We've been working on it for the last few weeks. This is sort of the prelude of offering Plus members iPhone support; and in the future, an app. In the future, like the next several weeks—maybe longer, we'll be offering Plus users the option to transcode their videos to an iPhone version too."

Sounds good, but don't forget that with Flash 10.1 on the way, pretty much every phone (including Android handsets, not just the Hero) should get Flash support around mid-next year. Wild guess: except for the iPhone, probably. Ugh. [CNET]

Flash Player not available for your device. Apple restricts use of tecnologies required by products like Flash Player. Until Apple eliminates these restrictions, Adobe cannot provide Flash Player for the iPhone or iPod touch.

Bad Adobe BAD! Next time, please put this in every single Adobe Flash box inside every single page using Flash on the web? [Check it here from your iPhone via Gear Diary]

Using the next version of Flash Authoring—which is now in private beta—developers will be able to turn any Flash app or widget into an iPhone/iPod touch application. Some apps will require optimization, taking into account the iPhone's hardware limitations and its multi-touch user interface conventions:

The iPhone has a significantly slower processor and less memory than what can be found in a typical desktop computer. As such, existing content may need to be optimized for performance, and / or user interactions (given the smaller screen and different UI metaphors).

However, publishers will be able to easily adjust their existing code at a small cost, developing a full app that would be available at the App Store. While this doesn't fix the lack of Flash in Safari—which Chambers says they are still working on—it's a huge advance. Just imagine Web publishers creating iPhone-capable versions of their sites—or part of them—which would feed on the same online data as their browser-based counterparts.

Now, if Adobe introduced a Flash video player, and Apple enabled Safari to recognize Flash video like they do now with YouTube H.234 material, everything would be fine. [Flash apps for iPhone and Mike Chambers]

The dates correspond with the beginning and end of the Adobe MAX conference, where Naraye says the beta will first become available. The release will be a much bigger day for Android and WebOS, which, unlike WinMo and Symbian, don't have (decent) existing solutions for Flash video such as Skyfire or Bolt Browser, though it's not clear exactly how Adobe will approach optimization. Flash compatibility, as any N95 user can attest, isn't worth much when a simple YouTube video bring your phone to its knees.

As for the notably absent mention of iPhone development, we can only assume it's still happening, albeit at the same relaxed pace it's been sustaining since 2008. [Android Guys]

Apple has said repeatedly that regular desktop Flash is too heavy (on CPU, and thus battery life) for the iPhone, whereas Flash Lite is too lousy. Jobs has coerced Adobe to create a custom solution. From Narayan's words of "the ball is in our court. The onus is on us to deliver," the engineering effort lies more in Adobe's engineering team than in Apple's.

Adobe actually said, back in September '08, that there would be a version released "in a very short time" if Apple approved it. Obviously either Apple rejected it, or Adobe themselves decided it wasn't quite resource-friendly enough to launch. [Bloomberg via Apple Insider via Engadget]

Just add this to your sources d.imobilecinema.com in Cydia and install iMobileCinema. Again, this is only for Jailbroken phones, but it will give you Flash in Safari. We haven't tested how unstable it is, so try it only if you don't need your iPhone to be not crashy. [iMobileCinema via Spaziocellulalre]

The bad news is that that's pretty much what the situation was a few months ago, so that's not really saying a whole lot. If it's spiffy enough to match Steve's criticisms, then maybe there's some hope, but the ball is in Apple's court, and it's been gathering dust there for a while. [AppleInsider]

Yesterday, during Adobe's second quarter earnings call, chief Shantanu Narayen had this to say:

We have a version that’s working on the emulation. This is still on the computer and you know, we have to continue to move it from a test environment onto the device and continue to make it work. So we are pleased with the internal progress that we’ve made to date.

Sounds promising, no? The problem is that even when Adobe has a perfected version of mobile Flash for the iPhone, it still needs to convince Apple to allow it on the iPhone. Previously, Steve Jobs has complained that mobile Flash isn't powerful enough for the iPhone and regular Flash is too bloated.

With the iPhone 3G coming in just a few weeks, we really hope Adobe and Apple can work out some kind of agreement, because that speedy connection will make viewing streaming videos on the iPhone a joy. Let's cut the bullshit and make this happen, OK guys? [Alley Insider]

If you're sending in your iPhone for repairs at the Apple Store because it's broken, you might not have the option of wiping your data like this. It's not really THAT great a method either, but will be able to stop the next owner from casually recovering data. Basically, just run a restore and hope the next guy who has your phone isn't nosy. [Securosis via TUAW]

"You heard it here first, people! The latest version of the iPhone 2.0 firmware that was just seeded to developers has a YouTube plugin for MobileSafari.app"

Boy Genius also goes onto suggest that this may be indicative of some form of native Flash support, but we just can't raise your hopes like that. It wouldn't be right. [BGR; Thanks, Ted B. Image via Limited Edition iPhone]

[Editor's note: The iPhone SDK limits what applications can do, and doesn't provide with a plug-in architecture for Safari, which is an application that Apple wants to keep as lean and stable as possible. There are, however, many possibilities open that could make this happen.

