Hack forces Flash onto iPad

Comex moons Cupertino

By John Leyden • Get more from this author

Posted in Developer, 6th July 2010 10:44 GMT

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Software hobbyists have defied Steve Jobs by creating a hack that allows Flash to run on iPads, albeit with limitations.

Comex - the hacker responsible for the iPad "Spirit" jailbreak - has circumvented Apple's iPad Flash ban by coding an iPad port of Adobe's Flash runtime for Android, TGDaily reports.

The so-called Frash is reportedly capable of rendering most Flash-based programs in Safari. Comex plans to apply the same approach to iPhone and other mobile devices over time.

The technology uses features similar to those found in Chrome to make sure a device keeps running even if the application crashes. Frash is however limited by lack of video and keyboard input support.

Comex is confident of adding keyboard support, but video input is a far trickier proposition that is likely to require reverse engineering, according to the developer.

A demo of Frash in action can be found on YouTube (below). ®