notes, freehand annotating, highlighting, underline, and strikethroughs.

When viewing a PDF with Adobe Reader, you can tap the screen to bring up the toolbar at the top of the screen. This includes buttons for selecting the page turning style (continuous or single page), sharing options, text search, and annotation.

The annotation button replaces the toolbar with a new one that includes buttons to add notes, highlights, strikethroughs, underlines, signatures, and freehand drawing. For highlighting, striking, and underlining, you simply have to drag your finger across the text, and Adobe Reader will automatically add the markup as if it had been done with a word processor.

The freehand drawing isn't anything amazing, but it works find. The strokes aren't amazing, but they also aren't terrible. The biggest disappointment is that there isn't a zoom tool for smaller writing and there isn't an undo button.

When adding a signature, Adobe Reader will pop up a screen for you to sign. You'll want to make your signature nice and big so that it looks good. Once you're done signing, you can adjust the thickness before entering it into the document. Adobe Reader will keep your signature saved so that you can quickly and easily add it to another document (or the same document) in the future.

If you tap on a signature or handwritten annotation, options to change the color, thickness, and opacity will pop up. You can also drag them around, adjust the size, or delete them from your document.

Filling out forms is as simple as tapping the fillable field. The keyboard will slide up, allowing you to type into the field.

The Good

• Great tutorial PDF included
• Easily mark up PDF content with sticky notes, the freehand drawing tool or the highlight, strikethrough, and underline tools
• Add comments anywhere in your PDF file with sticky notes
• Fill out PDF forms
• Use Ink Signature tool to add signature or send PDF files to others for electronic signing using Adobe EchoSign

The Bad

• No zoom-in tool for handwriting
• Can't undo

The Conclusion

There are better PDF annotation apps out there, but most of them come at a price. If you're looking for a free solution, Adobe Reader will get the job done.

Free - Download Now

Adobe's much anticipated Photoshop Touch for iPad has hit the App Store. With Photoshop Touch you'll be able to use many of the popular Photoshop features such as layers, selection tools, adjustments, and filters to create impressive images. You can also you the iPad's camera to fill in layers with the camera fill feature.

One of the features demoed by Adobe back in October was the Scribble Selection tool which allows you extract part of your image by simply drawing over the the desired area. Combined with Refine Edge, you can even select fine details like hair.

Other features include Facebook integration that allows you to view comments from within the apps, inspiration galleries, and AirPrint support. The maximum image resolution is 1600 x 1600 pixels. It's important to note that Photoshop Touch requires an iPad 2 and iOS 5.

There are a ton of tutorials built right in to get you started. If you pick this one up, please be sure you share your images in the iMore Photography forum!

$9.99 - Download Now!

Adam Satariano from Bloomberg tweeted that Apple has hired away Todd Teresi from Adobe to lead their iAd program.

Apple has hired Adobe's Todd Teresi to head iAd. Story coming....

Bloomberg hasn't released any details just yet, but this move could likely be seen as a competitive jab by Adobe. Teresi acted as VP of Adobe's Media Solutions division, and hiring him away from Adobe could be interpreted as another shot across their bow which, ultimately, lead to Adobe conceding and abandoning Flash for mobile devices.

On the other hand, iAd hasn't necessarily gained the traction Apple had hoped for, and the recent loss of Andy Miller probably didn't help much either. This could just be Apple trying to pivot in an attempt to help bolster the fumbled initiative.

Source: @satariano

While the big news yesterday was Adobe putting a bullet in the head of Flash Player for mobile, Ryan Lawler over a *GigaOm" noted a similar end for Flash for TV.

Adobe will continue to support existing licensees who are planning on supporting Flash Player for web browsing on digital home devices and are using the Flash Player Porting Kit to do so. However we believe the right approach to deliver content on televisions is through applications, not a web browsing experience, and we will continue to encourage the device and content publishing community down that path.

Apple TV, of course, never supported Flash Player, instead creating apps for YouTube, and a long while later, Vimeo and other web-based video sites. Google, however, decided to go all in with Flash -- effectively turning their backs on a tradition of open, standards based web support -- just to have a checkbox they thought would hurt Apple and help their ODM's compete.

Hopefully now, with all giant ships pointing in the same HTML 5 direction, users on all major platforms will get better technology, faster.

Source GigaOm

ZDNet, citing developers who'd been briefed on the plans, claims Adobe is getting ready to pull the plug on mobile Flash Player for Android and BlackBerry Playbook.

Our future work with Flash on mobile devices will be focused on enabling Flash developers to package native apps with Adobe AIR for all the major app stores. We will no longer adapt Flash Player for mobile devices to new browser, OS version or device configurations. Some of our source code licensees may opt to continue working on and releasing their own implementations. We will continue to support the current Android and PlayBook configurations with critical bug fixes and security updates.

For Flash, this could be the end of a long, tortured existence. When the iPhone debuted in 2007 Adobe immediately complained they weren't on there, despite it taking until 2011 for them to even begin to roll out halfway decent mobile plugins. Back and forth feuding with Apple didn't get Flash onto iPhone or iPad, since Apple believed Flash to be a dead technology, and Steve Jobs announced they'd not support it. And the plugins Adobe did roll out for Android only supported video, not Flash app, and always felt like a McGyver effort at best. (Frankly, if Google, Palm, and RIM hadn't been playing a silly games with Adobe against Apple, we all could have been a couple more years ahead in HTML 5 apps by now.)

For Air, it's a mixed bag. Cross-compilers, which Apple initially banned and then un-banned from the App Store, can make life much easier for developers but can also lead to lowest-common-denominator apps that don't take advantage of platform-specific features and lag behind native SDK's in their support. For games it rarely matters, for regular apps it can be more of a challenge.

For HTML 5 this could be a huge win. Adobe is great at making content creation tools and distractions like the Flash runtimes and Omniture analytics have led to a split focus and failure to embrace emerging technologies fast enough. If this rumor pans out, it will be great to see if Adobe can make HTML 5 tools a first class citizen, finally, in their creative line up.

Somewhere, Steve Jobs' Force Ghost is smiling.

Source: ZDNet

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Marc, Seth, and Rene iterate through Adobe Un-blur and CSS Shaders, Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, TAT's Cascade, interrogate webOS developer Zhephree with the help of PreCentral's Derek, and answer questions on backups. This is Iterate!

• Photoshop un-blur demo
• Adobe CSS shaders
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• TAT's Cascade frameworks for BBX
• Official Usability, User Experience & User Interface Guidelines From Companies

• Roboto vs. Helvetica

• Geoff Gauchet of Zhephree

Hosts

• Marc Edwards (@marcedwards) of Bjango
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Feedback

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• Facebook: Iterate page

If you're one of the best-of-the-best-of-the-best in mobile design for Android, BlackBerry, iOS, webOS, or Windows Phone, we'd love to get you on the show, or if you've found a drop-dead gorgeous app on any platform and really want us to talk about it, contact us and let us know.

Adobe has released their photo management and editing app Adobe Carousel, today. With Adobe Carousel, you can keep an updated photo library on your iPhone, iPad, and Mac. It even comes with some basic editing tools to help improve the look of your images.

One of the other big features of Adobe Carousel is the ability to create a family photo library for sharing photos with family so that they can contribute their own photos and vote on favorites.

After the 30 day free trial, Adobe Carousel requires a paid subscription for $9.99/month or $99.99/year. However, Adobe is currently offering a special for $5.99/month or $59.99/year.

Adobe® Carousel is the only photography solution that gives you access to your entire photo library from all your iPad, iPhone, and Mac—no storage issues, no manual syncing hassles. Enjoy your photos anywhere you are, and make them look terrific using the same powerful photo-processing technology that's used in Adobe Photoshop® Lightroom®, so you get the finest photo-editing results delivered consistently no matter what type of device you are using. Create the ultimate family photo hub by sharing a photo library with family members to contribute shots and weigh in on favorites.

• Don’t sweat storage limits or suffer syncing—just enjoy the freedom to browse your entire photo library or show off any shot on any device you have handy. Simply add photos to your Adobe Carousel photo library on your iPad, iPhone, or Mac, and you’ll instantly have access to them in Adobe Carousel on your other iPad, iPhone, and Mac devices.
• Easily crop, rotate, adjust exposure, and make other corrections, or lend your photos serious style with unique Looks. Experiment with wild abandon knowing Adobe Carousel always preserves your original photo.
• Create a family photo library without the hassle of sending emails, handing off drives, and trying to figure out which photos to touch up or use in special projects. Simply invite family members to add photos to your library via their own Adobe Carousel apps, and let them flag their favorites so everyone can quickly find the best-loved shots.
• Use familiar multitouch gestures to easily explore tens of thousands of photos or quickly find and fill the screen with one great shot.
• Simplify your life. A subscription lets you use Adobe Carousel on all iPad, iPhone, and Mac, and you can accomplish the same tasks in virtually the same ways on every iPad, iPhone, and Mac.
• Share those moments that matter by sending your photos straight from Adobe Carousel to Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr.
• Snap new photos right from Adobe Carousel on your iPhone or iPad, and they’ll instantly appear in your photo library on all your devices. No manual importing required!
• Take advantage of WiFi and 3G technologies to use Adobe Carousel anywhere you want.
• Export photos from Adobe Carousel to your hard drive so you can use other apps and services to create your own photo books, calendars, and keepsakes.
• Import, edit, and share all your JPEGs, the most common file format for photos.

Adobe Carousel is available on the iPhone, iPad, and Mac for free.

[App Store link]

[Mac App Store link]

Have an app you'd love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we'll take a look.

Adobe has finally released an iOS version of Adobe Reader! With it, you can view PDFs, including encrypted files, and print and share files. What you can't do, is edit PDFs.

