EU Gets Involved with FTC's Probe Into Apple's Rejection of Flash

[Michael Essany]

If it continues to baffle you that Apple's opposition to Flash remains in the headlines, you're not alone. But when more and more big players and powerhouses join the investigation into Apple's decision to reject Flash, the story is difficult to ignore.

It now appears European Union regulators have joined the party along with the US Federal Trade Commission in probing why Apple continues to block Adobe Flash from its iOS product line. Today, The New York Post reported the EU's alleged intervention saying that the regulators may have been involved since June in the ongoing investigation as to whether "Apple's business practices harm competition."

European regulators have teamed with the Federal Trade Commission in probing Apple's policies for mobile software developers, The Post has learned.

According to the report, the suspected ongoing investigation could linger on until the start of 2011. But the move on the part of the European Union comes as the EU just adopted "a new Digital Agenda" with the expressed goal of "encouraging the interoperability of technology" - something Adobe has argued for all along.

Of course, it isn't yet clear if all these investigations will ultimately result in any significant developments or added pressure on Apple to accept the technology it continues to shun. But one thing is for sure. Apple may have moved on from Flash. But regulators have not. And, until they do, this story simply won't go away.

New York Post

[crisco9071]

I could really care less now. Thanks Comex for frash!

[havoc0351]

I hope Apple allows flash on the iPhone soon. It really sucks not being able to visit my favorite websites. I don't know how good this can actually be for Apple. I for one use Cloud Browse a lot now...

[rocky5]

Give us the option, for people that are so far up jobs *** they can disable flash, but I for one would love flash on my iPhone or at leas the damn choice.

[plumoso]

Cloud is the answer 4 now ,,

[zinjen]

Cloud is the answer 4 now ,,

Ummmy cloud is horrible for streaming via iphone or ipad.. its like watching through a LogMeIn or GoToMyPC Stream.

Check out Frash, its very fast on my phone.

[sh33436]

jobs need to stop being a d!ck

[my1past1is1ur1future]

wtf is wrong with EU!? don't they have better things to do instead of Messin with apple!

[nave3d]

Html5 ftw

[macsoldier]

If apple would be straight forward and tell everybody why they aren't using flash I wouldnt be so skeptical about it.

[cypherpunk]

Bull****. If Apple are the only problem here, then why hasn't Adobe released a version of Flash in Cydia? They don't need Apple's approval for that.
Are they perhaps worried that it wouldn't perform to people's expectations? I've already seen Flash on Android 2.2, and while it's better than Frash on the iPhone, it's still nowhere near comparable to the desktop version, to the point of being almost unusable on many sites.

And anyone who says Adobe has a history of "encouraging the interoperability of technology" hasn't got their head screwed on straight.

[Xadamx1]

wtf is wrong with EU!? don't they have better things to do instead of Messin with apple!

We seem to have a fanboy among us.

[saunupe1911]

I could really care less now. Thanks Comex for frash!

I read so many users saying that Frash doesn't work very well since its Alpha code. I just don't feel like having to restore my phone if something get corrupted.

[kraziebone]

For all those who dont want to do the whole manual install for frash, benm has added it to their repo. If your interested add this to cydia sources: repo.benm.at - there is also a nice frash toggle in sbsettings

It works really well by the way

[saunupe1911]

Well I just tried Frash out for myself. It's decent, but needs a little more work from Comex. At least he's given us an option.

[WCR46]

You're welcome to Flash, it is an abomination of a piece of software, can't stress just how awful Flash really is.

Such a mishmash of old and new unoptimised code which eats battery quicker than a Sumo Wrestler eats cakes.

html5+css3+java script > flash.

[Chris3k2]

For all those who dont want to do the whole manual install for frash, benm has added it to their repo. If your interested add this to cydia sources: repo.benm.at - there is also a nice frash toggle in sbsettings

It works really well by the way

lol you beat me to it. but yeah really simple way to enable or disable if you decide you don't like it. I've used it and it's pretty neat still needs work but great for a start. I personally don't go to many sites that need flash but just wanted to see how well it works. but it should be an option to turn on or off from otb.

[saunupe1911]

For all those who dont want to do the whole manual install for frash, benm has added it to their repo. If your interested add this to cydia sources: repo.benm.at - there is also a nice frash toggle in sbsettings

It works really well by the way

Thanks krazie. Just got the toggle. This way I can switch that sucker on and off at will

[torrent82]

Speaking of technology interoperability, how about allowing Mac OS X on a PC ? And I don't mean the whole hackintosh thing or all those distros where you have to do the whole hit-and-miss thing until you get it working and then as soon as an update pops up if you update it all crashes. I mean being able to pop in the original Mac OS X disk and it working out of the box...

[Cmalinowski]

This has less to do with Flash and more to do with Apple squashing competition.