http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/09/apple-backpedaling-on-some-ios-development-restrictions-will-al/

well I hope that they don't change it back again...

In many ways good news, but given that flash and OSX don't get on well anyway, I'm rather concerned that a non-native flash based app will kill a fully charged battery in about half an hour...

The way I read this, this doesn't apply to Flash at all. Sorry...

The people at macrumors.com seem to think it is. Website doesn't work vpnless here though, as there's a link to twitter on it somewhere...

Unless my reading of it is completely mistaken, Flash would be OK as long as the necessary files are bundled as part of the application. In other words, taking the flash source and using a tool to build that into an iOS application (a flash player+content in one package) which runs Skritter would be fine. Obviously that presumes the existence of a tool which can do that, but I imagine one will be along fairly shortly given the levels of interest, and the fact that it's a pretty trivial thing to do if you have some flash player code lying around already.

What is still forbidden is executing code which is downloaded from a network or similar - so a generic flash player which allows you to view flash content from a website is still out.

AFAIK they are still requiring that applications be written in C, Objective C, or C++, but maybe this means they'll allow programs that were written in Flash and translated into one of those languages.

I'll believe it when I see it. ;)

James

A guy at Adobe who was involved with the Flash CS5 iPhone Packager pre-release program said that he'd heard from several people who had had their apps approved today.

The question now is whether Skritter can be made to run fast enough when cross-compiled. When I had my super basic prototype running, it was still slow when writing anything, but I hadn't optimized.

Lets hope that the iPhone 4 is fast enough, it's the same variable speed proc as the iPad - up to 1ghz. Even if it kills the battery I'd prefer to use skritter on it.

Can't whatever is doable in Flash be done in HTML5 and Javascript? I thought that was the name of the game: to do things with non-proprietary tools, if possible, and don't waste precious processor cycles unnecessarily on battery powered portable devices.

My experience has been that just putting my cursor over a Flash item in my browser makes the laptop fans rev up almost instantly. It's a real power hog IMO, so I can see why Jobs wouldn't want to put it on a mobile device.

Btw, it looks Adobe has a tool for changing Flash advertisements to HTML5 + Javascript. It is called Greystripe. And there is an OpenSource project to do the same possibly with all Flash... called Smokescreen. Go to smokescreen.us and see if that fits the bill.? Hopefully it will be ready to release soon.

Also, I've been a PC guy all my life but bought a iPad and love it. I just bought this macbook and can say that I may be a serious convert. Sort of like being able to move into a Mercedes after a life of economy cars. Skritter on the iPad would be just fabulous... especially while riding the Taipei busses and MRT around town.!!

Skritter is a more intensive app than is normally thought of when talking about HTML5's capabilities. HTML5 is still a long ways off from running Skritter performantly. That said, Flash on non-Windows platforms isn't as great as on Windows, either, but at least it's already done, and it's far easier to write apps like this as Flash apps than it is to do HTML5 ones at the moment.

I'm jealous of George's Android now that it can run Skritter, which is totally sweet. I will figure something out soon...

“Also, I've been a PC guy all my life but bought a iPad and love it. I just bought this macbook and can say that I may be a serious convert.”

Yeah. I now feel bad for making fun of the kids who used macs in school.

I take it that writing a native Skritter iOS app is out of the question. ? I'm not sure if knowing objective-c is required or if other languages would do, in addition to learning the API's and such. Possibly there are a lot of freshly tooled up programmers hungry for a project??? Just a thought. Hopefully there is enough money coming in to grow it as such. The iPad seems like a FABULOUS learning platform.

I ran across this that might sort of demonstrate what I mean (California tests one year Algebra course on iPad):

http://www.tuaw.com/2010/09/14/hmh-fuse-calfornia-tests-a-full-year-algebra-course-on-an-ipad/

We've just tried a flash made (converted) game for the iPad (Baozi Jump, available on the App Store) as well as a (beta) soft to learn how to write japanese (very Skritter like btw) and it works GREAT!

One more thing,

it is now possible to easily (and legally) use Win7 within an iPad via Parallel Desktop ! Therefore, Skritter would work like a charm on an iPad I guess

On the whole mac vs PC thing, I was the same. I got the iPhone due to it being the best tool (then and probably now) to do mobile development.

It opened me up to giving Mac a proper evaluation, and now I can't imagine ever going back to windows! (:

Oh and yes, I would care if it flattens the battery. I need my phone for other purposes, such as using it as a phone (:

Hmm parallel desktop is presumably just an RDC client. That's an intriguing idea actually.

It should be possible to basically adhoc wifi a tablet to a laptop tucked away somewhere. I'm playing with a Samsung Galaxy Tab next week so I'll give it a go on that and see what it's like.

@Lurks:
Where can i get a Galaxy Tab? are they in sale now?

Hi guys,

great app, but for me it is very unnatural to enter characters through the keyboard. Look at e.g. the Pleco app for iPhone, with full screen character input through the touchscreen that works splendidly.
My bet is that if you don't take your product to iPhone somebody else will beat you to it (might be Pleco...) and then you will have a hard time competing. Why use the mouse when you can use a touchscreen?

It already works on Android... :P

i'd subscribe to skritter in a trice if it would run on my ipod/ipad (i'm not about to buy an android phone just for skritter, great though it looks!). it would be perfect for cramming vocab lists on my way to and from class... any news on whether/when you might be able to introduce something?

pleco's flashcards app isn't yet perfect and no where near as sophisticated as skritter looks. too bad i've shelled out for it already!

You can find the latest news about our iPhone plans here:

http://blog.skritter.com/2010/12/skritter-iphone-app-plans.html

Nick's working on it most of his working hours these days but it's still going to take a while yet; we'll see how it goes!