Even though Adobe is late to the game with this, I must say that I was rather surprised when I learned that Adobe has made this app available for free.

Adobe Reader is the free global standard for reliably viewing and sharing PDF documents across platfoms and devices. Easily and efficiently access the widest range of PDF file types—including PDF Portfolios, password-protected PDF documents and Adobe LiveCycle rights-managed PDF files. Now available for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch, Adobe Reader offers fast, high-quality interaction with PDF.

View PDF files

• Quickly open PDF files from email , the Web or any application that supports "Open In..."
• View PDF Portfolios, PDF Packages, annotations and drawing markups
• Read text annotations such as Sticky Notes

Access encrypted PDF files

• Open and view password-protected PDF files
• Access files secured by Adobe LiveCycle Rights Management, which helps protect sensitive documents
• Supports the highest grade of PDF encryption, up to AES256

Interact with PDF files

• Search text to find specific information
• Use bookmarks to jump directly to a section in your PDF file
• Select single page or continuous scroll modes
• Easily zoom in on text or images for a closer view
• Quickly navigate through large files using thumbnails
• Select and copy text from a PDF file to the clipboard

Print and share files

• Print wirelessly with AirPrint
• Share PDF files with other applications using "Open In..."
• Email PDF documents as attachments

Adobe Reader is available on the iPhone and iPad for Free.

[App Store link]

Have an app you'd love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we'll take a look.

Adobe, today, announced the development of Photoshop Touch, a very robust photo editing app for iPad, and Creative Cloud, a cloud service for storing and syncing Adobe project files.

Photoshop Touch looks incredible. Adobe shared a quick demo of it in action (see video below) and, boy, am I impressed. One of its features is the Scribble Selection Tool which makes selecting parts of your image a breeze: just make two separate traces for the inside and outside of your border, and boom, Photoshop Touch automagically selects the border that you want.

This is just the beginning for Photoshop Touch. In the initial release, we’ve laid the foundation – a core set of Photoshop capabilities designed for a tablet such as layers, selection tools, adjustments, and effects. However, we don’t want Photoshop Touch to just be a subset of our desktop imaging features. We’re exploring new ways to be creative and taking advantage of the unique characteristics of a tablet device. The Camera Fill feature does just that, feeding a live stream from your device’s camera right into an active layer or selection.

Adobe also introduced the following five new apps:

• Adobe Collage helps creatives capture and refine ideas and concepts by allowing them to combine inspirational images, drawings, text and Creative Suite files into modern, conceptual mood boards.
• Adobe Debut allows creative professionals to present designs to clients and stakeholders virtually anywhere, opening tablet-compatible versions of Creative Suite files for convenient and beautiful viewing on the tablet.
• Adobe Ideas is an easy-to-master, vector-based tool for drawing, using either a stylus or a finger.
• Adobe Kuler makes it easy to generate color themes that can inspire any design project.
• Adobe Proto enables the development of interactive wireframes and prototypes for websites and mobile apps on a tablet using gestures and a touch-based interface.

In addition to these six new apps, Adobe also announced Adobe Creative Cloud, which will serve as a hub for viewing, sharing and syncing files and include 20GB of storage.

However, Adobe's goal is to develop Creative Cloud into so much more. They plan to give access to the portfolio of Adobe Creative Suite tools as well as the six Adobe Touch Apps, provide a method of delivering interactive publications on tablets, and create a community of sharing and connecting.

Adobe® Creative Cloud is a major new initiative that radically redefines the content creation process. Adobe Creative Cloud will become the focal point for creativity, where millions can access desktop and tablet applications, use essential creative services, and share their best work.

Each of the six new apps will be available on the iPad in early 2012 for $9.99. The "highly attractive price" for Adobe Creative Cloud will be announced in November.

Check out the video of Photoshop Touch in action below.

Source: Adobe, photoshop.com blog

Like Apple with iOS for iPhone and iPad, Microsoft appears to have no intention of supporting Adobe Flash or other web plugins in the upcoming IE 10 for Metro in Windows 8 tablets.

Running Metro style IE plug-in free improves battery life as well as security, reliability, and privacy for consumers. Plug-ins were important early on in the web’s history. But the web has come a long way since then with HTML5. Providing compatibility with legacy plug-in technologies would detract from, rather than improve, the consumer experience of browsing in the Metro style UI.

Will there be the same level of outrage-mongering by then, or will it have become as accepted as RealMedia-free video, ActiveX-free websites, and floppy-less PCs?

[Building Windows 8 via Daring Fireball]

Adobe announced today that their Digital Publishing Suite will support iOS 5's new Newsstand feature sometime after launch.

Publishers will be able to use Digital Publishing Suite to create files that are detected by Newsstand and automatically downloaded to the Newsstand shelf, eliminating long download times which can present a barrier to reading content on iPad devices. Applications built with Adobe Digital Publishing Suite and enabled for Newsstand will allow publishers to better merchandise their content with support for Newsstand push notifications and icon covers displayed on the Newsstand shelf, reflecting the latest issue of the magazine or newspaper.

Newsstand collects all subscription content into one special icon on the iOS 5 home screen and should be available when Apple ships the new version of iOS this October.

[Adobe]

Adobe has brought Acrobat to iOS and calls it CreatePDF. It allows you to convert email attachments, photos, MS documents, images, and many other file types to PDFs.

Adobe CreatePDF brings the same high-quality PDF creation as Adobe Acrobat to your iPad, iPhone and other iOS devices.

• High Quality PDF Creation
  • Creates PDF files that look exactly like the original using the same technology as Adobe Acrobat.
  • Consistent, high-fidelity PDF conversion independent of device or software. Uses Adobe’s online services to ensure there is no compromise on quality or performance. The service does not keep a copy of your original or the PDF document.
  • Creates PDF files that meet accessibility standards. oPreserves links, end notes, foot notes and creates bookmarks automatically in PDF files converted from Office documents oPreserves Transitions and converts Multi-media Content for Power Point files.
• Intuitive Interface for PDF Conversion
  • Convert email attachments or files stored in the cloud or any application by opening them within the Adobe CreatePDF application.
• Share
  • Hand over converted PDF files to other applications, including sending as email attachments with one touch Supported File Formats include:
• MS Word (docx, doc), Excel(xlsx, xls), PowerPoint (pptx, ppt)
• Adobe Illustrator (ai), Photoshop (psd) and InDesign (indd)
• Images – JPEG, BMP, PNG, GIF, TIFF
• RTF, Text and WordPerfect
• OpenOffice and StarOffice documents

Adobe CreatePDF is available on the iPhone and iPad for $9.99.

[App Store link]

Have an app you'd love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we'll take a look.

Georgia really wants Flash support on the iPad, with the option to toggle it on and off as she so chooses, and I've said in the past I'd like a Flash Player app (Flash is technically more than just video, but 90% of the time people talk about wanting Flash they just want their videos.) But [stuff] like this really makes me question if I even want that. When OS X Lion debuted earlier this week, Adobe quickly blasted off a blog post saying Apple had killed hardware acceleration and Apple was to blame for poor Flash performance in Lion.

And fair enough. It's not like Apple provided a beta process, with a preview release in early June and a GM candidate several weeks ago. It's not like major developers like Adobe didn't have time or opportunity to get the beta, get it running on as many Macs as possible, and figure out any issues before the public release. So what did Adobe do?

The final release of Mac OS X Lion (10.7) provides the same support for Flash hardware video acceleration as Mac OS X Snow Leopard (10.6). The previous “Known Issue” described in a tech note suggesting that video hardware acceleration was disabled in Lion was incorrect and based on tests with a pre-release version of Mac OS X Lion that related to only one particular Mac GPU configuration. We continue to work closely with Apple to provide Flash Player users with a high quality experience on Mac computers.

"A" pre-release version, "only one particular Mac GPU configuration"?! And based on that they blast Apple in a blog post that gets wide pick up? Nice.

The retraction is classy but Adobe's failed to innovate or improve Flash for much of the last decade. It's the IE6 of plugins. In 2007 people complained about the lack of Flash on the iPhone and blamed Apple -- when there was no version of Flash that could run on the iPhone. Now, 4 years later, there's still no decent Flash for mobile, only various levels of beta that work only for Flash video, and even then are hit and miss at best (PlayBook and TouchPad both have serious firepower behind them and even they don't approach a consistently great user experience for Flash.)

So either the Flash technology is great and deserves to continue, and is just taking longer than anyone would like to get there, or it was a proprietary filler, like ActiveX, that was clumsy but useful, and has reached its limits. Either way, my advice to Adobe remains the same -- shut up. Stop bitching, stop blogging, and ship a great version of Flash for mobile. And for Mac. You've had a decade for the latter and almost half that for the former.

[Adobe blog]

Adobe has finally released their iPad companion apps for Photoshop. The three apps, which TiPb spoke with Adobe about last month, are Adobe Color Lava, Adobe Eazel and Adobe Nav. The three apps have been developed using the recently released Adobe Photoshop Touch Software Development Kit (SDK) to demonstrate how interaction between Photoshop and tablet devices can work.

“Tablet devices are destined to become part of creative workflows and these companion Photoshop applications are just the first indications of the creativity we can expect from Adobe and our developer community. With our Touch SDK, we are going to see some astonishing new ways to keep Photoshop at the heart of the creative process no matter what the device – desktop computer, Android tablet, BlackBerry PlayBook or iOS device.”

Adobe Color Lava Allows creatives to use their fingertips to mix colors on the iPad. Creating custom color swatches and themes to transfer back into Photoshop. [$2.99 – iTunes Link]

Adobe Eazel Allows digital artists to create rich realistic paintings with their fingertips, and introduces a new kind of interaction between “wet” and “dry” paints. These paintings can then be sent directly to Photoshop CS5 for compositing or for taking the artwork further. [$4.99 – iTunes Link]

Adobe Nav Iincreases workflow efficiency by letting users select and control Photoshop tools using the iPad as the input surface, customize the toolbar, browse and zoom in on up to 200 open Photoshop files, or easily create new files. [$1.99 – iTunes Link]

If any of our readers pick these apps up, let us know in the comments if you find them helpful!

