• MAYBE the feds are on the case source

• That being said, Jobs’ letter is incredibly two-faced, hypocritical, and very misleading. It’s clearly a marketing trick to pull the wool over the eyes of consumers, and while that’s okay (they’re in it to make money, after all), it’s our job to remove that wool from our eyes.
• OSNews blogger Thom Holwerda • In a response to the Apple vs. Flash saga that has been chewing up most of the online attention today. He points out that Apple has been slow moving some of its software to the Cocoa platform (which Jobs criticized Adobe for being slow to do), Apple’s use of the H264 video codec (because it’s not really open, something Holwerda has covered at length), and the suckitude of iTunes. Despite Holwerda’s take, which has been getting a lot of attention due to the fact it’s harshly written, there’s been a debate about whether or not Jobs was actually hypocritical. Don’t think about this too hard; it’ll numb your brain. source

• Key point: It’s not getting on the iPhone due to technology reasons. Steve Jobs’ 1,657-word manifesto on Flash is a really interesting document on the nature of one of Silicon Valley’s biggest fights. We don’t think Jobs has ever been this open. We’d like to see him keep this up in the future. It really makes his points seem reasonable. Here’s a summary that’s about a fifth of the size.

First: Let’s get this out of the way

• no Steve doesn’t mention the
  kerfuffle between Apple and Gizmodo over the leaked iPhone
• no Flash won’t be getting on the
  iPhone anytime soon, so lose
  those dreams now, guys

Cutting his six points to three

• one Flash is a closed, proprietary standard, and Apple’s goals for the Web are to use open standards such as HTML5. And lots of sites use these already.
• two Flash is another thing that has to run on a device that needs to be as lightweight as possible. This affects phone performance as well as battery life.
• three Flash is a technology that’s designed for PCs, not touchscreens. Plus, Adobe has been bad about supporting our platforms in the past, and could repeat here.

Key quote from his Steveness

• Flash was created during the PC era – for PCs and mice. Flash is a successful business for Adobe, and we can understand why they want to push it beyond PCs. But the mobile era is about low power devices, touch interfaces and open web standards – all areas where Flash falls short.
• Steve Jobs • Sticking the dagger into the company’s technology. His main point? Flash isn’t a platform designed for mobile phones, and as he’s trying to push for the strongest app development on the platform he can, he wants to avoid putting a technology on his phones that adds one more thing to the load. But he’s clear that it’s not because of competitive reasons, like everyone thinks it is. We’re still not convinced. source

• Just in time for that Flash-to-iPhone converter! Adobe finally launched its Creative Suite 5 today, which features (among a myraid list of things which we could spend hours posting) 64-bit support for Photoshop, Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects; Adobe’s BrowserLab Web testing suite; support for many popular CMSes directly within Dreamweaver; and some feature that (heartbreakingly) allows you to save Flash apps as iPhone apps. source

• We are not looking to abuse our loyal users and make them pawns for the sake of trying to hurt another company. What is clear is that Apple most definitely would do that sort of thing as is evidenced by their recent behavior.
• Adobe platform evangelist Lee Brimelow • In a message regarding the whole Apple-blocking-Adobe-apps thing. While it’s made clear that it’s his opinion, not Adobe’s as a whole (the redacted sentence at the beginning is a nice touch), it’s no less effective at a screw-you to Apple. In fact, that’s how it ends: “Go screw yourself Apple.” Ouch. If this wasn’t an out-and-out war before … source

• Yes, apparently. It’s related to multitasking. As the nerd world went into a tizzy yesterday after realizing the nature of the iPhone’s new developer’s agreement, it appears that the main complaint – a clause seemingly written to block Adobe Flash-compiled apps – might have been been put in for multitasking-related reasons. Essentially, code not written directly for the iPhone may not act as anticipated with the new features, AppleInsider reports. In other news, Adobe’s SEC filing today essentially admitted Apple’s anti-Flash tactics could really hurt the company. source

• good The new iPhone OS supports multitasking (whoo!), in-app ads, unified inboxes and multiplayer games.
• bad The update doesn’t
  work on all iPhones, and multitasking doesn’t work on the still-for-sale iPhone 3G.
• worse One thing pushed in under the radar was an effective block of Adobe’s Flash-to-iPhone compiler. source

• See that black box in the corner? That was a porn site. Adobe used that image as salvo in their Flash-in-iPad argument. One iPhone developer, Matt Drange, put it like this: “Adobe has resorted to playing the porn card. It’s over.” Hilarious. And awful PR. source

• Without Flash support, iPad users will not be able to access the full range of web content, including over 70% of games and 75% of video on the web.
• Adobe Systems Group Manager for Flash Platform Product Marketing Adrian Ludwig • Discussing the iPad and how lame it is that Apple has decided that – yet again – Flash was a poor fit for the device. He also takes issue with the company’s DRMed implementation of the ePub format. Our opinion? It makes sense that the iPhone doesn’t have having Flash due to screen size and battery life, but the iPad? Now it seems like the company’s getting petty. Then again, we’re kinda pissed it doesn’t support Hypercard. source