Well of course it depends on how you use your ipad. If you need to access websites that contain Flash, then your set. And its more then just a full featured web browser, keep in mind this is a virtual desktop so browsers websites, or downloading files is super fast. This really pays off if you are downloading or uploading files to cloud services like dropbox. You can imagine downloading and opening a large PowerPoint file as if you were sitting at a desktop with a great connection. And both the paid and the free service comes with a basic version of Microsoft office, so you can edit that file as well using a full set of tools.

Which brings us back to the question. Is it worth it? If you already have a remote desktop solution in place, and do not need a smooth experience, then it may not be. However, if you do access websites that require flash or where you need to edit office files and need the full compliment of office tools, then yea I would say so. However, its not perfect. As you can see from a screenshot, when I was double checking a few things for this post, the system seemed to have lost Internet connection. I tried later and the whole system was down.  Not a good start.

A nice side note; I have a keypad for my iPad, in fact, I’m typing this on my iPad now. The keypad worked in Word on OnLive when I tested it. However, trying to use Windows with touch only is a bit challenging. Event the shortcut keys worked! Nice. I’m going to pay the $5 and try it for a month and see how often I use it. I’ll report back after 30 days.

Now remember, you can try the service free right now. You will have access to the desktop and basic MS word tools, however, you will not have access to the web browser.  I’ll tell you want I’m really looking forward too though, using OnLive with Windows 8!

I’m saying this because 90% of people who are ok with using Flash, will have no issue installing the Flash plug-in when they come to a flash enabled site.  This is good for Adobe, and this is Apple’s line by the way, that people will always download the latest version of the Flash player. Apple has already stated that they are looking to make the experience and even some of the code between the iOS and Mac OS more similar, so, from a policy point of view, this heads in that direction even though we are only talking about a browser plug in here.

Remember, I said in the long run.  That is because Flash will no longer be part of the auto update system on the OS.  And this is bad news.  Clearly Adobe will move like lightning to patch the plugin to check for updates, but for now, people will have to do it themselves.  The fact that Apple did not give Adobe the heads up on this is pretty weak.

So yes, it does add yet one more stab mark into the Flash chest, but this is more symbolic then anything; so in that regard, will make users experience with Flash better since they will be sure to get the latest and greatest version… in the long run.

They we close to releasing the tool last year, but now that iphone is iOS4+, they need to update the tools to handle the new API sets.  I would guess it will not take long. I would also expect they will call back some of the people who helped with the tool although most of them have already moved on.  Will be interesting to see how many they can get back on the project.

Now I’m all excited again to dust off my old flash programming skills and see what I can do with the tool.  Hey ADOBE!  Give me a beta copy!!  Pleeeaasse???

“We are relaxing all restrictions on the development tools used to create iOS apps, as long as the resulting apps do not download any code,”

This is great news!  Now does it mean we will get ‘save as iOS’ in the Adobe flash dev environment?  There is no work on that right now, but most likely that will happen and the fact that Adobe stock jumped up %12+ I think the odds are pretty good.

We also heard from Anscamobile:

We’ve always argued that our design for Corona was extremely conservative, since Lua scripting to a native C++ engine is a standard architecture in many bestselling iPhone games, including some demonstrated onstage by Apple. Last week’s Apple demo of the Unreal 3D engine on iPhone seemed like an even bigger sign of public approval for game-engine architectures. But now it looks like we can finally put the “section 3.3.1″ question behind us, and focus on talking about what’s great in Corona, rather than parsing Apple technicalities.

– http://blog.anscamobile.com/2010/09/apple-relaxes-all-restrictions-on-ios-developer-tools/

So all you ActionScripters and 3D world creators rejoice.  Life has gotten easier.  And for the consumer, look forward to a whole new wave of cool new apps to choose from.

I have not installed it on my iphone 3g because the architecture does not support it and I still have not got around to jailbreaking the ipad, so I have not tested it myself, but based on what I have been reading, its still a bit buggy and does not work with all Flash sites so my takeaway is that we are still not there yet, but its promising.

If there is a flash web tool that you have to use; give it a shot, or you can use CloudBrowse.  Also, there is a SBSetting switch for it, so I would recommend keeping it off till you need it.  Most of flash on websites are adverts anyway.

Still, from what I’ve heard, there is a good proof of concept out there. The project is called ‘Frash’ and its basically a port of the Android flash 10.1.  It only runs on mobile safari at the moment and its still pretty buggy.  As such they released the code on GitHub (get it here) to see what other people can do with it before its released to the general public.  The code was created by Comex, a company that made the Spirit jailbreak.

I have not looked at the code, but now that its out there, I’m going to guess a few weeks before we get something we can call later Alpha or Beta 1.  However, when you read the comments, you still get people asking ‘Why’ should we even care if we have Flash on iphone/ipad?  Darn good question.  Ask yourself, when was the last time you used flash with exception to video or an advert?  I have a few cloud app that are flash based that I still use, but I could be the exception, not the rule.

image from iphonebuzz.com

There has been many arguments that Apple needed to do this to protect to the product, all of which are basically rubbish since the resulting code is compliant to the API, its really a business decision. And as I said, I can see the merit in the decision. By keeping control over the developers to do things the Apple way not only provides more control but provides more profit by forcing some dev’s to make a choice to between learning coco or some other mobile SKD language.  It also forces smaller dev house to choose which platform to develop for, and right now, the iPhone is king.  So if you are a small shop and can only afford to dev to one target, you are going to build for Apple and thus will NOT build for Android or Windows or whatever.

Now the is a possibility this could backfire.  If Android gets a larger marker share then Apple, then dev house will create for Android first, Apple second.  But that day seem quite far off.

Rest in peace iPhone Flash; we hardly knew ye.

What about Adobe AIR?  Well, I’m just starting to hear about those efforts.  Its suppose to work on Android, win, iphone, et al. But that is another post…

* I just tried one of the apps, and it works great.  And that is not surprising because is coco, but still, anytime you go from one language to another there are risks.  But so far, so good.

• 3 of the demo apps are free, 4 costs 99c.
• This is not Flash10.  This is to create installed apps written in AS3. So even though its not a true browser plugin (so STILL no flash video) at least we can reuse assets and code from other projects to create iphone apps.  I would expect TONS of flash games to come to the iphone as well as Android and Palm Pre.
• Also, this is not a true flash player where you can include other .swf files.  The code is native coco, so many of the tricks we used in Flash do not work here.  Figures.
• However, since it native coco, I would expect the SDK will give us access to the hardware, camera, accelerometers, compass, etc.. So I expect to see some really cool AR apps in the near future.

Something else to consider.. Think of all the little games that are out there in flash already, especially the flood of new games that have been coming to facebook.   All of those games can now port over to the iphone (and android and palm) quite easily. And then add all the little flash games on tonnes of websites also making the port.  Since we are talking AS3, I would bet 30% of the games could be ported with a week of work or less (per game, not all the games.. sheesh).  Anyway, I expect a flood coming a month or so after the beta SDK comes out.  I have 2 apps in mind that I will port right off the bat!

Flash Professional CS5 will enable you to build applications for iPhone and iPod touch using ActionScript 3. These applications can be delivered to iPhone and iPod touch users through the Apple App Store.*

A public beta of Flash Professional CS5 with prerelease support for building applications for iPhone is planned for later this year. Sign up to be notified when the beta starts.

http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flashcs5/appsfor_iphone/#divider

At the MAX 2009 show, they demoed a number of flash apps that are in the app store right now.  So, what are you waiting for? Download and test.  There are with the prerelease version of CS5, so do not expect to be blown away nor bug free, but still, its about time!!