[Adobe Blog]

Adobe is adding support for Apple's HTTP Live Streaming technology to Adobe Flash Media Server, which means live web video using that platform will soon be compatible with iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch. Currently this type of live video is only available via Flash plugin, which is still inching its way towards mobile, and which Apple is still not interested in for their devices.

By offering HTTP Live Streaming on the server side, no Flash plugin (or any other type of plugin) is required for iOS -- it just detects Safari or the embedded web view and serves the supported H.264 format. (Which sounds similar to what Microsoft did for SilverLight video almost a year and a half ago.)

Video demo of HTTP Live Streaming to iPad, after the break...

[Adobe, thanks Anthony!]

Adobe has just launched its Adobe TV Mobile portal which is now optimised for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Adobe TV is a great source of tutorials for Adobes catalogue of products. With this update you can now watch the how-to videos on your iOS devices. Adobe claim that a mobile version of the site was the number one request from its audience so Flash arguments aside, Adobe has gone ahead and delivered the content to iOS users.

We added iPad/iPhone support because our customers asked for it. It’s that simple. There’s no subtext related to Flash, which we continue to use to deliver our content onto Flash-supported devices. We believe in delivering our content to all platforms and devices that are meaningful to our audience. We also believe in using our own tools, the best authoring tools on the planet, to create cross-platform, cross-device experiences.

You can access the mobile optimized site at http://tv.adobe.com/ and you will be automatically redirected to the appropriate page for your device. Have any of our readers used Adobe TV? Will you be using the mobile version on your iOS device? Let us know in the comments!

[Adobe Blog]

During the Photoshop World 2011 keynote, Adobe showed off a version of its popular PC and Mac application, Photoshop -- running on an iPad. This is a totally different version to the Photoshop Express app which is already available. The new Photoshop app was given a short demo, which showed off the use of layers and a few other new features

There was no mention of when this app will be released or if it will be iPad only (or iPad 2 only due to the power needed to run it) but we will keep you in the loop as soon as we hear. If you want to catch a short video of the app in action, head over to Photography Bay.

[Photography Bay]

Japanese blog Macotakara claims that Adobe is about to update their Flash Packager soon so that developers will be able to cross-compile Flash apps for iPad as well as iPhone. (This following a long battle between Apple and Adobe that ended when Apple relaxed its cross platform compiler restrictions back in September of last year.)

Supposedly Adobe's next update for Packager will include not only support for the iPad but also more gestures such as pinch-to-zoom as well.

REMINDER: Flash -- the development platform -- makes Flash content and cross-compiles it for other platforms. It doesn't play Flash videos. That's the Flash player/plugins job, and this has nothing to do with that. iOS still doesn't support native Flash video.

Anyone using Flash Packager excited about this news?

[ Macotakara via 9 To 5 Mac ]

Despite hundreds of thousands of iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad apps in the App Store, there are still some huge gaps, and major apps missing from the big players, including Apple themselves, Adobe, Google, Microsoft, and BlackBerry maker RIM. Some of the best known software on the market simply isn't available for iOS. We're hoping that changes in 2011, and after the break are the apps we're hoping help make the change!

Apple: Files

I wrote at length about the need for a Finder app and amended it to a Files app in 2010 and now, at the beginning of 2011, it still tops my list for new iPhone and iPad apps I want from Apple. The reason is simple: document access on iOS as it currently stands is a nightmare. Apple's own iDisk and third parties like DropBox and Box.net offer functionality that really should be native and as off-line as it is on. Again, the Photo app is the model. It preserves the sandbox by providing a central repository for files, and allows them to easily be opened via the Picker in any other app. What Photos does or images and video, Files should do for documents (and both should do via Safari so we can upload to the web, just saying...). Apple, make it happen.

Also want:

• iWork for iPhone. We have it for iPad, we've seen it teased for iPhone, it can't possibly not be released in 2011.
• iPhoto for iOS. Create albums, move photos between them, do basic editing like crop and red-eye removal, and sync selected photos. We got iMovie for iPhone (and hopefully for iPad 2 soon), give us iPhoto.

Adobe: Flash Player

For years people have been angry at Apple for the lack of Flash support. And that's ridiculous. It's entirely Adobe's fault for coasting on shoddy code for the last five years and only delivering a workable mobile Flash, in beta, near the end of 2010. But deliver it they have. It's not great; I've disabled it on my Nexus One, but Adobe is working on it fearfully hard, and Google and Palm and RIM have chosen to support it (and in so doing slowed the switch to HTML 5. Jerks.), so it'll get good enough. I don't think Apple would allow a Flash plugin like on other devices -- it's a security risk and a user experience hit -- but a Flash Player? Apple could work with Adobe to create a Flash app much like the YouTube app. A single app that, if it detects Flash video anywhere else on the device, especially Safari, it can take the handoff and play it in its own little, highly optimized, hopefully hardware accelerated, Flash-cookie-free sandbox. (Much how the QuickTime player handles H.264 video). It's not 2007 anymore, and 2011 isn't Flash free, so it's time to bite the bullet on this one.

Also want:

• Creative Suite Viewer That I can view AutoCad docs on my iPhone and iPad and not Photoshop, Illustrator, or InDesign is a disgrace. Get on that, Adobe!

Google: Gmail

I don't want to come off as greedy, since my mind is still blown by getting Google Voice and Google Latitude in 2010, but in 2011 I really, truly would like a native Gmail app that can handle things like attaching pictures and video (and Files.app, right Apple?). In a perfect world Google would have made Gmail more compatible with other mail systems, seamlessly handling labels as folders and stars as flags. In a perfect world, Apple would actually handle things like stars/flags in the built-in Mail app. But keeping with the pragmatic theme of this post, and acknowledging how annoying separate email apps are on Android, I'd still like a native Gmail app for iPhone and iPad. If it gets decent push notifications built in, like the Google Mobile app, I won't even have to worry about iOS not having a "set default mail client" setting.

Also want:

• Google Navigation When Android got this for free we heard rumors iPhone would be getting it as well. Then not. Then again. Then not again. Google, just do it.

(If you could somehow get Apple to add those newfangled vector graphics to the Google-powered, built-in Maps app, we'd appreciate that as well).

Microsoft: Office

Documents to Go is great. QuickOffice is grand. Even Google Docs is usable over the web. But Microsoft, baby (can I call you baby?) none of those are Office. Sure, Office is a beast of a suite, as frustrating as it is fantastic, but it's the standard and it belongs on iPhone and iPad. You've built it for Windows Mobile. You've built it for Windows Phone. You've even built it for Mac and are working on it for Nokia. You know how to do Apple and you know how to do mobile, so it's time to do Mobile Apple. Sure you lose a differentiator for your own OS, but you had no problem doing that for Exchange, did you? Microsoft, stop teasing us and make 2011 the year of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for iPhone and iPad. Okay?

Also want:

• Outlook ActiveSync is okay but for hard core Exchange users a native Outlook app is every bit as important as a native Gmail app is to Googlers. Let's get that sync'ed.
• Zune Pass Apple hasn't done subscription music yet but they have sold a gazillion iOS devices. Get those users on Zune Pass before iTunes.com launches.

RIM: BlackBerry Connect

CrackBerry Kevin already laid out why, in a post Kik-world, RIM would be better off owning the cross-platform instant messaging space than sitting on the sidelines while some third-party service breaks the crack off from the berry, so I'll just echo his sentiments here. BlackBerry Connect used to bring BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) to other devices; it could do the same again. Do I expect to see Big Mike bound across a WWDC stage any time soon? No, but Apple did announce a Microsoft ActiveSync license at the iOS 2 event in 2008, so announcing a BlackBerry Connect license in 2011 wouldn't be unprecedented.

Also want:

• BrickBreaker. Kidding! Give me BBM and I'm good.

Your picks?

Those the top 5 big name apps I'd like to see come to iPhone and iPad in 2011. What are yours? (Besides Facebook for iPad, of course!)

According to Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch, Apple is out to get Flash. Which I guess is fair since Flash has been out to melt every Apple device I've ever owned. Fast Company quotes:

"I just think there's this negative campaigning going on, and, for whatever reason, Apple is really choosing to incite it, and condone it," Lynch says. "I think that's unfortunate. We don't think it's good for the web to have aspects closed off--a blockade of certain types of expression. There's a decade of content out there that you just can't view on Apple's device, and I think that's not only hurtful to Adobe, but hurtful to everyone that created that content."

This following Apple not allowing the Flash runtime (or any runtimes) on iPhone or iPad, and recently shipping the new MacBook Air Flash plugin-free. (Which Ars Technica reported can result in as much as 33% battery life improvement).

It's not Apple, however, that is Adobe's enemy. It's time. The same thing happened to Real Media (ask your grandfather) and ActiveX (ask your father). It's a cycle that keeps repeating -- the web lacks certain needful technology so a proprietary 3rd party plugin rises up to fill the gap until HTML and associated standards evolve and the plugin is no longer needed. It's the natural order, and Adobe is finding it increasingly hard to fight mother nature.

And that's okay. Flash is still great at a few things. It just doesn't need to do the battery draining, CPU melting, security-troubled, privacy violating stuff it's not good at any more. Better for Flash, better for the web, better for users.

Adobe's core strength is content creation anyway. Buying Flash and moving into content delivery may have been a bold experiment but it's one likely to enjoy increasingly niche relevance as the web marches on.

