As you have probably heard, Apple has updated the terms of their developer program license. In particular, section 3.3.1 has been revised and now allows developers to develop applications with a wider array of tools and technologies, including Flash CS5.

We have posted some more information on this on the Adobe Conversations blog. Speaking about the packager for iphone included in Flash CS5:

The feature is available for developers to use today in Flash Professional CS5, and we will now resume development work on this feature for future releases.

Christian Cantrell has posted a refresher on getting started with the packager for iphone, and I will be updating my FOTB session on optimizing Flash content for mobile to include information on optimizing content for iOS devices (joining the existing Android content).

A little over a week ago Apple released a new draft of their iPhone developer program license which contained the following clause:

3.3.1 — Applications may only use Documented APIs in the manner prescribed by Apple and must not use or call any private APIs. Applications must be originally written in Objective-C, C, C++, or JavaScript as executed by the iPhone OS WebKit engine, and only code written in C, C++, and Objective-C may compile and directly link against the Documented APIs (e.g., Applications that link to Documented APIs through an intermediary translation or compatibility layer or tool are prohibited).

Essentially, this has the effect of restricting applications built with a number of technologies, including Unity, Titanium, MonoTouch, and Flash CS5. While it appears that Apple may selectively enforce the terms, it is our belief that Apple will enforce those terms as they apply to content created with Flash CS5. Developers should be prepared for Apple to remove existing content and applications (100+ on the store today) created with Flash CS5 from the iTunes store.

We will still be shipping the ability to target the iPhone and iPad in Flash CS5. However, we are not currently planning any additional investments in that feature.

To be clear, during the entire development cycle of Flash CS5, the feature complied with Apple’s licensing terms. However, as developers for the iPhone have learned, if you want to develop for the iPhone you have to be prepared for Apple to reject or restrict your development at anytime, and for seemingly any reason. In just the past week Apple also changed its licensing terms to essentially prohibit ad networks other than its own on the iPhone, and it came to light that Apple had rejected an application from a Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist on editorial grounds (which Apple later said was a “mistake”).

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. There is plenty of commentary online about this, so I won’t belabor the point, but I have included some links below that cover it more depth:

• Apple Wants to Own You
• Apple Locks iPhone Developers in Its Walled Garden

So, was all of the work on the iPhone packager a waste of time and resources? No, I don’t believe so. We proved that:

1. There is no technical reason that Flash can’t run on the iPhone
2. Developers can create well performing and compelling content for the device with Flash

However, more importantly, the teams implemented features (such as hardware acceleration and Ahead of Time compilation) that we will now be able to leverage for other devices and platforms. We have gained knowledge and experience that are being directly applied to Flash Player 10.1 and Adobe AIR 2.0 for other mobile operating systems.

Fortunately, the iPhone isn’t the only game in town. Android based phones have been doing well behind the success of the Motorola Droid and Nexus One, and there are a number of Android based tablets slated to be released this year. We are working closely with Google to bring both Flash Player 10.1 and Adobe AIR 2.0 to these devices, and thus far, the results have been very promising.

Because this is Flash, it is rather trivial to port games created with Flash that target the iPhone to target other operating systems, such as Android. At FlashCamp San Francisco on Friday night, David Wadhwani (GM and VP of the Flash Platform) showed off a number of games running on Android that had been created with Flash, many of which had already been deployed as iPhone games. My personal favorites were Chroma Circuit and GridShock created by Josh Tynjala of Bowler Hat Games. Both games were originally developed as browser based games and were then updated to target the iPhone (Chroma Circuit was featured on the iTunes app store). Josh recently updated and optimized them to target Flash Player on Android, and the results have been impressive. There have already been a couple of developers who have moved their Flash based content from the iPhone to Flash on Android (couple of examples below) and I expect that this is a trend we will be seeing more and more of.

Here are some links to developers who originally targeted the iPhone with their Flash content and are now deploying to Android:

• Adobe AIR for Android: Chroma Circuit and Qrossfire Videos
• Jobe Makar : Flash is Speedy on Android
• Jobe Makar’s Fruit Smash Organic (Video)
• Alan Queen’s Star Map Game (Video)

Both Flash Player 10.1 and Adobe AIR 2.0 for Android are in pre-release testing. If you are interested in being notified when we expand the testing, you can sign up at:

• Flash Player 10.1 for Android Beta
• Adobe AIR 2.0 for Android Beta

Personally, I am going to shift all of my mobile focus from iPhone to Android based devices (I am particularly interested in the Android based tablets coming out this year) and not focus on the iPhone stuff as much anymore. This includes both Flash based, and Objective-C based iPhone development. While I actually enjoy working in Objective-C, I don’t have any current plans to update and / or maintain my existing native iPhone applications (including the AS3 Reference Guide, and Timetrocity). As I wrote previously, I think that the closed system that Apple is trying to create is bad for the industry, developers and ultimately consumers, and that is not something that I want to actively promote. Don’t worry though, I definitely plan to get both Pew Pew and Bacon Unicorn Adventure running on Android and am planning on open sourcing both.

We are at the beginning of a significant change in the industry, and I believe that ultimately open platforms will win out over the type of closed, locked down platform that Apple is trying to create. I am excited about Flash Player 10.1 and Adobe AIR 2.0 and all of the opportunities that they will make available to Flash developers across multiple platforms (desktop, Android, Palm, Windows Phone 7, RIM, etc…).