First, perhaps the most unlikely, Apple could provide Adobe with the framework they need to do a Safari plug-in. Even while Apple doesn't want to develop or license Flash from Adobe, they could be happy to enable the possibility. It won't be the first time that Apple has given Adobe this kind of special treatment: in the past, the Cupertino company had provided with special code to accomodate the migration of Photoshop into Mac OS X, and one could argue that Flash on the Internet is as important as Photoshop on the Mac.

The other possibility—which could be closer to reality—is that Flash in the iPhone could be a stand-alone player, just like Quicktime is now: a player that could be launched when you click on Flash content in Safari. While it may not sound perfect, as some Flash content works alongside HTML, this will easily put the majority of Flash content in the hands of iPhone users. And instead of having to work within the limitations of Safari, the player will fully enjoy the possibilities of running stand-alone, with a dedicated interface, and full access to the the hardware, running at full screen.

This last option will not require any major changes on Apple's part. The acknowledgement of Flash and Shockwave content in pages will be enough, adding a play button over it to launch the player which will grab these resources, being video or fully interactive applications. —Jesús Díaz] [WSJ]

Essentially, Jobs said yesterday that Mobile Flash is too wussy for the iPhone and regular Flash is too beefy. He wants Adobe to make a Goldilocks-esque middle version that'd be juuuuust right for the iPhone. Funny, Mobile Flash seems to work OK on all of the other phones that it's installed on. I'm sure we could make do with it on the precious iPhone.

It's pretty disappointing, especially with the SDK news due to drop tomorrow that many assumed would bring Flash support along with it. There's certainly still a chance that we'll be surprised and will receive it, but it looks like Jobs would rather make us wait by throwing his weight around and forcing Adobe to develop a whole new version of Flash just for his oh-so-special phone. Thanks for thinking of the consumers, Steve! You're so great! [CNN via Boy Genius Report]

According to Andru Edwards from Gearlive, "Flash has not yet made it to the iPhone solely due to business negotiations," which apparently have been solved. He cites "strong sources," which could mean reliable deep throats or some dude called Samson who works in a circus. Either way, other sources have told us that those sources are "not the same sources" who sent Andru a beta version of the iPhone's 1.1.3 firmware. [Gearlive]

You'll recall Apple's celebrated announcement of YouTube support. However, the fine print suggested you couldn't get all YouTube video, but only those that had been rolled over to the Apple-favored H.264 video codec.

Although this was arguably a technical hurdle, Archos had just announced and demonstrated a Wi-Fi media player that could easily browse YouTube, and queue up any video on the site, using an Opera browser with Flash plug-in. Did the Archos 605 have that much more processing muscle? Teardowns of the iPhone have revealed a sufficiently sturdy ARM processor, so we think it's doubtful.

My suspicion is that a Flash-friendly iPhone wasn't good leverage to convince Google to adopt the H.264 codec crucial to the YouTubin' success of the browserless Apple TV platform. By giving YouTube special favoritism in the iPhone launch, Apple got Google to do its codec swaperoo. But people have demanded more, because this isn't just about YouTube. People want Flash for non video stuff, too. (Games, websites that choose to unwisely use it for their entire menu structure)

A more simple and therefore probably reason is that Apple and Adobe didn't have enough time to build it into the phone. Not an issue, since firmware every quarter, flush with features, is the way gadgets roll these days. (Zune, Xbox, Wii.)

The man who ought to know, Walt Mossberg, says that Flash will come as a simple software update, answering our question about technical capability:

Apple says [to Mossberg, not to the general public] it plans to add that plug-in through an early software update, which I am guessing will occur within the next couple of months.

Questions About Apple's iPhone [Allthingsd.com]

Analyst Jesse Tortora, claims that Apple will move the grand daddy iPod over to flash by the end of 2007. And in addition to flash, Tortora also says that the next version will have a wide touchscreen (a la iPhone), wi-fi, GPS, and the ability to transfer media from & to AppleTV. I know it's just another Apple rumor, but it's going to happen some time, why not this year?– Ben Longo

Apple may ax next-gen HDD iPod in favor of all-flash models [Apple Insider]