Luckily Adobe seems to be hedging their bets with HTML 5 authoring tools. That's a far better response than Kevin Lynch's.

[Fast Company]

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer snuck into Adobe to talk with their CEO, Shantanu Narayen, about how they could team up, cartoon villain-style, to take on the growing mobile power of Apple and one Steven P. Jobs. the NYT Bits blog says:

The meeting, which lasted more than an hour, covered a number of topics, but one of the main thrusts of the discussion was Apple and its control of the mobile phone market and how the two companies could team up in the battle against Apple. A possible acquisition of Adobe by Microsoft were among the options.

One person familiar with the discussion said the two companies had talked about the blockade that Apple’s chief executive, Steven P. Jobs, had placed on Adobe’s Flash software for its hand-held devices and whether a partnership by Adobe and Microsoft could fend off Apple, which continues to grow at juggernaut speeds.

Crazier things have happened in tech, so let us know what you think. Would Microdobe (Adobesoft?) pose a larger threat to Apple than either currently does alone? Could we see an Flash Phone 7? CS5 Office Suite? And how will previous Adobe best-fremeny Google feel about being left to third wheel this little Legion of Doom?

[NYT Bits Blog]

Looks like Apple, Google and others will have to put a stop to their handshake deals over not hiring each others employees, thanks to the US Justice Department:

According to the complaint, the six companies entered into agreements that restrained competition between them for highly skilled employees. The agreements between Apple and Google, Apple and Adobe, Apple and Pixar and Google and Intel prevented the companies from directly soliciting each other’s employees. An agreement between Google and Intuit prevented Google from directly soliciting Intuit employees.

“The agreements challenged here restrained competition for affected employees without any procompetitive justification and distorted the competitive process,” said Molly S. Boast, Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division. “The proposed settlement resolves the department’s antitrust concerns with regard to these no solicitation agreements.”

The government was concerned that the deals prevented employees at the companies involved from getting competitive salary and job offers via "cold calls" aka poaching or active solicitations.

The proposed settlement between the DOJ and the companies prevents them entering into any no-poaching agreements, or any agreements against cross-hiring, for 5 years.

So we pretty much figure the iOS teams' phones are going to be ringing off the hook from now until 2015, right?

[DOJ, thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Adobe Illustrator CS5 HTML5 Pack adds several HTML5 authoring features to the venerable vector-based design program including:

• Efficiently design for web and devices by exporting Illustrator Artboards for unique screen sizes using SVG and CSS3 media queries.

• Create web widgets with Illustrator by generating dynamic vector art for data driven web work-flows.

• Take advantage of the latest enhancements to SVG and Canvas to generate interactive web content.

• Map artwork appearance attributes from designer to developer tools—export from the Illustrator Appearance Panel to CSS3 for streamlined styling of web pages.

Whether or not Adobe is finding themselves in a Kevin Smith catch -- hate the idea of biting into Flash, still want to make money from anything that does -- it's great to see them adding support for HTML5 to one of the most popular design packages on the market. It's relagated to an Adobe Labs add-on right now, but HTML5 needs a killer IDE and that's something Adobe could deliver. (Then, of course, devs could more easily make us even more killer HTML5 apps for our iPhones and iPads.)

[Adobe Labs via Technologizer]

Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen has told Telegraph that, since Apple's just not that into Flash, he and his almost ubiquitous plugin are moving on:

"We believe in open systems. We believe in the power of the internet and in customers making choices and I think a lot of the controversy was about their decision at that point. They've made their choice. We've made ours and we've moved on." [Telegraph]

The part about openness, of course, is Eric Schmidt-level disingenuous. It has nothing to do with corporate philosophy and everything to do with trying to pander for sympathy from a large, active user base. Unfortunately, it tends to work so if you're feeling any FOSS-pangs on Adobe's behalf, remind yourself that what they and their complaint to the FTC are all about is preventing developers getting locked into Xcode so Adobe can lock them into CS 5, and preventing video getting moved to HTML 5 so Adobe can keep it in Flash. And that's all fine, that's all great -- it's what a company should be doing for their products. It just shouldn't be wrapped in "openness" buzzwords, it should be wrapped in great, jaw-dropping, must-have technology.

Which brings us to the one mobile device OS Adobe has actually managed to ship Flash on some 3 years after everyone was demanding it on the iPhone -- Android 2.2. Android Central has given it fairly positive reviews. Laptop Magazine's Avram Piltch on the other hand was somewhat less than thrilled with the shipping version, given his headline:

Mobile Flash Fail: Weak Android Player Proves Jobs Right [Laptopmag]

He's referring to Steve Jobs' open letter on Flash and subsequent comments at the D8 conference. The headline is sensationalistic for certain (though who am I to judge, see above), but then Adobe's John Dowdell, after the reading the article, seemingly intimated Piltch was using an illegitimate version of the software on a hacked device (which he wasn't). [Macalope]

I've used Mobile Flash on my Nexus One and it's... okay. If this was 2007, it would even be promising. As it is, in 2010, Adobe can certainly move on from Apple, but it seems mobile is rapidly moving past Flash.

We all know Flash isn't going to come from Apple, but it appears the man responsible for the Spirit Jailbreak may also have gotten Flash up and running on the iPhone and iPod Touch anyway. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that if and when a capability like this is released, you'd have to be jailbroken in order to use it.

This appears to be a very early release but it still shows potential for those who really want/need Flash on their iOS devices.  Perhaps an iPad release would follow shortly?  Any iPhone or iPod Touch users out there who would jailbreak just in order to get Flash?  Real or fake? Hit the jump for a video.

[via Redmond Pie]

YouTube link

In the latest email from Steve Jobs we are seeing a kinder and gentler individual who actually had something positive to say regarding Adobe. MacStories reader Josh Cheney shot off the following in a email:

“Do you hate Adobe and their products (Photoshop, Illustrator, etc) or do you just hate their view on Flash?”

Jobs then responded with some more than usual kind words:

“I respect and admire Adobe. We just chose to not have Flash on our devices.”

See, Steve does have a heart but we all know deep down he wants to bury Adobe with every chance he gets.

[MacStories]

Google seems set to announce the next version of their Android operating system, deliciously dubbed Froyo (frozen yogurt) at the Google I/O conference today. Android Central's Phil Nickinson is at the conference and will be bringing us the action live and as it happens.

The exciting and terrifying thing about Google is that you never know what they're going to do (and give away free) next. Last time it was Navigation, and TomTom is likely still reeling. This time it could be free cell service for everyone in Rhode Island. Who knows?! My official prediction is up as part of the Android Central Round Table. They've also got a ton of coverage from yesterday, which included the announcement of the VP8 video codec being released open source and freely licensed as part of their WebM initiative (which includes the MKV container and Ogg Vorbis audio codec), a Chrome Web Store, Adobe's HTML5 exporter for Dreamweaver, Google's foray into the 10" TV "experience" with Clicker.tv, and more. Here are some more highlights, but join Phil and crew for all the live fun and we'll be back with our thoughts later:

• The Great Wall of Android
• Hands-on with the Android Kindle app
• Google IO keynote liveblog - day 1

We've seen much of iPhone OS 4 (iPhone HD/iPhone 4G special features not withstanding), we've seen BlackBerry OS 6, we're not sure what's up with the next version of webOS yet (are we?), but after today we should see what Apple has to compete with when it comes to Google for the next half a year or so...

In the ongoing feud between Apple and Adobe, Adobe's founders have posted an open letter, "thoughts on openess" and Adobe has begun rolling out a new ad campaign on Engadget -- and presumably other geek-rich online sites -- declaring their love for Apple, and then telling users how saintly Adobe, users like us, and little puppies are being hurt by Apple's evil ways.

It's smart, at least much smarter than Adobe's initial responses to -- and complaints to the federal government about -- Steve Jobs' "thoughts on Flash", although it still pretends that Adobe isn't as self-interested, controlling, and out for money and market share as Apple -- which they absolutely are.

If the web fragments into closed systems, if companies put content and applications behind walls, some indeed may thrive — but their success will come at the expense of the very creativity and innovation that has made the Internet a revolutionary force.

[...]

We believe that Apple, by taking the opposite approach, has taken a step that could undermine this next chapter of the web — the chapter in which mobile devices outnumber computers, any individual can be a publisher, and content is accessed anywhere and at any time.

Interestingly, Adobe's open letter contains three registered trademark symbols (®), including one on Flash. Steve Jobs' contained none.

Flash is Adobe's. Tell us how popular it is. Make a phenomenal mobile version that does things so well it makes HTML5 cry in its standards-based containers. Win the case that Flash is better and too important to ignore. But continuing to pretend Adobe and Flash are open and end-user interests are what Adobe is fighting for is insulting.

Smart users know better. They've used Adobe products. Words aren't going to make a dent now; it's time for deliverables.

[Adobe via Engadget]

Companies and individuals as diverse as mobile chip-licenser ARM, browser-maker Opera, and former US Secretary of Labor Robert Reich are offering opinions on Adobe, Flash, Apple's restriction on cross-compilers, and rumors of an Adobe-prompted DOJ/FTC inquiry into Apple -- and they won't be making Adobe very happy.

ARM flat out says Adobe's Flash has held back the delivery of smartbooks (think netbooks running on smartphone-scale ARM-processors). Adobe and ARM signed a partnership in 2008 and ARM hoped Flash would be up and running by 2009, but say it's "slipped". They think we'll see it in late 2010 (though there was outcry the iPhone didn't have it in 2007, right?)

Opera, makers of Opera Mini for iPhone, believe Flash still serves a purpose but that that purpose is no longer online video:

"But flash as a video container makes very little sense for CPU, WiFi battery usage etcetera – you can cook an egg on [devices] once you start running Flash on them and there's a reason for that."

