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Gordon – JavaScript Hack Enables Flash on iPhone

Author: dexxter  //  Category: Flash, Hacks, Iphone

Gordon - Javascript runtime flash hack

The only thing missing from the iPhone is Adobe’s Flash Player. Since Apple has taken so long to approve Flash on the iPhone, a clever programmer by the name of Tobias Schneider has managed to get the iPhone to run interactive apps created using Adobe’s Flash platform. This way of running said apps aren’t subject to Apple’s strict rules of the AppStore because it runs under the built-in web browser: Safari.

It’s called Gordon, and the software doesn’t allow Adobe’s Flash itself to work on the iPhone. Gordon is a JavaScript runtime that allows the browser to run and display .swf (Shockware Flash) files. You go to a website, the JavaScript code loads and does its thing — you’re now flash-enabled.

You may be asking yourself, does this mean my iPhone supports Adobe’s Flash? Well, no — it doesn’t. You cannot just go to any flash-based website and expect it to work. The website has to have Gordon installed. The webmaster would have to add this runtime to every instance of Flash, which is only a few lines of code.

While the project is open source and available to the public, it doesn’t solve one of the biggest problems with Flash — Flash hogs the CPU like a fat kid does cookies!

However, this clever Javascript hack potentially opens the door to a new class of interactive, animated mobile websites. While many web developers rely on Flash to accomplish things that can’t easily be done in HTML; those Flash apps won’t run on the iPhone.

If you want to see Gordon in action head over to Paul Irish’s demos by clicking here — prepare yourself to be amazed. The demos work on both MobileSafari or on any desktop web browser. The animations seem to run very smoothly on the iPhone 3G running iPhone OS 3.1.2.

- source:
Gordon Flash Javascript hack Demos
Gordon Flash Javascript hack source code

New iPad launched!

Author: dexxter  //  Category: Apple, Apple Tablet, iPad

Hightlights

Name: iPad
Price: $499 for 16GB, $599 for 32 GB, $699 for 64GB. Add $130 to each model for 3G chip.
3G: available from AT&T, 250MB a month for $14.99 or Unlimted for $29.99 a month. No contract, includes AT&T wifi hotspots, unlocked, no voice.
On Screen Keyboard
1GHz Processor
10 hour battery life, 1 month standby
Runs all App Store Apps, some in full screen with more features. SDK out now.
Main apps rewritten for iPad: Mail, Photos, Browser, Contacts, Calendar, Maps, YouTube, iTunes
New Apps: iBook Store, iWorks ($9.99 per app)
Physical Specs: 1/2 inch thick, 9.7 inch screen, 1.5 lbs, 9.56 high x 7.47 inches wide.
Connectivity: 3G, Wifi 802.11a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR technology
Other hardware: A-GPS, Digital Compass, microphone, speaker, volume rocker, mute switch, headphone jack, 30pin connector, accelerometer, ambient light sensor, home button.

Photos

Apple tries for ‘adding a contact to a home screen’ patent, but Android beat them to the punch

Author: dexxter  //  Category: 3g Iphone, Apple, Firmware 4.0, Iphone, News, Software, iphone firmware 4.0

Despite the incredible realism of the drawing above to the left, we’re probably not looking at iPhone OS 4.0 right here. Instead we’ve got Apple doing what Apple does: applying for a patent for some pretty vague functionality that may or may not end up in a device someday. No harm in that game, but it looks like Google’s already done the “put a contact on the home screen with their picture” thing before Apple got a chance, as demonstrated on the right. There are other little tidbits to Apple’s approach, however. Apple is naturally showing that little numeric badge we know so well, to show what sort of new activity the contact has (hopefully that pulls calls, SMS and email into one pretty little package, like we’ve seen on other modern operating systems), but Apple also mentions that “an icon associated with an entity can be temporarily displayed on the mobile device based on the proximity of the mobile device to the entity.” So, Stalking 2.0. We like it, and hope to see it in some future iPhone software, but between the crazy broad claims in the rest of the patent and Android’s prior art, we’d say Apple’s chances of getting this 2008 submission approved are pretty slim.