While the current HTML5 and Adobe Flash developer debate is going on right now — learning new tools and being able to use preferred tools by designers and developers, for the appropriate situations – should be the center of the discussion, and should be where creative people put their energy right now.
Instead – while Adobe makes the Flash Authoring environment flexible to package iPhone applications — Apple has banned applications that link to documented APIs through an intermediary translation or compatibility layer. Which means that CS5 and iPhone applications packaged and created with flash will not be accepted through iTunes and relatively useless, and though the CS5 end-result is in the same iPhone format as those made with Apple’s own XCode, Apple doesn’t want anyone to use any third party tool to make these applications… we’ll see how this one plays out.
The iPad not supporting any Flash content in their Safari browser for the iPad, and the creation of the iAD network and SDK necessary to create such advertisements on the iPhone and iPad devices. Again we’ll have to wait and see what technologies emerge that will play nice with Apple’s products. Sure, some exist including GreyStripe and Brightcove — but the energy involved in creating these work-a-rounds could be better spent on improving technologies and working together.
We all wish that there was a magic compiler that would take whatever creative work of genius you have created, no matter the platform and spit it out in the exact format that is required by the device/screen. Or better yet a “master language” that can do it all, and everyone can agree on, without all the politics. And while it might take 3-5 years to see how HTML5 will spread, and how innovative Adobe and Flash can get – to rise above this current technology-war — but good things will arise and solutions will come about.
Google and Adobe are working tightly to improve Flash integration in Google Chrome and working together and integrating is what we should all be doing, instead of coming out with an incredibly impressive line of products and closing it off to developers and designers who all would like to create amazing content for it. Designers and developers should be able to use the tools they prefer to get the creative results that are intended, while using their existing skills to create applications for the iPhone, iPad or any other screen out there. Sharing code, sharing time and sharing our amazing creativity and designs — banding more people together who are more interested in seeing others create amazing content– is the spirit that will make the difference.