Robert Reich, former US Secretary of Labor meanwhile wonders why Apple's ban on the use of cross-compilers is even on the DOJ/FTC radar:

Apple’s supposed sin was to tell software developers that if they want to make apps for iPhones and iPads they have to use Apple programming tools. No more outside tools (like Adobe’s Flash format) that can run on rival devices like Google’s Android phones and RIM’s BlackBerrys.

What’s wrong with that? Apple says it’s necessary to maintain quality. If consumers disagree they can buy platforms elsewhere. Apple was the world’s #3 smartphone supplier in 2009, with 16.2 percent of worldwide market share. RIM was #2, with 18.8 percent. Google isn’t exactly a wallflower. These and other firms are innovating like mad, as are tens of thousands of independent developers. If Apple’s decision reduces the number of future apps that can run on its products, Apple will suffer and presumably change its mind.

Sounds familiar.

Steve Jobs' open letter on Flash should be a huge wakeup call for Adobe. While they're tried to play the victim for developers and complained to the government, increased adoption of H.264 and comments like these show they're beginning to lose the mindshare battle. Fortunately it looks like Adobe is also going get into making HTML5 development tools.

I'd upgrade to CS6 in a minute for that.

[ZDNet, TechRadar via 9to5Mac, Robert Reich via TUAW, TechCrunch]

Choosing a live interview as his platform of choice, Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen fired back at Apple and Steve Jobs' open letter "thoughts on Flash".

Roughly addressing each of Jobs' points:

1. Narayan chuckled at the thought of Flash being considered closed. "Flash is an open specification." They're using different meanings for "open" here. Clearly Adobe owns Flash but they're fairly open about its use. It's a dependent standard.

2. It does not appear as though he addressed the full web question this time, but has said in the past 75% of video runs on Flash. He also didn't address the growing number of sites bypassing Flash and going directly to H.264.

3. Security and performance were addressed by blaming Apple for Mac OS X. Since security for Flash (and Acrobat) are an even larger concern for Windows users, we're not sure how seriously we can take him on that. We've also had enough Flash-related crashes on our Windows machine to not buy that argument either. Certainly, until the most recent version of OS X, Apple didn't provide the low-level hardware access Adobe needed for better performance.

4. Narayan called Jobs assertion about battery life drain for Flash "patently false". Jobs was fairly specific in separating out software decoding as being the drain. Narayan said every accusation Jobs made could be explained by an Apple proprietary lock. However, we're not certain when Apple locked Sorensen decoding out of every chipset on the planet...

5. Flash websites being designed for point-and-click mouse interaction versus multitouch gestures was not addressed.

6. In response to Jobs' "most important reason", Apple's desire not to have an intermediary exist between developers and iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad devices in the form of CS5 Flash packager-like cross-compilers, Narayan pointed to 100 apps already created in Flash and already approved for the App Store. However, he didn't address Jobs' point, which was that while easier for developers, it created a barrier towards platform feature implementation.

Countering a carefully prepared, piece-by-piece massacre of your product by someone like Steve Jobs and Apple marketing during a live interview is gutsy but probably not the wisest course of action.

Narayan also didn't try to counter Jobs fatal thrust -- that there's still no functional, full implementation of Flash on mobile despite talk of it going back to 2007. He didn't have to -- no one should think for a moment that, even if Adobe could deliver functional, full Flash for mobile at some point in the not-so-distant future, that Apple would allow it.

Again, Apple views Flash just like IE6 and ActiveX -- something that was once needed but is being surpassed by better, standards-based alternatives. That Microsoft held ActiveX and Adobe is trying to share Flash is irrelevant. To Apple, it's just another anachronism, and we know Apple's record on those.

Either way, both Apple and Adobe have now gone all in. Either Adobe ships an incredible version of Flash that blows mobile socks off world-round and gets users flocking to Android, webOS, and other alternatives by the millions, or Apple gets all the sites that matter to serve them direct H.264 and port their games over to the App Store.

The ground war has begun.

[WSJ blogs]

Adobe's Mike Chambers put up yet another screed against Apple and their iPhone platform -- specifically the disallowing of cross-compilers -- this time basically saying Adobe was going to stop work on Flash CS5's iPhone packager because:

The primary goal of Flash has always been to enable cross browser, platform and device development. The cool web game that you build can easily be targeted and deployed to multiple platforms and devices. However, this is the exact opposite of what Apple wants. They want to tie developers down to their platform, and restrict their options to make it difficult for developers to target other platforms.

Adobe, of course, doesn't care about devices because they don't make devices. They make content development tools (CS5) and delivery platforms (Flash), and as much as they decry Apple wanting to "tie developers down to their platform", that's exactly what Adobe wants as well -- they just want the platform they're tied down to to be Flash.

Apple's Trudy Miller responded to CNET:

"Someone has it backwards--it is HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, and H.264 (all supported by the iPhone and iPad) that are open and standard, while Adobe's Flash is closed and proprietary," said spokeswoman Trudy Miller in a statement.

No doubt both companies are doing what they feel is best for their platform. Adobe makes things easier for developers and more plentiful for users, while Apple wants developers to make more purposeful apps that are better for their devices and users. Arguments can and have been made for both approaches. For Adobe to pretend they're any nobler in these arguments, for them to use faux-nobility to try and rally developer and user support, however, is more than a little disingenuous.

Either way, Adobe seems to be throwing in the Apple towel and going all-in on Android, which is how they really should be handling this -- on the technological battlefield by getting great Flash apps made.

Otherwise we'll say it again -- it reminds us of Microsoft when Firefox shook up the browser space after years of IE6 complacency and ActiveX lock-in. If nothing else, HTML5 might just get Flash going again, though if their as slow to respond as Microsoft has been getting IE9 to market, it might be too late.

Why didn't Apple support Adobe's popular Flash plugin way back in 2007 when it first launched the original iPhone 2G? Because Adobe still can't get it to run on the most powerful, most modern 2010 devices Android, Palm and others have to offer. That's why.

"We have a number of excited partners who are working aggressively with us to bring Flash to their devices, whether they be smartphones as well as handsets, and so companies like Google or RIM or Palm are going to be releasing versions of Flash on smartphones and tablets in the second half of the year."

Maybe Adobe will finally get it working in Q2 2010, but we've heard that "it's coming!" line once too often now, so forgive us if "partners working aggressively" gives us a something diametrically opposed to confidence.

The facts remain, however, that the iPad will run HTML5 video inline today (and iPhone OS 4 this summer) without even getting warm to the touch while our laptops and multicore desktops turn into noisy miniature blast furnaces when the plugin spins up on their far more powerful hardware.

Flash, like Internet Explorer 6 and ActiveX filled a need and became a popular if proprietary and problematic solution. Years without competition finally caught up with Microsoft by way of Firefox and WebKit, as it's now catching up with Adobe by way of HTML5. Many years and incredible loss of mindshare later, Microsoft is scheduled to finally ship a standards-compliant browser with IE9. Maybe Adobe can work a faster miracle with Flash. But even if they do, HTML5 will have had months of mobile video delivery under its belt on a platform Apple predicted in their iAds (which also uses HTML5) introduction will soon be 100,000,000 strong. That's a heck of a head start and Apple is not a company known to look back.

You didn't have Flash on the iPhone in 2007 for the same reason you don't have Flash on any mobile device outside a Nokia netbookphone today. For the same reason you can't jump on a Corellian star-freighter and hit hyperspace for Endor. The technology doesn't exist yet, and when and if it ever does, for Apple and the iPhone it will likely be too little, too late.

[Business Insider via PreCentral.net]

Just when you think the internet can't take any more crazy it laughs, loosens its belt another notch, and unleashes something like ITWorld's story about Adobe getting ready to sue Apple over the iPhone's lack of Flash support or the iPhone OS 4 SDK prohibiting cross-compilers, or Canada winning Olympic hockey, whatever.

It's not like the real news isn't crazy enough right now, what with iPad and Adobe CS5 shipping and iPhone OS 4 getting previewed all within the last week or so.

Just what exactly is Adobe's cause of action remains unaddressed, of course. Last we checked, being upset -- even being righteously PO'd -- isn't grounds for legal action.

If ever Apple gains a true monopoly position in mobile and abuses that monopoly, then cases will no doubt be made (remember, you can have a monopoly, and you can be abusive, you just can't be an abusive monopoly). Until that time, we get the feeling Apple is going to do everything they can to leverage their technology to get as far ahead of the mobile platform competition as they can. They're going to go at a dead sprint, in fact, until they reach that very line. They want to be so far ahead by the time they have to worry about anti-trust and may be forced to switch gears, competitors will be too far behind to catch up.

Adobe's only option is to do the same -- take Flash further and faster than Apple takes the iPhone. Make it killer on the backs of Android or some other platform. That or sue Apple for patent violations if they have the portfolio stones, because as far as we can tell, there's nothing involving the iPhone's lack of plugin support or cross-compiler acceptance for them to sue over.

Of course, free enterprise means the freedom to sue just because, so ultimately who knows what Adobe will do. We're not lawyers anyway, so if you are, correct us in the comments (pro bono, 'natch).

Despite Apple's new iPhone OS 4 SDK licensing agreement preventing the use of cross-compilers, Adobe launched Flash CS5 with Packager for iPhone today which aims to do just that -- let developers turn Flash apps into iPhone apps.

Adobe announced the complete CS5 suite of apps as well, including Photoshop, Illustrator, and Premiere, but the mobile world's attention remained fixed on Flash CS5 and the escalating war of words on the interwebs. While many developers are understandably upset with Apple, the countervailing trend from an Apple point of view is lining up behind the "control" and "quality" arguments. Apple doesn't want to lose control of the iPhone platform to Adobe any more than it does to Google. It wants to release the OS it wants, when it wants, and not have to worry about third-party warlords holding it, and large percentages of its app user base, hostage.

