Developer Brings Flash To Apple iPad

A software developer has managed to run Adobe’s Flash on the popular Apple iPad, and has cheekily called the program “Frash”.

According to TGDaily, a developer by the name of Comex, who was also responsible for the iPad “Spirit” jailbreak, has ported the plug-in of Adobe’s Flash for Android-based devices, so that it works on the iPad.

‘Doomed’ Technology

Steve Jobs has been consistent in his opposition to Flash, calling it a doomed technology. He launched a fresh attack on the software in April, drawing the public ire of Adobe’s CEO, Shantanu Narayen. The bad blood between Apple and Adobe has continued with an Adobe ad campaign which blasted Apple for its closed approach regarding developer licensing.

So the news that Flash can now be run on the iPad will not sit well with Jobs.

However, iPad users shoud be aware that in order to run Flash on their iPad, they will have to ‘jailbreak’ their device first.

Jailbreaking for extra apps

Jailbreaking is essentially a process which allows users to run any code on their device, and which allows them to avoid Apple’s restrictions, i.e. code not authorised by Apple. Once a device is jailbroken, users can download many applications that were unavailable through the App Store. This could include adult apps for example, that Apple banned from the iTunes apps store.

Also, it is worth bearing in mind that Flash was designed to work with a computer mouse and not touchscreen-based devices.

The “Frash” program will work in Safari Mobile through a compatibility layer and a demo of Frash in action on the iPad can be found here.

Currently Frash will only run on the iPad, but there are also plans to port it across to the iPhone (3GS and iPhone 4 only). The person responsible for posting the video online also said that Frash would be released when it is stable.