Adobe’s Flash technology is now available for iOS devices, thanks to a new application for jailbroken iPhones and iPads, PC World reports. Coming from Comex, the same man who developed the browser-based JailbreakMe tool, Frash lets iPhone users view Adobe Flash content on their phones. Frash is in its very early stages, and works with the iPhone 4, 3GS (with iOS4), third-generation iPod Touch, and iPads with the latest software (3.2.X), the developer says. To install Frash, you will also need to jailbreak your device, which can be done easily with the new web browser-based JailbreakMe tool released last week. Apple has refused to include Adobe’s Flash technology into its mobile devices, saying that it would cripple the experience and battery life. Some iPhone users were not happy with that decision, and looked into getting Flash on their iOS devices. As for jailbreaking, the procedure came into legality two weeks ago, when the U.S. Copyright Office declared it an exemption to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. However, Apple doesn’t agree with jailbreaking and says the procedure will void the warranty of your iOS device—meaning no free repairs in case something goes wrong…
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Steve Jobs attacks Adobe Flash as unfit for iPhone
For iPhone users who’ve been wondering whether their devices will support Flash technology for web video and games anytime soon, the answer is finally here, straight from Steve Jobs, reports the Associated Press: No. In a detailed offensive against the technology owned by Adobe Systems Inc., Apple’s CEO wrote April 29 that Flash has too many bugs, drains batteries too quickly, and is too oriented to personal computers to work on the iPhone and iPad. This is not the first time Jobs has publicly criticized Flash, but the statement was his clearest, most definitive—and longest—on the subject. In his 1,685-word “Thoughts on Flash,” Jobs laid out his reasons for excluding Flash—the most widely used vehicle for videos and games on the internet—from Apple’s blockbuster handheld devices. He cited “reliability, security, and performance,” and the fact that Flash was designed “for PCs using mice, not for touch screens using fingers” as some of the reasons Apple will continue to keep the program off its devices. But he said the most important reason is Flash puts a third party between Apple and software developers. In other words, developers can take advantage of improvements from Apple only if Adobe upgrades its own software, Jobs wrote. Adobe representatives did not have an immediate comment. But in a March 23 conference call, President and CEO Shantanu Narayen said his company is “committed to bringing Flash to any platform on which there is a screen.”
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