Flash Comes To the iPad Via RipCode 117
suraj.sun writes "Texas-based company RipCode has announced a new 'clientless Flash video codec' that will allow Flash content to be streamed on Apple's iPad. This would include sites like Hulu and YouTube, assuming the respective companies don't find a way to block it. According to RipCode's press release, the TransAct Transcoder V6 captures the iPad's request for Flash content and converts it into a special format that the device accepts and plays. This is all done without a local client or user intervention. 'RipCode's Transactional Transcoding platform enables an alternate and immediate solution to this issue, opening up video content to users without requiring the content hoster to move to HTML5 or pre-transcode entire video libraries from Flash to an iPad-accepted container format. By transcoding the content "in the cloud," it is essentially analogous to a network-based Flash to MP4 or MPEG-TS video adaption layer.'"
so the flash runs on another machine (Score:1, Insightful)
How secure is this method of streaming flash?
It'd be nice to run flash on another machine and save my machine from the vulnerability risk.
creators' 'big flash' will be absolutely viewable, (Score:2, Insightful)
as well as awe inspiring & even frightening to many. coming soon to a stratosphere near you. no gadgets required.
never a better time to consult with/trust in your creators, the ultimate in genuine power & control since/until forever. see you there?
Look Ma, another layer of indirection (Score:3, Insightful)
Apparently CPU power for transcoding Flash and bandwidth for streaming the result are both free, if the cloud is involved. What's in it for them?
Inaccurate title. This is for Flash VIDEO (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't understand why people mix up Flash and Flash video all the time. The latter is a small subset of the former. Can you really not conceptually tell the difference between a video playing at youtube and the content at http://www.homestarrunner.com/ [homestarrunner.com] ?
Re:This meets all of Apple's requirements except o (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:This meets all of Apple's requirements except o (Score:4, Insightful)
Given that most flash videos are actually mpeg 4 or h264, but wrapped up, it probably wouldn't put major load on a server to "transcode" on the fly –all they need to do is recontain the video.
Re:Look Ma, another layer of indirection (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:This meets all of Apple's requirements except o (Score:5, Insightful)
You know all those websites created in Flash, with Flash menus and Flash fonts, etc? You know, the ones with something called ActionScript going on deep down where you interact with the website... well, Ripcode doesn't even begin to replace them, it only replaces Flash video.
Now, RipCode may provide a stop-gap solution for displaying video until HTML5 fully arrives, but a Flash replacement it ain't. A strange (on-demand video re-encoding at the server??) temporary solution that will be obsolete in a year, it is.
Buy a real phone already (Score:2, Insightful)
I'm getting tired of all these stupid "Flash on iphone" articles. For ****'s sake people, if you want flash on your cell phone, buy a phone that supports flash. Buy a phone where you can install anything you like. Why is this so hard?
Re:This meets all of Apple's requirements except o (Score:5, Insightful)
This one person doesn't speak for MacWorld. He is a contributor (right up there with blogger). If you actually read the piece, he obviously dislikes the small screen. He reiterates that point many times in many different ways, meaning he won't be satisfied with any small screen for regular day to day use. The article is more of a piece about the wasted time trying to do real 'work' on a small screen than a statement about the iPad itself.
As to the article summary, they should realize that YouTube already pushes H.264 to Apple mobile devices.
Re:Inaccurate title. This is for Flash VIDEO (Score:3, Insightful)
That is if you aren't a Newgrounds user.
Why I play Flash games:
-they work in Linux ...), because it's simply something in a browser, not somthing that takes over your entire PC
-they're free (granted, some aren't)
-there are MANY of them and some are really really good (the gemcraft zero series for example)
-despite lesser graphics, you get an as fun gameplay experience as many modern 100-million costing games
-some are addicting, with features like earning medals, upgrades, etc...
-they load fast
-you can play them while doing other things (waiting for a compile,
Playing Flash games from NG or other sites on any phone would be soooo nice. The only problem would be the controls. Flash games are usually made for mouse and specific keyboard keys and I can't imagine playing them in an efficient way on a small touch screen without keyboard shortcuts.