Jason Snell at Macworld puts it this way in his treatise on Apple against the world:

Apple doesn't want apps that don't feel like native iPhone apps on the iPhone. It doesn't want Adobe to aid developers in creating a world where App X for iPhone and App X for Android are indistinguishable from one another. Apple doesn't want to introduce new iPhone features and then watch as nobody takes advantage of them because Adobe hasn't updated its development system yet. Or, worse, watches as Adobe refuses to adopt them because the other operating systems don't support those features.

If iPhone apps are one of Apple's greatest assets, a lowest-common-demoninator app world is Apple's greatest nightmare. Apple wants the iPhone app experience to be created using Apple's native tools by developers who are engaged with the platform and falling over themselves to support Apple's latest features. These are the developers who were downloading and installing iPhone OS 4.0 on Thursday and poring over the documentation, getting ready to dig in and start updating their apps for this summer's release.

Louis Gerbarg of devwhy.com claims Apple has been held hostage, forced to dump APIs, change engineering plans, and otherwise been thwarted in the past by such dependencies. He also thinks Adobe shares some of the blame for the current situation:

Adobe is a large company with a significant, and complicated, relationship with Apple. They have frequent high level contacts and meetings. Adobe has known for quite some time about Apple's desire not to have Flash on the iPhone. There is no doubt in my mind that if they asked Apple to bless this they were rebuffed, and if they didn't ask the only reason they didn't was because they knew Apple would say no. In either event, they announced the product to their customers and sold them on an idea they were not in a position to deliver, hoping Apple would be unwilling to piss off developers by not fulfilling Adobe's promises. They tried to force Apple's hand by putting Apple in a position where in order stop the Flash they would have to do it publicly in front of Adobe's users. That was a bad call on Adobe's part.

Personally, in this whole thing the most distasteful part is that Adobe used its userbase and their livelihood as a bargaining chip. These kinds of high stakes negotiations have happened in the past many times. They are much more common than people think, and until the last few years Apple was more likely to be on the weaker side of the negotiation.

Hence our titular metaphor of Vader shaking his firsts, but not the real Star Wars Vader, the tiny-handed one from Episode 3 who screamed "nooooooooooo!" while shattering everything around him. That Vader.

How this ultimately turns out is anyone's guess, but if your immediate goal is to make truly great apps for the iPhone, you'll likely do better sticking to Xcode for now...

As he's been doing a lot lately, Apple CEO Steve Jobs replied to an email from a developer concerned about iPhone 4 SDK's ban on using cross-compilers like Flash CS5 or MonoTouch to create apps.

After a brief exchange about Daring Fireball's article on the matter, Greg Slepak wrote:

I still think it undermines Apple. You didn’t need this clause to get to where you are now with the iPhone’s market share, adding it just makes people lose respect for you and run for the hills, as a commenter to that article stated:

[...] I don’t think Apple has much to gain with 3.3.1, quite the opposite actually.

To which Jobs sent (not iPhone or iPad this time, but from his Mac):

We’ve been there before, and intermediate layers between the platform and the developer ultimately produces sub-standard apps and hinders the progress of the platform.

That users are picking sides is interesting. Adobe wants to control the creation and distribution tools (Flash CS5 and the Flash plugin). Apple wants to control the creation and distribution tools (Xcode and App Store). There's a battle going on for the next generation of computing, with Google, Microsoft (who won the last one) and others deep in the mix and they all want desperately to win. Both are good or evil depending on how closely their goals mirror the individual's in question. So, while picking sides is inevitable for some, it's also part of each company's strategy.

[Tao Effect via 9to5Mac]

With the apparent iPhone 4.0 SDK ban on cross-compiled code, Adobe has begun firing back at Apple. The New York Times Bits Blog carried the following statement from Adobe:

We are aware of Apple’s new SDK language and are looking into it. We continue to develop our Packager for iPhone OS technology, which we plan to debut in Flash CS5

The TheFlashBlog (which readers might remember from iPad porn posts past) took it far more personally:

What is clear is that Apple has timed this purposely to hurt sales of CS5. This has nothing to do whatsoever with bringing the Flash player to Apple’s devices. That is a separate discussion entirely. What they are saying is that they won’t allow applications onto their marketplace solely because of what language was originally used to create them. This is a frightening move that has no rational defense other than wanting tyrannical control over developers and more importantly, wanting to use developers as pawns in their crusade against Adobe. This does not just affect Adobe but also other technologies like Unity3D.

[...] Now let me put aside my role as an official representative of Adobe for a moment as I would look to make it clear what is going through my mind at the moment. Go screw yourself Apple.

The timing does seem interesting. Apple could have put this in iPhone 3.2 for iPad. They could have skipped iPhone 4.0 betas and put it in the final iPhone 4.0 GM release (rendering wasted all the apps (time and money) developers had built using CS5 between Flash release and iPhone 4.0 release).

The timing could be to hurt Adobe CS5 sales (though certainly lots of creative professionals use CS5 for reasons that have nothing to do with Flash cross-compiling) or it could be an advance warning to developers not to use those tools because they won't be allowed (or perhaps even compatible) with the final iPhone 4.0 release. Spending several months making an iPhone app in CS5 and then not being able to run it under iPhone 4.0 would be worse.

Ultimately, the language used by Apple is unclear and everyone is going to waste a lot of time and worry until it's clarified.

Adobe has announced that their CS5 suite, the latest version of their industry leading content creation tools like Flash, Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign, will be launching April 12 (with availability likely to follow at a point that is later).

The big news for iPhone developers is that Flash CS5, as previously reported, will allow ahead-of-time-compiling that should allow for easy (or easier) porting of Flash apps to the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.

So, if you prefer developing in Flash rather than Xcode and don't mind the lack of interface builder tools, you can stay in Flash and spit out iPhone binaries. (Just please -- please -- make them awesome).

Though not specifically iPhone related, Adobe is providing some sneak previews of other CS5 apps, including one I still don't -- nay, can't -- believe is real: content aware fill for Photoshop (embedded below, but watch it on as big a screen as you can.)

Now if they were to add this to an iPad version of a PhotoShop.com app...

YouTube link

All Things Digital is reporting that NPR along with The Wall Street Journal are just a few of the big-name media outlets preparing Flash-free versions of their respective sites specifically for Apple's new iPad.

While National Public Radio is scrambling to have their iPad application available for the iPad release date, they are also putting the finishing touches on their app alternative solution for users to listen to their programming directly from the iPad on April 3rd.

"Use the iPad’s browser to visit NPR.org, which will detect that it’s being viewed with Apple’s device and serve up a custom-built site. This means no trace of Adobe’s (ADBE) Flash, which is used to power graphics and media on the site."

The Wall Street Journal will also have their Flash-free, iPad specific, front page in a few short weeks. However, the deeper you click into their site you will find that Flash does still exist. That's certainly understandable given how large the site is and how deeply Flash content, especially video and advertising, has been integrated. Detecting iPad Safari's unique user agent string might be easy enough (that's how so many sites detect and deliver iPhone optimized web sites already), but setting up complete mirrors absent Flash is by no means a simple task and may not be a viable solution for those sites out there that depend on Flash to display most of their content. (Though hopefully it will cause sites that use Flash for no reason -- we're looking at you restaurants! -- to rethink the decision and switch to more basic, searchable, and friendly standards based technologies).

As the battle between Adobe and Apple over Flash continues to heat up, it's interesting to see where the chips are falling. Is not having Flash on the iPad or iPhone still a concern to you? Let us (and them) know how you feel in the comments!

Valleywag claims "people familiar with the meeting" between Steve Jobs and the Wall Street Journal have told them Apple's CEO once again dismissed Flash as "old technology", while Bloomberg News reports on Adobe CEO, Shantanu Narayen calling Apple a "proprietary lock".

Jobs apparently repeated claims that Flash is buggy and crashes Macs, is a CPU hog with security holes, would reduced battery life to 1.5 hours, and was basically old technology, something Apple doesn't spend time on and historically jettisons quickly, like floppy drives, FireWire 400, and even optical drives on the MacBook Air. Switching to H.264 was said to be trivial, though Valleywag points out it's fairly non-trivial in implementation.

Narayen, commenting on the record, had this to say:

"Considering the amount of content on the Web that uses Flash — not allowing your consumers to access that content isn't showing off the Web in all its glory. Apple's business model is more trying to maintain a proprietary lock."

Since, Open Screen Project or not, Flash is ultimately controlled by Adobe while HTML5 is an open standard, the "proprietary lock" comment is a tad ironic. Narayen, however, also pointed out that Flash 10.1 was the the "middle-ground" solution Jobs himself asked for following the launch of the iPhone -- more fully featured than Flash Lite, not as resource intensive as Flash (Full).

The Apple vs. Adobe, iPhone vs. Flash debate has beaten whole heaping herds of horses to death now, so we'll just ask you this -- do comments from the CEOs, on the record or gossipy alike, inform or sway your opinion in any way?

[via Macrumors, iLounge]

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that, according to Adobe 7 million iPhone and iPod touch users attempted to download Flash in December, well over the 3 million who tried back in June. We wonder how many of those were for Hulu, and whether rumors of a Hulu app for iPad would change them significantly?

Engadget feels that both Apple and Adobe's competition (competing smartphone platforms that will soon include Flash 10.1, and competing video and rich-content delivery systems from HTML5 to Silverlight which now streams H.264 to the iPhone) are the only ones who will benefit.

We figure technology might as well, as Flash is forced to make less resource intensive, more security and privacy-friendly plugins and Apple and others are forced to make and push alternatives.

