Now you can create iPhone apps using Flash. Adobe has released a packager for iPhone to create standalone content for the Apple iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. But these apps cant be made available through the Apple App Store. As a result of updated terms to Apple’s iPhone OS SDK (section 3.3.1) these applications can no longer be delivered to the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users through the Apple App Store. This a legal restriction imposed by Apple and is not a technical limitation of Adobe AIR. Still its a good opportunity for the developers to start exploring the the option of building apps for iPhone. The Packager for iPhone is included with Adobe Flash Professional CS5 and with the AIR 2.0.1 SDK available at the Adobe Labs. While developing these apps in flash it should be kept in mind that ActionScript 3 based content is supported and ActionScript 1 and 2 is not supported and will not work.
The following native device APIs and functionality are supported:
- MultiTouch
- Screen Orientation
- Saving images to Photo Library
- Accelerometer
- Geo-location
- Cut / Copy / Paste
Though we can develop these apps using the desktop Flex Framework, but its not recommended as Flex framework is currently optimized for execution in a desktop environment. The performance, UI, and interaction models have not been optimized for mobile devices. Adobe is working on a mobile Flex Framework (code named Hero), which should be better suited for iPhone development.
Click here to know more about the packager and go to the Adobe Labs.