One thing that I’m disappointed with Apple is their lack of support for Adobe’s Flash technology on iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. Apple’s insistent that you don’t need flash causes you not being able to view flash-based websites through mobile Safari or even the new Opera Mini web browser. So no Facebook games on iPhone until now.
Would you like to be able to access Flash and even Java on your iPhone? While Apple is not Flash friendly at this point, VNC (virtual network computing) technologies do make it possible to access flash-based websites on an iPhone today. One of the better VNC client software in the App Store is Cloud Browse, which is developed by AlwaysOn Technologies.
Cloud Browse promised to prevent limitations of a mobile browser and at the same time have all the functionally of a desktop version of Firefox browser with the blessing of being able to view flash content. Cloud Browse can play both flash videos and also java applications on iPhone. The browser is also packed with full multitouch pinch capabilities in order for you to zoom in and out as well as flick scrolling.
After installing the free app, upon launching users are connected to a virtualized version of FireFox running on servers somewhere on planet earth. By default, Cloud Browse users can immediately click the “web” button at the bottom of the window to enter a website address.
The performance of Cloud Browse was a bit slow but still bearable for me over home WiFi. The Youtube video is choppy but the audio streaming is fine. Overall, I don’t feel any impact on the iPhone’s performance but it does take a toll on the battery life as it is constantly streaming data from Cloud Browser server.
So if you are in dire need of Flash content on the go, proceed to download Cloud Browse now before Steve Jobs decides to remove it from the App Store!