NOTE : Please keep comments constructive and on topic. Off topic comments will be moderated / deleted. (And yes, commenting that “Flash SUXXORS!” or calling me a “wanker” are considered off topic).

UPDATE (September 10, 2010) : Apple has updated their licensing terms and now allow addition tools and technologies to be used to develop iPhone / iOS applications. You can find more information on how this impacts Flash here.

Sorry for the two month hiatus on posting. I was on a sabbatical and vacation from work for the last 6 weeks of 2009, and have spent the first couple of weeks of 2010 busy working on code, and preparing some events for the spring (more on that in another post).

Some of the stuff I have continued to spend a lot of time working on, has been building iPhone content using the Flash CS5 private beta. I have been doing a lot of work on trying to figure out how to get the best performance, and understand the limits of Flash content on the device. I plan to make a separate post on that in the next couple of days.

Anyways, the conference season is about to be in full swing, and the first talk I am doing this year, will be at FITC Amsterdam next month on Flash and iPhone. The talk is titled “Building High Performance iPhone Applications with ActionScript 3” and will discuss how to get the best performance from your Flash content, as well as what type of Flash content is best suited for the device. In addition to talking about some general tips and tricks, I will also be discussing some of the new hardware accelerated APIs, and showing some games I have been working on (including my new game Unicorn Bacon Adventure!).

If you are in Europe, and haven’t signed up for FITC yet, then what are you waiting for?!?!? This is one of the best conferences in the world, and the speaker line up for Amsterdam is simply amazing.

The news from Adobe MAX 2009 that probably generated the most buzz and discussion online was the announcement that Flash CS5 will have support for outputting applications for the iPhone. While I am really excited about the news, and the work we are doing around the iPhone, I am here to tell you that you should not care about it.

Let me repeat that:

You should NOT care about using Flash to build applications for the iPhone.

Hear me out on this. One of the major advantages of using Flash has always been that you can create your content, and then be confident that it will run consistently across different platforms and browsers. However, in the past, if you wanted to deploy to mobile platforms or devices, you would have to target a different player (most likely based on Flash Lite), which lagged behind the capabilities of the desktop player. However, the fragmentation between desktop and mobile players is about to change.

I think the biggest news out of Max last week was not the Flash applications for iPhone announcements, but rather the unveiling of Flash Player 10.1. Not only will Flash Player 10.1 run across desktop operating systems and browsers, but it will also be available on the newest generation of smart phones. This includes Palm Pre, as well as Android and RIM based devices. Furthermore, the iPhone work, as well as Adobe AIR 2.0 are both also based on Flash Player 10.1.

Thus, not only will you be able to create content and target multiple browsers and operating systems, but you will also be able to target mobile devices, as well as desktops.

Now, it is important to remember that devices, such as the Palm Pre and iPhone have significantly slower processors and less memory, as well as smaller screens than desktop machines. However, if you design and develop with these limitations in mind, then you will be able to leverage you content anywhere that Flash Player 10.1 is available.

Furthermore, if you are leveraging functionality that is only available on a subset of devices, then of course, your content can only leverage that functionality on devices where it is supported. This is the same as on the desktop when using APIs to access the user’s microphone and webcam. If the target platform supports the functionality then you can use the APIs to access that functionality. (The Flash Player includes APIs to check at runtime if specific functionality is supported on any particular target platform).

The important thing is that the Flash Player exposes the APIs across platforms in a consistent manner. So, for example, if you want to use multitouch functionality in Flash Player 10.1, then you will use the same APIs regardless of whether your content is running on the desktop, in a browser, on the iPhone, the Palm Pre, etc…

For the past couple of months, I have been working on a gamed called “Pew Pew”. I originally developed it by targeting the browser, but knowing that I wanted to deploy it to the iPhone, payed attention to performance, and sized the content, and designed the user interactions appropriately. Once the iPhone work was at a point internally that I could deploy content to it, I was able to run my content on the device with no changes at all. Now, I did have to do some additional code optimizations to bring the frame-rate up (something which benefitted the game on the desktop as well), but once I did these, the SWF for my game was able to run on both in the browser on my desktop and as a standalone iPhone application. Indeed, the team working on Flash Player 10.1 for Android asked if I could send them the SWF, and it ran on that device as well with no modifications. This was possible because Flash Player 10.1 allowed me to target the capabilities that my game needed, as opposed to targeting a particular device.

So, to summarize, when developing content targeted at Flash Player 10.1, you should think in terms of the capabilities of the platform, and not get hung up on a particular device or browser.

Creating applications for the iPhone is great. But creating content for the iPhone, and having the option to deploy it on an Android, RIM or Palm Pre device, in a browser on Mac, Windows, Linux and Solaris, and being able to deploy to the Mac, Windows and Linux desktops via Adobe AIR 2.0 is even better.

The iTunes app store has just approved my first application, and has posted it online. The application is an ActionScript 3 class reference for the iPhone and allows quick and easy access to the ActionScript 3 class reference docs for Flash Player 10, AIR 1.5, and Flex 3.2.

You can find more information on the application, view screenshots and log feature requests on the application’s home page. You can install the application directly from the iTunes app store from here.

Special thanks to De Monsters who put together the graphics and icons for the app.