Tomas Chlebek At this year's National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) trade show, Adobe introduced new features and capabilities of its Flash Media Server. One of the novelties is compatibility with devices under the dominance of iOS.
Steve Jobs convinced us long ago that the words Flash and iOS should not belong in the same sentence, so Adobe gave in and added support for HTTP Live Streaming to Flash Media Server.
It's a protocol developed by Apple for live and non-live video streaming over a standard HTTP connection instead of RTSP, which is more difficult to optimize. It uses H.264 video and AAC or MP3 audio packed into separate parts of the MPEG-2 stream, along with m3u playlists used to catalog the individual parts of the stream. This format can be played by QuickTime on Mac OSX, and on iOS devices it is the only streaming format they can handle.
Apple proposed HTTP Live Streaming to the IETF Internet Standards Committee back in 2009, but so far there has been no indication that this proposal will move forward. But Microsoft still added support to its IIS Media Services server, which is used to deliver streaming video to Silverlight-based clients. Once IIS Media Services detects an iOS device, the content is packaged and streamed using HTTP Live Streaming.
Last year, Adobe added its own HTTP streaming feature to Flash Media Server. It is similar to Apple in the way it processes H.264 video, where the video is divided and saved into separate files, after which it is sent via HTTP to the default subscriber. But in the case of Adobe, HTTP Dynamic Streaming uses an XML file (instead of a text playlist) and MPEG-4 as a container. Moreover, it is only compatible with Flash or AIR.
In the words of Kevin Towes, senior product manager for Flash Media Server, Adobe is interested in developing technology to simplify the broadcast process, resulting in easier inclusion of a wide range of devices. He mentioned on the blog that Adobe is adding support for HTTP Live Streaming for Flash Media Server and Flash Media Live Encoder. He wrote that: "By adding support for HLS within Flash Media Server, Adobe reduces the complexity of publishing for those who need to include browsers using HLS through HTML5 (eg Safari), or devices without Adobe Flash support.”
Adobe thus undertakes a kind of compromise, where it does not want to lose potential users of Flash Media Server and at the same time convince Apple to support Flash on iOS devices, and therefore takes into account the need to stream video even without Flash.
HTTP Live Streaming will also be available for other platforms, including Safari on Mac OS X. One of the reasons for this approach may be the fact that Apple sells the latest MacBook Airs without pre-installed Flash. Although the primary reason for this is the elimination of the need to update this element after the first launch, it is also widely known that Flash radically reduces battery life (up to 33% for the aforementioned MacBook Air).
Although Adobe says that it is working on a version of Flash optimized specifically for the MacBook Air, the aforementioned step also keeps users who do not want to install Flash.
source: arstechnica.com
That it would finally be possible to view flash videos on iOS...
If so, I'd go for the iPad 2
If it turns out to be true, the iPad won't actually have competition (of course it will, but a small one). In my opinion, it's a bit of wishful thinking, we'll see Flash on iOS maybe in half a year, or even in 10 years. Hopefully, at least within a year..
"Flash radically reduces the life of the battery (in the case of the mentioned MacBook Air it is up to 33%). By this you mean that when flash is used, the life of the macbook will decrease by 33% (while falsh is running) or the battery capacity will permanently decrease by 33% even though maybe flash doesn't render (for goodness sake, but it's written that way)?
If someone is missing flash videos, install SkyFire... it works on my iPad and iPhone without any problem ;)