Case in point, Hulu. Techcrunch and 9to5mac hear a a Hulu app might still be in progress and set to launch in March in time for the iPad. Their videos are already H.264 so no conversion is required, but they make money off their advertising, which is entirely Flash-based now, and would need to either be replaced with HTML5 for a web app, or Cocoa touch for a native App Store app.

Either way, we're still waiting..

We all know by now there's no Flash on the iPhone or iPod touch, and it doesn't look like there'll be Flash on the iPad, which is probably why Adobe's Chief Technology Officer fired off an impassioned defense of the plugin, while a software engineer shows how a still-unfixed bug crashes it, and the first full on HTML5 video player concept makes its debut.

First up, Adobe CTO, Kevin Lynch has posted a full throated defense of Flash on his Adobe Blog and in a follow up comment notes:

Regarding crashing, I can tell you that we don't ship Flash with any known crash bugs, and if there was such a widespread problem historically Flash could not have achieved its wide use today.

How does this reconcile with Apple CEO, Steve Jobs saying something along the lines of "Whenever a Mac crashes more often than not it’s because of Flash"? TUAW draws our attention to Matthew Dempsky who found a bug that causes Flash to crash in Safari and Chrome, and Firefox to crash completely. And Adobe hasn't fixed it some 16 months later... Dempsky has created http://flashcrash.dempsky.org/ to demonstrate (remember, it will crash Firefox completely!), and says:

This page exploits a bug that I reported to Adobe in September 2008, and has affected every release of Flash on every platform since then. Despite numerous email exchanges with the Flash product manager about the bug, the bug report being hidden from the public for "security" reasons, and [although] Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch's claims otherwise, it continues to be an issue. [...] I'm just a software engineer who at one time had to deal with Adobe's sorry excuse for a development platform and made an earnest effort on several occasions at helping them improve it for everyone. (This issue is merely the tip of the iceberg of ridiculous bugs and random backwards and forwards incompatibilities known as Adobe's Flash Player plug-in.)

TUAW makes the case that Adobe's been resting on their de facto-standard laurels.

Daring Fireball, meanwhile links to SublimeVideo, the first (to our knowledge) full on HTML5 and JavaScript alternative video player. It's still early days, of course, but it works without a plugin, doesn't buffer until you tell it to, and lets you jump to any point in the video with fairly robust controls -- and more to come.

(And Gruber also notes that MPEG LA, owners of H.264, the proprietary codec used by Apple's gear and online in Safari, Chrome, and Flash -- but not in Firefox -- have announced it will remain without charge for free-to-end-user video through 2016)

Lynch, and former Macromedia Flash MX co-creator, Jeremy Allaire on TechCrunch, make valid points that HTML5 can't replace Flash and that Adobe works really hard on both.

In an ideal world, however, perhaps HTML5 can relieve Flash of some of the duties for which it's unsuited, give us back a lighter, cleaner, faster web overall, and let Flash and Adobe concentrate on those tasks for which there is no Flash alternative -- complex data visualizations, for example.

(And we'd also appreciate it if Flash stopped allowing websites to abuse local settings by storing "cookies" on our system -- okay Adobe?)

[Via TUAW, Daring Fireball]

According to an anonymous source in attendance at Apple's recent, internal iPad town hall meeting at the Cupertino campus, Steve Jobs answered some employee questions by saying "Adobe is lazy" and that Google's "don't be evil" motto was "BS". Wired reports:

On Google: We did not enter the search business, Jobs said. They entered the phone business. Make no mistake they want to kill the iPhone. We won’t let them, he says. Someone else asks something on a different topic, but there’s no getting Jobs off this rant. I want to go back to that other question first and say one more thing, he says. This don’t be evil mantra: “It’s bullshit.” Audience roars.

About Adobe: They are lazy, Jobs says. They have all this potential to do interesting things but they just refuse to do it. They don’t do anything with the approaches that Apple is taking, like Carbon. Apple does not support Flash because it is so buggy, he says. Whenever a Mac crashes more often than not it’s because of Flash. No one will be using Flash, he says. The world is moving to HTML5.

Wired points out that, by getting around the App Store pocket veto and delivering Google Voice for iPhone via an HTML5 web app, Jobs should be careful what he wishes for. Google maps data and YouTube were shown off during the iPad launch, as was PDF support, though no Flash (despite some ad-related confusion).

More than a battle of words, however, this is a battle for control of the consumer internet experience -- and the tremendous revenue that comes with it.

MacRumors brings a few more details on that:

• Apple's next iPhone is an "A+" update, and Android won't be able to keep up with Apple's aggressive pace.
• iPad, iPhone, and Mac are the most important products Jobs has been a part of.
• Lala was a talent acquisition to bring their people into iTunes.
• 2010 Macs will take Apple to the "next level"
• Blu-Ray is still a bag of hurt, so Apple is still waiting on it.

An "A+" update for the 4th generation iPhone, eh? Bring it on!

TheFlashBlog's Lee Brimelow, Platform Evangelist at Adobe "focusing on the Flash, Flex, and AIR developer communities" has put up a series of iPad mockups highlighting a wide range of web sites all showing the blue lego brick of Flash plugin fail -- and they feature the range of games like Farmville, news sites like CNN, TV sites like Hulu, and online porn like... well, you get the idea.

In all fairness porn is underplayed compared to the rest, but that it's played at all by someone from Adobe is -- forgive us -- a ballsy move. Of course easy to access, free, online porn is a major reason a certain segment is upset there's no Flash on the iPhone or iPad. Regardless of your personal feelings one way or another about it, porn is historically a huge early adapter of technology, including VHS, DVD, online video -- now increasingly Flash-based -- and even the iPhone via Jailbreak and web apps.

Brimelow is using the visuals, mainstream and adult alike, to point out how ubiquitous Flash is on the 'net, and how Apple shouldn't be calling the iPad (and previously the iPhone), the ultimate browsing experience" when it doesn't include Flash.

That's a valid point, and one Adobe's Photoshop Product Manager John Nack addresses candidly and, in our opinion more convincingly, on his own blog. He made me rethink some preconceptions, so it's well worth a read.

But Apple isn't aiming the iPhone or iPad at the web, or computing, as it is today. They're attempting to reframe their mobile devices as appliances for tomorrow. Yesterday's web was all about Internet Explorer 6 and Microsoft's proprietary ActiveX platform. Today is about Flash. We've moved passed IE6 and ActiveX, and Apple is betting we're moving past Flash as well.

The porn industry, interestingly, will likely be one of the early indicators on whether that ends up being true or not. Along with sites like Hulu, Brimelow's post might just end up being less an inditement of Apple today, but a checkbox for HTML5 conversion tomorrow.

As to gaming, Gruber's right. How would Flash games written for a mouse and keyboard on an iPad -- or iPhone -- anyway? They'd need to convert them for multitouch and fingers anyway, and then why not make an app that fully leverages the hardware?

[Via Daring Fireball]

Daring Fireball has an interesting post up regarding the continued lack of a Flash Player for the iPhone, and the reasons why Flash support for the iTablet/iSlate/iPad is unlikely:

I’ll leave the last word to Apple COO Tim Cook, who a year ago said, “We believe in the simple, not the complex. We believe that we need to own and control the primary technologies behind the products we make, and participate only in markets where we can make a significant contribution.”

Flash is owned and controlled by Adobe.

Gruber breaks it down into several broad strokes.

• According to Apple plugins in general, and according to sources at Apple, Flash in particular, is the leading cause of crashes on Mac OS X.
• In order to make a 64-bit version of Safari on Mac, Apple had to create a new plugin architecture because Adobe (still) only makes 32-bit Flash and since Apple has no control of the Flash code, they have to work around it.
• Flash is the only remaining major web technology that's proprietary and controlled by one company, which is not good for the web, and if Apple can't control something, they'd rather it be non-proprietary.
• Flash performance on Mac OS X is poor compared to QuickTime. Adobe would like to address this via direct hardware acceleration, Apple would rather developers use the existing, higher-level QuickTime APIs.
• Flash is used as a runtime, which Apple doesn't support on the iPhone.

I'll add two more things to this list, especially applicable to the iPhone:

• Flash is an increasingly large target for malware attacks. While Apple is slow to respond to zero day exploits, Adobe is as well. The idea that Apple would have to wait on Adobe to patch an iPhone exploit is likely not appealing to Apple. Imagine how long iPhone firmware updates would take then?
• Flash is privacy hostile, allowing sites to store "Flash cookies" which can restore deliberately deleted browser cookies and otherwise track user data. That Adobe still doesn't better inform their users, and relies on an obscure website to provide controls is troubling to say the least. (That page is supposed to contain site-specific permission for Flash to access webcams. Mine contains entries for major online media sites and e-commerce stores).

Apple believes control helps them create the best user experience. It's incredibly frustrating at times, but it's how they've built their business and arguably attained some of their success.

I don't believe for one moment Apple is pushing open standards over Flash for altruistic reasons. In this instance, however, their reasons happen to coincide with what's better for the web. They're also are one of the few companies powerful and popular enough to push HTML5 video.

The iPhone and quite possibly the iTablet are their best shot at doing that.

Adobe's getting snarky over the continued absence of Flash on the iPhone, now presenting users with the above message which reads:

Flash Player not available for your device. Apple restricts use of technologies required by products like Flash Player. Until Apple eliminates these restrictions, Adobe cannot provide Flash Player for the iPhone or iPod Touch (sic).

Fair enough. Apple doesn't allow code interpreters like Flash, Java, SilverLight, etc. on the iPhone. Even Apple's own media plugin, QuickTime, doesn't run inline on websites but rather launches a separate player app to show videos.

While the iPhone has an amazing web browser with Safari, it's still a mobile web browser, and the iPhone doesn't have anywhere near the CPU power, memory, battery, or other hardware resources that a laptop does, and even laptops can still be hit especially hard by Flash content. Maybe Adobe's upcoming mobile friendly Flash 10.1 will finally present a really good, optimized, clean (and dare we hope secure and privacy-respectful) version of the plugin.

