iPad and iPhone getting Flash, thanks to Smokescreen and JS

Flash is coming to the iPad and iPhone (and anything else that runs the iPhone OS), but it’s not what you think – a new technology called Smokescreen has entered the fray, with its sights set on making Flash accessible to iPads around the world through the magic of JavaScript (and HTML5). The tech is intended for displaying Flash ads on the iPad and iPhone OS, but the project has deeper ramifications for viewing Flash-based websites on an iDevice.

When it comes to Adobe Flash technology, there’s an ongoing battle between Apple and Adobe over how to best serve up right media – like embedded videos and interactive websites – on mobile devices like the iPhone or Android smartphones. In one corner, we have Apple and the iPhone OS getting cozy with HTML5. In the other corner, we have Adobe Flash getting cozy with Android (and just about every other smartphone platform out there). That’s how things have been for what seems like ages. Today, Smokescreen becomes the newest player in this Flash-for-mobile-devices soap opera. Smokescreen is a brand new open-source JavaScript project that is essentially a “a Flash player written in JavaScript.”

What does that mean for you? Well, despite mobile ad firm RevShock’s stated goal of using Smokescreen to enable Flash-based ads on the iPad, it has ability to convert all kinds of Flash content to a format that’s compatible with an iPad or iPhone. That means Flash videos and interactive menus might soon be viewable on any of your iPhone OS-powered devices.

How does it work? We’re not too sure, but we think there’s probably some pixie dust and black magic involved. As far as we can tell, Smokescreen is a 175KB piece of JavaScript that weighs in at 8,000 lines of code. It uses JavaScript to deconstruct Flash and then pieces it back together in an iPhone OS-compatible format. Then, it displays the compatible code using HTML5. We think.

Regardless of whether or not we understand the tech, the video demo of a Flash ad running on an iPad is simply inspiring. Today, Flash ads on iPad. Tomorrow? All kinds of Flash-based websites on iPad (cough, porn, cough… and Hulu)!

Watch Smokescreen demo video after the break!

[Via: Gizmodo, Smokescreen, Simon Willison]

About The Author

Will Park

Will hails from The City of Angels - Los Angeles, California. He spends his time playing with his numerous gadgets and looking forward to seeing what future holds for mobile technology. An avid promoter of a fully "digital" life, he promotes the widespread adoption of truly mobile, paper-less living. He dreams of the day when he can go completely digital. No more snail mail, paper receipts, bound books, notepads/spiral notebooks, credit cards, hard currency. He's a digital warrior - fighting for the converged life. He is an idealist and a realist - he has a perfect view of what the world should be but knows that the world is not perfect. Can we ever hope to see Will's dream become reality? We'll see...

@Damien210

I already have Flash on my iPhone OS 3, through the free browser called CloudBrowse
Ponchan

If I had known that there wasn’t a flash application installed already or at the time of purchase I would have either waited for the second version iPad or I wouldn’t have purchased the iPAD at all.

Responding to e-mails or to any website by typing more than 1 paragraph or over two sentences is and can be rather frustrating in that it is difficult to get back to the place an error was made. Whoever invented the round magnifier to place the cursor at an exact spot should be fired, it’s a joke, if you are able to locate it by pressing on the cursor,drag and drop it, you are lucky. After finding the round magnifier imagine trying to drag a circle with a tiny blue line at the top of the circle to the place you need it? Also, try looking over the top of your finger to see where the circle is landing? Remember if you raise your finger slightly you will have to find the cicrcle again! Or you can tap away and get as close as you can to the error and then delete until the error site is reached, make the correction, then
retype what you didn’t have to delete. After a few tries it turns into a “GAME”for those who enjoy a challenge! But for a Type A personality like myself, the thought of doing a “DROP & STOMP” becomes a self-control issue!

It is though a great browser that is hard to put down, I have spent five hours or more without realizing it! I haven’t played any of the games that are available so I will leave that review to someone else. how much time has passed!

“GAME” for those who enjoy a challenge.