Comments on: Top Flash Misperceptions : Flash cannot run on touch devices

By: Alan

Alan — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 14:17:00 +0000

When I first heard that Flash will not work with touchscreens I was astounded since over the years (starting in 2001) I had developed a multitude of touchscreen applications using Flash. (Kiosks to Point-of-Sale)

Multitouch is not the same thing as touch… maybe that is where the confusion started for the uninformed and then the cry was taken up by the ignorant.

By: devu

devu — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 11:38:07 +0000

Here is some flash based project http://www.flaemo.com/test (Keep in mind it’s Flash 9). Whole idea was to run it under Nokia N900 mobile touch device Flash 9 capable.

Here is prove of concept http://www.flaemo.com/gestures/ that using only 3 listeners you can achieve TouchEvent, DoubleTap, TapAndHold, HoldAndRollOver, HoldAndRollOut and many others gestures you can only invent.

Because as3 is flexible enough language to do so.

By: Sx

Sx — Tue, 18 May 2010 09:11:03 +0000

I just can’t believe people are spewing this ‘argument’ all over the interwebs. I mean, there are HTML/JS based sites that also rely on roll-over/roll-out events, but that doesn’t make HTML/JS touchscreen-unfriendly. That’s yet another example of blaming the technology for the faults of a developer using that technology, just like with FUD around battery drain, inaccessibility, bad performance etc.

Further, there is a *brilliant* workaround on Nokia N900′s MicroB browser which allows you to actually get a mouse cursor and drag it around the screen (to throw a mouse-down/mouse-up, tho, you need to use the keyboard in that mode) for those sites that are really dependent on roll-over/roll-out, and it works flawlessly for both, Flash and HTML/JS content.

This, IMHO, should be implemented on all touch-screen devices, or even implemented on a platform level, as there are still cases where a mouse cursor is irreplaceable.

By: graeme

graeme — Fri, 14 May 2010 09:05:11 +0000

I have a good selection of oil paints and brushes – they’re great when I want to paint a portrait; but I get into a real mess when I try do some quick sketches.

My skills aren’t at fault, neither are the materials – it’s just that they don’t work well out of context – oils give me the ability to blend and layer colour and texture – but for a quick sketch I really ought to be working with water colours.

Same with Flash and touch vs a mouse – the mouse allows me to give a lot of feedback to the end user – touch gives them a great interactive interface.

I agree with you – it’s not the application or the technology that’s at fault here – it’s the developers who are causing the problems.

By: jmd1513

jmd1513 — Thu, 13 May 2010 21:13:03 +0000

Great rebuttal, Adobe. This argument has already gone too far. As a full time Flash Developer (who had great instructors that once worked for Adobe) I was biased from the start. An Apple smear campaign forced me to rethink my options for a mobile platform. Going with Google. I love how you have begun to work with Chrome and make plug-ins a thing of the past (at least to the average user). Please continue to work with the mobile version of Chrome to enhance Flash support.

Please keep up the good work and you will continue to win over everyone else at the Mobile party and leave Apple standing alone in a corner somewhere.

Do I get a free upgrade to CS5 for the support? ;-)

By: Bin

Bin — Thu, 13 May 2010 15:27:36 +0000

I do see its possible in flash to write great iphone apps, and i was hopefull for the FlashCS5 solution, cause then you know which hardware your talking too, but sadly it will not be adopted by apple. I agree at a certain level with Steve Jobs, but one thing bothers me the most: The dutch TV channels will not be creating apps for phones anymore because it costs too much. Sure, creating an app for iphone AND android is double the cost. Its not easy to port one app to the other platform. This is where flash could be really convenient. Write once, run android and flash. But, this is also where the pain comes in, google and iphone create a great platform with great apis, but we just have to program against flash and its api. Thats not using the bleeding edge latest hardware. And from experience, it takes apple a while to adapt their api.
+1

By: bhad

bhad — Thu, 13 May 2010 14:34:12 +0000

Isn’t the lack of hover/mouseover support a problem with touchscreen devices, not Flash? Last I checked, the a:hover pseudo-class doesn’t work on mobile Safari.

By: Tad

Tad — Thu, 13 May 2010 14:19:50 +0000

Outstanding post, and you’ve got my agreement. One point that Jobs made in his open letter, which you refute well, is his idea that “since people have to rewrite their content anyway, do it in HTML5″. The assumption that every developer on the web is about to undertake a ground-up rewrite of their Flash web apps just to solve some mouseover interaction issues is just rediculous.

I.e. go tell the guys at Picnik to rewrite their whole app (pixelbender code and all) in HTML5. Seriously!

By: Patrick de Klein

Patrick de Klein — Thu, 13 May 2010 09:14:30 +0000

@Adam, @marco, You are both right!

I just wanted to state that the pitfall with this article is that it is also proving to developers you can still do “write for mouse, run on phone”.

By: marco

marco — Thu, 13 May 2010 06:43:40 +0000

@Patrick: probably you don’t know it, but Flex has a great feature called “skinning”. A datepicker can be easily skinned to make i work great with mobile devices. You could even build up two different skins (one for larger devices and one for smaller ones) without even touching the application (i.e.: an external skin).

marco