That is, if we're getting the true story from either Apple or Adobe (as highlighted by this reddit thread, whether real or parody).

[via Adobe UI Gripes]

Adobe has released Photoshop.com Mobile [Free - iTunes Link]. The App Store is cluttered with a ton of photo editing tools, but this was one obvious omission. Nice to see Adobe fill it.

• Crop, rotate, change color with just a touch.
• Give an extra glow with Soft Focus.
• Get artsy with Sketch.
• Apply one-touch effects like Warm Vintage and Vignette.

The app can take photos with the iPhone and/or edit photos already on the iPhone or iPod touch, but can also use a free Photoshop.com account. It's a cinch to set up. Simply take a few moments to open your photoshop.com account to edit, upload, store, and share all of your iPhone photos.

[Via The Loop]

Daring Fireball has been linking to some interesting discussions on Adobe's recent announcement that Flash CS5 will compile "ahead of time" native iPhone binaries that can be submitted, as is, to Apple's iTunes App Store.

First up, KickingBear reminds everyone to give it a chance before burying it just on concept or principle:

Let’s be frank here – **** the tools. If you’re as deep a fan of the Cocoa tool-chain as I am then you likely came to them as I did – after years of dealing with the drastically inferior. Do I believe Cocoa is still the best tool? Yes, I do. But let’s not pretend that it’s the only tool. Some crazy people may prefer other tools, and we may well think they’re insane for doing so. The proof, however, is in the pudding. And it’s the pudding that our customers buy. I’m in love with my oven and at this point I doubt I’ll ever change it but I have no illusions that fashion won’t pass me by. If Adobe, or anyone else, can produce tools that provide a more compelling application on the iPhone then good for them.

On the flip side, /dev/why takes a look at what's generated by the current process:

Now, the notion that what this thing emits is indistinguishable from something Xcode emits is laughable. They are very different, and not in a good way. While the apps may get acceptable frame rates on an iPhone 3GS, they don’t on earlier hardware, and they almost certainly uses substantially more power battery than native games.

If you're interested in the topic, give both articles a read and then let us know what you think.

Since Adobe can't get Flash on the iPhone -- yet -- they figure the next best thing is to let Flash CS5 and ActionScript 3 compile native iPhone apps that can be submitted to the iTunes App Store and run on iPhones and iPod touches everywhere.

In fact, Chroma Circuit, Trading Stuff, Fickleblox, Just Letters, South Park, The Roach Game, and Red Hood -- all already on the App Store -- we also all already developed using Flash and converted to the iPhone.

Like the earlier announcement from Novell about MonoTouch letting .NET compile iPhone apps, Flash is using the same "ahead of time" compilation instead of "just-in-time" to build the native apps.

Some will say this lowers the barrier of entry for developers to gain access to the App Store. We just hope it doesn't make it so low they trip over it on their way in.

Again, from our point of view, it's ultimate not about making things easier for developers, it's about making things better for end-users. It's not about us getting more apps, it's about us getting better ones.

If a bunch of brilliant Flash (or .Net or Java or whatever.runtime) developers suddenly cross over and decide to make brilliant apps for the iPhone, then, yay! However, in our experience the truly brilliant developers are the ones who care so deeply about their apps they edit them down to the last sub-pixel level, and tweak the code until it behaves like it was born to the metal. In other words, those developers likely already picked up Cocoa like it wasn't no thing.

The other ones, the ones who just want to pump out as many $0.99 CrApps as possible -- yeah, we're worried they're turning our direction, and we have enough of them already, thanks very much.

Are we overly pessimistic? (Though we're hardly the only ones). Do you think a lot of great Flash games will suddenly make the jump to the iPhone now? If so, name us your favorites, and let us know!

According to Macrumors, Adobe and ARM, which is the chipset Apple uses to power the iPhone, have announced they're making a special version optimized for mobile devices. (And, yes, to be snarky, I'll believe that when I get a version optimized for Intel on the Mac, b'okay?)

Never the less, none other than chief Androidika Andy Rubin himself showed up at Adobe MAX today to show off Flash running on that other handset -- the one I'm Round Robin'ing this week, the G1.

Will that put pressure on Apple? Or if people start suffering Flash exploits, are subjected to Flash cookies, or get tired of jumping monkey ads, will it only harden Apple's resolve?

The iPhone runs mobile OS X, a stripped down and highly optimized subset of Mac OS X. Adobe has just released Flash 10, including a version for Apple's platform. Does this new version finally address all the bugginess and bloat, that has long plagued the non-Windows version of Flash? What about the general privacy and security concerns around Flash cookies and exploits? Ars Technica put the new builds through their paces, and Daring Fireball sums it up thusly:

Performance still sucks on Mac OS X compared to Windows Vista. Using the exact same computer (four-core 2.66 GHz Mac Pro with 6 GB of RAM), Hulu video playback consumes 56 percent CPU on Mac OS X 10.5 vs. just 7 percent on Vista.

John Gruber updates his post to say it's not as bad as he first thought, but 2 times slower is still 2 (or more!) times too many. The iPhone is not as forgiving as a desktop or even laptop computer. If Adobe really wants Flash on the iPhone -- as they keep harping to the media -- why not make a highly optimized, super-fast build that would befit the OS X platform? You know, like Apple has done with Quicktime X?

How much kicking can an re-un-dead horse take before there's just nothing left but steaming, rotting, fertilizer?

Speaking of which, Adobe is back in the news, again, touting Flash for the iPhone, again, and wondering out loud if Apple will support it, again. Just a couple days ago we went over some of the challenges and potential solutions to Flash on the iPhone, and we've already covered the neglectful bloat and bugs (Adobe's never bothered to optimize Flash for OS X), security (opens additional attack vectors for hackers), and privacy (keeps secret cookies) issues that come with Flash, so why is this back on the radar? Politics.

Adobe is hoping the outcry from the ZOMG! Vidz! fan base, which probably doesn't know about the above, but really wants to watch all that free porn video, combined with pressure from Google's more "open" Android environment (which may or may not actually support Flash, and if it does, may or may not do so in a usable, non-evil manner), will force Apple to let Flash in the door.

We doubt it. AJAX for WebApps and Cocoa Touch for real Apps sucks the "air" out of Adobe's Flash-pirations, and we're pretty sure that's a Good Thing for iPhone users (though, admittedly, not for Flash/Flex developers eager to get on Apple's device but not willing to do so using standard or Apple-provided frameworks).

Personally, while we can see the slim chance for a stripped down, highly-optimized (and 3rd party cookie free!) Flash Player app for video and video alone, we don't see Adobe getting what they really want: their bid for a Rich Internet Application development environment onto the most used mobile platform on the market.

Daring Fireball thinks it's a non-starter as well. How about you? Think we'll ever see Flash on the iPhone? Do we even want to? If so, why?

(Thanks Terry for the tip!)

Like a moth to a flame or a Blackberry addict to email, I am drawn once again into the train wreck that is Flash on the iPhone. This time it's courtesy one Robert X. Cringely, and it's a brain bender!

Cringely says:

It seems obvious to me, however, that there is only one real reason why [rumors circulating the National Association of Broadcasters show suggested] Apple would sell off its professional applications [like Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, Shake, and Aperture] and that’s to avoid antitrust problems when/if Apple buys Adobe Systems as I predicted at the beginning of the year.

Gruber responds:

I Think Cringely Is Off His Meds Again

Daring Fireball's John Gruber goes on to say that while Apple may (or may not) sell off its Pro Apps, it would only do so to downsize and maintain focus, something buying Adobe would pretty much be the opposite of.

Personally, I think Apple stands to benefit immensely one day from controlling the media pipe end-to-end, and part of that control is the high end content creation tools, the Pro Apps. That's Apple end game, the media hub and all its satellites. And if you want that, you don't go selling off your launch vehicles.

What do you think?

Will Flash come to the iPhone? Won't it? Will it? Won't it?

GearLive said yes. Adobe said maybe. El Jobso said too slow, too lite -- where's my middle?!. El Narayenso (er... Adobe's CEO) said SD-OK! And... now Adobe clarifies that ambiguous yes with another maybe. Kinda:

"[T]o bring the full capabilities of Flash to the iPhone web-browsing experience we do need to work with Apple beyond and above what is available through the SDK and the current license around it. We think Flash availability on the iPhone benefits Apple and Adobe’s millions of joint customers, so we want to work with Apple to bring these capabilities to the device."

Hooked on the iPhone's first reality soap yet? Us neither, but we'll keep on it until those wacky techs finally hook up for good or call it quits forever.

GearLive reported Flash for the iPhone was immanent. Adobe retorted that it was all up to Steve Jobs. His Steveness resorted to telling investors that Flash desktop was too big, Flash Lite was too small, and they were missing a product that was juuuusssst right.

Well, Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen hopes Apple's newly released SDK will help Adobe deliver that middle ground, with or without Jobs' blessing. Speaking to investors, Narayen said (via Apple Insider):

"We believe Flash is synonymous with the Internet experience, and we are committed to bringing Flash to the iPhone. We have evaluated (the software developer tools) and we think we can develop an iPhone Flash player ourselves."

Hopefully without those peskyprivacy and security problems, b'okay?

Given the restrictions imposed on 3rd party apps, unless Apple gives Adobe "special dispensation" it seems unlikely that even Adobe could get Flash working in an unplugged-in, sandbox environment, but we'll see.

Eerily similar to Sun's Java announcement immediately following the iPhone SDK launch, all that remains now (in terms of rival interactive development platforms) is Microsoft's Silverlight. Balmer, get your dance shoes!