back to article Smokescreen brings Flash to the iPhone

A new software bundle called Smokescreen promises to bring Flash animations and interactivity to the iPad and iPhone by converting them into JavaScript on the fly. Smokescreen is entirely written in JavaScript, and once running it downloads the Flash SWF file, decompresses and interprets it, then renders without recourse to …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    HERACY!!!

    That is all.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      it's "HERESY" dude

      that is all

  2. Ed Blackshaw Silver badge

    Whoopd-de-do

    I can imagine people flocking to this so that they can view more adverts. Not.

    I wonder how it handles things that people actually want, like streaming video?

    1. Samuel Walker

      It's not up to the people

      The content provider (be that ad service, or website maintainer uses it. The consumer has no choice as there is nothing to install.

  3. Steve Evans

    LMAO!

    So the only part of Flash it can handle is the bit you really don't want, the bl**dy adverts!

    Wonderful!

    Gotta laugh, it's one of the few things I agree with the Jobsworth about. My mobile does do flash, but I turned it off because it never adds anything but bandwidth overhead and clutter.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Question for the other Steve

      So, when you do turn Flash on, does it have a detrimental effect on your battery life, as your namesake claims?

      1. Steve Evans

        I have no idea..

        I've never found a reason to turn it on beyond annoying iphone owners.

        I'm still firmly of the view that flash is what arty farty designers use because they either can't use HTML and style sheets, or that using them would "negatively impact their art". Either way I don't bother with such sites either on my mobile or on a "real" desktop browser!

        1. CD001

          I'll stop using Flash

          ... when they sort out the transitions module in CSS3 :P

          Besides - have you SEEN what designers do to HTML and CSS (doubtless via WYSIWYG)? Please, let them keep it in Flash, then I don't have to see code that makes me want to silently weep.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    smokescreen

    Absolutely LOVE the name. Take that Jobbo!

  5. Mark Broadhurst
    Jobs Horns

    Clever but ultimately pointless.

    its flash with out flash I dont think the consumer will put up with the slowness of it tho.

  6. Rodrigo Valenzuela

    If you can do it in flash, you can do it in js

    May be that's the point... to probe that most of the things you can do in flash can be done in javascript.

    R

    1. Basic
      Badgers

      I challenge you Sir

      ...to stream video in javascript...

      I suppose you could write a decoder that outputs each frame (ignoring processing speed for a moment) but sound would be very interesting to achieve.

      Not that I'm a great flash supporter but still...

      1. Nick Stallman
        Happy

        Too easy

        document.write("<video....>");

        1. Basic
          Happy

          @Nick Stallman

          Cheat :P

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      sort of

      "most of the things you can do in flash can be done in javascript."

      can we correct this statement to...

      most of the things you can do in flash from 9 years ago, can be done in javascript today.

  7. paul-s
    Jobs Halo

    Gordon

    There's already a JS-based Flash interpreter, check out the Gordon player...

  8. Adam T

    woopee

    Well at least advert addicts will be happy.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Grenade

    I await the...

    Grabbing the popcorn....

    Next announcement from Jobs is to ban all javascript from iPad and iPhone destroying HTML5.

    To be honest although initial attempts to write a translator for Flash to JavaScript will be terrible it will get better. Maybe Adobe should just try to piss off Jobs and produce a javascript->flash translator for all site to implement for free.

    No I am not anti-apple. Own an iPad myself

  10. mark l 2 Silver badge

    faster than flash

    When i tested out the Microsoft adverts and the kitchen daily ads on the site, the smokescreen JS versions actually loaded faster than the flash version, but the batman one was about a second behind. Using firefox 3.6 btw not tested under any other browsers

    Handy for webmasters though to know that their ads will be seen on more platforms but until it works on IE then it not going to be a flash ads replacement yet

  11. Bardlee

    Nice try...

    SmokeScreen will be banned in approx 40 nanoseconds by the app store police.

  12. Kevin (Just Kevin)
    WTF?

    It's an interpreter

    So it downloads a SWF file, interprets it and plays it. So, it's a flash player. How is this not a breach of the same license conditions that make flash itself banned?

    It's like yesterday's story of the image viewer that wasn't a widget container. Except that the picture clearly shows 50% of the image covered in widgets.

    The Apple bans (horrid as they are) are usually very simple. And I can't see how these tricks get around them.

    1. Joe 3
      Alert

      It's quite simple

      It's not intended as an end-user product, it will be aimed at the web advertising industry. Already they often serve a GIF if the end user has no Flash, this will give them the option to serve Smokescreen JavaScript instead. So there's no app to download, in fact an iPhone/Pod/Pad user will be none the wiser, they'll just see more animated adverts.

      To stop this, Apple would have to restrict access to many websites. I doubt even Steve Jobs has the balls to do that!

  13. LinkOfHyrule

    Oh great

    Adverts in Javascript - frankly the prospect of that sounds worst than flash ads! Yay, I look forward to this appearing on all browsers (including desktops) soon. I cant wait for my firefox to start crashing randomly and pages taking years to load because of poorly coded ads in javascript.

    If only there was some sort of magical add-on for browsers that could "block" "adds". Or one that could make "script" = "no". ;o)

  14. Ed

    Strongbad

    It also plays strongbad cartoons, which are fair bit more complex than basic ads, and have sound.

    Worth mentioning perhaps?

  15. Captain DaFt
    Alert

    How will Adobe respond?

    Lessee, it converts flash ads to a format that can be run on any browser without flash, the developers claim to be open sourcing it soon....

    If you listen closely, that clashing of gears you hear is Adobe backing a big rig full of cash to the developers' door before Google can get there!

  16. Muhammad Imran
    Thumb Up

    how about running it on IE9, GPU accelerated !?!

    how about running it on IE9, GPU accelerated !?! this should increase frame rates.

This topic is closed for new posts.

Other stories you might like