As the Apple vs. Adobe match continues, developers are working hard to get Flash on the iPhone and iPad. Engadget points us to an application by Chris Smoak named Smokescreen. The application is written entirely in JavaScript and it's primary purpose is to get flash to display without the Adobe Flash plugin. The software works on Firefox 3.6, Chrome 5, Safari 4 and MobileSafari. There are known issues with Opera 10.5 that he is working to resolve. The application doesn't work with IE yet but he says "IE9 looks promising."
Simon Willison, a programmer at the UK Guardian newspaper said, "It runs entirely in the browser, reads in SWF binaries, unzips them (in native JS), extracts images and embedded audio and turns them in to base64 encoded data:uris, then stitches the vector graphics back together as animated SVG."
The about page of Smokescreen suggests the primary purpose of the code is to get Flash advertisements to display properly without the Flash plugin. "These two facts paint a bleak picture for mobile advertising. Many people still want to use their existing Adobe tools for developing ads, and retooling to support a single platform seems silly. As an ad network, we believe that dynamic, interactive ads are much more fun than boring static ads and thus, we were faced with two options: live in a dark, desolate world of boring mobile ads or do something about it."
Smokescreen is available now to preview and it seems to work well with ads but video performance is a little slow.
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